Challenging the Visual Discourse of Reading: or,Do Teen Readers Look Like Google Images?

Popular culture images of reading tend to portray readers as solitary individuals deeply immersed in reading a single text in a quiet, undisturbed spot. Yet, in our documentation of adolescent students reading in Singapore secondary schools, we find that there are many ways and modes of reading, much of which is social in nature. Through the use of comparative, critical visual analysis, this paper expands the understanding of what it means to read and to understand how adolescent readers experience reading in school contexts. Visual images serve to disrupt dominant readings of what counts as reading to elicit new considerations for engaging adolescents in reading.     

Using critical literacy to explore genetics and its ethical, legal, and social issues with in-service secondary teachers

The described interdisciplinary course helped a mixed population of in-service secondary English and biology teacher-participants increase their genetics content knowledge and awareness of Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) that arose from discoveries and practices associated with the Human Genome Project. This was accomplished by applying a critical literacy approach that allows people develop cognitive skills such that they are able to "read the world" (Wink, 2004). The approach is one that permits readers to go beyond the literal text to examine what is present as well as what is missing as it relates to issues of equity and fairness. Becoming critically literate enabled these teacher-participants to challenge the subtle attitudes, values, and beliefs conveyed by a range of written and oral texts. The teacher-participants in this course improved their critical literacy skills by actively reading, critically writing about, and using evidence to support their conclusions about issues arising from advances in human genetics. A biologist, a linguist, and an educator collaboratively designed and taught the course. The personalized focus on the integration of thoughtful reading and writing in this class enhanced the teacher-participants' (n = 16) professional and intellectual development and will potentially improve learning in their biology and English classrooms in the future.     

预设在CET阅读理解中的作用

语言学家们一直都在研究预设的问题。预设往往由触发语(trigger)来引发，根据不同的触发语，George Yule将其分为事实预设、非事实预设、反事实预设、存在预设、词汇预设和结构预设。触发语有助干我们在阅读当中理解作者的真正用意。因此如果我们将预设触发语运用于阅读理解当中，那么对学生阅读理解能力的提高会起到良好的作用。     

Pre-service teacher self-efficacy in digital technology

Self-efficacy is an important motivational construct for primary school teachers (teachers of children aged 5–12 years) within Australia. Teacher self-efficacy beliefs will determine the level of teacher confidence and competence to engage with a task. In this study, we explore engagement with digital technology and the associated learning and teaching of digital technology. Exploring the teacher self-efficacy beliefs towards technology of pre-service teachers, this study surveyed pre-service teachers studying to become primary teachers in two states within Australia (Victoria and Queensland). Findings are important as they provide insights into current levels of perceived competence and confidence towards engaging with digital technology as a future teacher. Findings highlight vast difference across a variety of teacher skills and actions. Given that beliefs are resistant to change after the beginning phase of teaching, it is important to understand the current beliefs of pre-service teachers who will soon be present in Australian classrooms.     

实施素质教育应处理好几个关系

２１世纪国家间的竞争更加激烈,要想在竞争中取得优势,就要不遗余力地培养高素质的人才,提高国民素质。素质教育必须以提高学生的素质为本,教导学生如何做人,加强人文素质教育;面向全体学生使每个学生能学有所成;以学生为中心,以社会为基础,培养符合社会需要的高素质人才;正确处理知识、能力的关系,使正规教育和潜在教育相一致,营造良好的素质教育的氛围。     

Do Worlds Have Corners? When Children’s Picture Books Invite Philosophical Questions

In this article, we want to present and analyse the picture book The World has no Corners (2006/1999) by the Norwegian author and illustrator Svein Nyhus. The book represents a new trend in Norwegian picture books for children by inviting the readers into a world of thinking and wondering about existential topics such as life and death, growing up and getting old, God, children’s relationship to nature, etc. The picture book does not give clear answers to the questions that are raised, but has a potential for exploratory dialogues between child and adult readers. In our analyses of verbal text and images—and the relation between these—we build on social semiotic theory by Halliday, Kress and van Leeuwen, reception theory by Eco and Iser, and aesthetic theory represented by Dewey and Rorty. Through analyses of some selected spreads, we want to show both the framework keeping the readers inside the text, and the indeterminacies inviting the readers to wonder and speculate about the questions raised. We also want to draw attention towards a special way of co-reading of the spreads. Compared with the process of reading picture books where the adults often confirm or correct the child readers’ way of putting their interpretation into spoken language, the co-reading between children and adults in this picture book seems to be rather existential and poetic as well as democratic. We will shed light upon this reading process, as we consider it as a way of the readers fortifying themselves into the world.     

