A University-Based Literacy Service-Learning Program for Youthful Offenders on Probation: A Preliminary Study of the Program’s Development,Implementation and Feasibility

This article reports on the development, implementation and feasibility of a mid-Atlantic university-community service-learning literacy program for youth on probation. Undergraduate teacher candidates served as literacy instructors for the youth. We focus on benefits and administrative challenges of developing and implementing a preliminary service-learning program for probated youth living in the community. We analyzed focus group data collected from special education undergraduate instructors, interview data collected from probated youth and their case managers, pre-post literacy assessments administered to the youth, the youths’ court files and data maintained by the community-based agency. We conclude that our model of a university-community literacy partnership has the potential to raise reading performance of youth, motivation, and promote prosocial behaviors. Addressing the educational needs of youth on probation, however, is complex and multifaceted. We find that success requires consistent communication among all stakeholders, adequate funding for leadership, organization and curricula, and ongoing assessment and evaluation.     

Can a Summer Bridge Program Impact First-Year Persistence and Performance?: A Case Study of the New Start Summer Program

This longitudinal study assesses the impact of the University of Arizona’s New Start Summer Program (NSSP) on participants’ first year GPA and retention, controlling for incoming student characteristics. While programmatic participation significantly predicted first-year GPA and retention, this relationship became insignificant when controlling for first-year college experiences and student development. Programmatic efficacy is largely determined not only by how practitioners develop participants’ cognitive abilities, but also how effectively they connect them to social and academic support networks during their first year of college. Within this context, programmatic impact is likely indirect which poses a number of methodological and resource allocation issues for student affairs administrators and professionals. In addition, it highlights the need to assess the impact of summer bridge programs longitudinally while also having a demographically similar group of students who did not participate for comparison: Two areas generally absent from research on summer bridge program literature. Finally, the study was made possible because of a strong collaboration between the NSSP administrators and the research team, where the goals and needs of each group were supported by the other.     

Beyond Vocationalism: A new perspective on the relationship between work and education∗

Abstract

This paper attempts to show how recent developments in prevocational and vocational education can be brought together with some of the demands of the National Curriculum which concentrate on academic subjects. It proposes an integration of the expertise and understanding of work in the curriculum of all pupils by putting forward a new perspective: Vocational Aspects of Academic Learning (VAAL).

     

“Sustainable Development” and CIDA’s China Program: A Saskatchewan Case Study

Through funding from the Canadian International Development Agency’s (CIDA) China Program, the University of Regina (UofR), Canada, implemented two major development projects with the Educational Institute of Jilin province (EIJP) from 1990 to 2001. This paper re-examines this historic cooperation. The paper argues that prevailing theories of sustainable development which had been percolating in education faculties of Canadian universities in the 1990s allowed the UofR/EIJP program to transcend a simple international aid paradigm and to focus on the mutual benefit of the partners. At the same time, we observe that despite the enormous goodwill and institutional learning achieved through the UofR/EIJP program the project failed to live up to its significant potential. The paper concludes with some practical measures that institutions might implement to ensure important cooperative projects can build robust international capacity sustainable for the long term.     

Practiced Linguistic-Cultural Ideologies and Educational Policies: A Case Study of a “Bilingual Sweden Finnish School”

This article explores linguistic-cultural ideologies and educational policies as they emerge and are negotiated in everyday life in a bilingual school setting located in the geopolitical spaces of Sweden. Taking sociocultural theory and discourse analysis as points of departure, we focus on empirical examples of classroom interaction and locally established formal policing. Linguistic-cultural ideologies and educational policies that frame life at the school are investigated by employing nexus analytical methods, focusing on social (inter)actions through which a number of locally and nationally relevant discourses circulate. Our findings indicate that refocusing ideology and policy research from the lens of a practiced perspective allows the situated and distributed nature of everyday life to inform issues related to bilingualism as well as their relations to wider societal discourses. Furthermore, our analysis highlights the crucial role of educators in (re)locating bilingual education in its societal contexts as well as making these connections visible in classrooms.     

