A Qualitative Examination of the Challenges, Resources, and Strategies for Serving Children Learning English in Head Start

The dramatic growth in the number of children learning English as a second language in our country has led to a corresponding increase in the need to understand how teachers and schools can effectively teach children who are learning English as a second language. Many teachers report not feeling prepared to meet the needs of these children (National Center for Education Statistics, Teacher preparation and professional development: 2000. , 2002). The current study used focus group interviews to examine how Head Start teachers in one program addressed the special learning needs of children learning English in their classrooms. Key challenges involved communicating with children and their families in their home language. Teachers used other staff, parents, and children in the classroom to interpret. Strategies involved visual aids, pictures, gestures, and a welcoming classroom environment. Resources used by teachers were professional development and language skills of other staff. However, available resources were often underutilized and limited for teachers to use in meeting the challenges the teachers faced in the classroom. Suggestions are presented for overcoming the challenges and limited resources encountered by teachers, such as changes in preservice and inservice training opportunities, and second language learning opportunities for teachers. Further implications for training and research are discussed.     

Students’ communicative behavior adaptability in CSCL environments

By the proliferation of online courses, the social dimension of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is becoming more important than before. Research shows that communicative behavior adaptation to the computer medium is a critical issue in CSCL social relationship development. Two dominant theories in the CSCL field, social information processing theory and adaptive structuration theory, argue that individuals do not simply receive the technology passively but they adapt their behavior to increase benefits from the technology. This paper develops an instrument in order to operationalize the notion of individual’s communicative behavior adaptability in CSCL. Through an exploratory factor analysis performed on a small sample of post graduate students of an online degree in an Australian university, three factors have been unveiled: (1) individual perception of self-representation, (2) individual perception of compatibility, and (3) individual perception of the use of computer technology. Identification of these factors is expected to facilitate understanding of individuals’ social behaviors in CSCL environment, which in turn will guide the design of CSCL systems. In addition, the paper examines the relationships between the extracted factors and four environmental factors: learner’s characteristics, course characteristics, instructor characteristics, and technology characteristics. The results show that none of these characteristics strongly affect perception of self-representation or perception of the use of computer technology. On the other hand, a strong relationship was found between perception of compatibility and learner’s and course characteristics. The reliability as well as validity of the study is examined and findings are discussed. These findings will provide further insights into the design process of CSCL systems.     

高职园林工程技术专业“园林树木学’’课程改革初探

为适应城市建设和房地产行业的迅猛发展,作为园林工程技术专业（园林规划设计方向）的核心课程《园林树木学》的课程教学必须进行迅速而深刻的改革,应结合国内园林专业学生就业形势以及高职教育的本身特点,改革教学内容、更新教学方法,建立适应市场需要的人才培养新模式,采用多元化考核评定方式,以培养有人才市场、有竞争优势、服务于园林建设行业的专业人才。     

Winning the Battle,Losing the War: Bilingual Teachers and Post-Proposition 227

The implementation of Proposition 227 has created chaos, uncertainty, and a hostile environment for bilingual education teachers. This study describes the experiences of 20 bilingual education teachers in Southern California. In in-depth interviews, teachers speak out about the challenges, frustrations, fears, and the increasing animosity they face on a daily basis, and how they resist and contest the language enforcer role in various ways. Out of the chaos that has been created by Proposition 227, these bilingual teachers have emerged as the language civil rights activists of the new millennium.     

EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN TELEVISION PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES AND PRESENTATION STRATEGIES: CURRENT DIRECTIONS

This paper, first delivered at the 1979 Conference, reviews 25 years of experimental research into production and presentation variables. A number of suggestions are made for continuing research in specific areas and a bibliography of 45 references is appended.     

How do people read the passages during a reading comprehension test? The effect of reading purpose on text processing behavior

In this study, we investigate the effect of reading purpose on students’ processing behavior during a reading comprehension test. In a repeated measures design, sixty undergraduates answered multiple-choice (MC) reading comprehension questions in a condition with no overarching goal for reading and in an alternate condition where the same students were first provided with the goal of summarizing the text before answering MC questions. Results from eye tracking analysis showed that when students read and answered questions without an overarching goal, they spent much less time reading the passages before answering the questions, more time re-reading the texts while answering the questions, and more time on parts of the text that were not necessary to answer the questions. We conclude that providing examinees without an explicit goal for reading may inadvertently encourage a “search for the answer” reading process, rather than on building a coherent mental model of text content.     

Saussurian linguistics revisited: Can it inform our interpretation of mathematical activity?

This paper examines the basic notions of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) who was a preeminent figure in the development of linguistics and the foundation of structuralism. It suggests that a key aspect of twentieth century thought has been the growing recognition that the study of language can offer a framework through which we can develop an understanding of our world. It thus proposes that language is fundamental to the process of learning mathematics on every level whether it be through classroom discussion, group exploration, teacher exposition or individual interaction with printed material. Ensuing from this the paper investigates possible mathematical perspectives upon Saussure's ideas and explores what contribution his work can offer to enhance and enrich the interpretive framework through which we observe mathematical activity in the classroom. It takes as an example a mathematical investigation carried out by a group of 12 year old girls and develops the analysis from a Saussurian stance. The paper concludes that language is the medium through which, and in which, mathematical ideas are formed and exchanged.