The Effects of Literacy Play Interventions on Preschoolers' Play Patterns and Literacy Development

This study investigated the effects of two types of intervention on preschoolers' play patterns and literacy development. Theme-related literacy materials were added to the dramatic play areas used by 32 children in one teacher's morning and afternoon preschool classes. The two classes were randomly assigned to different treatments: (a) Materials Only, in which literacy materials were available in play areas, but no attempt was made by the teacher to encourage children to use the materials in their play; and (b) Materials Plus Adult Involvement, in which the teacher used suggestions and modeling to encourage children to incorporate the literacy materials into their dramatic play. Before and after the 20-week treatment period, assessments were made of the children's free play behavior and literacy development. Six months later, the literacy assessments were administered for a third time. Quantitative and qualitative play observations revealed that the Materials Plus Involvement treatment was more effective in encouraging literacy-related play than the Materials Only intervention. Analysis of the literacy assessments indicated that, while both groups made significant gains over time, there were no significant between-group differences.     

School structure and its relationship to instructional methods and student outcomes in mathematics

Details of teachers' instructional approaches, and students' achievement and attitudes from a probability sample of 102 Ontario schools with grade 8 classes were examined as a function of school structure (public vs. separate, the number of pupils, the teachers' qualifications). Students in separate (Roman Catholic) schools, while not differing from their public schools peers in socio-economic background and plans for further education, reported less use of English in the home and less family help with mathematics. Except in a few details, the teachers at the schools in question do not differ in their educational approaches. The conclusions suggested by the research literature, of the better achievement and attitudes of pupils in separate schools, were supported in the case of attitudes, but contrary to expectations, student achievement differences, when they occurred, favoured students enrolled in public schools. On the whole, the differences which were observed amongst pupils were neither a function of student background characteristics nor of differences in teachers' experience.

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Zusammenfassung Einzelheiten der Lehransätze von Lehrern und der Leistungen sowie Einstellungen von Schülern wurden in einem Wahrscheinlichkeitssample an 102 Schulen mit einer 8. Klasse als Funktion einer Schulstruktur untersucht (öffentliche im Gegensatz zu separaten Schulen, d.h. römisch-katholischen, die Schülerzahl, die Qualifikationen der Lehrer). Obwohl sich Schüler an separaten (römischkatholischen) Schulen in ihrem sozio-ökonomischen Hintergrund und ihren Plänen bezüglich ihrer Weiterbildung von ihren Altersgenossen an öffentlichen Schulen nicht unterschieden, berichteten sie, daß der englische Sprachgebrauch zu Hause weniger üblich sei und daß sie weniger häusliche Hilfe bei Mathematikaufgaben erhielten als jene. Bis auf ein paar Einzelheiten unterschieden sich die Lehrer der besagten Schulen nicht in ihren Lehransätzen. Die Schlußfolgerungen, die in der Forschungsliteratur über bessere Leistungen und besseres Verhalten der Schüler an Separatschulen nahegelegt wurden, unterstützten diese Einstellungen, aber anders als erwartet, fielen die Unterschiede bei den Schülerleistungen, wenn sie auftraten, zugunsten der Schüler an öffentlichen Schulen aus. Insgesamt lassen sich die festgestellten Leistungsunterschiede der Schüler weder auf deren sozialen Hintergründe noch auf unterschiedliche Erfahrungen der Lehrer zurückführen.

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Résumé Les détails relatifs aux approches éducatives des enseignants, aux acquis et attitudes d'élèves pris sur un échantillon de probabilité de 102 écoles de l'Etat de l'Ontario avec des classes du degré 8 ont été examinés en tant que fonction de la structure scolaire (école publique par rapport aux écoles libres, nature des effectifs, qualification des enseignants). S'ils ne se distinguaient pas de leurs pairs des écoles publiques par leur milieu socio-économique ou les plans d'éducation continue, les élèves des écoles libres (catholiques) ont rapporté qu'ils faisaient un moins grand usage de l'anglais à la maison et recevraient moins d'aide de leur famille pour résoudre leurs exercices de mathématiques. A quelques détails près, les enseignants des écoles en question ne différaient pas par leurs approches éducatives. Les conclusions suggérées par les travaux de recherche sur les acquis plus positifs et les attitudes plus favorables des élèves des écoles libres étaient corroborées pour ce qui est des attitudes mais, contrairement aux attentes, les différences en matière de connaissances acquises, si de telles différences se manifestaient, étaient à l'avantage des élèves inscrits dans les écoles publiques. En général, les différences de niveau observées chez les élèves ne dépendaient pas des caractéristiques de leur milieu de provenance, ni de l'expérience des enseignants.

