Early years education in Germany and Ireland — a study of provision and curricular implementation in two unique environments

This paper highlights the differences and similarities between a Kindergarten outside Bremen in Lower Saxony, Germany and a Primary School Junior Infant Class in County Cork, Republic of Ireland. Both are concerned with the education of the young child but whereas the Kindergarten is attended by three to six year olds, the Junior Infant Class caters almost exclusively for four to five year old children.

A case study account of both groups is given and an analysis of the activities which took place in each using the ‘Target Child Observational Schedule’ [Sylva et al., (1980)] is presented in bar‐graph form.

The paper concludes that Erzieherinnen, Kinderpflegerinnen and Junior Infant Class teachers need to engage in more interaction with the children in order, in particular, to raise the frequency and quality of linguistic interaction. An increase in the structure of the children's play would help to enhance cognitive development.     

In practice—Distance learners: Welcome to campus!

When Old Dominion University created a summer institute to allow adult distance learning students to enroll in accelerated on‐campus courses, typical college transition issues were, at first, left off the schedule. Over the years, the institute has evolved to provide these students with the same kind of personal and academic support needed by their traditional‐age peers.     

Microanalysis of variable-interval performance during stimulus compounding

Additive summation is observed when more responses are emitted to the simultaneous presentation (tone-plus-light) of independently conditioned stimuli (tone and light) than to either stimulus presented alone. The current experiment sought to determine if this increased rate during tone-plus-light was a function of a new modal interresponse time (IRT) or a differential mixing of pauses with a modal IRT characteristic of the responding in tone and light alone. Three rats were trained on a three-component multiple schedule where tone and light were each associated with a variable-interval 30-sec schedule while a variable-interval 100-sec operated in the simultaneous absence of these stimuli, tone-off and light-out. Baseline response rates were 2–4 times as high in tone or light as in their absence. In testing, more responses were emitted to tone-plus-light than to tone or light by all animals, but the modal IRT was in the 0.2–0.4-sec IRT bin for all test conditions. Tone-plus-light controlled fewer long IRT values and more responses in the short modal category than tone or light alone. These results support the response mixing hypothesis of stimulus control; i.e., no “new” behavior was observed during the novel combination of stimulus elements, only a mixture of previously reinforced behavior patterns in different proportions.     

Urban teachers’ implementation of SRSD for persuasive writing following practice-based professional development: positive effects mediated by compromised fidelity

Reading and Writing - Writing allows access to venues often limited by poverty, disabilities, and geography. Promoting writing skills can create bridges to overcome the isolation that often keeps...     

The Conceptualization and Development of the Practical Epistemology in Science Survey (PESS)

Research in Science Education - Various inquiry approaches have been promoted in science classrooms as a way for students to engage in, and have a deeper understanding of scientific discourse....     

Building Better Communities for Children: Community Implementation and Evaluation of the Australian Early Development Index

Since 2004 the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) has been completed in 54 Australian communities over seven states and territories on more than 30,000 children. A concurrent systematic evaluation of community implementation and use of the AEDI was undertaken that included both a process and impact component. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the evaluation findings between 2004 and 2006. Results have shown there are a number of barriers and facilitators for communities in implementing the AEDI, disseminating results, and planning for community actions. The evaluation findings indicate AEDI implementation helps raise awareness of the importance of early childhood development, assists communities to work more collaboratively and to strategically plan actions to work towards improving outcomes for children.     

Institutional and departmental satisfaction of women faculty

Using the exploratory data analysis method of median polishing, this study examined the institutional and departmental satisfaction of women who relatively recently entered the academic profession. Results indicated that women's satisfaction with both department and institution differed by institutional type (Carnegie classifications) and discipline type (pure versus applied). Women in applied fields in Research II and Doctoral-Granting II institutions were much less satisfied with both their departments and their institutions than would be expected given their institutional and discipline types. Similarly, the institutional satisfaction of those women at Research I institutions and the departmental satisfaction of women in pure fields at Doctoral-Granting I's was lower than would be expected. Higher levels of departmental satisfaction were shown by women in pure fields at Liberal Arts I institutions.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, St. Louis, November 1988.