Early childhood special education pictorial literacy activities for young children with disabilities

Summary Alternative literacy activities can be adapted to complement the speech and language programs that have been developed to assist learners with disabilities. Pictorially based alternative literacy programs may involve rebus symbols, augmentative and alternative communication devices, or picture reading. Because these programs do not assume extensive language development, they can be appropriate for children with severe learning problems as a foundation or replacement for typical early reading activities.     

Primary School Teacher Training in the European Community: an overview of recent developments

The colleges of education for primary school teachers in The Netherlands have gone through several mergers in the space of just a few years. Many colleges of education became part of a polytechnic. The authors studied how the specific characteristics of the education of primary school teachers can show to full advantage in a large institute of higher vocational education. In the Dutch situation as well as that of the other countries of the European Community (England and the Federal Republic of Germany in particular) the phenomena ‘integration’ and ‘differentiation’ have been studied. The authors concluded that mergers of primary school teacher training colleges can be a serious threat to the educational identity of teacher training as a whole. Holding to as well as giving up the educational identity does not guarantee that the specific characteristics will be kept.     

Singing our song: the affordances of singing in an intergenerational,multimodal literacy programme

This exploratory case study examined the affordances of singing as a multimodal literacy practice within ensembles that featured art, singing and digital media produced in an intergenerational programme that served a class of kindergarten children and community elders. The programme that was set up by the study in collaboration with a rural school and elders' organisation saw participants meet one afternoon a week for most of a school year. Study questions concerned the meaning making and relationship‐building opportunities afforded to the participants as they worked through chains of multimodal projects. Data were collected using ethnographic tools in an elders' home where the projects were completed and in the kindergarten where project content and tools were introduced to the children and extended by the classroom teacher. Themes were identified through the juxtaposition of data in relation to the literature and study questions. Results indicate that singing provided opportunities for participants to form relationships and make meaning as a group while combining modes. Study findings foreground the communicative power of singing and suggest how singing, when viewed through a multimodal lens, might be a potent tool for multimodal literacy learning.     

Learning Styles Among Mature‐Age Students: Some Comments on the Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI‐S)

The short form of Entwistle's (1981) Approaches to Studying Inventory (ASI‐S) was administered to 503 mature‐aged students, most of whom identified themselves as disadvantaged and were returning to study after many years absence. Analysis of the 503 responses showed that internal consistency estimates for the seven subscales of the ASI‐S were generally low, but that confirmatory factor analysis could recover two major dimensions corresponding to deep and surface orientations to learning. To examine the predictive validity of the ASI‐S with this population, results for a mathematics unit which they were studying were regressed on factor scores. Results of the structural analysis indicated that the deep orientation was unrelated to academic progression in mathematics but that high scores on the surface orientation were associated with poor academic performance ( = 0.092). These findings indicate that broad learning orientations are fundamental and can be identified in a group of students returning to study after a long absence. The study also emphasises the importance of examining the particular study context when evaluating the effect of learning orientations. The effect of deep and surface orientations may be positive or negative depending on the subject area and the learning context.     

Scholarisation, apprenticeship and social differentiation. Analysis of the non-industrial craft sector in Morocco

The article approaches the question of the schooling processes in the particular environment of the Moroccan craftsmen of Fez. It shows that the weak schooling of the children is bound to the representations and to the ways of transmission of craft industry knowledge. Schooling is, indeed, the object of tensions between a school system of western inspiration and the Muslim system of transmitting patrimonial knowledge. The article shows then that schooling is integrated into craftsmen's ‘relationships with knowledge’ and ‘reasons of knowing’: because of historic development factors of the school system in Morocco, and of sociological factors of domination in the craftsmen's environment, schooling is not indeed legitimate for most craftsmen. It is not even always “possible”: in fact, social reproduction in craftsmen's environment is indeed, and because of the previous factors, based on holding positions bound to the mastery of the traditional knowledge and of the production market, rather than to the possession of school capital. On the other hand, schooling has gained strong legitimacy at a general society level, so that the craftsmen, and especially their children, are more and more the victims of social declassification.     

Selection as contract to teach at the student's level. Experiences from a South African mathematics and science foundation year

The selection of students is a critical issuecurrently facing South African higher educationinstitutions. The identification and selection ofdisadvantaged students with the potential to succeedin mathematics- and science-based study is aparticularly pressing problem. The new South Africanhigher education law requires that selection is donein a fair and transparent manner. Selection has to befollowed by adequate support for selected students tosucceed in their study programmes. Issues of accessare closely coupled to issues of retention andsuccess. The research results discussed in this paperillustrate how these issues can be successfullyaddressed and how selection fairness and effectivenessmay be optimised under the constraints of selectionefficiency. An optimal solution can be found bydeveloping test specifications and selection cut-offvalues based on the teaching programme for which theselection is done. The resulting close fit betweenselection testing and teaching after selection leadsto a reasonable expectation of success for selectedstudents in the study programme. Under suchconditions, selection can be seen as a contract toteach at the student's level.     

Librarians Before Congress: Advocacy and Identity

This article explores the connection between congressional testimony and political identity for libraries. Library testimony highlights the ways in which libraries are hybrid, public/private institutions. Thus in some areas (such as library funding or intellectual property), libraries are like private associations: They testify to protect interests that are library specific. In other areas (such as government information), libraries are more like governmental agencies: They testify as a partner and stakeholder in specific government programs, policies, and benefits. And in yet other areas (such as privacy), libraries are more like issue-oriented advocacy groups: They testify to engage their peers and patrons while organizing these constituencies to effectively advocate for public goods.     

Preparing children for reading

Most practical in a situation where one-to-one relationships thrive, this constructive method of preparing children for reading will be of special interest to family day care providers, caregivers in infant and other centers with low caregiver/child ratios, and parents.Gerard Giordano is Associate Professor of Reading Education and Coordinator of Reading Programs at New Mexico State University's College of Education. He can be reached at the College, Box 3AC, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88003.