“This is America”: Examining Artifactual Literacies as Austere Love Across Contexts of Schools and Everyday Use

The Urban Review - In this paper, we consider how teachers and teacher educators may foreground relationships, experiences, pasts, and possibilities to more fully recognize and extend...     

Does the study of Latin affect spelling proficiency?

This investigation explores Latin study as a possible route to superior spelling proficiency. The spelling ability of two groups of academically able eleventh graders — students of Latin and students of other second languages — is compared. It was found that the Latin students were superior in general spelling ability and were particularly proficient at spelling words of Latin origin. In addition, analysis of the spelling of derivatives for which knowledge of Latin could either facilitate or mislead the speller shows that Latin students were differentially affected by the two types of derivatives. In contrast, students of other second languages, lacking the knowledge of Latinate derivatives, simply made more errors on both types of words. Thus, it appears that Latin study does have an effect on spelling performance. Whether it can fully account for the superior spelling proficiency of the Latin students, however, remains a question to be answered by a prospective longitudinal investigation. Implications for instruction drawn from the present study are discussed.     

Guidance and Counselling of the Gifted and Talented in New Zealand

This paper examines the state of guidance and counselling in New Zealand specific to the needs of gifted and talented young people. It considers the policy and practices in education in this domain and guidance and counselling services in this context. Drawing on key literature in this field, it identifies the major issues and needs of the gifted and talented that counsellors should be aware of and be able to address. Finally, it looks at future developments in this increasingly important area of interest.     

An investigation of student teachers' knowledge about their own learning

Twenty-nine student teachers from a large metropolitan university in Queensland, Australia were interviewed at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of a year-long graduate diploma in education to investigate the nature of their knowledge about learning and changes in such knowledge over the year. At Time 1 and Time 2 most students thought learning should be meaningful and preferred to use transformative learning approaches. However, students indicated a willingness to engage in reproductive approaches to learning if the content to be learned was uninteresting, workloads were high, or assessment was examination-focussed. The results also indicated that while many students did not experience significant changes in their knowledge about learning over the year, they believed that transformative learning had become more of a focus for them. Investigating student teachers' knowledge about learning has implications for effective learning in teacher education programs.     

Personal epistemology and relational pedagogy in early childhood teacher education programs

Over the last decade, research related to personal epistemological beliefs has offered insight into how to promote effective teaching and learning across educational settings. Personal epistemological beliefs reflect an individual's views about what knowledge is, how knowledge is gained, and the degree of certainty with which knowledge can be held. However, there has been no research that specifically investigates the relationship between such epistemological beliefs and early childhood practice. This paper draws together current research findings on epistemological beliefs and tertiary learning to provide a conceptual framework which can be used in early childhood teacher education programs to provide a basis for investigating early childhood teachers' understanding about their own learning and how they use this knowledge in their practice.     

如何应付上级--一个争取事业成功时常被忽视的因素

One of the most common obstacles people face in their careers is a bad relationship with their boss. Difficult relationships with supervisors lead to missed advancement opportunities,     

Aiming for service excellence: Implementing a plan for customer service quality at a blended service desk

ABSTRACT

This article discusses a public service review and redesign that resulted in a blended service desk combining reference and circulation functions, staffed by nonlibrarians. The redesign implements a number of organizational structures that encourage service excellence, as found in the business literature and in examples of nonlibrary organizations that excel in customer service. The article identifies key organizational structures that have been shown to support or hinder good service and discusses the process of implementing these structures in practice and the results of an assessment process designed around determining success.     

Sponsored and contest modes of social reproduction in selective community college programs

Theoretical constructs derived from the work of Turner (1960) and Hopper (1971) are discussed to clarify how community colleges may contribute to the social reproduction—the perpetuation and legitimation—of inequalities in wealth, power, and status. Data collected on two selective-entry community-college-allied-health-career programs are presented to illustrate the utility of examining the structural effects and ideological bases of educational programs in terms of contest and sponsored modes of social reproduction. Findings indicate that ethnic group inequalities are reinforced in both programs, but in different ways. In one program, nonwhites are discriminated against at the admission stage; but when they are admitted, white and nonwhite students receive equivalent sponsorship toward completing the degree. In the other program, nonwhites are not only less likely to be admitted, but among those admitted, nonwhites are more likely to drop out or be eased out before completing the contest. The ideologies of implementation and legitimation drawn upon by key gate-keepers to explain each program appear to correspond to the systems of social reproduction evidenced in the respective program's structural effects.An earlier version of this paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, April 11–15, 1983.     

Quality of Center Child Care and Infant Cognitive and Language Development

The relations between quality of center-based child care and infant cognitive and language development were examined in a sample of 79 African-American 12-month-old infants. Both structural and process measures of quality of child care were collected through interviews with the center director and observation of the infant classroom. Results indicated that quality of infant care positively correlated with scores on standardized assessments of cognitive development ( Bayley Scales of Infant Development ), language development (Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development), and communication skills (Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales). In addition, quality of care in child care centers and at home was positively related. Analyses that adjusted for this association between quality of care at home and in child care suggested that the process measure of quality of child care independently related to the infant's cognitive development, and one structural measure, the infant-adult ratio, independently related to the infant's overall communication skills. Neither child nor family factors was found to moderate the association between child care quality and infant development. These findings, in conjunction with the growing child care literature, suggest that researchers and policymakers should focus on how quality of child care can be improved to enhance, not impair, infant development.