谁曾见过风？

谁曾见过风?你和我都不曾见过。但当树叶颤抖时,顿觉飘然风乍起。谁曾见过风?你和我都不曾见过。但当林木低头时,便是一阵风吹过。Who has seen the wind?Neither I nor you.But When the leaveshang trembling,The wind is passing through.Who has seen the wind?Neither you     

Preschool writing and premathematics predict Grade 3 achievement for low-income,ethnically diverse children

The present study was designed to explore the association between preschool academic skills and Grade 3 achievement among a sample of ethnically diverse children from low-income families. Data were collected from a sample of 1,442 low-income, ethnically diverse children in preschool and associated with Grade 3 achievement in reading and mathematics 4 years later. Mixed-effects modeling indicated that preschool skills significantly predicted Grade 3 achievement measures while controlling for various child-level factors and random school effects. While several preschool factors were predictive of Grade 3 achievement, writing/copying and counting/premathematics skills were consistently strong predictors of Grade 3 achievement across all measures and domains suggesting these are important foundational skills for academic success in midelementary school among low-income, ethnically diverse children. Findings also replicate studies demonstrating that writing plays an important role in learning and achievement. Findings have implications for early education policy and practice intended to support academic development among low-income, ethnically diverse children.     

Ahead of the pack? Explaining the unequal distribution of scholarships in Germany

This article investigates to what extent scholarships are unequally distributed among students in Germany and how these inequalities can be explained. Following sociological theory, the article argues that elites seek qualitative ways of distinguishing themselves in a mass higher education system. Using student surveys, we demonstrate that class effects cannot merely be explained with reference to class differences in academic achievement but that higher classes have better access to scholarships independent of earlier school performance. Class differences were particularly persistent when the intermediate classes were compared with higher classes with more education. These findings illustrate that social classes have different strategies when it comes to participating in higher education and suggest that information about and access to scholarships is important in gaining a class advantage.     

Propagation from the start: the spread of a concept-based instructional tool

We describe the propagation of a technology-based educational innovation through its first 3 years of public use. The innovation studied is the Concept Warehouse (CW), a database-driven website developed to support the use of concept-based pedagogies. This tool was initially developed for instructors in undergraduate chemical engineering courses, but has spread to other disciplines as well. In this time, it has grown to over 650 registered instructors representing over 170 institutions. While this study is specific to a particular case, the intent of this article is to provide an exemplar of real-time propagation that informs other researchers and developers. We frame our analysis with Diffusion of Innovation Theory and use a design research methodology that focuses on communication channels, types of knowledge, and stages of the innovation-decision process. Data sources include usage records and survey responses which are analyzed with network diagrams and non-parametric statistics. We find that in comparison to mass media, interpersonal communications tended to result in higher proportions of how-to knowledge and implementation. Three types of opinion leaders were identified through user data and network diagrams. All played critical roles in the tool’s propagation, especially the project collaborators—opinion leaders who actively promoted the CW, in part, because it also propagates their own innovations. Finally, users with self-identified prior principles knowledge showed statistically significantly greater progress in gaining how-to knowledge, but no significant difference in progressing to the implementation stage of the innovation-decision process when compared to users without.     

VIII. THE SITUATION FOR CHILDREN WITHOUT PARENTAL CARE AND STRATEGIES FOR POLICY CHANGE

Research that clearly demonstrates the negative effects of institutionalization, particularly for young children, has been critical for changing policy. However, actually putting science into action requires advocacy, persistence, and perseverance. Policy makers and advocates must be informed about the research and use it effectively. This paper proposes a number of key components for translating research into policy and programs: analyzing the situation, using evidence to build the case for action, developing policies, building program capacity in child welfare and early childhood development, creating a family‐based child welfare system, and developing a system of monitoring and accountability. Much of the knowledge in this paper comes from experiences, desk reviews, and case studies of successful practices. Research provides the basis, but moving research to practice depends on collaboration between researchers who understand the key policy perspectives and policy makers who understand the research.     

Future Sex Educator Perceptions of Rural Versus Urban Instruction: A Case for Community-Centered Sexual Health Education

Instructors of sexual health courses in rural areas face unique challenges as they are often forced to use school-based prevention curricula field-tested in urban areas. Research has yet to consider what future sex educators’ regional expectations are for their profession and how those expectations might have an impact on the classroom. Drawing from interviews with 26 sex-educators-in-training, we find that future educators tended to expect that rural communities would be less diverse, more conservative, and less informed about sexual health matters, even though research demonstrates that today's rural communities inconsistently align with those perceptions.     

Towards multidimensional approaches to early childhood science education

In this forum paper, I respond to issues raised by Kristina Andersson and Annica Gullberg in their article titled What is science in preschool and what do teachers have to know to empower children? (2012). I seek to continue the discussion begun with Andersson and Gullberg’s paper, by further exploring the questions they introduce to guide their paper: “What is science in preschool?” and “What do teachers have to know to empower children?” In particular, I elaborate on the value of drawing on multiple perspectives and different epistemological frameworks, and I argue for the need for a reconceptualized notion of science as a school discipline; one that acknowledges the multifaceted ways in which young children engage in science.     

Promoting Inquiry-Based Teaching in Laboratory Courses: Are We Meeting the Grade?

Over the past decade, repeated calls have been made to incorporate more active teaching and learning in undergraduate biology courses. The emphasis on inquiry-based teaching is especially important in laboratory courses, as these are the courses in which students are applying the process of science. To determine the current state of research on inquiry-based teaching in undergraduate biology laboratory courses, we reviewed the recent published literature on inquiry-based exercises. The majority of studies in our data set were in the subdisciplines of biochemistry, cell biology, developmental biology, genetics, and molecular biology. In addition, most exercises were guided inquiry, rather than open ended or research based. Almost 75% of the studies included assessment data, with two-thirds of these studies including multiple types of assessment data. However, few exercises were assessed in multiple courses or at multiple institutions. Furthermore, assessments were rarely based on published instruments. Although the results of the studies in our data set show a positive effect of inquiry-based teaching in biology laboratory courses on student learning gains, research that uses the same instrument across a range of courses and institutions is needed to determine whether these results can be generalized.     

Managing Patient-centered Communication across the Type 2 Diabetes Illness Trajectory: A Grounded Practical Theory of Interactional Sensitivity

This article uses the theoretical and methodological framework of Grounded Practical Theory (GPT) to provide a lens for analyzing and interpreting discourse as a situated form of social action in routine Type 2 diabetes visits. Drawing on a total data-set of 400 audio-recorded routine visits, we randomly selected 55 visits for qualitative analysis. In this article, we use Conversation Analysis to document communication techniques, which we in turn use as evidence to ground our claims within the GPT framework. We use two single cases of interaction to analyze communication techniques physicians use when recommending a change from oral medication to insulin. We argue treatment intensification is a key moment in health communication to reflect about patient centeredness because physicians can find themselves in an interactional dilemma: while insulin may effectively help control unstable disease, an insulin recommendation may simultaneously counter patient values and treatment preferences. Our analysis suggests that physicians use what we call interactional sensitivity to balance medical need and patient preferences when making medical decisions by tailoring their communication according to the local situation and the patient's larger illness trajectory. We propose that interactional sensitivity is a type of communication work and a quality of patient-centered communication characterized by the theoretical relationship between tailoring communication to the contingencies of the local interaction and the global illness trajectory. Overall, this article contributes to health communication scholarship by proposing a normative model for reflecting on how physicians negotiate challenging interactions with patients during routine chronic illness visits.