Intergenerational preschool experiences and the young child: Potential benefits to development

We conducted an exploratory study evaluating the potential impact of intergenerational programming (IG) on children's socio-emotional development, behavior, school performance, and attitudes and behavior toward older adults. Children currently in kindergarten through second grade (age range: 6–8 years old) who previously attended one of two preschools of comparably high quality and serving families of similar demographic profiles were compared 1–3 years after graduating from their respective programs. One program offered intergenerational (IG) programming while the other was a traditional single-generation program (SG). Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the child and one of his/her parents in their home. In addition, a mail survey was sent to the child's school teacher. The study explored whether children exposed to IG had differential outcomes on specific measures as compared to children who attended the SG program. Results showed that children from the IG program had higher levels of social acceptance, a greater willingness to help and greater empathy for older people, slightly more positive attitudes, and better able to self-regulate their behavior than children from the SG program. Although limited by the lack of a pre–post experimental design, these results provide initial evidence that an IG program can offer additional benefits to children's development whose impact can last into the their early school age years.     

Narratives, choices, alienation, and identity: learning from an elementary science teacher

As we contemplate on teacher identity research, there is a need to place a teacher’s narratives or story-lines at the center of that work. In this forum, in response to the insightful commentary from Stephen Ritchie and Maria Iñez Mafra Goulart and Eduardo Soares, I place a greater emphasis on understanding Daisy’s narratives from an existing social identity framework. Narratives tell us intricate and complex actions that a teacher has taken both personally and professionally. Additionally, narratives help us see implicit nature of identity explicitly. Therefore, a greater focus has to be placed on interactions and utterances of a teacher to make sense of who they are and what they do as expressed by their own words (identity and action). Finally, I join with Ritchie and Goulart and Soares to advocate that identity research needs to include participants as co-researchers and co-authors as identities are very personal and complex to be fully understood by the outsiders (researchers).     

Deviancy from the norms of science: The effects of anomie and alienation in the academic profession

Anomie Theory, as formulated by Robert K. Merton, has been posited as a possible explanatory framework for deviancy from the norms of science.Anomie is the inability of some individuals to achieve excessively emphasized group goals through adherence to group norms. This study tests Anomie Theory by using alienation from the reward system of academic disciplines as an operationalization of this theory. Findings suggest support for Anomie Theory as an explanation for deviancy from the norms of communality, disinterestedness, and universalism. Implications for such topics as the use of norms as interpretative devices and the ambivalence of academics over compliance with dominant and subsidiary (counter-norms) are discussed. Implications for professional practice are also offered.     

Creativity,magic and morality: The dilemma of the young gifted child

Gaming is one method for teaching formal thinking processes that is particularly well suited to the gifted student.     

Proposing a framework to assess Internet usage in university education: an empirical investigation from a student's perspective

University administrators are continuously investing in Information Technology (IT) to support learning and help deal with educational budget cuts. Instructors are increasingly making their teaching materials available on the Internet. While administrators and instructors would like to make the Internet an effective educational tool, they need to understand what their students’ attitudes towards using it are. Since the use of the Internet in university education is still in its early stages, many issues regarding its use have not been fully addressed. This study was conducted to provide a better understanding of how the Internet is used in university learning from a student's perspective. Our research framework is based on the Theory of Reasoned Action, Technology Acceptance Model, and IT Diffusion Process Model. We use a survey conducted among university students to explore these issues. Research findings provide some useful insights for university administrators and educators.     

协同创新视角下广东高职教育与区域经济发展的适应性实践研究

目前,高等职业教育是与区域经济的产业、就业之间联系最直接、最密切的高等教育。高职教育与区域经济的协调发展已成为一个重要的研究课题,本文从协同创新角度出发,首先对高职教育与经济发展的适应性进行分析,进而探讨高职院校在协同创新指导思想下如何形成与地方经济社会需求相协调的良性互动发展的政策建议。     

Functional analysis of the communication between the young child and his father or mother when reading an illustrated book

Our research is concerned with the observation of communication between the child and his parents (mother-baby vs. father-baby). The children are aged from 30 to 36 months old. Communication was analysed according to utterances functions and social aims. 14 French children, 7 boys and 7 girls were filmed with each of their two parents in their home environment. 5 minutes of verbal interactions were entirely rewritten and analysed according to categories adapted from the speech acts theory. The results indicate that mothers generate more expressive utterances and fathers more commissive ones. Mothers also tend to ask more information requests. The children generate more assertive utterances with the mothers and are more directive with the fathers. Concerning parental feedback functions (approval, reformulation, clarification requests), there is no significant difference between mothers and fathers. These results are being discussed from a pragmatic and differential point of view.     

