Mentoring: Immigrant teachers bridging professional practices

New teachers who enter Australian educational systems must acquire suitable knowledge that enables them to function effectively as a teacher in this country. For immigrant professionals new to the system mere transfer of knowledge does not suffice and does not satisfy their professional perception of self. Teachers who are born and trained overseas lack culturally specific educational knowledge. These shortfalls can initiate unforseen dilemmas for their professional development and shifts in their definition of self. Acquiring new knowledge requires teachers to understand the social elements of learning and teaching in local contexts and to apply them appropriately. Mentoring relationships can be a means of bridging the gap between the newcomers' former ways of knowing and current practice, thereby mobilizing their capacity to operate effectively as a teacher in their new contexts and develop a positive professional identity. In this paper we draw on interview data from a study that involved immigrant teachers.     

International trends in health science librarianship. Part 5 Latin America and the Caribbean

This is the 5th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in Latin America and the Caribbean in the first decade of the 21st century. The invited authors are from Argentina, Bermuda and Mexico. Future issues will track trends in Central Europe and the Middle East. JM     

Gender Reproduction and Further Education: domestic apprenticeships

This paper explores how a group of 83 young, white, working class women became involved in the state's most recent attempt at restructuring social relations through vocational initiatives. Using ethnographic research conducted in a caring course department of a northern further education college, it examines how the students everyday practical experiences of the vocational caring curriculum involves them in the construction of subjectivity and gender and class reproduction. The central argument is that caring courses are little more than domestic apprenticeships which anticipate both the family household structure and the labour market. The students implicate themselves in this process, through their attempts to gain autonomy and self‐esteem, by constructing ‘ideal’ caring standards, which come to prioritise exclusive, familial forms of care over and above occupational roles. Thus, they socialise themselves out of the labour market and establish familial responsibilities, which can be drawn upon by the state to maintain unpaid welfare provision.     

Teacher‐Child Oral Reading Interactions: how do teachers typically tutor?

This paper reports the results of three studies which examine the behaviours of teachers when hearing children read. In the first study, we examine the tutoring behaviour of 55 teachers listening to 8‐14‐year‐old low progress readers. In the second study, we report results on 31 teachers listening to very low progress readers aged 9‐16 years and, in the third, we discuss the findings from 55 teachers listening to young average progress readers aged 4‐8 years. The results suggest that, for all three groups of readers, most teachers tend to respond immediately most of the time to reader errors, allowing little or no time for readers to self‐correct. Teachers tend to respond to errors with a prompt on most occasions but this is more likely with low and very low progress readers than with young, average progress readers. Relatively low rates of praise were apparent in all three groups. We also found that a large number of readers in all groups were inappropriately placed on book levels which were too easy or (less frequently) too difficult, as against an appropriate instructional level.     

Key non-controversial concepts of population education

The important components of population education should focus on sexuality rather than sex education; content for inclusion depends upon whether the goal is population awareness or critical awareness. Population awareness is the better understanding of the nature, causes, and consequences of population changes experienced by a community, country, region. Critical awareness is the intent and ability to change the sociocultural or educational characteristics that influence fertility, mortality, and migration. 6 basic concepts with universal applicability are discussed, because if not handled properly, the topic become controversial. The concepts are linked to developing thinking or reasoning ability. The concepts are as follows: 1) respect for others, particularly those of the opposite sex; 2) development of self-esteem for both boys and girls; 3) the knowledge that planning is possible and desirable; 4) postponement of first pregnancy; 5) acceptance of responsibility for the consequences of behavior; and 6) the ability to recognize and withstand social pressure. When children learn respect for others, there is little likelihood that others will be harmed. Respect for girls and women is particularly important, and harmful stereotyping and their effects should be pointed out. The key is to develop healthy attitudes and values toward people, not just an intellectualization of gender issues. Self-esteem is used here to mean self-worth in the present and the future. Children can be helped to develop confidence, perseverance, and optimism. Children need to understand that carefully thought out decisions should precede a birth; fatalism and destiny is a choice. Postponing the first pregnancy can lead to economic, emotional, and physical benefits. Risk to the health of the mother and baby occurs during the teen years. The best time for pregnancy is between the ages of 20 and 30 years. A pregnancy in the teen years may have longterm consequences such as more pregnancy and delivery complications or infertility. Social pressure may force behavior that does not conform to one's own convictions or be applicable to best options for the individual.     

The metacognitive reading strategies of five early readers

The purpose of this study was to examine the metacognitive reading strategies of five children, four to six years of age, who were reading fluently prior to formal instruction in grade one. Fluency was judged on whether the children could conduct meaningful reading (Smith, 1988) with relative smoothness (Duffy and Roehler, 1989). Methods of this case study included semi-structured interviews, role playing, observations and informal miscue analyses of oral reading. The children's personal characteristics and home environments provided a context for their reading strategies, and particular attention was given to the caregiver-child interactions which may have facilitated the development of metacognitive reading strategies. Findings suggest that each of the children utilized a variety of metacognitive reading strategies and showed individual preferences for certain strategies, as indicated by the number of times these strategies were used. The children also responded differently to particular research methods, a finding which supports the employment of a variety of methods when studying young children. Findings from this study also draw a relationship between caregiver-child interactions and the development of particular metacognitive reading strategies.     

Building Vocabulary Knowledge in Preschoolers Through Shared Book Reading and Gameplay

This study moves beyond previous investigations to examine whether an educational intervention combining shared book reading with a vocabulary game increases children's vocabulary knowledge. Four‐year‐olds (N = 44) were randomly assigned to dyads in either an intervention (shared book reading plus vocabulary review game) or comparison condition (shared book reading, after‐reading vocabulary review, and game that did not teach vocabulary). After two 30‐min sessions, results demonstrated that the intervention condition outperformed the comparison condition on measures of receptive and expressive knowledge of taught vocabulary words. Children in the intervention group who scored the lowest at pretest on the receptive measure saw the most gains in taught word knowledge. Findings suggest that combining vocabulary gameplay with shared book reading improved children's learning of the vocabulary words in comparison to a comparison group.