Children participating as researchers in primary schools: what’s in it for the teachers?

Whilst within universities, research on rather than with children/pupils is a well-established methodology, this paper reports on teachers’ responses to a schools and university-based partnership project, ‘Pupils as Research Partners in Primary (PARPP), which works to co-create pupil-led research opportunities for pupils in research projects informed by pupils’ experiences in primary schools. A previous paper, French and Hobbs, [(2017). “‘So How Well Did It Really Go’? Working with Primary School Pupils as Project Evaluators: A Case Study.” TEAN Journal 9 (1): 56–65] reported on how one PARPP project had a beneficial effect on pupils and their school environment. For this paper the project team interviewed a number of teachers whose pupils in the partner schools were involved in the pilot study phase of the project. Specifically, the teachers were interviewed to ascertain if the involvement of pupils, as lead researchers in projects exploring various aspects of the school environment, had impacted on their perceptions of pupil-led research. Findings suggest that the experiences of teachers in schools where PARPP projects had taken place had led them to re-evaluate the practicality and desirability of encouraging pupils to actively to research their school environments.     

Physics challenges for teachers and students介绍和选解

Ｐｈｙｓｉｃｓｃｈａｌｌｅｎｇｅｓｆｏｒｔｅａｃｈｅｒｓａｎｄｓｔｕｄｅｎｔｓ是美国中学物理教学刊物《物理教师》(Ｔｈｅｐｈｙｓｉｃｓｔｅａｃｈｅｒ)的一个专栏 ,它通过介绍物理问题 ,鼓励教师学生参与竞答 ,来促进教师的教学 ,提高学生的解题能力。每期有三到五个题目 ,教师(以及他们的学生 )可以向编辑部提交答案。正确的好的解答将会刊登于下一期。下面选出 2 0 0 1年 12月期的题目 ,并做解答和讨论。题目 1:打破记录　ｎ个大小和质量相同的弹性小球放在水平台面上 ,形成一排。左边的一个小球是红色的 ,其它的都是白色的。现…     

Physics challenges for teachers and students介绍和选解

Physics challenges for teachers and students是美国中学物理教学刊物<物理教师>(The physics teacher)的一个专栏,它通过介绍物理问题,鼓励教师学生参与竞答,来促进教师的教学,提高学生的解题能力.每期有三到五个题目,教师(以及他们的学生)可以向编辑部提交答案.正确的好的解答将会刊登于下一期.     

Family Literacy Programs: Where Have They Come from and Where Are They Going?

Family literacy programs in North America and the United Kingdom have enjoyed widespread public and political support. Thousands of initiatives following a variety of models currently operate under the spectrum of family literacy programs. In edthis paper, the influence of learning theories, the research on children’s early literacy development, and the sociopolitical context with gave rise to the intervention movement, will be reviewed with respect to their impact on current models of family literacy programs. The research on program evaluation is also considered, and is related to current practice and future directions in family literacy programming.     

Educational research for development—Contributions and challenges

Abstract

The study was designed to assess changes in farmers' knowledge of farmer seed production through schools (FSPSs) in Vietnam. A set of 25 questions covering five technical areas of the seed production process was used for pre and post knowledge testing at 12 FSPSs in the provinces Binh Dinh, Nam Dinh, Nghe An and Dong Thap. The main findings show an overall increase in farmer's knowledge scores after attending the FSPS. FSPS-farmers with low scores on the pre-field school test (ex-ante) scored much better on the post field school test. Gender had no effect on the test scores. Binh Dinh province had significantly higher mean scores on the post field (ex-post) school test compared to farmers in Nam Dinh, Nghe An and Dong Thap provinces. The increase in knowledge score is linked to the application of good practices learned in the field school as farmers who applied good quality seeds, low seed rates and the transplanting method showed a large increase in scores. The results of this study indicate that the tests provide insight into the knowledge gaps.     

What matters for rural teachers and communities? Educational challenges in rural Turkey

This research aims to unearth the educational challenges experienced by teachers and communities in rural Turkey. The research employs Nancy Fraser’s three dimensional justice approach – distribution, recognition and participation – to frame these challenges and to argue that rural challenges go beyond economic rationalities and concerns of infrastructure and resources. The study draws its data from 29 in-depth interviews with 20 teachers working in 16 different villages; 9 interviews with community members; and 2 focus group interviews, 1 with rural dwelling women and the other with rural dwelling men. The findings point out four significant difficulties that impede community and educational development: scarcity of resources; insufficient understanding of social, cultural and economic contexts that constrain educational attempts; lack of collaboration between teacher and communities; and irrelevant education. The study concludes by scrutinising how these difficulties interact with one another and result in marginalisation or casting out of rural lives.     

What Makes the Difference? Children and teachers talk about resilient outcomes for children 'at risk'

Research has been conducted into childhood resilience, a term which according to A. Masten, K. Best and N. Garmezy (Resilience and development: contributions from study of children who overcome adversity, Development and Psychopathology, 2, pp. 425-444, 1990) is defined as the process of, capacity for or outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances. The study to be presented here asked 9-12 year olds and their teachers from primary schools in disadvantaged areas in South Australia what it was they thought made the difference between 'kids with tough lives who do O.K.' and 'kids with tough lives who don't do O.K.' Using Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory to frame the analysis, this paper explores how the two groups of respondents discussed how the family, the school and the community might help make the difference. While both children and teachers tended to see the role of the family and the community in promoting resilient behaviour in fairly similar terms, the two groups saw very different roles for the school.     

