Music across the curriculum: More than just circle time

Most educators will agree that music has an important place in a high-quality program for young children. Singing or listening to music are pleasurable activities, and the affective benefits of music are obvious to anyone who has ever sung a child to sleep. What teachers may not realize, however, is how music may be incorporated into other areas of the curriculum. Joyce Ury Dumtschin has taught in day care centers in Illinois and Ohio and is presently a freelance writer and musician.     

Children and adolescents' internal models of food-sharing behavior include complex evaluations of contextual factors

This study examined internal representations of food sharing in 589 children and adolescents (8-19 years of age). Questionnaires, depicting a variety of contexts in which one person was asked to share a resource with another, were used to examine participants' expectations of food-sharing behavior. Factors that were varied included the value of the resource, the relation between the two depicted actors, the quality of this relation, and gender. Results indicate that internal models of food-sharing behavior showed systematic patterns of variation, demonstrating that individuals have complex contextually based internal models at all ages, including the youngest. Examination of developmental changes in use of individual patterns is consistent with the idea that internal models reflect age-specific patterns of interactions while undergoing a process of progressive consolidation.     

Greater Preference among Females Than Males for Dyadic Interaction in Early Childhood

The present study was designed to examine sex differences in children's preferences for dyadic and group interaction in early childhood. In Study 1, a professional puppeteer interacted with 21 females and 20 males 4 and 5 years of age using 1 (dyad) and 3 (group) puppets in a within-subjects design. Enjoyment of the 2 conditions was assessed through frequency of smiling and eye contact. In addition, sociometric techniques were used to measure the size of children's play networks, and observations of naturally occurring dyadic and group interaction were conducted. Study 2 was a replication of the puppet play procedure used in Study 1 with 38 females and 37 males 3 and 4 years of age. In both studies, females were found to enjoy dyadic interaction more than males. In addition, some evidence suggests that males may enjoy group interaction more than females. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical explanations for sex differences in preferences for interaction with differing numbers of peers.     

Kanter’s Theory of Proportions: Organizational Demography and PhD Completion in Science and Engineering Departments

Increasing the size and diversity of the scientific and technological workforce is a national priority. Investments in policy and programmatic efforts toward increasing the representation of women in science and engineering fields have resulted in significant advances; however, a gender gap remains among PhDs and faculty in these fields. This study tests whether Kanter’s (Men and women of the corporation, Basic Books, New York, 1977) theory of proportions, which suggests that numerical representation of groups influence group dynamics and cultural context, applies to the proportion of female faculty and the probability that female doctoral students will complete their degrees in science and engineering. Using data from two research-intensive academic institutions, results show that female doctoral students are more likely to complete the degree in departments with higher proportions of female faculty. Further, female PhD students working with female faculty dissertation advisors are also more likely to complete the degree than female PhD students working with male faculty dissertation advisors. Departmental faculty sex ratios and whether their faculty advisor is male or female, however, have no effect on the completion probabilities of male PhD students. Consistent with Kanter’s theory, research findings illustrate the importance of organizational demography on the academic outcomes of PhD students, and provide support for initiatives and programs aimed at increasing the representation of female faculty in science and engineering.     

Accelerating the development of reading,spelling and phonemic awareness skills in initial readers

In Experiment 1, it was found that 5-year-oldnew school entrants taught by a syntheticphonics method had better reading, spelling andphonemic awareness than two groups taughtanalytic phonics. The synthetic phonicschildren were the only ones that could read byanalogy, and they also showed better reading ofirregular words and nonwords. For one analyticphonics group the programme was supplemented byphonological awareness training; this led togains in phonemic awareness but not reading orspelling compared with the other analyticphonics group. The synthetic phonics programmewas taught to the analytic phonics groups aftertheir initial programmes had been completed andpost-tested. The group that had hadphonological awareness training did not performbetter than the other two groups when tested 15months later; this was also the case when thesame comparison was made for the the subset ofchildren that had started school with weakphonological awareness skill. Speed of letterlearning was controlled for in Experiment 2; itwas found that the synthetic phonics groupstill read and spelt better than the analyticphonics group. It was concluded that syntheticphonics was more effective than analyticphonics, and that with the former approach itwas not necessary to carry out supplementarytraining in phonological awareness.     

TPACK design scaffolds for supporting teacher pedagogical change

Many empirical studies show that teachers have difficulty designing technology-integrated lessons for student-centered learning. Supporting teachers to change their pedagogical practice is a challenge faced in teacher professional development for technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK). This study describes how teachers’ conceptions of pedagogical change can be supported through the use of different kinds of TPACK design scaffolds—a meaningful learning rubric, lesson design heuristics and TPACK Activity Types. The impact of these design scaffolds on the TPACK confidence and lesson design confidence of 47 teachers and instructors who were attending a graduate course in educational technology were assessed through pre and post course surveys. Expert ratings of technology-integrated lesson plans designed at the beginning and end of the course were also used to determine the extent of pedagogical change enacted. It was found that these design scaffolds had positive effects on teachers’ TPACK confidence and were useful for helping the teachers to articulate pedagogical change in their lesson designs. Participants’ feedback for improving the TPACK design scaffolds as well as guidelines for using these to support pedagogical change through TPACK professional development programmes are discussed.

     

Childshock: The effects of apartheid on the mental health of South Africa's children

Apartheid has negatively affected the lives of all South African children but its effects have been particularly devastating for black children. The consequences of poverty, racism and violence have resulted in psychological disorders, and a generation of maladjusted children may be the result. This article describes the trauma associated with growing up in a divided society and the childshock caused by political unrest and a society in the throes of major social transition. Although the present mental health system is grossly inadequate, hopefully the dismantling of apartheid, social reconstruction and innovative counseling approaches will in time promote the psychological well-being of all South Africa's children.     

Conceptualising global competence: situating cosmopolitan student identities within internationalising South Korean Universities

ABSTRACT

Universities have increasingly pursued ‘world-class status’ and have prioritized internationalisation efforts. South Korean universities have accordingly invested billions of dollars in attracting foreign students and faculty, increasing English-medium instruction courses, and teaching curriculum related to global competence. This article applies a theory of cosmopolitanism to understand the relationship between global competence and student identity within internationalising South Korean universities. I argue that cosmopolitanism manifests in student identities at such universities in articulations that are contested and variegated. My findings suggest that cosmopolitanism demonstrates theoretical potential to conceptualise global competence in ways that overcome its critiques as Western-centric and elitist.