Possibilities for pedagogy in further education: harnessing the abundance of literacy

In this report, it is argued that the most salient factor in the contemporary communicative landscape is the sheer abundance and diversity of possibilities for literacy, and that the extent and nature of students' communicative resources is a central issue in education. The text outlines the conceptual underpinnings of the Literacies for Learning in Further Education project in a social view of literacy, and the associated research design, methodology and analytical framework. It elaborates on the notion of the abundance of literacies in students' everyday lives, and on the potential for harnessing these as resources for the enhancement of learning. It provides case studies of changes in practice that have been undertaken by further education staff in order to draw upon students' everyday literacy practices on Travel and Tourism and Multimedia courses. It ends with some of the broad implications for conceptualising learning that arise from researching through the lens of literacy practices.     

Collaborative writing with young people with disabilities: raising new questions of authorship and agency

How an author communicates with a reader is a central consideration in the critical examination of any text. When considering the communication of ideas from young people whose voices are seldom heard, the journey from author to audience has particular significance. The construction of children and young people as ‘authors’ is important, especially for those with learning difficulties or who struggle to comply with the current emphasis on spelling, punctuation and grammar. This article relates to a UK Research Council‐funded 3‐year collaborative research project involving the co‐creation of fictional stories with young people with disabilities to represent aspects of their lives. Drawing on frameworks from narratology, I analyse the co‐creation of one of the stories and present an interpretation and elaboration of the discourse structure of narrative fiction to illustrate the complexities of the relationship between the multifaceted ‘author’ and community ‘reader’ of these stories. The combination of qualitative research and fictional prose has particular characteristics and implications for the dissemination and communication of research findings. An extension of feminist critique of Barthes' claim for the death of the author provides new insights for engaging children in writing with their own voice.     

Electronic Roads in Historical Documents: A Student Oriented Approach

The new educational approaches, as far as teaching of history in secondary education is concerned, are characterized by a shift away from sterile memorization and towards a critical approach of historical facts and phenomena; the aim is to contribute to both the development of students' historical concept and conscience and the promotion of critical thought. These teaching goals are pursued by promoting initiative of the students through self study assignments in the form of projects; students can be greatly supported in such tasks by computer-based applications, which can offer access to vast amounts of historical texts and data to be used next to the main scholar textbook and be analyzed by students. Still, existing applications seem to be quite inadequate for this purpose, as they require that the student be already informed on a matter, before the initiation of a quest for data. In this paper, we describe an intelligent information system that is designed to facilitate browsing of educational material and historical sources, thus allowing students to efficiently retrieve information on topics that are not yet known to them and expand in this way their historical knowledge. This can help in fulfilling the aforementioned teaching goals. Our system relies on the notion of the Electronic Road.     

Preschoolers' Understanding of Plan and Oblique Maps: The Role of Geometric and Representational Correspondence

To study conditions that affect preschoolers' understanding of maps, we asked 4-and 5-year-olds to place stickers on classroom maps to show locations of objects currently in view. Varied were vantage point (eye level vs. raised oblique), map form (plan vs. oblique), and item type (floor vs. furniture locations). Even though they were working with maps of a familiar referent space, preschoolers evidenced difficulty. While an oblique vantage point did not enhance performance, using the oblique map first aided subsequent performance on the plan map. As predicted, performance on floor locations was worse than on furniture locations. Findings are discussed in relation to performance by adults given the mapping task and preschoolers given a nonreferential sticker placement task. Data suggest the importance of ( a ) iconicity and ( b ) studying geometric as well as representational correspondences in map research.     

Predictors of discrepancies between informants’ ratings of preschool-aged children's behavior: An examination of ethnicity,child characteristics,and family functioning

The present study examined predictors of discrepancies between mothers’, fathers’, and teachers’ ratings of 3-year-old children's hyperactivity, attention problems, and aggression. Participants were families of 196 3-year-old children who took part in child and family assessments. Ethnicity was one of the most consistent predictors of discrepancies. African American mothers and fathers were more likely to rate their children's hyperactivity, attention problems, and aggression lower than teachers. In contrast, Latina mothers were more likely to rate their children as more hyperactive and inattentive than teachers. ADHD/ODD diagnoses, parental depression, number of children, and children's pre-academic skills were also predictive of discrepancies for some measures for some informants. These findings provide insight into factors that may contribute to informant discrepancies in ratings of preschool children.     