Using Microsoft<Superscript>®</Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">PowerPoint</Emphasis>™ to Support Emergent Literacy Skill Development for Young Children At-Risk or Who Have Disabilities

The increasing availability and use of technology applications for teaching emergent literacy skills in early childhood education settings nationwide requires that early childhood education professionals develop skills with readily available software programs. This paper provides general recommendations in using Microsoft^® PowerPoint? to support emergent literacy skill development for young children at-risk or who have disabilities. Specific suggestions are presented in the areas of phonological awareness, alphabetic principles, comprehension, concepts about print, and vocabulary development.     

Reviewing Newspaper Articles as a Technique for Enhancing the Scientific Literacy of Student‐teachers

The ability to understand and evaluate news reporting of science is often cited as an attribute of a scientifically literate person. This work reports on an attempt to develop such attributes in a group of 19 student‐teachers. They were introduced to a review technique designed to help them evaluate newspaper representation of science and engage more effectively in a course dealing with biotechnology and associated socio‐scientific issues. The work they produced was examined for a range of evidence, and this showed that they were able to comment effectively on issues such as the newsworthiness of stories, bias in reporting, and the portrayal of science and scientists. Questionnaire responses indicated that the technique helped them to think about the media reporting of science in ways that were new to them. They believed school‐age students would benefit from a similar technique, and its use in schools is seen as highly desirable.     

Reading and Reinterpreting Picture Books on Children’s Television: Implications for Young Children’s Narrative Literacy

Bookaboo is a television programme aiming to promote literacy and reading among young children. In each episode, a celebrity reads a book to Bookaboo, a dog who plays the drums in a rock band, in order to help him overcome stage fright. Using the episode featuring the picture book (Cowell and Layton in That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown, 2006) as a case study, this article explores how this type of adaptation of picture books transforms the original narrative, with implications for children’s developing narrative literacy. Taking a multimodal social semiotic perspective, this study investigates the changes in meaning which result from the employment of semiotic resources such as animation, sound, and camera movement in the representation of the book on the television show. We argue that the deployment of such resources can subtly reshape the meanings expressed through the modes of language and images in the original picture book, potentially affecting the child viewer’s engagement with the narrative. Examining the use of these resources in the picture book’s televisual representation is thus an important first step towards developing frameworks for evaluating the ability of television programmes that incorporate picture book reading to support children’s literacy.     

Global citizenship education in conflict-affected settings: Implications of teachers’ views and contextual challenges for the Lebanese case

Despite embracing GCED themes, the Lebanese National Curriculum faces multifaceted challenges rooted in conflict. The 1997 curriculum is still in effect with revision attempts encumbered. Interviews with 56 public school teachers in Lebanon confirm prevalent knowledge transmission practices of prescribed civics content and lack of support for progressive teaching and critical dialogue. Findings suggest few teachers prioritise GCED constructs, while most promote nationalistic citizenship notions contributing to marginalisation. Moving forward, teacher education should develop teaching practice and mindsets for sustainable GCED with the intent of emancipating teachers and students from the limitations of national curricula.     

Children Who Read Words Accurately Despite Language Impairment: Who Are They and How Do They Do It?

Some children learn to read accurately despite language impairments (LI). Nine- to 10-year-olds were categorized as having LI only ( n  =   35), dyslexia (DX) only ( n  =   73), LI + DX ( n  =   54), or as typically developing (TD; n  =   176). The LI-only group had mild to moderate deficits in reading comprehension. They were similar to the LI + DX group on most language measures, but rapid serial naming was superior to the LI + DX group and comparable to the TD. For a subset of children seen at 4 and 6 years, early phonological skills were equally poor in those later classified as LI or LI + DX. Poor language need not hinder acquisition of decoding, so long as rapid serial naming is intact; reading comprehension, however, is constrained by LI.     

Who Is at Risk and Why? Teachers' Reasons for Concern and Their Understanding and Assessment of Early Literacy

This study focuses on an issue of recent policy significance—the need to aid teachers in successfully identifying why children struggle to acquire literacy. This study (a) asked K–1 teachers to nominate students that they believed to be at risk for literacy difficulties and to provide reasons for their concern, (b) examined how these reasons relate to teachers' broader conceptions of literacy, and (c) investigated whether teachers' initial reasons and checklist-guided ratings align with concurrently administered standardized assessments. Results revealed that teachers have a wide array of initial concerns for students. There was some discordance between teachers's specific reasons for concern and their broader conceptions of early literacy. Comparison of student performance on standardized measures with teacher rationale also revealed discordance. Specific guidelines to teachers on use of a literacy checklist increased concordance between subsequent teacher ratings and standardized measures in some reading-related skills but not others. Implications for the use of multiple sources of evidence for student performance, as well as professional development, are discussed.