Stability of performance on the PPVT-R for three ethnic groups attending a bilingual kindergarten

The degree of temporal stability of the PPVT-R was examined for Native American, Mexican-American, and Anglo-American kindergarten children. In addition, stability was examined for home language groups. The PPVT-R was administerd to 56 kindergarten children in September and May of the school year. Results indicated that strong temporal stability existed over an eight-month period for Native American, Mexican-American, and English-speaking kindergarten students.     

GIFTED EDUCATION IN JEWISH DAY SCHOOLS

Although there are many Jewish day schools within the United States, relatively few offer gifted programs. The schools that do offer programs differ from each other, offering various forms of enrichment. We discuss the exemplary standards for gifted programs established by the National Association for Gifted Children and illustrate how the standards could be applied to Jewish day schools. The information provided can be useful for decision making, implementing and improving gifted programs in Jewish day schools.     

The construction of word meaning in a multicultural classroom. Mediational tools in peer collaboration during mathematics lessons

In this article, we examine the construction of word meaning by students during collaborative activities in a multicultural classroom at a Dutch primary school. The analysis is based on recordings of student talk in small groups of four or five students during mathematics lessons. Difficulties with specific terms and expressions frequently arose during group work. Students could easily ask each other about the meaning of difficult words as a part of the collaborative activities they were accustomed to. In the groups with both Dutch and minority children, the minority students addressed their Dutch classmates as language experts. Conversations about language difficulties also occurred in the groups with only minority students. The conversations about word meaning revealed four patterns: (1) ignoring a question about the meaning of a word, (2) showing the meaning using gestures, (3) explaining, or (4) discussing word meaning. In none of the cases were the language problems solved by referring to the everyday meaning of the word. Instead, the conversations focussed directly on the specialised meaning which the word had in the context of the mathematics lesson. This means that the children used the mathematical discourse as a mediational tool for constructing a mathematical meaning of the words.     

第13届国际ISSI大会论文投稿、评审及录用分析

 第13届国际科学计量学与信息计量学大会（ISSI 大会）于2011年7月4日-7日在南非德班召开。作为大会议程主席和理论专题主席,本文作者介绍了大会论文征文和投稿的内容及形式,展示了论文评审机制与评价指标,并对提交论文、录用论文及评审专家的国别分布做了分析。中国是提交全文和研究进展论文最多的国家,作者总频次居各国之首,但论文录用率较低。中国也是提交墙展论文最多的国家,显示了中国学者参加国际ISSI大会的热情。由来自25个国家95名成员组成的大会科学委员会中只有一名中国委员,这提示我们中国学者应该更积极地参与国际会议的学术和组织工作。论文最后讨论了中国学者投稿国际ISSI大会,走上国际论坛的几个问题。