THE CONFIDENCE TO TEACH ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS: EXPLORING COURSEWORK'S ROLE IN DEVELOPING PRESERVICE TEACHERS' EFFICACY

As our schools become increasingly diverse and the effects of immigration can be felt across the nation, some states have mandated that preservice teachers take endorsement courses that focus on teaching English Language Learners (ELLs) with the purpose of ensuring that teachers are able to meet ELLs' social and academic needs. A significant factor in improving instructional practices for ELLs is preservice teachers' confidence in their ability to teach ELLs successfully. What remains to be seen, however, is how best to organize and implement endorsement courses so that they have a positive effect on teachers' confidence to use their new knowledge to teach in effective ways. In this study, we discuss how endorsement curricula can build teachers' self-efficacy for teaching ELLs by not just covering the required content, but by being conscientious in how the curricula are organized and delivered. By providing teachers with the foundational knowledge through the use of meaningful and engaging pedagogical practices, preservice teachers' efficacy and beliefs about instructing ELLs will increase. This, in turn, will provide them with the confidence to teach those who may be very different culturally and linguistically from themselves.     

Dancing in the ditches: reflecting on the capacity of a university/school partnership to clarify the role of a teacher educator

This paper used the data collected from reflective diaries, semi-structured interviews and surveys to identify and examine common themes identified in the roles required and/or perceived for teacher educators by both teachers and teacher educators. Collaboration, discussion and critique enabled personal reflection as teacher educators worked as partners to schools in a state-sponsored teaching and learning skills project. We have termed the collaboration in such an interactive project as one of ‘dancing in the ditches’, often requiring both groups to get out of their comfortable spaces and engage with each other in constantly moving situations. The teacher educators were required to be change agents at the interface of theory and practice and their experiences reflected individual journeys, but their reflections have ongoing implications for clarifying and professionalising the role of teacher educators.     

Writers develop skills through collaboration: an action research approach

Collaborative approaches designed to increase writing productivity (amount written) as well as writing quality were implemented over a period of six months with a small group of 12 six‐year‐olds in a Primary School in Newcastle, NSW, Australia. The study demonstrated the positive nature of peer interactions with an increase in quality and productivity of writing products. The classroom teacher employed action research approaches where observations informed action, which in turn was reflected upon. Some central themes emerged from this study. It was found that collaboration often meant that students shared strengths and expertise, provided encouragement and assistance, as well as provided opportunities for peer tutoring.     

A Developmental,Person-Centered Approach to Exploring Multiple Motivational Pathways in Gifted Underachievement

Research on underachieving gifted students has uncovered a large number of characteristics differentiating gifted underachieving and achieving students. However, less is known about the way in which underachievement develops across schooling. Using a person-centered theoretical framework and key constructs from current motivational theories, we propose that there are multiple developmental trajectories in underachievement that arise from early school experiences. Two primary pathways are proposed: (a) a Maladaptive Competence Beliefs Pathway whereby underachievement results from the development of particular beliefs about giftedness and maladaptive coping behaviors, and (b) a Declining Value Beliefs Pathway in which underachievement develops from declining value beliefs and increasing perceptions of costs associated with academics. Avenues for future empirical research with these pathways are discussed.     

Tough transitions? Mediating beginning urban teachers’ practices through coteaching

The coteaching model for teacher preparation has emerged in recent years as an alternative to the traditional student teaching or practicum experience. Several studies have investigated the process of coteaching and its impact on participants during the actual experience; however, few depict participants’ experiences once they obtain positions and begin to teach independently. This collective case study explored two urban high school teachers’ (Jen and Ian) practices during the induction period after taking part in the coteaching model for student teaching. Using a sociocultural analytic framework, we found that the participants’ agency as beginning teachers was not constrained by their coteaching experiences. Rather, they were able to continue to draw on some of the successful practices they had in coteaching, such as shared reflection, shared responsibility, cogenerative dialogues, and building relationships with students. In addition to describing the coherence and contradictions between Ian’s and Jen’s practices during coteaching and in their beginning years of inservice teaching, we also discuss the ways that they became collaborators in our ethnographic research.

A Vaginal Birth After Cesarean,Attended by a Family Member Midwife Serving as Doula

In this column, a mother and her doula describe the strategies used during pregnancy and labor to maximize the success of a vaginal birth after a previous cesarean surgery.     

Dorsomedial Prefrontal Activity to Sadness Predicts Later Emotion Suppression and Depression Severity in Adolescent Girls

The present study used cross‐lagged panel analyses to test longitudinal associations among emotion regulation, prefrontal cortex (PFC) function, and depression severity in adolescent girls. The ventromedial and dorsomedial PFC (vmPFC and dmPFC) were regions of interest given their roles in depression pathophysiology, self‐referential processing, and emotion regulation. At ages 16 and 17, seventy‐eight girls completed a neuroimaging scan to assess changes in vmPFC and dmPFC activation to sad faces, and measures of depressive symptom severity and emotion regulation. The 1‐year cross‐lagged effects of dmPFC activity at age 16 on expressive suppression at age 17 and depressive symptomatology at age 17 were significant, demonstrating a predictive relation between dmPFC activity and both suppression and depressive severity.     

Using an active listening approach to consider the views of three young people on the topic of missing education

This research uses an active listening approach within a narrative inquiry methodology to consider the views of three teenage males aged 15–17 years on the topic of missing education. Missing education is a term used to describe children and young people (CYP) not receiving a suitable education or being on a school roll. The participants’ accounts were analysed using a Voice-Centred Relational Method to identify the complex interplay of systemic factors, the importance of individual experience and supportive adult–pupil relationships. The reflective accounts presented in this paper highlight implications for active and effective listening to CYP. A model was created to support the approaches educational psychologists (EPs) could use to support school staff, parents and other professionals in their work with individuals “missing education”.     

The Information Revolution in Illinois:A Community Informatics Perspective

本文以社群信息学理论为基础,围绕社群信息学的重大问题,探寻信息革命在社区中的社会起源及发展.通过对信息技术在伊利诺斯州本地机构中的使用情况进行调查,探寻当地社区信息革命的社会足迹.调查发现:网速测试暴露出的数字鸥沟仍然存在;信息技术应用总体来说得到了很好的发展,但是在信息技术负责人和机构负责人之间也存在差异;所有城镇参加调研者都能讲述令人颇感意外的当地信息技术起源的历史;一些特定组织网络是地方负责人可依靠的资源.推动社区跨越数字鸿沟的主要因素有:网络组织者,作为数字技术和网络早期采纳者的本地组织,计算机素养.图1.表4.参考文献36.