Evaluating child and family demonstration initiatives: lessons from the comprehensive child development program

The Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) was a demonstration project designed to test a specific model of service delivery for young children and families in poverty. Following the evaluation’s failure to show strong impacts, early intervention has come under fire from opponents in the popular literature and in Congress. We conclude that shortcomings in both implementation and evaluation contributed to the failure to demonstrate effectiveness. Lessons learned from the CCDP are articulated, addressing the roles of demonstration projects and their evaluations, the problems associated with evaluating programs early in their implementation, the importance of assuring appropriate treatment quantity and quality, and the judicious use and interpretation of large-scale randomized evaluations.     

Reframing our approach to doctoral programs: an integrative framework for action and research

A serious problem exists in the academic world, namely doctoral education attrition rates that approach 50% in some disciplines. Yet, calls for action have generally been ad hoc rather than theory driven. Further, research has not been conceived and implemented with sufficient breadth to integrate factors influencing the outcomes across the societal/supra‐societal, institutional and departmental/disciplinary contexts. Concurrently, epistemological questions are being directed at the appropriateness of both the content and the process of doctoral programs. In this paper, we propose as a heuristic, an integrative framework of nested contexts to guide both research and action. The framework integrates the range of factors influencing doctoral student experience, so that we can envision responding to this issue in a coherent and effective fashion.     

宇宙主释迦佛——从印度到中亚、中国

印度在笈多朝时期 ,佛教艺术开始追求超越佛陀自身永恒的图像 ,称作“宇宙主的释迦像” ,是由初说法、舍卫城神变 (千佛化现 )、大光明神变发展而来的 ,传人中亚和中国 (敦煌 )再经发展 ,敦煌第 42 8窟一般称作卢舍那的佛像 ,应为这种宇宙主的释迦像。     

A novel framework for identifying the interactions between biophysical and social components of an agricultural system: a guide for improving wheat production in Haryana,NW India

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework with related analysis methodologies that identifies the influence of social environment on an established cropping system.

Design/methodology/approach: A stratified survey including 103 villages and 823 farmers was conducted in all districts of Haryana (India). Firstly, technical efficiency (TE) was modeled using biophysical data including grain yield, seeding rate, wheat varieties, tillage, sowing date, seed source, harvesting method and the application of fertilizer, herbicide and irrigation. The relationship between TE and social community factors such as farm size, farmer age, level of education and agricultural support programs was analyzed by regression tree.

Findings: TE was lower with the farmers who only have education to a primary standard. Farmers with high TE scores were mostly between 35 and 40 years of age, and a higher TE association was common for farmers who use technical publications. Social individual factors such as farmers’ views on the future of farming were also analyzed across different TE levels.

Practical implications: Farmers with lower TE are an obvious target for production improvement, particularly given the understanding that the overall production yield gap is small in Haryana.

Theoretical implications: Our conceptual framework shows a quantitative way to establish the socio-ecological linkage, and to identify the opportunities for changes in management with extension services leading to productivity improvement.

Originality/value: This paper provides a novel framework with detailed methodology to effectively identify the socio-economic factors that limit the biophysical production in an agricultural system.     

Bridge over troubled water: using implementation science to facilitate effective services in child welfare

To maximize benefits to children and their families, effective practices need to be used competently in child welfare settings. Since the 1990s, researchers and policy makers have focused attention on empirically supported interventions (ESIs). Much less attention has been paid to what is needed to implement these in a range of real-world settings. Without proper implementation, which includes an evaluation strategy from feasibility to fidelity to on-going work on moderators and mediators of program effects, established effective programs can be rendered ineffective in practical application. The paper will touch on progress, to date, of implementation science, its application to child welfare programs and practices, and will highlight a set of practical strategies for implementing empirically supported interventions in child welfare.     

Practices and policies in child labour: lessons from Malta

Abstract

The problem of child labour is widespread in Malta, despite the fact that there is compulsory schooling up to the age of 16, and even although most of the necessary formal legislative measures to combat the employment of children have been taken. Data is presented in order to provide a clear picture of the extent of the problem, as well as of the general conditions which prevail in the ‘twilight economy’ in which child workers labour. Economic and socio‐cultural reasons which could explain the continuing practice of child labour in Malta are explored, and general policy recommendations made.     

Coping,confidence and alienation: the early experience of trainee teachers in English further education

Summer 2009 saw the introduction in England of the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL). Funded in full by the Training and Development Agency for Schools, the MTL aims to improve the quality of teaching and to raise standards in schools. In this paper we discuss what the MTL might mean both for in‐service teacher education and initial teacher training. We explore issues relating to the structure and delivery of MTL including the tension between standardisation and personalisation of its content as well as the lack of focus on research and the costs of this to its reputation and appeal of the qualification. Furthermore, we question the extent to which newly qualified teachers are ready to benefit from undertaking the MTL and consider how availability criteria may give rise to equity issues. With these concerns in mind we discuss the future of the MTL and whether this Labour initiative will have a chance to prove itself under a Conservative‐led coalition government at a time of severe austerity.