Early Experiences Matter: A Relationships-Based Curriculum for the Birth-to-Three Age Group

The paper discusses some research findings in Singapore that investigated if a relationships-based curriculum extended the active involvement of the infants, toddlers, and young children (up to the age of three) in their learning. Using a relationships-based curriculum, a study conducted over a year involved the use of a well-tested, traditional before-and-after methodology to find out if any change had occurred in the phenomenon under study between two points in time. A sample of 58 infants, toddlers and young children (up to the age of three) in an experimental cohort and 59 of comparable ages in a control cohort, were measured using the Laevers’ Active Involvement scale before and after a curriculum intervention. The results showed that there was a statistically significant improvement in the active involvement of the children in the experimental cohort as compared to no improvement in the control cohort. It is proposed that the relationships-based approach has the potential to raise the quality of curriculum and could be considered for application in child care centres in other countries.     

Towards the Development of Valid (Additional) Selection Instruments for Pre-Service Teacher Education

The search for valid selection instruments to act as a screen for potential teachers is not a new concern. In the past, the concern was not matched by resources diverted to their development or by an adequate fund of knowledge and skill necessary for developing such instruments. Also conventional wisdom has it that the traditional criteria of teacher selection based on levels of educational attainment would be adequate to ensure that candidates selected for teacher education would be able to measure up to the demands of the teaching task.     

Instructional Research in Reading Comprehension: a Preliminary Observation Study of Reading Comprehension Classes Taught by IE Student Teachers

Developments in reading research in the last two decades have led to a fuller understanding of the reading process and enabled researchers and practitioners to address the issue of how to improve the teaching of reading comprehension. This paper reviews some of the studies in general classroom instructional research and reading comprehension instruction. It then reports an observation study of reading comprehension instruction carried out by IE student teachers. The findings of the study are discussed in the light of similar studies reviewed in the earlier section of the paper, and implications for classroom practice and further research are suggested.     

Patriotism and National Education: Perceptions of trainee teachers in Singapore

The effective teaching of national education requires from the teacher a sense of commitment and personal conviction. The teacher has to demonstrate confidence in what is said and taught in class and, more importantly, through his or her personal values and convictions. In other words, the teacher is required to be patriotic. This paper examines the different types of patriotism among trainee teachers in Singapore, and how these types of patriotism influence their perceptions of citizenship values, the importance of national education, and the extent to which national education is viewed as government propaganda. The results revealed four homogenous clusters that differed significantly in terms of their perceptions.     

Lord's Wald Test for Detecting DIF in Multidimensional IRT Models: A Comparison of Two Estimation Approaches

Lord's Wald test for differential item functioning (DIF) has not been studied extensively in the context of the multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) framework. In this article, Lord's Wald test was implemented using two estimation approaches, marginal maximum likelihood estimation and Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo estimation, to detect uniform and nonuniform DIF under MIRT models. The Type I error and power rates for Lord's Wald test were investigated under various simulation conditions, including different DIF types and magnitudes, different means and correlations of two ability parameters, and different sample sizes. Furthermore, English usage data were analyzed to illustrate the use of Lord's Wald test with the two estimation approaches.     

Strategic development of multiplication problem solving: Patterns of students' strategy choices

Low mathematics achievement is a persistent problem in the United States, and multiplication is a fundamental area in which many students manifest learning difficulties. This study examined the strategic developmental levels of multiplication problem solving among 121 elementary school students in Grades 3 through 5. A latent class analysis modeling was used to identify three valid groups representing different patterns of strategy choices for each of three types of multiplication problems. Findings indicated intra-group variability for problem-solving accuracy, for frequency of using different strategies, and for accuracy of executing direct retrieval/algorithm (DR/AG) strategies. Students demonstrated relative consistency in their strategy choices for solving the three problem types. Students who used DR/AG strategies most frequently showed the highest problem-solving accuracy and the highest accuracy of executing the DR/AG strategies. Students who most frequently relied on incorrect operations or who indicated they did not know how to solve problems demonstrated the lowest problem-solving accuracy among the three groups; the number of students in this group increased with problem difficulty levels. Implications are discussed in terms of identifying students' strategic developmental levels and providing differentiated instruction based on the identified levels.     

The Minnesota International Counseling Institute (MICI) 1989—Present: History,Joyful Moments,and Lessons Learned

This article describes the Minnesota International Counseling Institute, a biennial counseling institute created by faculty in the University of Minnesotas Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology Program. One hundred and fifty-two international counseling personnel from 40 countries have participated in the Minnesota International Counseling Institute. After eight Institutes and nearly 20 years, we wish to share our experiences with the international counseling community. The article presents reflection and evaluation by the faculty on our cumulative experiences with the MICI, including history, guiding principles, format, participants, evaluation, successes, lessons learned, and struggles. We hope our experience will be useful to other counseling and human development professionals and adapted by others interested in promoting counseling across cultures.     

Gender Difference,Misconceptions and Instruction in Science

The study examined into the relationship between gender and students' misconceptions in science. Two different groups were treated with two different teaching strategies, namely, teaching strategy 1, which is basically didactic in nature, and teaching strategy 11, which incorporates students' misconceptions and applies the Generative Learning Model. Two groups of secondary three students (N=26,27; randomly sampled), underwent 6 weeks of instruction, with the respective strategies mentioned above. Each group consisted of male and female students, the numbers of which resulted from the grouping based on their academic achievements. A constructed and validated diagnostic instrument was used as a means to measure the effectiveness of these two teaching strategies. The findings showed that gender differences did not relate well to students' misconceptions in science. The implications of this finding are discussed.     

A CROSS CULTURAL STUDY OF LEADERSHIP,SOCIAL MATURITY AND CREATIVE POTENTIAL IN ADOLESCENTS

This study investigated relationships among leadership potential, social maturity, creativity, intelligence, and academic achievement among adolescents in the United States and Singapore. Results showed higher intelligence but lower leadership potential among Singapore students and a positive correlation in general between social maturity and intelligence, while creativity was found to be negatively correlated with both intelligence and academic achievement.     

An online authoring tool for creating activity-based learning objects

As higher education increasingly relies on e-learning, the need for tools that will allow teachers themselves to develop effective e-learning objects as simply and quickly as possible has also been increasingly recognized. This article discusses the design and development of a novel tool, Enook (Evolutionary note book), for creating activity-based learning objects (LOs). This tool has three general foci: 1) creation of various activity-based objects for experimental learning or learning by doing while simultaneously offering as many learning resources as a real e-book that services as both a textbook and a notebook, dual functions that paperback books can never provide; 2) management of all aspects of live instructor-led classroom training in a network environment, such the Web and or a mobile network; 3) facilitated use of data on students’ progress to monitor their understanding of the material and to provide other meaningful information through learning analytics.