Spanish-Speaking Children's Social and Language Development in Pre-Kindergarten Classrooms

The current study examined the social and language development of 345 Spanish-speaking pre-kindergartners who attended pre-kindergarten programs that varied widely in how much Spanish was spoken in the classroom by the teacher. Previous studies on English language learners have focused on how the language of instruction impacts children's language proficiency, ignoring the context in which children are learning. The current study found better social skills and closer teacher—child relationships in classrooms where teachers spoke some Spanish. Teacher ratings of children's peer social skills and assertiveness were positively associated with increased amounts of Spanish being spoken. More Spanish language use in the classroom was also related to a decrease in children's likelihood of being victims of aggression as rated by independent observers. The findings have implications for better understanding how policy decisions regarding language of instruction impact children in the social domain. As early education programs are faced with the challenging task of developing best practices for English language learners, it is essential that programs are attentive to the social implications of language.     

Literacy skills in children and adolescents with Down syndrome

Research has found that many children andadolescents with Down syndrome acquire somelevel of reading ability. Studies to date havedocumented that cognition, language, andphonological awareness contribute tovariability observed in performance onconventional literacy measures for thispopulation, although the extent of relativecontributions varies among studies. Less isknown about the relationship of early literacyskills to conventional reading, or howrelationships among variables that supportliteracy acquisition are similar or differentfrom those observed in typically developingchildren. In this project, cognition,language, early literacy, phonologicalawareness and reading skills were examined in agroup of children and adolescents with Downsyndrome (aged 5;06 to 17;03) and a group oftypically developing children (aged 3;06 to5;03) matched for nonverbal cognition. Resultsrevealed broad variability in performance onearly literacy and reading measures in personswith Down syndrome. Comparisons with mental age-matchedchildren indicated differences in the relativecontribution of language and cognition toreading ability, with language being a strongerpredictor in the group with Down syndrome.     

Parental Conceptions of School Readiness: Relation to Ethnicity,Socioeconomic Status,and Children's Skills

Research Findings: This study analyzed the school readiness beliefs of parents of 452 children from public pre-kindergarten and the relations of these beliefs to socioeconomic status and children's readiness skills. Parents conceived readiness largely in terms of the ability to name objects, letters, or numbers, but few included inferential skills. Readiness beliefs were related not to socioeconomic status but to ethnicity. Readiness beliefs about the importance of independence, social competence, nominal knowledge, and inferential skills were related in expected ways to children's skills. Practice or Policy: Infrequent inclusion of inferential skills among parents' readiness beliefs may not bode well for children. Informational programs for parents about the critical role of higher order cognitive skills and ways to promote them are needed.     

Emerging issues concerning the future directions of Australian senior science education: The Queensland experience

Australia's changing political, social and economic agendas have triggered a critical analysis of school curriculum. Part of this consideration has been concern over the future of science education within the context of senior schooling. Following the completion of the Senior Science Future Directions Project commissioned by the Queensland Board of Senior Secondary School Studies, fifteen issues were identified. These issues, grouped by the needs of the science disciplines, society and the individual student, are discussed with the view of understanding the future design of senior science syllabuses. Specializations: biology teacher education, science curriculum development. Specializations: professional development, curriculum design and evaluation. Specializations: professional development, science teaching.     

Infants' Responses to Facial and Vocal Emotional Signals in a Social Referencing Paradigm

The independent effects of facial and vocal emotional signals and of positive and negative signals on infant behavior were investigated in a novel toy social referencing paradigm. 90 12-month-old infants and their mothers were assigned to an expression condition (neutral, happy, or fear) nested within a modality condition (face-only or voice-only). Each infant participated in 3 trials: a baseline trial, an expression trial, and a final positive trial. We found that fearful vocal emotional signals, when presented without facial signals, were sufficient to elicit appropriate behavior regulation. Infants in the fear-voice condition looked at their mothers longer, showed less toy proximity, and tended to show more negative affect than infants in the neutral-voice condition. Happy vocal signals did not elicit differential responding. The infants' sex was a factor in the few effects that were found for infants' responses to facial emotional signals.     

Developing a Cancer-Focused Library Survey — Assessing the Current Environment and Planning for the Future

The primary goal of this project is to understand how each National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center library, and all libraries that support cancer research, function within their institutions. Through an in-depth survey focused on three major areas (staff, content and tools procurement, and user services), the research team hopes to determine how a cancer-centric library can be successful in supporting quality patient care, research excellence, and education. Additionally, the survey will examine the necessary minimum staffing levels for librarians and information professionals based on organizational size and degree of research focus. The survey will seek out the new skills librarians will need to deliver optimal services. The survey will also explore how content libraries purchase reflects and maps to constituents’ current medical and research activities. Libraries within a research intense environment have a responsibility to align with researchers and health care professionals to provide resources and services that support their workflows. Cancer libraries need to be attuned to their institutions’ missions, whether that includes excellent patient care, research endeavors, or cutting-edge educational programs. The information gathered from the survey will provide data for this research team to define the vision and standards of excellence for a cancer specialized research library.     

Scaling Up the TREC Collection

Due to the popularity of Web search engines, a large proportion of real text retrieval queries are now processed over collections measured in tens or hundreds of gigabytes. A new Very Large test Collection (VLC) has been created to support qualification, measurement and comparison of systems operating at this level and to permit the study of the properties of very large collections. The VLC is an extension of the well-known TREC collection and has been distributed under the same conditions. A simple set of efficiency and effectiveness measures have been defined to encourage comparability of reporting. The 20 gigabyte first-edition of the VLC and a representative 10% sample have been used in a special interest track of the 1997 Text Retrieval Conference (TREC-6). The unaffordable cost of obtaining complete relevance assessments over collections of this scale is avoided by concentrating on early precision and relying on the core TREC collection to support detailed effectiveness studies. Results obtained by TREC-6 VLC track participants are presented here. All groups observed a significant increase in early precision as collection size increased. Explanatory hypotheses are advanced for future empirical testing. A 100 gigabyte second edition VLC (VLC2) has recently been compiled and distributed for use in TREC-7 in 1998.     

Teacher perceptions of integrating technology in writing

With increasing emphasis by policymakers, there has been an increase in access to technology within schools across the globe. However, recent survey findings suggest that teachers may not be integrating technology into their writing instruction in meaningful and effective ways. Variability in technology integration can be attributed to teacher attitudes about technology. This study seeks to understand teacher attitudes and perceptions regarding writing instruction and use of technology. Interviews of 47 middle school teachers revealed that most teachers considered themselves to be technology users who perceived their students’ writing skills to be deficient, yet spent little time on writing instruction in content areas. Teachers indicated that barriers to using technology included that it was too time-consuming; they had limited access; and they perceived access to be a competition. However, teachers revealed that technology was positive for students with disabilities, differentiating instruction, and providing twenty-first-century learning opportunities. These findings suggest that teacher attitudes and perceptions play an important role in technology integration. In addition to increased access to technology, school divisions should provide pre-service and in-service training and time for reflection so that teacher attitudes that impede technology integration can be positively manipulated to improve technology integration in the classroom.