Moving between literacy theory and practice with preservice teachers: Listening to their voices

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate two research questions: What literacy learning did preservice teachers experience through a Penpal Project embedded in an early literacy course? What sense did preservice teachers make of the Penpal Project?—with an overarching focus on bridging literacy theory with practice.

Data were gathered in a university classroom setting, situated in a small Western town, over a period of one school semester. Data methods and sources included videotaped participant observation during weekly penpal letter‐sharing, preservice teachers’ reflection journals, focus group interviews, and preservice teachers’ Penpal Project Summaries.

Patterns emerged from the data and were conceptualized under three broad categories: discourse, discovery and dilemmas. In the discourse category, cultivating relationships and learning through collaboration emerged as themes. Discoveries included meaning‐ and skill‐centered interpretations and professional learning. With regard to dilemmas, preservice teachers reported feelings of inadequacy in decoding their penpals’ letters, in finding topics to pique their penpals’ interests, and in making logical speculations.

Conclusions highlighted the importance of including field experiences in teacher education courses in order for preservice teachers to integrate early literacy theory and practice. A focus on forming relationships, working in collaboration with others, and acknowledging and solving challenges revealed added benefits for the preservice teachers, including a deeper understanding of young students’ early literacy development.     

Continuity of Care,Professional Community,and the Policy Context: Potential Benefits for Infant and Toddler Teachers' Professional Development

Practice or Policy: Continuity of care (COC) has many benefits for young children's development but is not the norm in infant/toddler classrooms. As a consequence, policymakers might not realize how such an approach might also benefit the professional development of infant and toddler teachers, particularly if they come to the field with little formal training. Although the supports and policies available to military child development centers may not be possible to implement at present in much of the civilian sector, this study suggests that their potential benefit for infant/toddler teachers' learning and practice may be worthy of further inquiry. Research Findings: This study shares the results of an exploratory study of the benefits of COC, professional community, and the larger policy context for staff working in a military child development center serving children aged 0 to 2. COC-related professional development also seems to enhance professional community, which along with the policy context is viewed as an essential aspect of improving teacher learning and practice in the K–12 literature.     

Development of an Evaluation Model for an Introductory Module on Social Medicine

Evaluation of educational programmes is an essential component of the teaching-learning process. Therefore, efficient and effective ways of evaluating programmes or their components need to be identified. In this paper a focus group approach to evaluation is compared with a written format in relation to the time, quality and nature of feedback obtained from participants. The focus group required significantly less student and faculty time than the written evaluation approach. The focus group also yielded specific and therefore useful information in terms of module development compared with the written evaluations even though the overall impression of the students' experiences of the module as reflected in the written evaluations were more positive.     

Why Are You Saying That? Increases in Gaze Duration as Responses to Group Member Dissent

The present study investigated students’ eye gaze while reacting to dissenting peers in groups. We measured the duration of gaze toward a confederate who disagreed with either a prevailing idea around which the group was coalescing or the process by which the group was solving a problem. Results indicated that participants gazed at dissenting confederates longer than at confederates in control groups. Qualitative analysis suggested that participants seemed to use eye gaze to understand the confederate, to prompt the confederate to contribute to discussions, to ease tensions, and to process information relative to the group’s task. Results provide an expanded look at how group members respond to dissenters, how conflict operates in some student groups, and how group members may differentiate acceptable and unacceptable disagreement.     

Lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender college students with disabilities: A look at multiple cultural minorities

College students with disabilities who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) represent diverse cultural minorities with multiple service needs involving disabilities, identities, and adjustment strategies. These students are usually accommodated in the college environment because of their disability while simultaneously marginalized based on their sexual orientation. This article discusses LGBT college students with disabilities as multiple cultural minorities with a focus on educational environments, institutional issues, and strategies for university personnel. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Importance of Making the Well-Being of Children in Poverty a Priority

Hurricane Katrina exposed to the world the side of America that is often ignored or forgotten—the side of America where people live in poverty and struggle to meet their most basic needs. This article focuses primarily on children in Mississippi and highlights the effect that poverty has on children’s well-being at an early age and future academic success. It also provides evidence for the importance of funding high-quality pre-k programs and parental training to ensure they begin the process of preparing their children for success, not only in Mississippi but in the other states that are leaving their children behind. Finally, with the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind in 2007, recommendations are made for refocusing the premise of the law from accountability and high stakes testing to meeting the needs of all children so they can truly be successful in school.     

Hermeneutics,underdetermination and quantum mechanics

There exists an essential underdetermination in the interpretation of the formalism of quantum mechanics and this extends even to the question of whether or not physical phenomena at the most fundamental level are irreducibly and ineliminably indeterministic or absolutely deterministic. This is true in spite of the widespread belief that logic and empirical considerations alone demand an indeterministic world view in physics. This lends support to Martin Eger's analysis of a role for hermeneutics in science education.     

Young children teach themselves to read and write

Too often young children are hurried into formal academic tasks before they are ready. This push for abstract reading and writing skills in early childhood settings can actually inhibit young children's language development. However, teachers who allow children to naturally acquire reading and writing provide a print-rich environment that encourages experimentation with language.     

Helping hospitals change: part 2: childbirth education techniques to empower women

As the director of patient-care services for maternal-child health and clinical practice at two large, metropolitan hospitals, the author of this article outlines ways in which childbirth educators can empower women to receive the birth experience they want. Techniques include offering a special prepregnancy class, helping expectant women to formulate questions for their care providers, and encouraging women to express their perceptions of their birth experience by responding to their hospital's patient-satisfaction survey, writing letters, or nominating mother- and baby-friendly nurses for special recognition.     

Suicide intervention: Training,roles, and knowledge of school psychologists

Practitioner‐members of the National Association of School Psychologists (N = 162) completed questionnaires regarding their suicide prevention and postvention roles, training, preparedness, and knowledge. Most were crisis team members, yet less than one‐half reported graduate training in suicide risk assessment and less than one‐fourth in postvention. Compared to nondoctoral‐level practitioners, doctoral‐trained practitioners felt better prepared to handle suicidal students. Most respondents had participated in a suicide risk assessment in the past 2 years, with few using standardized measures. Performance was moderately strong on questions about knowledge of risk factors, warning signs, and appropriate steps to respond to a suicidal student, but respondents showed less familiarity with postvention recommendations intended to discourage contagion. Training suggestions were identified. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 157–170, 2007.