ETHNICITY,GENDER, AGE,SES, AND ACTIVITY TYPE AS FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO EARLY CHILDHOOD PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ INTERACTIONS WITH INTERNATIONAL AND U.S. PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

The interactions of 67 early childhood preservice teachers with International and U.S. preschool children in structured story time and unstructured table activities were videotaped and analyzed. Overall, preservice teachers displayed significantly more facilitative (e.g., ego boosting, teaching, questioning, and attending) than nonfacilitative (e.g., commanding, negatively responding, ignoring, and physical restraint) behaviors toward children. However, analyses of data relative to different ethnicity, gender, and activity type groups also revealed preservice teachers were relating to children in differential ways. Preservice teachers displayed significantly less facilitative and more nonfacilitative behaviors toward International children than U.S. children. In addition, preservice teacher‐child interactions with International children were rated as less positive and more negative than their interactions with U.S. children. Still also, preservice teachers displayed significantly less facilitative and less nonfacilitative behaviors toward girls than toward boys. Furthermore, preservice teacher‐child interactions with girls were rated as significantly less positive and less negative than with boys. Finally, preservice teachers displayed significantly more nonfacilitative behaviors toward children in structured story time activities than in unstructured table activities.     

TECHNOLOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPLORING DISTANCE LEARNING FROM A CONSTRUCT/VIST PERSPECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which distance learning (distance learning vs. traditional) may influence undergraduate education majors’ emerging constructivist perspective. Elementary education majors at 2 universities (N = 102) volunteered to complete questionnaires. The 3 independent variables were traditional vs. distance learning, whether or not ever enrolled in distance learning, and instructor difference. The 3 dependent variables were concerned with what the instructor provided; what the instructor demonstrated; and what students believed they learned. A Multiple Analysis of Variance (Manova) compared the 3 independent variables across the 3 dependent variables and indicated that students in traditional classrooms rated what the instructor provided, what the instructor demonstrated, and what students believed they learned significantly greater than students in distance learning classrooms. An interpretation suggests that distance learning technology may hold potential for facilitating undergraduate education majors’ emerging constructivist perspective.     

Successful Strategies for Transfer of Learned Leadership

To support organizational efforts in leadership development, performance improvement professionals must be prepared to use a variety of development methods along with the right mix of strategies that enhance learning transfer. Regardless of the development methods used, leadership development programs that incorporate strategies to enhance learning transfer in the areas of leadership support, evaluation, and organizational issues are likely to be more successful than development programs that ignore transfer barriers in these critical areas.     

Gerald Caplan: A Tribute to the Originator of Mental Health Consultation

Gerald Caplan (1917–2008), world-renowned child and community psychiatrist, was the originator of the modern practice of mental health consultation. In addition to consultation, Caplan developed and refined many conceptual models and methods for practice for use in community mental health, psychology, and education. This tribute article focuses on his career and contributions to the field of consultation and offers insights into his approach to mental health consultation.     

Preschool Teachers' Beliefs About Appropriate Early Literacy and Mathematics Education for Low- and Middle-Socioeconomic Status Children

This study explored preschool teachers' beliefs about the appropriateness of early literacy and mathematics education. In all, 60 teachers of 4-year-olds, half working with low-socioeconomic status (SES) children at publicly funded preschools and the other half with middle-SES children at private preschools, were randomly assigned to read either the mathematics or the literacy versions of written vignettes describing issues related to teaching these subjects. Teachers were interviewed individually concerning the vignettes. Analyses showed that teachers of middle-SES children tended to support literacy and mathematics education that respects individual children and their preferences and to oppose classroom use of computers; overall they emphasized nonacademic areas. Teachers of low-SES children tended to focus on literacy and mathematics to prepare children for kindergarten and to support computer use; they showed concern about their students' underdeveloped readiness to learn, particularly literacy. Analyses comparing subject matter showed that for literacy, teachers preferred to gear a curriculum toward children's interests and to allow children to follow their interests in a literacy-rich classroom to promote social competence and positive dispositions toward literacy. For mathematics, teachers preferred to embed mathematics into everyday routines to promote the learning of key knowledge and skills throughout the day. These findings have significant implications for professional development.     

Tracing discursive processes of shared knowledge construction in a technology-enhanced higher education setting

This study focused on combining both the group- and individual-level analyses in studying a collaborative activity in technology-enhanced interactions in a higher education setting. The aim was to make visible, with empirical examples, the quality of the students' web-based discussions and trace the route for shared understanding. By quantifying various communicative functions, the analysis provided general knowledge on the quality and purpose of the discussion in the group and highlighted the different functional positions each student had within the group. However, only a detailed interpretative analysis of the relationships between specific thematic contents, communicative functions, and the collaborative features of the discussion, in the temporal frame, made it possible to trace and gain a deeper understanding of the true acts of collaboration. It also highlighted the individual participants' different participatory and discursive positions in the different phases of the task. Over the study, it became evident that any attempts to define a collaborative activity from either the group's or individual's perspective would only result in a partial interpretation of the collaborative enterprise.     

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of a Novel Display Case Design: Case Study of the Renovated Anne Frank House

ABSTRACT

Many museums are housed in historic buildings, sometimes the building itself is part of the museum collection. Creating a stable environment by providing a nearly constant temperature and relative humidity at correct levels decreases the risk of object degradation. Maintaining this steady indoor environment, however, increases energy consumption and risks to the historic building. Museum display cases offer a solution to the mitigation of risks to which valuable objects may be subjected by providing an extra layer of protection to indoor climate fluctuations. The Anne Frank House is a historic house museum located in Amsterdam. The museum has undergone several renovations in the last years to deal with an increase in the number of visitors to over 1.2 million a year. The original diaries and other documents of Anne Frank are permanently on display in the Anne Frank House. With the recent refurbishment the possibility arose to design a new state-of-the-art display case. This study presents the results of the experimental research related to the design, performed in-situ. The temperature and relative humidity in the new exhibition space and inside the new display cases were monitored to gain insight into the hygrothermal behavior of these controlled environments. A complementary numerical study was performed to investigate effects of dynamic climate control of the exhibition gallery and climate conditions in the display case under various circumstances. Four main conclusions are presented in this paper. The investigated display case design is able to provide a stable relative humidity environment by means of silica gel, while using an active box-in-box climate control system to create stable temperature conditions. The inner case temperature depends on the temperature supplied by the display case air handling unit. Protocols must be in place in case of malfunction or failure of the climate control system of the display case. The air handling unit of the case needs to be shut off to create a passive environment for the objects on display until necessary actions are taken. Exhibition gallery set points can be less stringent when susceptible museum objects are on display in the display case. The environments are separated and provide an opportunity for energy saving set point strategies. The last conclusion drawn is that the numerical study provides valuable insight into imposing dynamic control of set points for temperature and relative humidity in the exhibition gallery and the effect on the display case environment.