Systematic review of young children's writing on screen: what do we know and what do we need to know

Writing is part and parcel of children's active meaning‐making on and with screens, but it has been relatively neglected in the literature focused on children's digital literacies. This study synthesises existing empirical evidence focused on young children's (aged between 2 and 8 years) writing on screen and identifies the relationships between dominant themes in published literature and contemporary theories of children's technology use. A systematic literature review that included studies from diverse disciplines yielded 21 papers. Constant comparative analysis generated five themes that indicate four key directions for future research. We call attention to researchers' theoretical framing to supplement mono‐disciplinary approaches and single levels of analysis. We suggest that future research should provide greater specification of the purpose of children's writing on screen and the different types of tools and applications supporting the activity. We also highlight the need for interdisciplinary approaches that would capture the composing stages involved in the writing process with and around screens. Finally, we point out possible age‐related differences in documenting and reporting the composing process in classrooms. Overall, limitations in the current evidence base highlight the need for research conducted from a critical perspective and focused more directly on multimodality.     

Students achieve more when teachers have time to do what they know works best

Literacy skills acquired during the first years of schooling have been recognised as the key to students’ learning success. However, despite the continuing efforts by the New Zealand government and teachers there is still a large proportion of students who struggle to become literate. To address this issue the Ministry of Education funded selected New Zealand schools to take part in 10-week programmes designed to provide an intensive intervention in literacy (i.e. reading and writing) and numeracy. This article summarises the results from the part of the programme which focused on reading. The findings indicate that Year 1 and Year 2 students significantly increased their reading ability over the 10 weeks. The survey data, interviews and teachers’ journals revealed that the critical aspect of this success was teachers having time to meet individual students’ specific learning needs. At the school level the programme was lauded as successful. Importantly, these findings have implications not only for how principals allocate teacher time but also for policy-makers when considering how to support schools in addressing the needs of those students who have not made the expected progress in their literacy development in their first years of education.     

Handwriting: what do we know and what do we need to know?

Handwriting has a low status and profile in literacy education in England and in recent years has attracted little attention from teachers, policy‐makers or researchers into mainstream educational processes. This article identifies a substantial programme of research into handwriting, including studies located in the domains of special needs education and psychology, suggesting that it is time to re‐evaluate the importance of handwriting in the teaching of literacy. Explorations of the way handwriting affects composing have opened up new avenues for research, screening and intervention, which have the potential to make a significant contribution to children's progress in learning to write. In particular, the role of orthographic motor integration and automaticity in handwriting is now seen as of key importance in composing. Evidence from existing studies suggests that handwriting intervention programmes may have a real impact on the composing skills of young writers. In particular, they could positively affect the progress of the many boys who struggle with writing throughout the primary school years.     

The teaching portfolio in US teacher education programs: what we know and what we need to know

Teaching portfolios have become commonplace in the US in teacher education programs, in the process of granting an initial teaching license, in teacher recertification, and in National Board certification. This paper focuses on the use of teaching portfolios in preservice teacher education programs and analyzes the various ways in which portfolios have been conceptualized and implemented. A conceptual framework is proposed to enable researchers to describe the conditions of portfolio use. A presentation of the conditions of portfolio use will enable a greater understanding of the ways in which teaching portfolios impact teacher development and the quality of teacher assessments under different conditions of use. The paper concludes with a discussion of the key issues that have emerged in the use of teaching portfolios in preservice teacher education in the US.     

To see or not to see: analyzing difficulties in geometry from the perspective of visual perception

In this paper, we consider theories about processes of visual perception and perception-based knowledge representation (VPR) in order to explain difficulties encountered in figural processing in junior high school geometry tasks. In order to analyze such difficulties, we take advantage of the following perspectives of VPR: (1) Perceptual organization: Gestalt principles, (2) recognition: bottom-up and top-down processing; and (3) representation of perception-based knowledge: verbal vs. pictorial representation, mental images and hierarchical structure of images. Examples given in the paper were mostly taken from Gal's study (2005) which aimed at identifying and analyzing Problematic Learning Situations (after Gal & Linchevski, 2000) in junior high school geometry classes. Gal's study (2005) suggests that while this theoretical perspective became part of teachers' pedagogic content knowledge, the teachers were aware of their students' thinking processes and their ability to analyze and cope with their students’ difficulties in geometry was improved.     

Indigenous learners: what university educators need to know

Abstract

Canadian citizens of Indigenous ancestry have statistically lower than national averages with respect to secondary and postsecondary completion rates. In an attempt to understand and assist Indigenous university students in Ontario, the purpose of the study was to identify teaching and learning strategies and support systems for Indigenous students that will result in increased academic success and retention among Indigenous youth and adults attending university. The results were summarised in an introductory handbook for faculty and staff at Nipissing University, a destination of choice for many Indigenous students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. The specific purpose of the handbook was to provide an introduction to the diversity of cultures and their related perspectives amongst our Indigenous students. The literature and the results provide specific pathways for educators to begin to decolonise their pedagogy to support success for Indigenous university learners.     

Lamaze breathing: what every pregnant woman needs to know

Lamaze breathing historically is considered the hallmark of Lamaze preparation for childbirth. This column discusses breathing in the larger context of contemporary Lamaze. Controlled breathing enhances relaxation and decreases perception of pain. It is one of many comfort strategies taught in Lamaze classes. In restricted birthing environments, breathing may be the only nonpharmacological comfort strategy available to women. Conscious breathing and relaxation, especially in combination with a wide variety of comfort strategies, can help women avoid unnecessary medical intervention and have a safe, healthy birth.     

