Success at Scale: Outcomes of Community-Based Neurodevelopment Intervention (CASITA) for Children Ages 6–20 months With Risk of Delay in Lima,Peru

This study is a randomized controlled trial of a 12-week community-based group parenting intervention (“CASITA”) in Lima, Peru. CASITA improved neurodevelopment in a pilot study of 60 Peruvian children and subsequently scaled to 3,000 households throughout the district. The objective of this study was to assess intervention effectiveness when implemented at scale. A total of 347 children ages 6–20 months (52.7% male, 100% identified as “mestizo”) at risk for developmental difficulties were randomized to immediate or delayed CASITA. At 3 months after enrollment, the immediate arm showed significantly higher overall development, based on the Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire and Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scores (Cohen’s ds = .36 and .31, respectively). Programs demonstrably effective at scale could help address children’s development risks worldwide.     

Language tourism destinations: a case study of motivations,perceived value and tourists’ expenditure

The economic potential of language tourism is manifested in the number of summer courses organised by some countries. Even if learning the language is the main motivation for travelling, the tourists also take into account other characteristics when choosing a destination, such as the location, the safety, the quality of the language or the cultural attractions. The objective of the current study is to analyse the profile of language tourists according to their motivations to study Spanish and their perception of the destination and to examine this profile as a driver of tourists’ expenditures. Specifically, this work analyses a sample of tourists who attended Spanish courses in language schools and academies in the city of Valladolid (Spain). The analysis of their expenditure during the stay reveals that expenditure is affected by visitors’ motivations and perceptions.     

The 'Ideal Teacher'. Implications for student evaluation of teacher effectiveness

Assessment of teachers through student opinions has been the most used method to define the characteristics of teaching quality. There is no previous literature applying the Semantic Differential (SD) with this objective. SD can detect the attributes of the 'ideal teacher', and find the evaluative, emotional or affective components linked to this concept. In this work, we analyse the factorial structure of a SD scale, to test the hypothesis of the existence of EPA factors, usually found in research directed to different objects of attitude. The most relevant dimensions of the 'ideal teacher' show similar profiles to those dimensions obtained with other assessment procedures. This result confirms the adequacy of SD as an instrument to assess of quality teaching.     

The PCC ISNI Pilot: Exploring Identity Management on a Global,Collaborative Scale

Abstract

The Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) conducted a multi-institution Pilot project to contribute metadata to the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) database. In addition to describing the goals, structure, and activities undertaken in the Pilot, this article examines some of the experiences of PCC metadata practitioners as they sought to incorporate ISNIs into their metadata workflows and pursue a wide range of ISNI use cases. Lastly, the article outlines next steps that flowed from the Pilot as the PCC has parlayed its newly developing identity management expertise into additional PCC program explorations.     

Pre-service teachers' dispositions towards diversity: Arguing for a developmental hierarchy of change

This article explores Australian pre-service teachers' beliefs about and attitudes towards diversity. Building on Garmon's [Garmon, M. A. (2004). Changing preservice teachers' attitudes/beliefs about diversity: what are the critical factors? Journal of Teacher Education, 55(3), 201–213] argument that there are three dispositional factors that influence students' likelihood of developing multicultural awareness and sensitivity in teacher education programmes, the authors explore the relationship between such dispositions as exhibited in students' autoethnographic work. In so doing, the authors posit that these dispositions may be hierarchically developed: beginning from ‘self-awareness/self-reflectiveness’; moving towards ‘openness’; and finally a ‘commitment to social justice’. After exploring the nature of this hierarchical development through the in-depth investigation of six representative student accounts, the paper concludes by discussing the implications for teacher education, including the necessity to adjust our expectations of changing the dispositions of pre-service teachers in discrete, short courses.     

The construction of parents and teachers as agents for the improvement of municipal schools in Chile

This article examines how teachers and parents in 10 municipal schools serving students growing up under conditions of social vulnerability represented themselves, and others, as valid agents for charting school improvement. In four schools parents and teachers saw each other as trustworthy and collaborating to provide an education that could transform students’ life chances. In the other six schools, social relations were marked by distrust, staff constructed students as lacking the resources necessary to benefit from a rigorous academic programme, and parents in leadership positions shared with teachers the belief that school failure could largely be attributed to uncommitted parents. These results suggest that the impact of quality assurance policies tends to be associated with the social capital of municipal schools, thus educational policy needs to consider developing and strengthening social capital within schools.     

A new tool for assessing maturity alignment: The enterprise maturity matrix

This article presents the enterprise maturity matrix, a new maturity model. Maturity misalignment is one of the major reasons that many change initiatives fail. Performance improvement professionals can use this matrix to diagnose the current internal state of the organization, articulate the desired future state, and coordinate change solutions. Maturity alignment indicates that an organization must implement the appropriate managerial and operational processes and systems in accordance with the desired maturity level.     

The emotions in teaching and learning nature sciences and physics/chemistry in pre-service primary teachers

A study was made of different emotions that prospective primary school teachers report with respect to science subjects, when they were pupils, and during their practice teaching, taking into account the variables gender and the speciality they studied in the secondary education. The study consisted of a questionnaire completed by 63 primary education students at the University of Extremadura, Spain. The results show a great difference between the emotions related to the subjects of physics/chemistry and the nature sciences （biology/geology）. The scientific subject influences the emotions of pre-service primary teachers, both in learning and teaching. In physics and chemistry, the emotions are mostly negative. While in nature sciences they are very positive. In nature sciences, there is a correlation between the emotions felt as secondary school pupils learning science and those they feel as teachers. In physics and chemistry, there is a correlation in the women between the emotions felt as secondary school pupils learning science and those they feel as teachers, but not in the men. The memory of their emotions in learning science at school is more negative than in teaching science during their teaching practice, except in nervousness in physics/chemistry. By gender, men declared a greater predilection for science content than women, with more of them describing such feelings as sympathy or confidence. The results highlight the influential role that emotions play throughout the professional growth of future primary teachers.