“I Don’t Want to Finish This Book!”, or A Posthumanist View of Affect,Reader Response,and Children’s Literature

Children's Literature in Education - What can the affective turn mean for literacy educators who believe their work can lay the foundation for a life filled with meaningful reading pursuits,...     

¿Cómo se adquieren y usan los términos deícticos en lengua española? Un estudio longitudinal

Resumen

En el ámbito de estudio de la adquisición del lenguaje, la deixis se presenta como un tema importante. Se trata de un recurso lingüístico básico para el desarrollo de la comunicación, por medio del cual los interlocutores se ubican en el espacio y el tiempo estableciendo relaciones entre ellos y con los objetos, al mismo tiempo que se identifican en los roles conversacionales. Asimismo constituye una rica fuente de datos ya que su aprendizaje implica, a la vez, cierto nivel de desarrollo comunicativo, cognitivo y lingüístico, suponiendo un largo y difícil camino que el niño tiene que recorrer basta lograr su dominio. En el presente trabajo pretendemos estudiar la evolución de los términos deícticos en sus diferentes manifestaciones (persona, espacio, tiempo, modo y verbo) en niños españoles. Se realizó un estudio longitudinal, desde una perspectiva funcional, con dos niñas que contaban dos años al comienzo del estudio, finalizándolo cuando cumplieron tres años, y que procedían de medios ambientales diferentes. A partir del análisis de las muestras de habla espontánea de ambas niñas, recogidas en su contexto habitual, se observó el uso que éstas hacen de los términos deícticos. Además, se tuvo en cuenta la adecuación de dicha utilización al contexto comunicativo, señalando, al mismo tiempo, las implicaciones de dicho uso en la evolución y posterior conocimiento de estos términos; así como las diferencias en relación al medio de procedencia de ambos sujetos.     

La influencia del contexto de la interacción en la adquisición del lenguaje

Resumen

El lenguaje no se adquiere de modo espontáneo, nies connatural únicamente al desarrollo biológico, sino que se adquiere y evoluciona merced a la interacción. Así, por tanto, un favorable desarrollo del lenguaje exige una condición interactiva adecuada. Para confirmar dicha tesis, se ha realizado un estudio longitudinal y transversal para observarlas pautas de adquisición y desarrollo del lenguaje y niños que proceden de medios ambientales totalmente diferentes: institución asistencial y medio familiar. Se hizo análisis tanto cualitativo como cuantitativo en los tres niveles del lenguaje (morfosintáctico, semántico y pragmático). Los resultados mostraron diferencias evidentes entre ambos grupos de niños. Así, los niños que pertenecen al medio institucional presentan importantes déficits en su desarrollo lingüístico.     

Developmental trajectories of sensory patterns from infancy to school age in a community sample and associations with autistic traits

This prospective study examined the latent growth trajectories of sensory patterns among a North Carolina birth cohort (N = 1517; 49% boys, 87% White) across infancy (6–19 months), preschool (3–4 years), and school years (6–7 years). Change rates of sensory hyper- and hyporesponsiveness better differentiated children with an autism diagnosis or elevated autistic traits from those with other developmental conditions, including non-autistic children with sensory differences. More sensory hyper- and hyporesponsiveness at infancy followed by steeper increases differentially predicted more autistic traits at school age. Further, children of parents with higher education tended to show stable or improving trajectories. These findings highlight the importance of tracking sensory patterns from infancy for facilitating early identification of associated challenges and tailored support for families.     

Is mindfulness training useful for pre-service teachers? An exploratory investigation*

In this study, we investigated the effects of mindfulness training with 23 pre-service teachers. Subjects were assigned to either a six-week mindfulness training program or a control condition. Postintervention, mindfulness participants reported greater emotional clarity and improved regulation of negative emotions. In particular, the mindfulness group was shielded from an increase in negative emotions compared to the control group. In addition, within-group differences suggested that mindfulness training helps student-teachers control impulsive behavior and respond more flexibly to stressful emotions. These findings add to a growing body of research on the benefits of mindfulness. Pre-service teachers, it seems, gain the most benefit in the realm of emotional regulation.     

Questioning Our Questions: Assessing Question Asking Practices to Evaluate a yPAR Program

The purpose of this research was to examine question asking practices in a youth participatory action research (yPAR) after school program housed at an elementary school. The research question was: In which ways did the adult question asking practices in a yPAR setting challenge and/or reproduce conventional models of power in educational settings? We aligned Fink’s taxonomy (Creating significant learning experiences: an integrated approach to designing college courses. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2003) to Freire’s (The pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum, New York, 1970/2000) banking concept and problem-posing educational models. All adult questions were categorized from twelve randomly selected yPAR sessions over 2 years. The program served 4th and 5th grade students. Of the 500+ questions adults asked, 17 % were foundational (aligned with Freire’s banking concept). All other questions were aligned with Freire’s problem-posing model. Specifically, 34 % were application, 3 % were integration, 15 % were caring, 11 % were human dimension, and 8 % were learning how to learn questions. By studying question asking patterns and practices, we gained a better understanding of how students and adults navigated this particular after school space, which, at its core, sought to disrupt conventional notions of power and status.     

“Neither can they Die any More; for they are Equal unto the Angels”: Secular Epiphanies in David Almond’s Counting Stars

Written before the successful publication of Skellig (1998), David Almond’s short story collection, Counting Stars, has attracted less critical attention than his more famous novels. Falling between fiction and autobiography, the earlier short stories are more firmly grounded in realism than the novels, which feature elements of fantasy or magical realism. Nevertheless, Counting Stars introduces several of the key themes and images that are explored in a more fantastic way in Almond’s later work, and is indicative of how this turn towards childhood concerns initiated his development as a children’s writer. This article explores Almond’s concern, in Counting Stars, with finding “magic in ordinary places” and his preoccupation with the nature of religious belief and spirituality. A close reading of these stories demonstrates the author’s use of both secular and religious imagery to express the individual’s potential for transcendence within the ordinary and everyday, a theme to which Almond frequently returns in his novels. Influenced by the poetry of William Blake, Almond uses Blake’s notion of co-existent “contraries” to emphasise the relationship of opposites such as physical and spiritual, real and imagined. In addition, the iconic image of the angel becomes the means of deconstructing the fixed concepts and binaries of the Catholic Church in order to achieve more diverse and imaginative meanings.     

A futile search for values and pedagogy? A discursive analysis of the marketing messages of branch-campuses in higher education hubs

Higher education has become a key strategy for the economic development of certain city-states that are positioning themselves as higher education hubs, recruiting both students and foreign providers. This article presents the findings of a research study that examined the online messages of foreign branch-campuses in education hubs (Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore). The project adapts and expands on Fairclough’s notion of critical discourse analysis to include virtual discursive space in order to understand how foreign providers address context, and what values are central to their programming, as they construct their virtual presence in new locations. The findings identify that the dominant themes on institutional websites reflect key issues facing higher education, including quality, leadership, international connections and technological advancement. The paper concludes with a conceptual framework that assists institutions in moving beyond these themes to re-consider context in their overseas operations.