Linguistic‐minority Students and Bilingual Mathematics Teaching

Mathematics teaching and subject‐matter acquisition of two groups of linguistic minority students were studied; one in a minolingual second‐language class and the other in a traditional bilingual‐education model in the city of Oslo, Norway. The background of attempts at bilingual education in the Norwegian context is presented, and some aspects of bilingual education, bilingual pedagogy and research‐based perspectives on the role of bilingual education in subject‐matter acquisition is discussed. On the basis of an empirical study of the teaching situation of linguistic‐minority students it is concluded that linguistic‐minority students profit from bilingual mathematics teaching. The empirical research results indicate that linguistic‐minority students (LMSs) with a bilingual‐education (BE) background can achieve as good or better results in mathematics as monolingual students. The strength of bilingual education can therefore be said to reside in the favourable conditions that it creates for the comprehension of linguistic‐minority students of the content taught. By creating favourable conditions bilingual subject‐matter teaching also fulfils minorities’ expectations of participating in content‐area instruction: to understand what is being communicated in subject‐matter teaching and to learn what is normally expected to be learned in subject‐matter teaching. It is therefore legitimate to argue for bilingual education on pedagogical grounds without the support of old‐fashioned anthropological or psychological arguments.     

Science Laboratory Classroom Environments at Schools and Universities: A Cross‐National Study∗

ABSTRACT

Because already existing classroom environment scales are unsuitable for science laboratory classes, a new instrument was developed and validated in a Class form (student's perceptions of the class as a whole) and a new Personal form (student's perceptions of his/her own role within the class). The instrument was cross‐nationally field tested with 5,447 students in 269 classes in six countries, and cross‐validated with 1,594 students in 92 classes in Australia. Each scale exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability, discriminant validity, and factorial validity, and differentiated between the perceptions of students in different classes. Use of the new instrument revealed that: science laboratory classes are dominated by closed‐ended activities; Class form means consistently were more favorable than Personal form means; associations existed between attitudinal outcomes and laboratory environment; and the Class and Personal form each accounted for unique variance in student attitudes.     

Poverty and Childhood∗

ABSTRACT

The child‐centred theme of natural development in Rousseau's Emile has exercised a powerful and benign influence on education. Rousseau's proposed curriculum for girls, however, seems extraordinarily illiberal, requiring as it does a rigorous preparation for playing the traditional female role in a male‐dominated society.

It is argued here that such a conservative policy on the education of girls is inevitable in an educational theory which makes a virtue of its empirical foundations. Observational studies of the female's nature and of her needs and interests portray her as society permits or requires her to be rather than as she could or should be. This is a dangerous weakness in influential twentieth‐century versions of child‐centred theory which have embraced a scientific approach in the hope of enhancing their credibility. The full educational development of girls, however, requires a distinctive vision of how things ought to be, a willingness to defend such value judgments, and a determination to intervene positively in the classroom.     

Continuing Education: a Challenge and a Commitment∗

A variety of important life consequences for literacy are widely assumed in the contemporary discourse on adult literacy with little, if any empirical research to support them. As a result, they have been variously labelled as ‘myths’ (Coombs 1985), ‘doubtful promises’ (Hinzen 1983), proclamations of ‘faith’ (Winchester 1990) and ‘claims in search of reality’ (Wagner 1992). Part of the problem here is that the effects of literacy are often identified without first defining what literacy is. Naturally, if literacy is ambiguously or broadly defined, virtually any consequence can be attributed to it. Thus, the first task of any researcher, educator or policymaker involved with issues of adult literacy is to make his or her definitions of literacy and the scope of each definition's applicationsexplicit. Within the field of adult literacy education, Lytle and Wolfe (1989) provide a useful conceptual categorization for literacy in terms of four metaphors: literacy as skills, tasks, practices and critical reflection. This paper extends Lytle and Wolfe's framework to identify what consequences are attributed to literacy within each of the four metaphors, focusing on adults in the developing world.     

Learning and Self Government∗

BIOGRAPHY Dixie Demagogues by Allan A. Michie and Frank Rhylick. New York: The Vanguard Press. 298 pp. $2.50.

Elbert Hubbard: Genius of Roycroft by David Arnold Balch. Illustrated. Frederick Stokes. 320 pp. $2.50.

The Great Debureau by Francis Kozik. Farrar and Rinehart. 376 pp. $2.75.

EDUCATION Classroom Administration and Pupil Adjustment by Charles Myron Reinoehl and Fred Carleton Ayer. The Appleton-Century Series in Administration. Appleton-Century Co. 525 pp. $2.75.

Fundamentals of Democratic Education by Robert Ulich. The American Book Co. 362 pp. $2.25.

Fun with Words; With Tongue and Pen, Words and Their Use; Better English Usage. A Series of books in Step by Step in English for the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades by Frederick H. Bair, Elma Neal, Inez Foster, and Ollie P. Storm. Illustrated. Mac-millan Co. 242; 271, 299; 296 pp. 80 88 96 96.

