Alpha hemispheric asymmetry in children with learning disabilities and normally achieving children during story comprehension and rehearsal prior to narrative production

Twelve children with learning disabilities attending a remedial summer clinic were compared with 12 normally achieving controls balanced for age, sex, and handedness on alpha amplitude and production of narratives. Specifically, all subjects participated in three conditions. Condition 1 was a vigilance condition, Condition 2 involved listening to a story without an ending that had to be retold, and Condition 3 was an opportunity to rehearse the story mentally and construct an appropriate ending. Alpha amplitudes were monitored during the three conditions to determine any hemispheric asymmetry or differences between groups or conditions in alpha production. The subjects' narrative productions of retelling the story with a novel ending were also analyzed using a cohesion analysis procedure. The results showed no significant differences between the groups in alpha amplitude, but there was a significant task effect with the vigilance condition, story comprehension, and rehearsal showing decreasing alpha amplitudes in both groups of subjects. Analysis of the narratives showed the group with learning disabilities to produce significantly shorter and less cohesive stories. Results are discussed in relation to other studies of hemispheric processing differences in populations with learning disabilities.     

A complex dynamic systems perspective on teacher learning and identity formation: an instrumental case

ABSTRACT

Scholars have called for new conceptualisations of teachers’ learning that capture the complex, contextualised, and dynamic nature of professional growth. In this article, we describe the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) that portrays teacher learning as inseparable from the complex and dynamic processes by which teachers form their professional identities. The model depicts theoretical and procedural learning about teaching as integrated with other ontological and epistemological beliefs, self-perceptions and self-definitions, purpose and goals in teaching, and perceived action possibilities that constitute the teacher’s professional role identity. After describing the DSMRI, we demonstrate its application with an instrumental case of a science teacher who participated in a professional development (PD) institute designed to foster learning and motivation for implementing student-centred, inquiry-based instruction. DSMRI-guided analysis of pre-, mid-, and post-institute interviews highlighted the role of pre-PD role identities of learner and teacher in the teacher’s PD experiences, which, in turn, fostered both new alignments and new tensions in the teacher’s role identity that promoted an overall change towards a more student-centred teacher role identity. The article demonstrates the utility of the DSMRI for conceptualising teachers’ learning as contextualised and dynamic identity formation processes.     

School choice in rural Nigeria? The limits of low-fee private schooling in Kwara State

The rise in low-fee private (LFP) primary schooling serving relatively poor clients is becoming well-documented. However much of this literature focuses on urban areas whose dense populations are favourable to market growth and competition. This paper goes some way to filling a gap in the literature on whether LFP schools are serving the needs of the poor in rural areas, taking the case of one Nigerian state. It contrasts the situation in rural areas with that of urban Ilorin, where private schools cater to over half of all enrolled children. The paper shows that private schooling is currently inaccessible to the poor, with only 3.3% of children in the poorest 40% of the population attending them, and only 13% of enrolled children in rural areas. The key message is that redoubled efforts are needed to improve government schools as providers of last resort to those bypassed by the market.     

Just picking it up? Young children learning with technology at home

We describe a two year empirical investigation of three‐ and four‐year‐old children's uses of technology at home, based on a survey of 346 families and 24 case studies. Using a socio‐cultural approach, we discuss the range of technologies children encounter in the home, the different forms their learning takes, the roles of adults and other children and how family practices support this learning. Many parents believed that they did not teach children how to use technology. We discuss parents' beliefs that their children ‘pick up’ their competencies with technology and identify trial and error, copying and demonstration as typical modes of learning. Parents tend to consider that their children are mainly self‐taught and underestimate their own role in supporting learning and the extent to which learning with technology is culturally transmitted within the family.     

Through the nominations of principals: Effective teachers of African American students share limitations of high-stakes testing

This study examines how elementary school teachers, nominated by their principals as effective teachers of African American students, perceive their effectiveness in an era of high-stakes testing that is influenced and constrained by policy dominance. The implications in this study might be useful in preparing prospective and practicing teachers to examine their instructional practices as they pursue successful outcomes with culturally diverse students.