School climate is a topic of increasing importance internationally. The current study investigated the established measurement invariance of an eight-factor school climate scale using a multi-national sample of secondary students. School climate factor means across 14 international groups were compared and findings on the association between school climate factors and mental health were also investigated. Findings from this study illustrate several

A deep approach to learning is essential for student academic achievement and several studies demonstrate a significant

The concept of student diversity has brought together issues related to at least two major categories of students whose needs are not usually adequately addressed in general educational provisions: students with disabilities and other forms of special educational needs, and students from minority cultures or disadvantaged backgrounds (UNESCO, 2009). School psychologists have long been at the forefront in helping education systems, educators and parents in developing an understanding and adequate provisions for these students. However, the main role ascribed to psychologists was generally that of individual assessment and intervention. Increasing understanding of the cultural context of development, increasing student diversity in schools, and a deeper appreciation of the principles of social justice, have put inclusive education at the forefront of educational reform, and this in turn has called for a change in the role of psychologists as promoters of whole-school healthy contexts for learning and development. These issues were addressed in the keynote papers presented at the 31st International School Psychology Association Conference in Malta in 2009 on 'School psychology for diversity', some of which are brought together in this special issue of SPI.Paul Bartolo sets out the main dilemma for all psychologists and school psychologists in particular: while psychologists have long been regarded as the experts about the challenges for adaptation faced by individuals who differ from the norm, inclusive education points towards the challenge of the context, community, education system, school and classroom to be transformed to welcome and support the

Empirical studies of the relationship between dyslexia and creativity and visuo-spatial skills are inconsistent. While some anecdotal evidence suggests that there is a positive association between dyslexia and creativity, other studies suggest that such an association emerges only in adulthood as a result of adverse life experiences. Others state that dyslexia is associated with weaker rather than enhanced creativity and visuo-spatial ability.The aim of this study was to examine whether adolescents with dyslexia possess superior creativity and visuo-spatial ability as measured by the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) and two measures of visuo-spatialability, the Spatial Reasoning Test and the Virtual Bungalow Test. The participants in this study were secondary school students diagnosed with dyslexia and a group of students without dyslexia (N=76) matched for age, socioeconomic status and ability. In spite of some variation in the scores between the two matched groups on all the measures administered, the differences were not statistically significant. Overall, no support was found for the hypothesis that adolescents with dyslexia are highly creative or visuo-spatially endowed and it is advised that teachers treat learners with dyslexia like other learners with learning difficulties and not assume that they possess compensatory skills.

A number of studies suggest that dyslexia is associated with enhanced visuospatial ability but the empirical evidence is inconsistent and there are numerous methodological issues. This study examined visuospatial ability among dyslexic and asymptomatic (non-dyslexic) adolescent boys aged 12 years. Thirty-six Maltese participants constituted the research and comparison groups. All participants were assessed on the age-appropriate section of the Spatial Reasoning Test and they were matched by age, ability measured by Ravens Progressive Matrices, socio-economic status and the type of school attended. Overall, the degree of visuospatial ability of the two groups was similar. A statistically significant advantage for the asymptomatic over the dyslexic group was evident on one task only, Hidden Shapes. In contrast, dyslexics outperformed nondyslexics on the other three tasks constituting the battery including Jigsaws, Wallpaper and Right Angles subscales but the difference did not reach statistical significance. Although these findings did not support the notion that dyslexic individuals were more visuospatially endowed than a comparable, asymptomatic group of peers, the possibility of an underlying difference could not be discounted altogether. A number of reasons for the results obtained were examined including the relatively small sample size, participants' age, verbal mediation strategies and the nature of the visuospatial tasks. However, the findings that both groups had similar average results, with the dyslexic group having greater variation on the Hidden Shapes scale, smaller variation on Sections, Jigsaws and Wallpaper scales and the small tendency of this group to outperform the non-dyslexics group on a number of subscales warrants additional exploration of dyslexia and visuospatial ability.