Measuring Jews in Motion

Jewish educators are expected not only to imbue their students with Jewish knowledge but with Jewish feelings and Jewish actions as well—in short, with Jewish identity. However, in spite of a growing understanding among researchers that identity is fluid and dynamic, many of the traditional methods for assessing Jewish identity reflect essentialist concepts of identity that assume Jews and their Jewishness remain unchanging across various contexts. Our intention in this article is to review briefly some of the ways in which traditional methods of studying Jewish identity reveal problematic conceptualizations, and to suggest an alternative that seems to us more in keeping with constructivist concepts of identity.     

Assessment of Early Developing Phonological Awareness Skills: A Comparison of the Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK

Research Findings: Assessing the development of early literacy skills is necessary in order to identify children with delays, provide appropriate intervention, and monitor progress. The purpose of the current study was to compare the data obtained from 2 curriculum-based assessments of phonological awareness skills in a sample of low-income, urban preschoolers. Participants included 227 children from Head Start and other community-based preschool classrooms located in a midwestern city. The Preschool Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDIs) and the Phonological Awareness and Literacy Screening–PreK (PALS-PreK) were administered in the fall and spring of the year. Results suggested that the PALS-PreK was more advantageous than the IGDIs in terms of providing meaningful data for this group of children. The IGDIs appeared to be more appropriate for developmentally advanced preschoolers in this population. Practice or Policy: There remains a critical need for assessments of emergent literacy that are appropriate for diverse groups of preschool children and can feasibly be used for monitoring development.     

Classroom behaviour management content in Australian undergraduate primary teaching programmes

The ability to differentiate classroom behaviour management (CBM) strategies is an important skill for novice teachers in increasingly diverse classrooms. Worldwide, little is known about the curriculum content offered to pre-service teachers in the area of CBM. This article reports the findings from the first nationwide survey of Australian primary pre-service teacher educators coordinating units and programmes with CBM content. Twenty-five Australian tertiary institutions with primary programmes participated, providing information on 102 of the 118 units with CBM content. Stand-alone units were offered in 68% of programmes and embedded in 96% of programmes. Unit coordinators included a mean of 8.3 approaches/models per unit. They commonly included applied behaviour analysis, decisive discipline, positive behaviour intervention and support, and choice theory/reality therapy, among the 36 approaches/models listed. More than half (57.9%) of the stand-alone units and only 20% of embedded units were coordinated by an academic with a stated CBM research interests. Units coordinated by an academic with CBM research interests contained more hours/model and included research-based models more often than those without CBM research interests, although they still included non-research-based models.     

Student veterans in the academic library

Enrollment increases in the number of veterans returning from service in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars offer an opportunity for academic librarians to craft outreach programs that address their unique needs as they transition from military to academic life. Library information and research services can be highlighted and integrated into the support services for student veterans already in place at most academic institutions. This article provides a case study of the design and development of services and facilities to support student veterans, and it describes the evolution of library outreach to student veterans through direct campus collaborations.     

How day of posting affects level of critical discourse in asynchronous discussions and computer-supported collaborative argumentation

In asynchronous threaded discussions, messages posted near the end of the week provide less time for students to critically examine and respond to ideas presented in the messages than messages posted early in the week. This study examined how the day in which messages are posted (early, midweek and weekend) in computer-supported collaborative argumentation affect the number of responses elicited by arguments and challenges, and how its effects differ across the four types of exchanges (argument–challenge, challenge–counterchallenge, challenge–explain, challenge–evidence) that serve as indicators of critical discourse. This study found that the day of posting had a significant effect on the number of responses elicited per message, with the greatest to smallest effect on argument–challenge, challenge–counterchallenge, challenge–explain and challenge–evidence exchanges respectively. These findings highlight some of the limitations of asynchronous discussions, and suggest alternative ways to implement and design discussion environments to promote higher levels of critical discourse.     

The impact of early reading interventions delivered by classroom assistants on attainment at the end of Year 2

Previous research has shown that training teaching assistants to deliver early phonic reading interventions can have measurable effects at immediate post‐test. This study explored whether the effects of interventions delivered by classroom assistants (CAs) were still evident at the end of the first phase of schooling, 16 months after the early intervention finished. Children were divided into ‘treatment responder’ and ‘treatment non‐responder’ groups based upon post‐test decoding skills. The treatment responder group was significantly more likely to achieve average results in nationally administered tests (end of Key Stage 1 tests) and teacher ratings of attainment than the treatment non‐responders. Treatment responders were indistinguishable from national averages on the mathematics test, writing test and reading task performance, but differed on reading comprehension test and on teacher‐assessed attainment. Gains in reading delivered following early phonic reading interventions delivered by CAs are maintained for many children. Non‐responders and treatment responders with only modest decoding skill may require additional support to achieve national targets in literacy.     

Good Chinese Girls and the Model Minority: Race,Education, and Community in Girl in Translation and Front Desk

Children's Literature in Education - The girl protagonists in Jean Kwok’s Girl in Translation and Kelly Yang’s Front Desk embody and reinterpret the notion of guai (loosely...     

Models of influence on mathematics instructional coaches

In our study, we examine the factors influencing the implementation of a mathematics coaching initiative at four high schools including the assets an instructional coach brings to the position and the challenges unique to each school. In our case study we include data collected in individual interviews with instructional coaches, focus groups with Algebra I teams, and coaching logs. Four models of coaching behavior emerged from the data collected in the study: coach as facilitator, coach as mediator, coach as dictator, and coach as victim. No role was associated exclusively with any particular instructional coach. However, which role the coach assumed hinged on one or more factors: the coach’s leadership style, the context in which the coach served, and the dynamics of the situation.