Warking with other adults: what teachers need to know

This paper discusses the concepts which trained teachers carry into the classroom from their initial teacher education courses and argues that these outmoded concepts must be altered so that the roles which other adults play can be understood by teachers. There is a common perception that teaching is a solitary activity carried out by a trained adult with a group of learners. The reality is that there is often another adult present. To maximize the support of another adult, teachers must understand the roles of those involved and they must be prepared to manage the involvement of other adults who may not be trained teachers. The paper is set in the context of classroom assistants working in Scottish primary mainstream classrooms. It concems the way in which teachers and other adults work together to support children with behavioural difficulties. Although the data is peculiarly Scottish, the lessons learned have a wider national and international currency, for it seeks to explain the changes necessary in teachers' thinking about collaborative working. This paper argues that continuing professional development must be provided to allow teachers already in the field to consider the effect on their professional identity produced by the presence of other adults. Most crucially, it is argued that initial teacher education must acknowledge the changes happening in mainstream classes and must include personnet and performance management training in courses for student teachers.     

English in classrooms: only write down what you need to know: annotation for what?

The annotation of texts in the school English classroom is central to the curriculum, examination and the history of English as a school subject. In this paper we explore ‘the way it is done’ across two different classrooms. We focus on the relationship between official definitions of annotation offered by national policies and examination syllabuses and its actualization in particular classrooms. The article takes a multimodal approach: attending to all modes of representation and communication in the teaching of English including image, gesture, gaze and the spatial organization of the classroom.     

How does STEM context-based learning work: what we know and what we still do not know

ABSTRACT

Context-based learning (CBL) has influenced teaching and learning science in many countries over the past decades. Twelve years ago, a special issue on CBL was published in this Journal, focusing on CBL curriculum development. Seven papers in this current special issue on CBL now address the question of how a context influences the learning process. The papers focus on the stimulation of learning STEM subjects within contexts, how the learning process occurs and is enhanced, and the application of contexts in different settings. The approaches, results, and implications of the papers are located in a larger view that considers the question of what must be the case if a student not only engages in the tasks of learning but also succeeds at them. Concerning willingness and effort by learners, the papers draw conclusions about which STEM-related interests of students endure and are ephemeral across a decade, design criteria for maximising students’ situational interest, and students’ engagement with content and context simultaneously. Focusing on the opportunity to teach and learn, the papers reveal how a professional development approach functions to support STEM teachers to develop CBL materials, and how specific scaffolding acts in teaching bring students to more complex reasoning. Regarding good teaching, insights are offered on how metacognitive prompts improve teaching. Centring on the social surround that supports teaching and learning, a comparison of two contexts for teaching the same content reveals which aspects of the contexts move student learning forward. From this mapping, paths toward future research are projected.     

Effects of ICT: Do we know what we should know?

Many decades after the introduction of ICT into classrooms there are still unanswered questions about the impact of technology in the long and short term on students’ learning, and how it has affected simple and complex learning tasks. These are important for (a) forming government policies; (b) directing teacher education programmes: (c) advancing national curricula; (d); designing or reforming classroom implementation and (e) analysing costs and benefits. While a plethora of studies has been conducted on the effects of ICT in education, major policy and methodological problems have precluded an unambiguous answer to such questions as:—“Does the way in which ICT is implemented have a major/minor impact on students’ knowledge and understanding?” and “Does the impact affect the surface or deep structure of students’ thinking and acting?” To date we have had no large-scale longitudinal studies of ICT’s impact in education such as we have in the form of studies of earlier major curriculum development projects. Nor have we had many comprehensive studies of the complex interactions between various types of ICT implementation and the effects of other factors such as school-based interventions, socio-economic status and school expenditures which have been shown to have a greater impact on education compared with other previous innovations in education. Furthermore we do not know if previous research studies have used research methods that matched learning objectives to instruments/procedures. Many previous studies are vague as to the actual measures used but we can infer that standardized tests were a frequent measure. In other instances, ad hoc analyses, with criteria that may have varied from analyst to analyst and were not “blind” analyses were certainly used to measure “success.” All of these limitations and uncertainties and many more point to the need for a thorough, rigorous, and multifaceted approach to analysing the impact of ICT on students’ learning. This paper draws on previous research evidence to identify relevant research strategies to address the gaps in our knowledge about ICT and students’ learning explained above.     

Engineers React: what they think about psychology

This exploratory study generates questions and considers emerging themes concerning psychology in engineering education. Psychologists frequently tell engineers what they think. This paper is designed for engineers to tell psychologists what they think. Information gained from engineer response suggests possibilities for both research and organisational change. Results generate significant questions for further investigation. What psychology courses are of interest or relevance to engineers? What underlying factors contribute to the differences in the approaches of engineers' and psychologists' thinking? Is there a systematic effort to create possibilities in scheduling for more than one course? Have strategies for managing the prerequisite sequence in psychology been explored?     

‘Reading’ pictures: what do they reveal? Young children's reading of visual texts

What does the ‘reading’ of pictures reveal compared with the reading of print? The researcher examines aspects of visual literacy through the responses of young children to two picture storybooks. The findings emphasise how images can evoke different levels of response. The study confirms that we need to reconsider the nature of reading and reading education in an environment where words and print are no longer the dominant medium. Examples of responses are shown from children who are native speakers of English, as well as from children for whom English is a second language.