Parental involvement in literacy development: using media texts

This paper reports on a small‐scale project which aimed to build upon the existing home literacy practices of a group of three‐ and four‐year‐old children living in the UK. The purpose of the project was to develop literacy materials and resources which could be borrowed from nursery and used within the home to promote children’s literacy development. Children’s informal literacy practices at home were identified using literacy diaries, which 18 families completed over a four‐week period. These documented children’s reading of both printed and televisual texts. In addition, interviews were conducted with 15 parents and carers. The paper reports on the findings from this stage of the project, which indicate that much of children’s reading was focused on popular cultural and media texts. Media boxes were developed as a literacy resource for use by parents and children in the home. The use of these media boxes by three families was documented and the initial findings, which suggest that the use of such resources draws on families’ cultural capital, discussed.     

Books of the Month

James Monaco's American Film Now: The People, The Power, The Money, The Movies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979—$19.95)

Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh's The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows: 1946-Present (New York: Ballentine Books, 1979—$19.95/9.95)     

“This Right Here Is All About Living”: Communicating the “Common Sense” About Home Stability Through CBPR and Photovoice

Homelessness remains a major problem in the United States as a result of urban deprivation, economic decline, a rise in housing costs, and a decline in blue-collar wages. Meanwhile, the dominant discourses around homelessness tend to frame the matter in terms of individual deviance rather than structural impediments. This study utilizes Community-Based Participatory Research and the photovoice method to articulate what a small number of “successfully home stable individuals” attribute to helping them to remain home stable as well as those factors that challenge this situation. The study analyzes how these attributions challenge the “common sense” about homelessness by refiguring the concept as a reintegration process with manifold causes and paths into and out of episodic home instability and giving voice to formerly homeless individuals who are successfully navigating reintegration into housed society.     

Running for your life: A review of physical activity and cardiovascular disease risk reduction in individuals with schizophrenia

Individuals with schizophrenia have a greater risk for cardiometabolic risk factors (e.g. central obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension and dyslipidaemia), cardiovascular diseases and mortality. This risky profile may be explained by the adverse effects of antipsychotic medications and an unhealthy lifestyle (e.g. smoking, poor nutrition and low physical activity). In the general population, physical activity has been shown to be the optimal strategy to improve both cardiometabolic parameters and cardiorespiratory fitness levels. Accordingly, an emerging literature of non-pharmacological interventions (e.g. cognitive behavioural therapy, diet and physical activity) has been studied in individuals with schizophrenia. Therefore, the purpose of this review was 1) to conduct a critical literature review of non-pharmacological interventions that included some kind of physical activity (including supervised and unsupervised exercise training) and target cardiometabolic risk factors in individuals with schizophrenia. 2) To describe the contribution of physical activity alone by reviewing trials of supervised exercise training programmes only. A literature review via systematic keyword search for publications in Medline, PubMed, Embase and PsycINFO was performed. Many non-pharmacological interventions are efficient in reducing cardiovascular disease risk factors when combined with physical activity. Supervised physical activity has been successful in decreasing cardiovascular disease risk, and aerobic interval training appears to provide more benefits by specifically targeting cardiorespiratory fitness levels. In conclusion, physical activity is an effective strategy for addressing cardiovascular disease risk in individuals with schizophrenia. Long-term studies are needed to evaluate the feasibility and impact of exercise training programmes in individuals with schizophrenia.     

Digital play: a new classification

Abstract

This paper draws on an ESRC-funded study of play and creativity in preschool-aged children’s use of apps in the UK. The main objectives of the study were to collect information about access to and use of apps in the home, establish the most popular apps and identify the features of those apps that are successful in promoting play and creativity. A mixed-method approach was used to collect data, including video filming of children using the most popular apps. In identifying play types that emerged in the analysis of data, the team utilised an established taxonomy, which outlines sixteen play types. This taxonomy was reviewed and adapted to analyse data from the project relating to digital play. Through this process, an additional type of play, transgressive play, was identified and added to the taxonomy. The paper outlines the implications of the revised taxonomy for future studies of play.     

A multidimensional,hierarchical model of self-concept: Theoretical and empirical justification

The self-concept construct is one of the oldest in psychology and is used widely in many disciplines. Despite its popularity, reviews prior to the 1980s typically emphasized the lack of theoretical basis in most studies, the poor quality of measurement instruments, methodological shortcomings, and a general lack of consistent findings except, perhaps, support for the null hypothesis. This situation called into question the usefulness of the self-concept construct. In dramatic contrast, the last decade has seen considerable progress in theory, measurement, and research. This progress is due at least in part to a stronger emphasis on a multidimensional self-concept instead of global measures of self. The purpose of this invited review is to summarize how my self-concept research has contributed to these advances. This review further substantiates the claim that self-concept cannot be understood adequately if its multidimensionality is ignored, and recommends that researchers use well-constructed multidimensional measures of self-concept instead of relying solely on global measures of self.     

Notes on contributors

This article examines how teacher thinking is socially negotiated yet individually enacted. Through a case study approach, the author explores how the identities of a first-year kindergarten teacher were fashioned linguistically as she moved through the contexts of her teacher education program, the elementary school in which she taught and the personal aspects of her life. Using ethnographic techniques, multiple layers of data were gathered in nested contexts. A theoretical framework was developed by juxtaposing the work of the Russian theorists Valentin Volosinov on the concept of ideologies and M.M. Bakhtin on his notions of language to guide the analysis of data. Findings indicate that by providing prospective teachers with the tools for conceptualizing teacher thinking as social, teacher educators can provide future educators with alternative ways to author their identities and help them to understand that they can create possibilities for all children.     

Online learning experiences of new versus continuing learners: a large-scale replication study

A vast body of research has indicated the importance of distinguishing new vs. continuing students’ learning experiences in blended and online environments. Continuing learners may have developed learning and coping mechanisms for ‘surviving’ in such learning environments, while new learners might still need to adjust their learning approaches to the new learning context. In this large-scale replication study, we investigated whether and how the learning satisfaction experiences of 16,670 new vs. 99,976 continuing students were different. Using logistical regression modelling of learner satisfaction scores of 422 undergraduate blended and online modules (including 232 learner and module learning design variables), our findings indicated that new learners indeed differed subtly in their learning and teaching experiences across two consecutive academic years. The minor differences in key drivers between the 2014 and 2015 cohorts also indicate that institutions need to continuously monitor and act upon changing learning needs.     

Personality traits moderate the Big-Fish–Little-Pond Effect of academic self-concept

Equally able students have lower academic self-concepts in high-achieving classrooms than in low-achieving classrooms. This highly general and robust frame of reference effect is widely known as the Big-Fish–Little-Pond Effect (BFLPE; Marsh, 1987). This study contributes to research aiming to identify moderators of the BFLPE by investigating the effects of students' personality (i.e. Big Five traits and narcissism). Multilevel structural equation modeling was used to test the moderator hypotheses, drawing on data from a large sample of N = 4973 upper secondary track students (M age = 19.57). Consistent with a priori predictions, the negative effect of school-average achievement (the BFLPE) interacted significantly with narcissism. Students high in narcissism experienced smaller BFLPEs than did students with low or average levels of narcissism. The statistically significant effect for neuroticism acted in the opposite direction. The study illustrates how personality moderates frame of reference effects that are central to self-concept formation.