How academics manage individual differences to team teach in higher education: a sociocultural activity theory perspective

Higher Education - In the higher education (HE) landscape worldwide, team teaching has become increasingly common. The growing prevalence of team teaching in HE has mainly been driven by the...     

Perceptions of Teaching Effectiveness

Faculty members at a research extensive university who had been recognized as outstanding teachers stated that they enjoyed teaching and expressed a strong preference for actively engaging students in the learning process and placing a high degree of importance on receiving student feedback. They stressed the importance of setting clear expectations and goals, providing timely feedback, and using a variety of presentation and instructional approaches and emphasized that their teaching and research were interconnected and synergistic.     

Social-Emotional Development,School Readiness,Teacher–Child Interactions,and Classroom Environment

This article investigates the effectiveness of a statewide 6-month early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) model on teachers’ emotional support of children and classroom organization. We provide a brief historical and theoretical background of the field of ECMHC, present the logic model for our ECMHC intervention, and discuss the existing research that supports this logic model. Research Findings: Participants included 445 teachers from 158 child care centers statewide. The mental health consultation improved the quality of early childhood teachers’ interactions (e.g., emotional support and classroom organization) with children in their care. Teachers with more experience and more than a high school degree tended to score higher on many of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (R. C. Pianta, K. M. La Paro, &; B. K. Hamre, 2008 Pianta , R. C. , La Paro , K. M. , &; Hamre , B. K. ( 2008 ). Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) manual, Pre-K . Baltimore , MD : Brookes . [Google Scholar]) dimensions. Practice or Policy: This study demonstrates that mental health consultants can partner successfully with early childhood educators and provide support that enhances classroom variables associated with high-quality care and positive child outcomes. Even with a high rate of teacher turnover (35%), significant differences were found; this demonstrates the robustness of the ECMHC model in that the effectiveness of this model was not undermined by the chronic problem of staff turnover.     

Classroom studies into cognitive style in mathematics for pupils with dyslexia in special education in the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK

The project reported here was designed to explore the cognitive style used by pupils with dyslexia when answering a range of mathematical questions. The research involved 132 pupils aged between 9 and 13 years, including 66 pupils in mainstream and 66 pupils in specialist schools, in three countries in Europe.
Detailed studies of the methods used by pupils attempting the given questions on a test of cognitive style suggested that they fell into two main categories. These pupils were observed when completing the test and their responses were categorised accordingly. The resulting numerical data were then analysed for differences between pupils within each country and between their non-dyslexic counterparts.
The results showed significant differences in the balance of cognitive styles employed by pupils with dyslexia as opposed to their non-dyslexic counterparts. Also there were interesting differences occurring between the pupils with dyslexia within the three countries on initial testing. Further differences were established after a six-month intervention period, suggesting that the characteristics of different curriculum models do have an impact upon pupils' flexibility as learners.     

Growth charts don't cure malnutrition

Growth chart monitoring developed as a technique designed to decrease infant and child morbidty. In order for similar techniques to reach those who need them most, special emphasis must be placed on the question of how services and information will be delivered. This problem of implementation, often neglected by primary health planners, becomes the linchpin of success or failure when small-scale projects with limited coverage are scaled up to large regional or national programs. Supervision is most often the weakest aspect of growth monitoring programs. This frequently results in improper use of the growth charts and insufficient attention to follow-up of the children at risk. Large scale schemes employing monitoring techniques have tended to spend an inordinate amount of time considering mechanics and technical questions at the expense of analyzing results. Thus, the time consumed by the weighing and the charting is so considerable that little time or energy remains to do what is really important, that is, to analyze individual charts and provide services to those whose growth is faltering. Until the focus shifts away from the numbers of children weighted to the follow-up activities undertaken, programs utilizing growth charts will continue to have limited results. Also, in order to make a successful leap from small-scale project to improved national health, careful planning is necessary when applying any health intervention.     

Tutor and teacher timescapes: Lessons from a home-school partnership

A partnership project was developed in which parents volunteered to support teachers in training years 1-3 children in computer skills at a primary school in a small, low socio-economic community. This article identifies the ways teachers and the ‘tutors’ (as the volunteers were called) understood the value of the project. ‘Being a teacher’ and ‘being a volunteer’ were structured by different forms of social engagement, which in turn influenced the ways individuals were able to work with each other in collaborative processes. We argue that the discursive practices encoded in homeschool-community partnership rhetoric represent ruling-class ways of organising and networking that may be incompatible with those of people from low socio-economic backgrounds. When such volunteers work in schools their attendance may be sporadic and short-term whereas teachers would like ‘reliable’ ongoing commitment. This mismatch wrought of teachers’ and volunteers’ differing everyday realities needs to be understood before useful models for partnerships in disadvantaged communities may be realised.     

Sexual health and behavior of mentally retarded pupils in Japan

Sex education has always been a controversial topic. Although sex education at schools has improved in general, sex education for mentally retarded pupils still encounters prejudice and conservatism as a result of several misconceptions about the subject. This research was performed in the form of a survey of opinions about sex education in special classes in ordinary public schools for mentally retarded pupils in Tokyo, Japan. Information was collected through written questionnaires distributed to teachers and parents of pupils of both sexes, whose age range was between 7 and 16 years. This work aims to stimulate an open and broad discussion, as well as to help teachers and parents to improve their knowledge about the subject. In addition, it provides data to outline a more specific program in sex education for mentally retarded pupils.     

Sreyashi Jhumki Basu: Building a more equitable world through science education

Dr. Sreyashi Jhumki Basu was a scholar committed to equity and social justice in science education who passed away in December 2008. In this essay, I describe Jhumki’s research and the call to action her life’s work has laid out for the science education community. In particular, I draw attention to the role of critical science agency in learning and the democratic science pedagogy model that Jhumki developed to support students in crafting such agency.