Discipline and rules in four Hong Kong kindergarten classrooms: a qualitative case study

Classroom discipline is a topic of international interest and teachers are bombarded with advice regarding how to and why they should manage children’s behaviour in their classrooms. This paper draws on data related to classroom discipline gathered from a detailed classroom observation schedule, teacher interviews, and field notes with four purposively selected kindergarten teachers working in Hong Kong with children aged 5–6 years. The findings of this qualitative case study show that the teachers were concerned about disciplining children to ensure good behaviour. They expected all children to follow the rules and used characteristic discipline strategies such as stating expectations and ‘praising the opposite’ to maintain good behaviour. The paper discusses these findings in light of the Westernisation of kindergarten teaching practices in Hong Kong.     

Behavioural phenotypes in the classroom: a qualitative study of parental and teacher knowledge of classroom guidelines and teacher views on best practices

Research suggests that genetic syndromes associated with intellectual disability often have specific cognitive and behavioural profiles. It has been suggested that educational approaches need to reflect these profiles. Parents (n = 381) and teachers (n = 204) of children with one of four syndromes, fragile X syndrome, Prader–Willi syndrome, Williams syndrome and velo‐cardio‐facial syndrome were surveyed. Syndromes were compared with respect to what parents and teachers had researched or been told with respect to appropriate educational approaches. Parent and teacher reports were subsequently compared with actual published guidelines on the syndromes. Teachers were also surveyed on what they felt were successful approaches based on actual experiences of teaching the children. Parent and teacher reports of efficacious strategies for supporting their children based on what they had been researched or been told differed across syndromes as might be anticipated. However, differences between parents and teachers and between parent/teacher reports and the published guidelines suggest that parent and teacher knowledge of guidelines is deficient and/or that parents and teachers are accessing knowledge elsewhere. With respect to teaching practices, there were much less differences between the syndromes than in the published guidelines indicating that differences between syndromes in guidelines may not be as evident in practice.     

ALL THIS AND HEAVEN,TOO? A DIVIDED LIFE,BUT ONLY ONE ME!

As is true of so many women professionals, Joyce Tsunoda recognizes that, although shefulfills multiple roles,she is "only one me." Inthis accountingof a typical 1-month period in her hectic career, Dr. Tsunoda re ects on the philosophy that allows her to keep her many "selves" together and focused. In both her personal and her professional lives, Joyce Tsunoda dwells in the international realm. Her children and grandchildren are divided between Hawaii and Japan. Her professional responsibilities include heading a statewide system of seven community colleges spread over six islands, yet also handling international responsibilities for the 10-campus statewide University of Hawaii System of which the Community Colleges are a part. This article recounts a one-month period during which Joyce traveled from Hawaii to Japan, back through Hawaii to the East Coast of the mainland United States, and home once again to Hawaii. Her Japanese heritage, combined with her American upbringing, proves to be a two-edged sword as she experiences both her "grandmother" role and her professional role in Japan. Through all the travel and the many personal and professional demands on her time, she steers her true course by remembering life's many Ls: leading, listening, liking, learning, letting go, and language of the lullaby.     

Mastering course content and learner satisfaction in early childhood education: A comparison of regular classroom instruction with three variations of internet delivery*

Abstract

In the spring semester 2000, a Penn State course, ECE 479 (The Young Child's Play as Educative Process), was taught by the same instructor in four delivery formats. One group consisted of a regular classroom, held on campus. A second group, also on campus, was taught in a computer lab via the Internet; and there were opportunities for interaction with peers and the instructor. A third group took the course on the Internet as part of a local distance education group; hence, there were some limited opportunities for face‐to‐face interaction with peers and the instructor. The fourth group took the course on the Internet, as part of a statewide distance education group, where there were no opportunities for face‐to‐face interaction. Twenty students who enrolled in the course (5 per group) completed questionnaires and phone interviews. Information was gathered on professional backgrounds, computer experience, and initial level of content knowledge on the topic of the ECE Internet course. Sixteen students who completed the course were interviewed again to evaluate satisfaction with the course and to estimate learning outcomes. Across the four conditions general satisfaction was expressed with the content, activities, and course requirements and with the teacher. However, students in the three computer groups expressed dissatisfaction over technical problems (all four who did not complete the course came from these computer groups). Significant gains in content knowledge occurred for the classroom group, while the learning in the three Internet‐based instruction groups did not show the same gains. Concern was expressed related to the lack of face‐to‐face interaction, making the learning environment less desirable. Although Internet technology provides a great deal of promise, these results suggest that improvements are needed to make this delivery modality more effective for in‐service distance learning. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

     

The Effectiveness of Direct-Instruction and Student-Centered Teaching Methods on Students' Functional Understanding of Plagiarism

ABSTRACT

To improve students' functional understanding of plagiarism, a variety of approaches was tried within a comprehensive information literacy program. Sessions were taught as a “module” inside a required communications skills class at a private university. Approaches taken included control, direct-instruction, and student-centered sessions. Students were taught content and definitions regarding plagiarism, what circumstances or instances constitute plagiarism, where to go for help in avoiding plagiarism, and what constitutes appropriate paraphrasing. Pretest and posttest scores indicated that no approach performed significantly better than the others; however, even though students improved across all methods, they nonetheless showed the need for more hands-on practice.     

Long-term effects of synthetic versus analytic phonics teaching on the reading and spelling ability of 10?year old boys and girls

A comparison was made of 10-year-old boys and girls who had learnt to read by analytic or synthetic phonics methods as part of their early literacy programmes. The boys taught by the synthetic phonics method had better word reading than the girls in their classes, and their spelling and reading comprehension was as good. In contrast, with analytic phonics teaching, although the boys performed as well as the girls in word reading, they had inferior spelling and reading comprehension. Overall, the group taught by synthetic phonics had better word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension. There was no evidence that the synthetic phonics approach, which early on teaches children to blend letter sounds in order to read unfamiliar words, led to any impairment in the reading of irregular words.