     

Drops of water and of soap solution: Students' constraining mental models of the nature of matter

This study investigates how 25 junior high school students employed their bodies of knowledge and responded to problem cues while individually performing a science experiment and reasoning about a drops phenomenon. Line‐by‐line content analysis conducted on students' written ad hoc explanations aimed to reveal students' concepts and their relations within their explanations, and to construe students' mental models for the science phenomenon based on level of specification, models' correspondence with scientific claims, macro versus micro view of matter, and type of evidence used. We then inferred four types of knowledge representations for the nature of matter. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for science teaching. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 970–993, 2004     

Expected grades versus specific evaluations of the teacher as predictors of students' overall evaluation of the teacher

All teacher evaluation forms completed in the arts and sciences division of a large community college were analyzed at three levels: division-wide (N=9,080), in class groups (31 groups), and class averages (548 classes). Multiple regression was used to predict teacher rating from the other nine items on the form. At all levels, expected grade, with minor exceptions, was the least important predictor. Certain items relating to teacher characteristics as perceived by the students had a consistent impact on rating. They included the following: “tries to help students understand,” which was most important, “sincerely interested in students,” and “uses class time effectively.”     

Responding to the Field and to the Academy: Ontario's evolving PhD

The knowledge economy has increased the demands on our university systems to create innovative, flexible doctoral programs. Some countries have responded to this challenge by developing professional doctorates. In the province of Ontario (Canada), the trend appears to be to re-invent the traditional PhD rather than to develop professional doctorates. This paper traces historical, political, economic and social reasons for this trend. It focuses, in particular, on the case of the longstanding Doctor of Education (EdD) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT). Enrolment in the EdD program has dropped significantly in the past few years. Drawing on a variety of sources including evaluation data from PhD and EdD students, this paper examines reasons for this development. The authors conclude that the same climate that is fostering professional doctorates is also changing the landscape for PhD education, making the degree more responsive to the needs of educational stakeholders.     

Learning with multiple representations: Extending multimedia learning beyond the lab

The present study extended multimedia learning principles beyond the lab to an ecologically valid setting (homework). Eighteen information cards were used to perform three homework tasks. The control group students learnt from single representation (SR) cards that presented all information as printed text. The multiple representation (MR) group students received the same information, but each card contained either printed text or an informationally equivalent graphic such as a chart or graph. The MR group students performed better than the SR group students on accuracy of their homework answers and on subsequent posttest retention and transfer, and used more information cards while learning. The improved MR group students' performance is discussed in relation to two alternative possible explanations – the nature of the information sources and students' motivation to learn.     

Teachers’ interpretations of texts-image juxtapositions in textbooks: From the concrete to the abstract

The paper examined expert literature teachers’ coping with a novel textbook, integrating literature with visual arts, which is a particular interdisciplinary case of text-image relations in textbooks. Examination was performed within the framework of teachers’ responses to curricular changes and of theory regarding strategies of interdisciplinary instruction. Data regarding teachers’ coping was collected via video recorded deep interviews and analysed qualitatively using the phenomenological approach. Findings revealed four phases of a recurring pattern of performance: (a) retrieving prior knowledge about texts, (b) cycles of processing and refinement (comprising comparing-identifying-matching, making meaning of elements in contexts, eliciting themes and deeply examining artworks’ devices), (c) mindful evaluation of the juxtaposition, and (d) pedagogical reasoning. Four potential roles of the textbook visual artworks, for promoting literature learning, were inferred. The study shed some light on the involvement of teacher cognition and culture of teaching in the reading, evaluating, and adapting of novel curricula. A deeper understanding of the factors involved in the introduction of novel materials, examined from a cognitive perspective, may inform teachers’ professional development and curriculum developers as well as promote implementations of curricular reforms.     

To Disagree,We Must Also Agree: How Intersubjectivity Structures and Perpetuates Discourse in a Mathematics Classroom

Learning in a socially mediated context like a classroom places emphasis on the ability of learners to communicate their ideas to others, and for members of a class to achieve shared meaning or intersubjectivity (IS). We take a participatory view of IS, where both consensual agreement and disagreement are regarded as aspects of a common set of processes that mediate collective activity. Interlocutors need not demonstrate convergence toward a common idea or solution to exhibit IS and, indeed, they appear to need a shared understanding to express substantive disagreement through divergent views. Multilevel, multimodal analyses of videotape of a middle school mathematics classroom, including speech, gestures, drawing, and object use, reveal a discourse that is organized into recurrent sequences of event triads. The dynamics toward and away from convergent ideas appears to be instrumental in fostering sustained and engaging discourse and influencing the representations that students propose during problem solving. Participants frequently exhibited IS, but, as allowed for in the participatory view, the interactions did not seem to convert many students from their initial interpretations. Instead, disagreements and a desire to establish common understanding appeared to lead participants to express their divergent views in more refined and accessible ways. Advancement of our understanding of the role that IS serves in socially mediated learning has the potential to inform both educational theory and emerging areas in embodied cognition and cognitive neuroscience that addresses imitation and empathy, and thus help to bridge research between brain function and social cognition.