The professional developmental needs of higher education-based teacher educators: an international comparative needs analysis

A universal lack of attention to the professional learning needs of teacher educators is the driver for this study, which considers the most effective ways to support the professional learning of higher education-based teacher educators. At a time when many industrialised countries are engaged in systemic educational reform, this study provides an international and comparative needs analysis through a survey of 1158 higher education-based teacher educators in the countries participating in the International Forum for Teacher Educator Development: Belgium, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK. Our results suggest that while teacher educators are only moderately satisfied with their professional development experiences, a strong desire exists for further professional learning. This desire, influenced by their professional context, relates to their current beliefs concerning ‘best practice’ in teacher education, the academic skills required to further their professional careers and knowledge of the curriculum associated with their fields of expertise.     

A Feedback Procedure for Teacher Trainees Working with Parent Tutors of Reading

Abstract In this pilot study, four third‐year teacher trainees were trained to give feedback to parents who were tutoring their own children in reading using the Pause Prompt and Praise procedures. The trainees learnt to teach the procedures to the parents and then to give feedback by prompting parents to remember and explain their own tutoring behaviours. Baseline measures showed that when trainees were asked to help parents in any way they could to implement the procedures, they used very intrusive forms of prompts. Following training trainees used much less intrusive forms of prompts, giving parents more opportunity to remember and explain their own tutoring behaviours. It was argued that less intrusive forms of prompting when giving feedback may have been of more assistance to parents in learning the procedures than more intrusive forms of prompting, since parents may have learned to become more independent of trainee support. This, in turn, may have contributed to the substantial gains in children's reading levels which occurred.     

The Consistency and Concomitants of Inhibition: Some of the Children, All of the Time

Toddlers displaying extremely inhibited behavior may be at risk for becoming socially withdrawn. However, behavioral inhibition may be a multifaceted characteristic, and its concurrent relation to toddler wariness with peers has not been examined. In this study, 108 toddlers (54 females) and their mothers were observed in novel situations involving unfamiliar settings, adults, and peers. Vagal tone, temperament, separation-reunion behavior, and maternal oversolicitousness also were assessed. There was little consistency of inhibited behavior across the 3 situations. Consistently inhibited toddlers had fearful temperaments, showed distress following maternal separation, and had mothers who were warm and controlling but unresponsive to children's cues during interaction. Toddlers with highly fearful temperaments and highly oversolicitous mothers were the most inhibited across contexts.     

网络时代的课程，学与教

网上的学与教是全球关注的一个教育热点，这种关注大致体现在：（1）课程本身的问题，即我们将要教什么？（2）学习自身的性质。（2）学习以及他们所需要的学习环境，（4）对教育提供的影响。（5）不同的国家为规范远程学习和网上学习所采取的的不同方式。（6）我们一旦选择这种方式所存在的大量的合作机会，其中也存在同样多的健康或不健康的竞争，（7）与那些在网络时代所提供机遇面前落伍的人们有关的。     

The Effect of Relationship on Children's Distributive Justice Reasoning

Kindergarten, third-grade, and sixth-grade children were told 2 stories about a group of children who made artwork that was subsequently sold at a craft fair. The characters in one story were described as friends, while the characters in the other story were described as strangers (relationship condition). 1 character in each story was presented as the oldest in the group, 1 as the most productive, and 1 as the poorest. Children were asked to allocate 9 dollars to the 3 characters under each relationship condition, provide rationales for those allocations, and rate the fairness of 4 different patterns of allocation. Older children allocated more money to needy friends than to needy strangers and more to productive strangers than to productive friends. Kindergartners' allocations and fairness ratings did not vary with relationship. Rationales for allocation judgements suggested that equality was the most salient principle for decisions at all ages, but the older children provided rationales based on benevolence more often than younger children when characters were presented as friends.