The effects of phonological and morphological training on speech perception scores and grammatical judgments in deaf and hard-of-hearing children

Seventeen primary school deaf and hard-of-hearing children were given two types of training for 9 weeks each. Phonological training involved practice of /s, z, t, d/ in word final position in monomorphemic words. Morphological training involved learning and practicing the rules for forming third-person singular, present tense, past tense, and plurals. The words used in the two training types were different (monomorphemic or polymorphemic) but both involved word final /s, z, t, d/. Grammatical judgments were tested before and after training using short sentences that were read aloud by the child (or by the presenter if the child was unable to read them). Perception was tested with 150 key words in sentences using the trained morphemes and phonemes in word final position. Grammatical judgments for sentences involving the trained morphemes improved significantly after each type of training. Both types of training needed to be completed before a significant improvement was found for speech perception scores. The results suggest that both phonological and morphological training are beneficial in improving speech perception and grammatical performance of deaf and hard-of-hearing children and that both types of training were required to obtain the maximum benefit.     

Peepo ergo sum? Anxiety and pastiche in the Ahlbergs' picture books

Originally a psychologist, Catherine Stephens has since been a teacher of English in both Britain and Zimbabwe. She is currently involved in training teachers of English to speakers of other languages at the University of Nottingham.     

Effectiveness of Parent–Child Number Board Game Playing in Promoting Chinese Kindergarteners’ Numeracy Skills and Mathematics Interest

Research Findings: In Study 1, we observed 32 Chinese kindergarteners playing a number board game with their caregivers in dyads. Number board game playing provided important opportunities for kindergarteners and their caregivers to talk about an array of number concepts, but their numeracy-related exchanges rarely went beyond counting. In Study 2, 88 Chinese kindergarteners and their parents were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups, namely, the game with parent training group, the game without parent training group, the exercise book group, and the control group. After a 4-week intervention, kindergarteners in the 3 treatment groups who began as relatively unskilled in numeracy showed comparable improvement in 3 numeracy tasks, and the effect sizes were often larger in the game with parent training group than in the game without parent training group. Moreover, kindergarteners in the 2 game groups tended to show relatively heightened mathematics interest. Practice or Policy: Findings of these 2 studies suggest that number board game playing has the potential benefit of promoting kindergarteners’ numeracy competence and mathematics interest. Training of parents might even optimize kindergarten children’s gains from parent–child number board game playing.     

Emotion in online college classrooms: examining the influence of perceived teacher communication behaviour on students’ emotional experiences

This research focused on teacher communication behaviour as an influential factor in students’ educational experiences. This study examined students’ perceptions of emotion (involving teachers’ emotional support, students’ emotional work and students’ positive emotional valence toward class and teacher) as influenced by a variety of predicting variables: perceptions of teacher affinity-seeking as well as teachers’ positive behaviour alteration techniques, verbal immediacy and teacher online presence (involving the three factors of instructional design, organisation facilitating discourse and direct instruction). Relying on survey data collected from undergraduate and graduate students across disciplines enrolled in course offerings at a large public university, quantitative analysis examined relationships among existing factors previously studied in educational and communication research. Although this study uncovered multiple significant relationships between variables in the data set, students’ perceptions of their teachers’ verbal immediacy and presence in their instructional design were found to be most predictive relative to students’ emotions in online classrooms. Ultimately this project addresses and emphasises the need to more fully examine students’ emotions and related social experiences with virtual teachers and course content in higher education.     

The Development and Implementation of a Faculty–Student Collaborative Research Project

Criminal Justice faculty collaborated with undergraduate and graduate students to evaluate federal probation officers’ use of evidence-based skills following the implementation of a new training program designed to improve officer supervision skills and offender outcomes. The project resulted in the coding of over 100 audio recordings of actual officer–offender interactions based upon a developed assessment instrument. Overall, officers demonstrated high levels of adherence to training program skills. This article describes the process used to form a faculty–student collaborative research project and the benefits, challenges, and recommendations for similar projects at other institutions.     

Confronting assumptions,biases, and stereotypes in preservice teachers' conceptualizations of science teaching through the use of book club

This study focuses on the structure and theoretical foundations of the book club for promoting multicultural understandings in science teacher education. The book club was defined as an informal, peer‐directed group discussion that met regularly to discuss an ethnographic, multicultural text regarding issues pertinent to science teaching and learning in urban classrooms. Twenty‐three preservice teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a 16‐week elementary science methods course at a large urban university participated in the study. From the qualitative analyses of PSTs' written reflections and researcher journal notes, five themes which emphasize Individual, Collaborative, and Collective learning are presented. These findings highlight how the book club structure and theoretical foundation fostered critical, reflective inquiry and served as a method for effecting ideological change which is needed in order to embrace issues of diversity in urban science education. Implications for science teacher education concerning the relevancy of pedagogical strategies, the use of multiple theoretical perspectives, and the book club as a strategy in teacher education and urban education are discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 1041–1066, 2009