A Case Study of Needs Assessment in Teacher In-Service Development

In 1996, The Ministry of Education of the Province of Quebec authorized a plan to support the integration of new information technologies and communications (NTIC) in its schools. An expenditure of $318 million dollars was announced for the purchase and upgrade of hardware and software. In response to this initiative, The Concordia University Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) approached the Quebec schoolboards, proposing partnerships between them and the Centre to facilitate the integration of these technologies into pedagogical practices. This article describes a needs assessment performed by the university in two Quebec elementary schools. The collected data revealed that teachers are currently using computers primarily for word processing and to prepare report cards. While they are somewhat dissatisfied with previous professional development, they are still highly interested in receiving training on how to better incorporate technology into their pedagogical practices. General recommendations and a workshop are outlined.     

China's recruitment of African university students: policy efficacy and unintended outcomes

This article explores how Sino-African relations are affected by the growing number of Africans who pursue higher education in China. China actively recruits African university students in order to increase soft power and generate income from the export of education services. Semi-structured interviews with African university students suggest that China fails to reach these policy objectives because the students are disappointed with the quality of the education they receive. However, the students engage in trade and contribute to the fast-growing export of Chinese products to African markets, thereby reinforcing the ties between China and Africa in unintended ways.     

Fostering partnerships with families: academic service-learning in the Little Village

ABSTRACT

Strong family-teacher partnerships increase family engagement, promoting positive outcomes for children. Early childhood educators need knowledge, skills, and dispositions for establishing strong, meaningful partnerships with diverse families. This research investigated the impact of academic service-learning (ASL) on undergraduate students’ knowledge, skills, and dispositions for partnering with culturally and linguistically diverse families to promote young children’s early academic learning. Participants included nine undergraduates in an early childhood teacher preparation course, ten culturally and linguistically diverse families, and thirteen 2- to 5-year-old children. In this mixed-methods study, written student ASL reflections, pre- and post-ASL student surveys, and parent evaluations were analyzed. Three themes emerged from the analysis: (1) Students entered the ASL experience with excitement and a mostly positive approach; (2) Early to mid-semester, students articulated a high degree of nervousness and discomfort as well as challenges to partnership-building, yet also noted family interest and engagement; and (3) Mid- to late semester, most students expressed their growing confidence in their own skills for relating to diverse families, and identified family strengths. Our findings support ASL as an effective teacher-preparation pedagogy to help students build family-teacher partnerships.     

Pathways From Childhood Sociomoral Sensitivity in Friendship,Insecurity, and Peer Rejection to Adult Friendship Quality

Across the life span, friendship is an important component of people’s support networks. This article explores the developmental roots of adult friendship intimacy and satisfaction, taking into consideration the early interplay between sociomoral sensitivity in friendship, insecurity in peer contexts, and peer rejection. Data (N = 176) came from the longitudinal study “Individual Development and Social Structure.” Respondents were surveyed repeatedly from age 7 to 37 years. Autoregressive cross-lagged panel models show that sociomoral sensitivity in friendship protects adolescents from peer rejection and is reciprocally associated with insecurity. Childhood and adolescent sociomoral sensitivity antecede early adult friendship intimacy, which, in turn, antecedes friendship satisfaction in mid-adulthood. The findings indicate a sequence of pathways from sociomoral sensitivity developed early in life to friendship quality in adulthood.     

Creating teacher capacity in Early Childhood Education and Care institutions implementing an authoritative adult style

The being together intervention intends to raise teacher capacity in Norwegian Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) institutions and promote social and emotional development in preschoolers by implementing an authoritative (warm and predictable) adult style in the institution. An authoritative adult balances between building up high quality interactions with children, while at the same time having a predictable structure with clear norms and social expectations in the learning environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate what helped the ECEC institutions to successfully implement the program principles and core components, and what were the challenges. The staff groups of seven Norwegian ECEC institutions in different municipalities who took part in the innovation were interviewed at the beginning and before the end of the first year of implementation. Data analysis identified five success criteria in the implementation process; strong commitment to the authoritative adult style, strong focus on the implementation process, advanced support systems, highly involved leaders, and a collective orientation. These elements resulted in a shared vision and an academically grounded practice in the ECEC institutions. Staff members without formal professional training and a lack of written documentation in the ECEC institutions should be given more consideration in further improvement of the capacity building.     

The Zen Scavenger Hunt: Constructing and presenting persuasive messages

Courses: Persuasion; Persuasive Speaking

Objectives: Students will demonstrate the ability to apply persuasive concepts in constructing persuasive messages creatively, and students will present and analyze their persuasive messages.     

Approaches to digital methods in studies of digital religion

This article reviews digital methodologies in the context of digital religion. We offer a tripod model for approaching digital methods: (a) defining research within digital environments, (b) the utilization of digital tools, and (c) applying unique digital frames. Through a critical review of multiple research projects, we explore three dominant research methods employed within the study of digital religion, namely, the use of textual analysis, interviews, and ethnography. Thus, we highlight the opportunities and challenges of using digital methods.     

Effects of motivational and volitional email messages (MVEM) with personal messages on undergraduate students' motivation, study habits and achievement

This study investigated what kind of supportive information can be effective in improving the situation where there were severe motivational challenges. Motivational and volitional email messages (MVEM) were constructed based on an integrated model of four theories and methods, which are Keller's ARCS model, Kuhl's action control theory, Gollwitzer's Rubicon model of motivation and volition, and Visser & Keller's strategy of motivational messages, and distributed with personal messages created based on audience analysis to a large undergraduate class. In order to examine the effects of the messages on motivation for the course, study habits (study time), and achievement (test grade), MVEM were sent to 30 students (Personal Message Group: PMG) with personal messages and to 71 students (Non‐Personal Message Group: NonPMG) without personal messages. Results indicated that PMG showed a higher level of motivation, especially in regard to confidence, than NonPMG. Also, the mean test grade of PMG increased so that the initial difference of the test grade between the two groups significantly decreased. Although there was no difference between the two groups in study habits, the findings suggest that personal messages addressing specific individual problems raise the positive effects of MVEM constructed based on the integrated model. Future research directions are discussed.