Motivation in Mathematics: Goals Reflected in Emotions

Students in a mathematics classroom are motivated to do many things, not only the ones we expect them to do. In order to understand student behaviour in classrooms we need to increase our understanding of what motivation is and how it is regulated. Two issues relevant to a critique of mainstream motivation research need consideration: (a) the importance of the unconscious in motivation and (b) focusing on motivational states and processes rather than traits. In the present paper, motivation is conceptualised as a potential to direct behaviour through the mechanisms that control emotion. As a potential, motivation cannot be directly observed. It is observable only as it manifests itself in affect and cognition, for example as beliefs, values and emotional reactions. This potential is structured through needs and goals. Based on this view of motivation and the author's earlier studies, three aspects of motivation regulation are discussed. Primarily, goals are derived from needs: in learning situations, the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and social belonging are the most significant determinants of goal choices. As a second aspect, this view accepts the influence of students' beliefs about the accessibility of different goals. As a third aspect, the influence of automatic emotional reactions for goal regulation will be discussed. The case of Frank will be used 1) to illustrate how motivation can be inferred from different kinds of data and 2) as an example of how conflicting goals lead to non-straightforward self-regulation.     

The development of competence and its social context

Several recent interpretations of the nature and development of competence are discussed, focusing on Gelman's proposal to view the development of concepts as the product of the interaction of conceptual, procedural, and utilization competences. In so doing, she proposes a solution to the dilemma (which many other theories could not avoid) of emphasizing either the construction of knowledge or the influence of experience in the development of understanding. However, Gelman does not consider the basically social nature of the development of competence. In this essay, it is argued that adults transmit perspectives on reality to children and in this way introduce them to what is considered worth knowing in the culture. Because a child's present abilities are integrated into such perspectives, these abilities are, at the same time, both utilized and modified. It is, therefore, implausible to ascribe the availability of general principles to very young children, as Gelman does in her theory of numerical competence. Two rival experiments on the development of numerical concepts are discussed. It is argued that the solution the children construct in these experiments is dependent on the perspective transmitted to them by the experimenter. Some educational consequences of a social context view on competence are presented.     

Educating for competence in professional practice

In educating for the professions, teachers seek to enable students to engage in professional practice as competent practitioners. In this paper we question the adequacy of traditional approaches for promoting competent practice. These traditional approaches typically view competence in terms of attributes, such as knowledge, skills and attitudes. Competence development is then seen in terms of acquiring the necessary attributes. From an alternative view of competence as based on ways of experiencing practice, we argue that competence development focus on enriching experience of practice. More specifically, we point out that competence development involves change in the structure of the meaning for practice. Change in meaning structure for practice involves both a significant shift from one way of experiencing practice to another, as well as refinement and elaboration of the way of experiencing practice. Implications of this view of competence development for professional education are discussed. In particular, we deal with implications relating to the teaching-learning relation and the form the educational programme takes. In summay, we argue that enabling students to develop competence through experience of engaging in practice is most closely directed to the aims of education for the professions.     

利用阅读层次理论提升国民阅读素养

随着九年义务教育的普及和大学扩招政策的实施,我国国民的文化素质得到了很大的提高,但是网络时代“知识碎片化”和“信息超载”导致的“阅读综合症”是我国建构学习型社会的重大障碍。如何有效提升国民阅读素养成为广大普通读者面临的巨大挑战,极大地制约着我国建构学习型社会进程,也成为我国广大教育工作者必须解决的重大教育问题。文章试图从艾德勒的阅读层次理论角度以不同读者群体阅读童话故事《小马过河》为例探索现阶段国民阅读素养提高的有效途径。     

中学语文教材课文编选中的体裁判定问题分析

读者对一篇课文的体裁判断并没有明确的认知,一篇短文,在通常情况下,无论是把它分为小说还是散文体裁并不影响阅读。而对于选入教材的课文来说,读者是特殊的主体——教师和学生。因此,在编选文章时应准确进行体裁判定,在古代短篇小说与散文的判定上显得尤为关键。本文从现行教材中存疑课文入手,由此分析入选课文体裁判定存在分歧的原因。     

基于数字化校园的电子阅览室信息化建设

伴随着数字化校园程度的不断提高,高校图书馆的电子阅览室也要不断地加强自身的信息化建设用来为读者提供多元化的信息服务,以推动图书馆的发展。展望未来数字化图书馆,信息服务仍将是电子阅览室赖以生存和发展的基础。     

Early adolescents' and their parents' mental imagery in relation to perceived reading competence

This cross‐sectional survey study examined the relation between mental imagery (i.e., seeing images of a story ‘in the mind's eye’) and perceived self‐competence in reading. The study was conducted with a group of seventh‐grade to ninth‐grade students in the prevocational educational track of secondary schools in the Netherlands and their parents. Results showed a moderate relation between mental imagery and self‐competence beliefs, also after controlling for the quality of students' home literacy environment. Examination of gender differences revealed that girls outperformed boys in self‐competence beliefs. Furthermore, boys perceived themselves as better readers when their parents had higher mental imagery skills. No direct relation was found between parents' and adolescents' mental imagery skills. These findings imply that parents and teachers may need to be made aware of the importance of mental imagery strategies as it may enhance the reading experiences of boys as well as girls.     

英语逻辑连接词在阅读理解过程中的作用

英语逻辑连接词是连接句内或句子间语义关系的逻辑纽带.逻辑连接词在阅读理解过程中起重要作用--通过逻辑连接词,读者可以了解句内或句子之间的语义关系,甚至可经前句从逻辑上预见后续句的语义,从而提高阅读速度,很快理解阅读材料的语义.     

