Predicting First Grade Reading Performance from Kindergarten Response to Tier 1 Instruction

Many schools are beginning to implement multi-tier response to intervention (RTI) models for the prevention of reading difficulties and to assist in the identification of students with learning disabilities (LD). The present study was part of our larger ongoing longitudinal RTI investigation within the Florida Learning Disabilities Center grant. This study used a longitudinal correlational design, conducted in 7 ethnically and socio-economically diverse schools. We observed reading instruction in 20 classrooms, examined response rates to kindergarten Tier 1 instruction, and predicted students' first grade reading performance based upon kindergarten growth and end of year reading performance (n = 203). Teachers followed an explicit core reading program and overall, classroom instruction was rated as effective. Results indicate that controlling for students' end of kindergarten reading, their growth across kindergarten on a variety of language and literacy measures suppressed predictions of first grade performance. Specifically, the steeper the students' trajectory to a satisfactory outcome, the less likely they were to demonstrate good performance in first grade. Implications for future research and RTI implementation are discussed.     

The complexities and challenges of regional education hubs: focus on Malaysia

The race to establish regional education hubs is a recent development in cross-border higher education. This article briefly examines the rationales and strategies used by three countries in the Middle East and three in South East Asia which are working towards positioning themselves as regional education hubs. The different approaches and purposes among the six countries highlight the need for a typology of education hubs. Three types are proposed: the student hub, the training and skilled workforce hub, and the knowledge/innovation hub. The final section of the paper takes a closer look at Malaysia??s cross-border education initiatives and its actions to establish itself as a competitive education hub in a region where Singapore and Hong Kong have similar intentions. Whether Malaysia has the ability to make a quantum leap from being a student hub to becoming a knowledge/innovation hub remains to be seen and appears to be an optimistic outlook.     

Issues in the development of children’s centres on nursery and primary school sites

This paper explores the development of children’s centres in England between 2004 and 2008, focusing on the newly created centres that have been located on primary and nursery school sites. Using both an analysis of policy documents and interview data from three urban local authorities, we examine the use of premises and the differing priorities of centre staff and school heads, particularly in relation to the balance of services between early years education, childcare and family support. We also explore governance issues, focusing especially on patterns of accountability. In so doing, we also examine the tensions that exist between children’s centres located on primary and on nursery school sites and the schools themselves.     

Three-dimensional kinematic analysis of the golf swing using instantaneous screw axis theory,Part 2: golf swing kinematic sequence

A number of recent studies have measured the extent and timing of segment rotation during the golf swing. A promising technique, instantaneous screw axis (ISA) theory, could provide a better expression of segment rotation. In Part 1 of this two-part study, the objectives are to identify the ISA of the pelvis, shoulders and left arm during the downswing, compute segment angular velocity relative to that segment’s ISA and verify that ISA theory is a valid tool to analyse segment rotation during the golf swing. Results indicate that for all subjects, at least 71% of marker velocity is a result of rotation about their respective ISA, when averaging results over the duration of the downswing, confirming that motion is primarily rotational. Furthermore, ISA position and orientation of each segment approaches, on average, the expected gross axis of rotation, confirming that motion about the ISA is representative of joint motion.     

国内外高校图书馆用户虚假信息辨识能力培养比较研究

随着互联网新媒体的迅猛发展,虚假信息随之泛滥,作为高校信息中心的图书馆有责任和义务培养用户信息辨识能力。与一些做得较好的国外高校图书馆相比,国内高校图书馆对用户辨识虚假信息能力的培养不够系统和清晰,具体培训过程的趣味性、实用性及深入性有待提高。文章通过文献和网络调研法,对国内外知名高校图书馆虚假信息辨识培养相关的研究和实践成果进行对比、分析和总结,提出提升馆员媒介与信息素养能力及开展跨学科合作、建立识别虚假信息的指南和网站、建立虚假信息辨别指标体系和培养方法体系、设计实施培养媒介与信息素养的多元实践项目、构建基于信息真假辨识能力的评价体系等五个方面建议,期以有助于我国高校图书馆完善与深化用户虚假信息辨识能力的培养。     

Rethinking difference and sex education: from cultural inclusivity to normative diversity

This paper aimed to problematise what is meant by ‘difference’ and consider what such a reinterpretation might mean for methodological interventions in sex education research. Our concern is the tendency for sex education research to treat difference as a set of categories to be ‘added-on’, such as religious difference, cultural difference and sexual plurality. The danger of this is that it leaves the normative unchallenged, confirming the hegemony of the heteronormative, unraced subject. Constructing difference as an ‘add-on’ fails to address how young people locate themselves in a world in which they negotiate their sexualities through complex ‘glocal’ routes in popular and youth culture. We argue that decentring methodological strategies are required which draw on critiques made by post-colonial and decolonising methodologies. In the first section of the paper, we review the problem of difference, and how it is considered within current debates in youth and sexualities research. This frames a reflection on rethinking our own methodological practices through a consideration of two research moments. In the conclusion, we propose a metaphorical framework to scaffold a reimagining of methodological approaches to ensure that the normative is always a question mark.     

Gallery One at the Cleveland Museum of Art

How can art museums use interpretive technology to engage visitors actively in new kinds of experiences with works of art? What are the best strategies for integrating technology into the visitor experience? In 2012, the Cleveland Museum of Art responded with Gallery One, an interactive art gallery that opened to stakeholders on December 12, and went through a six‐week testing period before its public opening on January 21, 2013. Gallery One drew from extensive audience research and was part of a major building and renovation project in which CMA reinstalled and reinterpreted the entire permanent collection in new and renovated gallery spaces. The end result was an innovative and robust blend of art, technology, design, and a unique user experience that emerged through the collaboration of staff across the museum and with outside consultants.     

English in classrooms: only write down what you need to know: annotation for what?

The annotation of texts in the school English classroom is central to the curriculum, examination and the history of English as a school subject. In this paper we explore ‘the way it is done’ across two different classrooms. We focus on the relationship between official definitions of annotation offered by national policies and examination syllabuses and its actualization in particular classrooms. The article takes a multimodal approach: attending to all modes of representation and communication in the teaching of English including image, gesture, gaze and the spatial organization of the classroom.