Prenatal parenthood

In this article, we discuss the intuitive knowledge mothers have of their unborn baby. We propose a shift in focus from caregivers' merely providing information to first listening to pregnant mothers as they share their intuitive knowledge of their baby. This approach enables mothers and fathers or partners to know they are already parents to their unborn baby and empowers them to get in touch with their baby's presence and who he or she is during pregnancy. This intuitive knowledge may be a protective behavior that will enable mothers to keep babies safe during pregnancy.     

A Qualitative Examination of the Challenges, Resources, and Strategies for Serving Children Learning English in Head Start

The dramatic growth in the number of children learning English as a second language in our country has led to a corresponding increase in the need to understand how teachers and schools can effectively teach children who are learning English as a second language. Many teachers report not feeling prepared to meet the needs of these children (National Center for Education Statistics, Teacher preparation and professional development: 2000. , 2002). The current study used focus group interviews to examine how Head Start teachers in one program addressed the special learning needs of children learning English in their classrooms. Key challenges involved communicating with children and their families in their home language. Teachers used other staff, parents, and children in the classroom to interpret. Strategies involved visual aids, pictures, gestures, and a welcoming classroom environment. Resources used by teachers were professional development and language skills of other staff. However, available resources were often underutilized and limited for teachers to use in meeting the challenges the teachers faced in the classroom. Suggestions are presented for overcoming the challenges and limited resources encountered by teachers, such as changes in preservice and inservice training opportunities, and second language learning opportunities for teachers. Further implications for training and research are discussed.     

Video diaries: a tool to investigate sustainability-related learning in threshold spaces

This paper takes as a case study an undergraduate field class from a UK university to rural Uganda. It describes and evaluates the use of video diaries as a tool for investigating the process of transformative learning in the context of education for sustainability. The applicability of threshold concept theory to this learning is investigated. Results show the video diary technique to be much more successful in capturing the development of student learning than written diaries. Despite some practical difficulties, rich data were generated. Analysis demonstrated that learning met three of the five criteria for threshold concepts: the learning was transformative, integrative and troublesome. Further research could test whether the learning in this case study met the threshold concept criterion of irreversibility. Further elaboration of the theoretical relationship between threshold concepts, transformative learning and education for sustainability is also needed. It is concluded that the video diary method is potentially transferable to other educational research contexts and may be particularly suitable for researching learning in threshold spaces.     

Towards Research-based Innovation and Reform: Singapore schooling in transition

The challenges facing the Singapore education system in the new millennium are unique and unprecedented in Asia. Demands for new skills, knowledges, and flexible competencies for globalised economies and cosmopolitan cultures will require system-wide innovation and reform. But there is a dearth of international benchmarks and prototypes for such reforms. This paper describes the current Core Research Program underway at the National Institute of Education in Singapore, a multilevel analysis of Singaporean schooling, pedagogy, youth and educational outcomes. It describes student background, performance, classroom practices, student artefacts and outcomes, and student longitudinal life pathways. The case is made that a systematic focus on teachers' and students' work in everyday classroom contexts is the necessary starting point for pedagogical innovation and change. This, it is argued, can constitute a rich multidisciplinary evidence base for educational policy.     

Higher education's new playbook: Learning Reconsidered

The rules that dictate educational practice on most campuses were written prior to the invention of movable type and long before scientists fully understood learning as an integrated and context‐specific process. Jane Fried summarizes two documents that may well replace the tired old playbooks of yore.     

Primary Children and Computer-Based Artwork: Their Learning Environment and Strategies

This article summarises a research project with a group of twenty Singapore primary students who were introduced to computer graphics in an eight-week programme. Their actions and artwork were closely monitored by participant observers to see how they interacted with the computers and with each other as they learned how to use the tools and exercise judgement and control. Three aspects of behaviour which seemed to be particularly significant were: watching and internalising, providing a running commentary and pointing. The children's artwork showed that they could use the computer as a tool to create artwork and engage in high-level symbol-weaving.     

Reviews

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