Teacher collaborative inquiry as a professional development intervention: benefits and challenges

The paper reports on a collaborative learning project coded as the teacher inquiry community that was carried out over a year in a private higher education institution to improve the professional capability of language-based subject teachers. Nine teachers completed the project all of whom were females and shared work experience of 2–29 years. Six of them held some form of qualification in education, and all except for one possessed at least a basic degree in some field. The study focused on three questions namely teacher benefits, impact of practice, and application of solutions. Findings revealed that the former two questions were well substantiated for most teachers, but the same thing could not be said of the third. While a number of senior teachers benefitted at the level of classroom implementation, the others explained away their inability to incorporate new ideas in their teaching. Individual characteristics and personality, and culture seemed to make a difference. However, the study concluded that the collaborative learning model could serve as a viable mechanism for the teachers’ professional development.     

Body composition analysis of inter-county Gaelic athletic association players measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry

Gaelic Football and Hurling are two sporting codes within the Gaelic Athletic Association. The purpose of this study was to report the body composition phenotype of inter-county Gaelic athletic association players, comparing groups by code and field position. 190 senior, male, outfield inter-county players (144 hurlers and 46 Gaelic footballers) were recruited. Stature and body mass was measured, estimates of three components of body composition, i.e. lean mass, fat mass and bone mineral content was obtained by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), and normative data for Gaelic athletic association athletes by code and position was compared. Other than in the midfield, there was limited difference in body composition between codes or playing position. Stature-corrected indices nullified any existing group differences between midfielders for both codes. Further comparisons with a non-athletic control group (n = 431) showed no difference for body mass index (BMI); however, the athletic group has a lower fat mass index, with a greater lean mass in accounting for the matched BMI between groups. In addition to providing previously unknown normative data for the Gaelic athletic association athlete, a proportional and independent tissue evaluation of body composition is given.     

Responsibilities,preparedness, and job satisfaction of paraprofessionals: working with young children with disabilities

To support teachers with their classroom responsibilities, schools have increasingly turned to paraprofessionals for assistance, with the largest numbers of paraprofessionals employed in the field of special education. Owing to this important role that paraprofessionals now perform in the education of children with disabilities in the USA, we set out to investigate the responsibilities that paraprofessionals working with young children with disabilities had. We were also interested in identifying how paraprofessionals and the teachers with whom they work alongside perceived the paraprofessionals' level of preparedness for their roles and their job satisfaction. Fifty‐two paraprofessionals and 59 teachers of young children with disabilities participated in the study. Overall, both paraprofessionals and teachers indicated that paraprofessionals were generally well prepared for activities they frequently engaged in and both viewed themselves as collaborative members of an educational team.     

Parent Scaffolding in Children's Oral Reading

Parent coaching strategies during shared book reading were analysed according to the principles of scaffolding in a sample of 46 parent-child dyads during the latter half of grade one. The ways that parents responded to each of a child's oral reading errors or miscues were coded into levels of assistance that reflected increasing support at each successive level. In addition children's attempts at rereading miscued words were coded as successful or not. Parents often provided a string of feedback clues and analyses revealed that the level of support parents provided shifted up or increased when their child was unsuccessful in rereading a word after feedback. With increasing level of parental support children's success in rereading misread words increased. Moreover, children with weaker word recognition skill were offered feedback at higher levels of support by their parents. These results demonstrate how parents and children co-construct the feedback that parents provide when listening to their children read and the sensitivity on the part of parents to children's reading performance.     

SIGNIFICANCE AND DIALOGUE IN LEARNING AND TEACHING

A bstract .  In this essay Andrew Metcalfe and Ann Game argue that although the term "dialogue" is commonly used in educational theory, its full significance is diluted if it is seen as a matter of exchange or negotiation of prior positions and identities. As a meeting point, they argue, dialogue suspends the senses of time, space, and ontology on which identities are based. It is therefore not simply metaphorical to say that dialogue changes lives and opens minds. Using empirical material from interviews with Australian students and teachers, Metcalfe and Game draw out the relational qualities of genuine dialogue and the significance they have for how we understand everyday classroom life.     

The effects of multimedia video lectures on extraneous load

An important part of online courses is the delivery of instruction via video lectures. Video lectures should use media effectively to reduce extraneous load and maximize cognitive processing, thereby helping students to learn. Instructors may be able to reduce extraneous load by varying the number of audio and visual media used. This study presents analysis from a survey of students (n = 1701) enrolled in a cyber university in South Korea to investigate the relationship between media diversity in video lectures and extraneous load. Results showed a negative relationship between media diversity and extraneous load. Students who noted more types of media stated that they experienced less extraneous load. The implications of these results are of use to instructors who want to use diverse media to promote a better understanding of learning material.     

When tensions between ideology and practice become personal: Unpacking mentorship in early childhood teacher education

University-based teacher education programs are criticized for being too theoretical, disconnected from the everyday realities of schools. To bridge this gap, teacher education programs give students year-long field experiences under the joint tutelage of mentor teachers and university faculty. However, this assumes that mentor teachers will not only be exemplary teachers, but skilled mentors as well. This article explores the tensions between the theoretical and practical work of teaching within mentoring relationships, specifically in spaces where teacher agency is limited by political, social, and cultural factors. The sociocultural, language approaches in many teacher education programs are seen as idealistic when pushed up against skills-based language approaches, advocated in classrooms. Using qualitative methods, this project follows three mentor/mentee pairs as they negotiate their relationships in an urban area in the Southwest United States. While all three pre-service teachers strongly believed that learning was a social practice, constructed through child inquiry and play, they struggled to maintain their ideologies and beliefs during their field experience. Pre-service teachers held firmly to their beliefs about teaching and learning, but holding onto these beliefs were wrought with personal and philosophical tensions. Pre-service teachers found limited agency in their practice and little support in implementing their own practices. Most importantly, unequal power dynamics and communication issues were obstacles towards mutually beneficial mentorship. Thus, preservice programs must address the importance of developing and cultivating the mentor/mentee relationship—a relationship that is pivotal in the construction of preservice teachers’ identities and practices.     

Genital examinations for alleged sexual abuse of prepubertal girls: findings by pediatric emergency medicine physicians compared with child abuse trained physicians

OBJECTIVE: This study compares abnormal genital examination findings made by pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physicians to examinations by physicians with training in child sexual abuse in the evaluation of prepubertal girls for suspected sexual abuse. METHOD: A prospective study was performed following the genital examination by a PEM physician of prepubertal girls suspected of being sexually abused. A physician with training in child sexual abuse re-examined those girls whose examinations were interpreted as abnormal by the PEM physicians. The findings and interpretations of the PEM physician were then compared to those by the physicians with training in child abuse. RESULTS: Between October 1994 and October 1998, 46 patients diagnosed by PEM physicians with nonacute genital findings indicative of sexual abuse were re-examined by a physician with training in child abuse. The follow-up examinations were done 2 days-16 weeks (mean 2.1 weeks) after the emergency department visit. The physicians with training in child abuse concluded that only eight of these children (17%) showed clear evidence of abuse. Normal findings were noted in 32 children (70%), nonspecific changes were noted in 4 children (9%), and 2 children (4%) had findings that are more commonly seen in abused children than nonabused children but are not diagnostic for abuse (concerning for abuse). CONCLUSIONS: There was poor agreement between the pediatric emergency medicine physicians and the physicians with training in child sexual abuse. This study suggests that emergency medicine physicians should consider additional training in this area. In addition, all children with abnormal ED examinations should have follow-up examinations by a child abuse trained physician.