Does blended instruction enhance English language learning in developing countries? Evidence from Mexico

Despite steady investment in English language education made by developing countries over the past few decades, results continue to be constrained by lack of high-quality instructors and language learning resources. Thus, using technology in language instruction has increasingly been recognized as a potential approach for addressing these constraints. This study uses administrative data from a large public university in Mexico to examine the impact of a technology-enhanced blended program on students' English course grades and course completion rates. Specifically, we focus on a campus-wide policy change in all compulsory English language courses that replaces half of the traditional face-to-face class time with an interactive online learning environment developed by a leading technology-mediated English language learning and assessment provider. Our results suggest that, compared to traditional face-to-face instruction, blended learning had a significant, positive impact on students' course grades and course completion rates. In addition, the enrollment-teacher ratio increased after replacing half of the face-to-face instructional time with online learning, suggesting that blended learning environments hold promise for providing high-quality and cost-effective language instruction.     

The librarian as consultant and educator for personal file management software.

Librarians are encouraged to extend their information managing skills to include familiarity with personal file management software. Knowledge of automated solutions to overgrown manual reprint files can be valuable to the institution that a librarian serves. The capabilities of REFERENCE MANAGER, PRO-CITE, ASKSAM, and SCI-MATE are compared in a series of classes given for faculty and staff by the Medical College of Wisconsin Libraries reference staff.     

Tears,laughter, anxiety,and awe: The first day of kindergarten

Few events can compare with the magnitude and the impact of the first day of school for a five-year-old child. And for the principal players—the teachers and the students—it is an experience that lasts forever. He is also a free-lance writer with more than fifty articles and books published.     

I Give Civil Rights Four Stars

Three recent Hollywood films, The Help (2011), Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013) and Selma (2014), drew attention for depicting the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. While Hollywood has been scrutinized for its role in racial discourse, less attention has been paid to how film critics discuss race in their reviews. This paper examines the critical response to these films, with an emphasis on the reviewers’ reliance on memory and history in forming their opinions. A textual analysis found that critics were reverential toward the movement and the black experience but still distrustful of the Hollywood system doing a credible job in explaining or understanding the events. The reviewers shaped and shared a memory of nightmarish race relations and prescribed corrections for both Hollywood and America. These reviews illustrate that film critics see themselves as arbiters not only of taste but also of history.     

Mapping next generation learning spaces as a designed quality enhancement process

The learning spaces of higher education are changing with collaborative, agile and technology-enabled spaces ever more popular. Despite the massive investment required to create these new spaces, current quality systems are poorly placed to account for the value they create. Such learning spaces are typically popular with students but the impact they have on learning outcomes is difficult to capture. Taking a design-research approach, this paper presents a way of assessing the value of learning spaces in context through systematically mapping the expectations reified in their designs. While presenting a series of specific tools that support this mapping exercise, this paper also contributes to a larger conversation about the sorts of tools and processes the academic community might use in accounting for the quality of its work.     

Intercultural education and curricular diversification: the case of the Ecuadorian Intercultural Bilingual Education Model (MOSEIB)

Thirteen Ecuadorian indigenous nationalities follow the Intercultural Bilingual Education Model in Ecuador (MOSEIB). This paper analyses the present situation of MOSEIB, the challenges to it and future prospects. First, in order to understand how MOSEIB today has relieved the intercultural tensions of the past it is necessary to look at the history of Ecuadorian education. Second, in order to explore the particular characteristics of the MOSEIB model and the challenges of implementing intercultural education in non‐intercultural societies we ask how and to what extent the intercultural education policies and practices in Ecuador differ from those developed in other Latin‐American countries. Third, we consider curricular diversity, seeking to clarify how the MOSEIB curricula relate to the reality of the Kichwa indigenous nationality and its communal environment, rituals and agricultural schedules. We conclude with comments on future prospects and remaining challenges to the establishment of a truly intercultural society inside a multicultural country.     

The influence of social identity on self-worth,commitment, and effort in school-based youth sport

???The current study examined the influence of social identity for individual perceptions of self-worth, commitment, and effort in school-based youth athletes. Using a prospective research design, 303 athletes (M_age = 14.89, SD = 1.77; 133 female) from 27 sport teams completed questionnaires at 2 time points (T1 – demographics, social identity; T2 – self-worth, commitment, effort) during an athletic season. Multilevel analyses indicated that at the individual level, the social identity dimension of in-group ties (IGT) predicted commitment (b = 0.12, P = .006) and perceived effort (b = 0.14, P = .008), whereas in-group affect (IGA) predicted commitment (b = 0.25, P = .001) and self-worth (b = 2.62, P = .006). At the team level, means for IGT predicted commitment (b = 0.31, P < .001) and self-worth (b = 4.76, P = .024). Overall, social identity accounted for variance at both levels, ranging from 4% (self-worth) to 15% (commitment). Identifying with a group to a greater extent was found to predict athlete perceptions of self-worth, commitment, and effort. More specifically, at the individual level, IGT predicted commitment and effort, and IGA predicted commitment and self-worth. At the team level, IGT predicted commitment and self-worth.