Newer Instructional Practices of Promise. The Twelfth Yearbook of The Department of Supervisors and Directors of Instruction. National Education Association. Published by the N.E.A., 1201 16th street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 379 pp.

Preface to an Educational Philosophy by I. B. Berkson. Columbia University Press. 250 pp. $2.50.

Reading and the Educative Process by Paul Witty and David Kopel. Ginn and Company. 366 pp. $2.50.

The Development of Certain Motor Skills and Play Activities in Young Children by Theresa Dower Jones. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York. 980 pp. $1.85.

The Development of Education in the Twentieth Century by Adolf E. Meyer. 393 pp. $2.75.

Your Career in Agriculture by Homer P. Anderson. Illustrated. E. P. Dutton and Co. 285 pp. $2.00.

FICTION No Arms, No Armour by Robert Henriques. Farrar and Rinehart, Inc. 373 pp. $2.50.

Precious Bane by Mary Webb. E. P. Dutton and Company, Inc. 320 pp. $1.00.

The Criminal C.O.D. An Asey Mayo Mystery by Phoebe Atwood Taylor. W. W. Norton. 288 pp. $2.00.

GENERAL LITERATURE A Mary Webb Anthology selected and edited by H. B. L. Webb. Illustrated. E. P. Dutton and Co. 253 pp. $3.00.

Body, Boots and Britches by Harold W. Thompson. J. B. Lippincott Company, 524 pp. $3.50.

Chip Off My Shoulder by Thomas L. Stokes. Princeton University Press. 561 pp. $3.00.

Figures of Transition: A Study of British Literature of the End of the Nineteenth Century, by Granville Hicks. The Macmillan Company. 315 pp. $2.50.

TRAVEL Finland: Land of Heroes by Toivo Rosvall. Illustrated. E. P. Dutton and Co. 272 pp. $2.50.

Sailing the Sulu Sea: Belles and Bandits in the Philippines by Rear Admiral David Potter (S.C.) U.S.N. E. P. Dutton &; Company. 310 pp. $3.00.

This Way Southward: A Journey Through Patagonia And Tierra Del Fuego by A. F. Tschieffely. Illustrated. W. W. Norton. 354 pp. $3.50.     

Women and the Enterprise Culture: The Australian Experience∗

Abstract

Information Technology is often heralded as the key feature of employment in so‐called post‐industrial regions. If this is the case then it is vital that education and training for IT is properly conceived and based on a knowledge of actual working patterns involving IT in industry.

The research reported in this article, based on interviews and case‐studies of a range of employers using and developing IT, examines current practices with a view to their implications for education, training and recruitment. By studying IT in the workplace in one city undergoing many changes we hope to highlight some of the general issues in the relationship between education, training, and employment. More specifically, the words of the employees interviewed contain many important messages for both employers and trainers, particularly on recruitment practices, curriculum design and training strategies for the development of information technology.     

The First Year at School: A Quantitative Investigation of the Attainment and Progress of Pupils∗

In England children must start school after their fifth birthday, but it is common for children to start when they are four in what is known as the Reception class. The Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) project collected data on 1700 pupils’ early mathematics and pre/early reading levels at the start and end of their Reception year. The on‐entry assessment proved to be a good predictor of performance in reading and mathematics at the end of reception and the progress which each child made was estimated. This progress was found to vary considerably between schools and the variation was much greater than that typically found in school effectiveness studies. The data provided a unique opportunity to compare the progress of children who had, and had not, been to school. The Reception year was found to have had a major impact on the literacy and numeracy of children. Multi‐level models were employed for the analysis and from the models Effect Sizes were computed to assist in comparing the importance of variables in the study. This approach provides a mechanism for comparing the findings of school effectiveness studies with experimental studies and meta‐analyses.     

Assessment of Bilingual/Multilingual Pre-K–Grade 12 Students: A Critical Discussion of Past,Present, and Future Issues

This article examines major unresolved challenges in the assessment of pre-K–grade 12 multilingual students in US public schools. The ethnic educator approach advocates for a change of paradigms in assessment, one that abandons the medical model to incorporate socio-constructivist theoretical perspectives and pluralistic and progressive social justice ideologies that respect, value, and celebrate the cultural-linguistic diversity of bilingual/multilingual students. Past, present, and future challenges in the assessment of multilingual students are discussed, emphasizing the need: (a) for teacher preparation programs to include training in classroom-based assessments, (b) to use the students' first language for linking assessment to academic competence across content areas, and (c) to use classroom-based assessments representing the students' cultural and socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds. Some recommendations for future research on best practices in the assessment of bilingual/multilingual students are made.