Exploring teachers' perceptions of children's imaginative writing at home

This study explores an area of writing that has been largely neglected – children’s imaginative writing at home. In an educational climate dominated by the standards agenda and top‐down directive discourses, this study draws inspiration from children who are creating opportunities for writing themselves and are developing agency through their writing at home. The positive approach to reading advocated in Margaret Clark’s (1976) seminal work on ‘young fluent readers’ has been very influential. Rather than reporting what children are unable to do, Clark explored the early experiences and home setting of competent pre‐school readers, posing the question: what can they teach us? Taking this lead, one of the premises of this study is that we should similarly seek to understand the experiences of young competent writers so that we can learn more about children who choose to write of their own volition outside of school. This paper presents the findings of the preliminary phase of an ongoing doctoral study. Drawing on questionnaire data, it specifically focuses upon Year 5 and 6 teachers’ views of children’s imaginative home writing, exploring problems of identification and teachers’ perceptions of their pupils as imaginative writers at home.     

The association between academic self‐beliefs and reading achievement among children at risk of reading failure

This paper investigates whether children's academic self‐beliefs are associated with reading achievement and whether the relationship is modified by gender and/or age. Data were collected from children at risk of reading failure, that is, emergent readers (6‐ to 8‐year‐olds) in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas reading at a level below the population mean. The authors' own measure of attitude to reading and perceived competence was used. The study found a significant positive association between attitude to reading in class and vocabulary and phonemic awareness and a significant negative association between perceived competence at reading in class and single‐word reading and spelling. Girls' attitude to reading and perceived competence were more positively associated with reading achievement, and this was most evident in the first grade. Perceived competence was inflated among those with the poorest reading and also among boys, in association with reading‐related skills found most challenging by children in this sample.     

Education and the Concept of Time

Abstract

As we speak about time in the context of everyday life, we have no problem with what we mean by time. We take time as given. Different kinds of theories of development rely on the ordinary concept of time. Time is a sequence of instants, and we are moving along from the past to the future, from birth to death. Moving in time also means development. It does not take into account how a human being is in the time. It flattens our view of human life and cannot describe our manifold being. According to theories of development, if a child does not behave in a certain instant as the theories expect, there must be a problem with that child or she has not developed as well as others.

Heidegger uses terms like time-space, temporality and ecstases of time. The question of time is of the same kind as the question of Being. We are in the world and in time in the same way. We all have experience of time, how it sometimes goes quickly and sometimes very slowly. Time is not experienced as moments one after another. It is time-space. Time-space means that time has three dimensions and it consists of the ecstatical opening up of the future, the past and the present. In this article, I will open up the question how the traditional understanding of time and the ecstatic understanding of time understand children differently. What does it mean that little children live exclusively in the present?     

The impact of childhood reading on the development of environmental values

Direct experiences of nature are becoming less common in our urbanised world and little research exists regarding the impact of less direct experiences, particularly how childhood reading relates to the development of pro-environmental values. This study differs from previous reports into the influence of books, as it concentrates on the potential influence of fiction rather than factual or scientific texts. This qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews with 31 educators at Eastern Australian Environmental Education Centres to understand the relationship of childhood reading and value development. Findings reveal that participants: (a) recall predominantly fictional reading material; (b) recall stories by Tolkien, Blyton and Rowling as pro-environmental influences; and (c) commonly exhibit the counter-intuitive influence of fantasy/SF stories in their formative years. Stories will never replace authentic childhood experiences in the natural environment; however, judicious use of appropriate stories could be a valuable teaching strategy as readers often unquestioningly accept information from stories.     

Student teachers’ perceptions of reading and the teaching of reading: the implications for teacher education

This article reports on research which identified perceptions of reading and the teaching of reading held by trainee teachers and the impact on my provision as a teacher educator. It found that students’ past and present experiences of learning to read and being a reader influenced their perceptions of what reading is and of what it means to teach reading. As a teacher educator, I am not able to give students long experience of seeing children becoming readers, but I am able to give them richer experiences of reading in personally and culturally relevant contexts. This has implications for the nature of subject knowledge required by a student teacher of reading and the curriculum and practice of teacher education.     

Gender Stereotypes in Children's Books: their prevalence and influence on cognitive and affective development

In the 1960s and 1970s many researchers in the USA noted the prevalence of gender stereotypes in books for children. Numerous studies showed that females were typically portrayed as passive, dependent and generally incapable, and that males were typically portrayed as active, independent and generally competent. Stereotype patterns were consistent across a variety of reading materials, including picture‐books, fiction for older readers and school‐books. Some researchers questioned what the potential effects of such stereotypes might be on readers, but few examined these questions empirically. A review of this literature led us to question whether increased awareness about the potentially harmful effects of gender stereotypes had led to their elimination from books intended for young readers. This paper describes the data we collected on a set of picture‐books. We found that while the prevalence of stereotypes has decreased somewhat, the decreases in quantity and in kind have not been statistically meaningful. A discussion of the effects of gender stereotypes on affective development and on cognitive development is also presented.