The association between immediacy and socio‐communicative style

The very strong association of immediacy with positive instructional outcomes has led some to question whether teacher immediacy amounts to anything more than being responsive with students. The present study demonstrates that a measure of teacher immediacy is strongly associated with the Socio‐Communicative Style of the teacher—both the assertiveness and the responsiveness components. It is concluded that it is theoretically justified to teach pre‐service or in‐service teachers to engage in immediate behaviors as means of increasing their communication competence and probably teaching effectiveness. The impact of immediacy observed in the classroom environment is seen as likely to be generalizable to other communication contexts.     

Does pragmatism trump motivation in college students’ preferences for examination formats?

Proponents of performance assessments purport that they allow more options for student choice and autonomy and, therefore, are more motivating and more preferred by students. This study explored the role of stakes and the student’s familiarity with the format in these examination preferences. A survey of 148 college students suggested that: their familiarity with open-ended assessments led students to prefer them without reference to stakes; they tended to prefer closed assessments when the stakes are low but open formats when the stakes are high; and their goal orientation had no relationship with these decisions. In the end, students seemed to be rather pragmatic and protective of their grades regardless of their goal orientations, which is only natural. The students’ goal orientations appear, then, to be desiderata for both them and their instructors, but a graded environment stifles their full operation.     

Digital technology and caregiver training for older persons: Cognitive and affective perspectives

ABSTRACT

This research project included two studies that investigated (a) differences between technology use in tech-knowledgeable and less tech-knowledgeable older persons, (b) cognitive and affective variables and their association with the application of technology, and (c) the implications of these variables on the design of remote-delivered caregiver education. Study 1 findings suggested that high technology (e.g., Internet delivered education) reduced stress among the tech-knowledgeable group. In Study 2, which focused on the less tech-knowledgeable group, neither high technology (e.g., telehealth-delivered education) nor low technology (e.g., phone-delivered education) was associated with the cognitive and affective measures used in the study. Implications in the training of older caregivers with digital technology are discussed for negotiating the affective and cognitive features in remote delivered caregiver eduational protocols.     

Diagnostic coding of abuse related fractures at two children's emergency departments

Objectives

Pediatric fractures suspicious for abuse are often evaluated in emergency departments (ED), although corresponding diagnostic coding for possible abuse may be lacking. Thus, the primary objective of this study was to determine the proportion of fracture cases investigated in the ED for abuse that had corresponding International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes documenting abuse suspicion. Additional objectives were to determine the proportion of these fractures with admission ICD abuse coding, and physician text diagnoses recording abuse suspicion in the ED and/or admission notes. Factors possibly associated with abuse-related ED ICD codes were also examined.

Methods

Children less than three years of age that presented primarily with a fracture to two large academic children's hospitals from 1997 to 2007 and were evaluated for suspicion of abuse by child protective services were included in this retrospective review. The main outcome measure was the proportion of the fracture cases that had abuse suspicion reflected in ED discharge ICD codes.

Results

Of the 216 eligible patients, only 23 (11.5%) patients had ED ICD codes that included the possibility of abuse. Forty-nine (22.7%) had the possibility for abuse documented by physicians as an ED discharge diagnosis. In addition, 53/149 (35.6%) of all admitted patients and 34/55 (61.8%) of confirmed abuse cases included abuse-related admission ICD coding. Female gender was found to be a factor associated with ED ICD abuse codes.

Conclusion

Current standards of ICD coding result in a significant underestimate of the prevalence of children assessed in the ED and hospital wards for possible and confirmed abusive fracture(s).     

Exploring Sources of Individual Differences in Children's Interest in Science

Efforts have been made to promote children's interest in science, but little is known about how children's interest in science relates to other characteristics, such as science‐specific curiosity, domain‐general epistemic curiosity, and verbal intelligence. The current study examines how these factors relate to individual differences in children's self‐reported interest in science topics. Children 7‐ to 10‐years‐old (n = 91) rated their interest in science and non‐science topics and completed measures of science‐specific curiosity, domain‐general epistemic curiosity, and verbal intelligence. An additional 94 7‐ to 10‐year‐olds rated their interest in science and non‐science topics and completed the science‐specific curiosity measure. The results suggest that individual differences in children's science interest relate most strongly to scientific curiosity, and specifically to the drive to seek out information and new experiences.