Supporting the Narrative Development of Young Children

This article presents the developmental continuum of children’s storytelling skills and provides examples at each of five levels: labeling, listing, connecting, sequencing and narrating. The authors connect these developing narrative skills to communication, literacy and cognition. Strategies to facilitate development from one level to another are described.     

Use of Culturally Diverse Books in Daycare

Culturally diverse books are written for children to promote acceptance of diversity; however, there is little research that has examined their use. The purpose of this study was to examine the culturally diverse book use of preschoolers in daycare. Research Findings. Thirty-five children (ages 44-65 months) and their teachers in two daycare classrooms participated. The children represented a variety of socioeconomic levels and raciaVcultura1 groups. Observations of book use were conducted during freeplay and naptime. In a multiple baseline time series experimental design, comparisons were made between the use of culturally diverse books and books depicting no cultural diversity (Euro-American books). It was determined that one category of culturally diverse books (Culturally Conscious) was not being used as frequently as others. The Culturally Conscious books depicted characters from one of three cultural groups—Black, Asian, and Latino. A simple intervention was implemented in which the teachers introduced some of the Culturally Conscious books at group times and this led to an increase in their use. Additional book use information was gained through parent questionnaires, teacher interviews, and teachers' anecdotal notes. Implications for Practice. In daycare centers similar to the ones used in this study, it is likely that children will use culturally diverse books when available. Teacher introductions of infrequently used culturally diverse books may be an efficient and effective practice for encouraging their use.     

An exploration of teacher's use of iPads for students with learning support needs

This project explored how iPads were being used in a range of K‐12 schools to support the learning of students with a range of learning support needs. Groups of teachers (and other professionals) from the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK were invited to complete an online survey focused on the use of iPads in their classrooms, perspectives of their skill level, and how their school and school districts support the use of iPads. The survey focused on iPad use in classrooms (curriculum and skills); teachers’ skill levels; whether iPads are addressed in the Individualised Education Program (IEP); the systemic support for the iPads; and the perceived benefits and barriers. The results reveal that respondents are using iPads across many areas of the curriculum, which affirms the research in the emerging literature base. However, there are teacher reported differences in the manner and scope of iPad use in the classrooms and also the integration of the iPad in the IEP. The research also highlights variability in reported skill level for the iPad and an increased need for enhanced systemic support, such as training, funding, technical support and administrative support for the use of the iPad as a pedagogical tool.     

The development and application of a specialised word list: the case of Fabrication

Learners in the trades are faced with learning a large amount of technical vocabulary along with the content of their field, but they do not tend to encounter this language outside their courses of study. This technical vocabulary is a core element in their developing knowledge of their trade and their learner identity. This article focuses first on identifying technical vocabulary in Fabrication using specialised written and spoken corpora, and through extensive checking with experts in the field as well as reference sources. A technical word list of 1079 types was developed, along with a list of common abbreviations and their meanings and a list of proper nouns. The technical word list covers over 30% of the vocabulary in the written Fabrication corpus and just over 9% of the spoken Fabrication corpus. The second part of the article discusses this vocabulary in light of the concept of vocational thresholds and provides suggestions for incorporating the word list into pedagogy, including an apprenticeship approach in which a focus on literacy/literacy acquisition is embedded into content teaching. Suggestions for future research are also included.     

Training early childhood teachers for sustainability: towards a ‘learning experience of a different kind’

In this study, we discuss findings from a small-scale project evaluating an in-service teacher training programme focused on ‘perspective transformation’ in early childhood education and education for sustainability (EfS). A bespoke professional development programme was developed for Turkish early childhood teachers, based on a variety of Mezirowian-inspired adult education activities. Data were gathered using a mixed method research design, from 24 early childhood educators, through learning diaries, a Learning Activities Survey and follow-up interviews. Initial findings illustrate the range of transformations possible in the teachers’ perspectives during and after the training workshops. Influential factors in facilitating perspective transformation are shown to be the content, structure and sequencing of the training, and peer support. We conclude that transformative learning techniques offer a viable framework for engaging practicing early childhood teachers with EfS and also discuss implications for teacher preparation in both areas.     

How do the spellings of children with dyslexia compare with those of nondyslexic children?

Children with dyslexia are believed to have very poor phonological skills for which they compensate, to some extent, through relatively well-developed knowledge of letter patterns. We tested this view in Study 1 by comparing 25 dyslexic children and 25 younger normal children, chosen so that both groups performed, on average, at a second-grade spelling level. Phonological skill was assessed using phoneme counting and nonword spelling tasks. Knowledge of legal and illegal letter patterns was tested using a spelling choice task. The dyslexic children and the younger nondyslexic children performed similarly on all the tasks, and they had difficulty, for the most part, with the same linguistic structures. Supporting the idea that older dyslexics spellings are quite similar to those of typical beginners, we found in Study 2 that experienced teachers could not differentiate between the two groups based on their spellings.     

The basis of feeling-of-knowing judgments in patients with schizophrenia

We examined the basis of feeling-of-knowing judgments (FOK) in patients with schizophrenia. Such patients typically have impaired memory and awareness, but not metamemory-accuracy deficits. The magnitude of FOKs are lower for patients with schizophrenia than for healthy participants, but judgments equally predict memory performance. In healthy participants, FOK is based on accessible information, including retrieval of partial-target (e.g., retrieving the first letter) and contextual information (e.g., related facts). In Experiment 1, we examined if accessible information predicts FOKs for episodic memory in patients with schizophrenia. Patients and healthy controls learned names paired with drawings of imaginary animals. The results showed that patients’ FOK increased with the retrieval of partial-target and contextual information. In Experiment 2, using semantic-memory general-information questions, accessible partial-target information predicted FOKs in patients with schizophrenia. The accessibility model of FOK applies to patients with schizophrenia, and it is important to determine what occurs in other memory-impaired populations.