Nature study,Aborigines and the Australian kindergarten: lessons from Martha Simpson’s Australian Programme based on the Life and Customs of the Australian Black

This article examines an experimental kindergarten programme Work in the Kindergarten: An Australian Programme based on the Life and Customs of the Australian Black developed by Martha Simpson in early twentieth-century Australia. Here Simpson adapted international Revisionist Froebelian approaches to cultural epoch theory and nature study in an Australian context. Accepting that human development recapitulates, Simpson posited that Aboriginal culture could serve as stimulus for age-appropriate and improving child-centred activities. Local contingencies, including histories of violent cross-racial encounter, complicated an attempt by kindergartener Helen Beaumont to apply the programme in the Sydney slum suburb of Leichhardt. These contingencies are documented and analysed.     

Physical Discipline Use and Child Behavior Problems in Low-Income,High-Risk African American Families

This article has been retracted.     

Genetics Interfaces: Representing Science and Enacting Public Discourse in Online Spaces

This article analyzes the Web interfaces of two well-known national civic action groups, both related to genetics research: the Genetic Alliance and the Innocence Project. These two sites are excellent examples of interface design and information retrieval, and they also attempt to translate complex science to the general public, even those traditionally most underrepresented and marginalized by the complexities of science and technology. The Genetic Alliance and Innocence Project provide excellent case studies for technical communication courses about the necessity to marry factual scientific knowledge with cultural and emotional rhetorics while providing an interface for multiple stakeholders in public policy change.     

Using Action Research to Innov8: Facilitating Culture Shifts in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

ABSTRACT

The mission of a community college is distinct from a research one university, where empirical research is valued over investigation of discipline-based teaching and learning. The open-access, affordable, workforce, and transfer emphasis that serves many non-traditional community college students is a rich, meaningful environment for fostering the scholarship of teaching and learning, yet despite an emphasis on best practices and student success outcomes, teaching, and learning in this environment is an underappreciated element of the faculty role. This study explores the use of action research to facilitate engagement in the scholarship of teaching and instructional innovation. The mixed-method action research design incorporated quantitative and qualitative analysis from a wide variety of data sources and triangulated findings through a variation of techniques, including ongoing researcher dialogue and ratings. Action research serves as both the method for this study and the mechanism for faculty research on classroom innovations. This was substantiated as a catalyst for cultivating ongoing inquiry and professional growth. The Innov8 program and integration of action research appears to have a long-term, substantive impact on faculty perspectives, specifically influencing faculty culture, continued educational investigation, and ultimately student learning outcomes.     

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT,TEACHING, AND LEARNING: TOWARD A CAMPUSWIDE LANGUAGE AND SYSTEM

On most community college campuses where quality and improvement are taken seriously, there are at least three coexisting languages. The language of total quality management is spoken by administrators and by faculty members who teach management or business courses; the language of assessment is spoken by both faculty members and administrators; and the language of teaching and learning is spoken primarily by faculty members and academic administrators. Each language reflects a philosophical commitment to improvement. Each overlaps in terminology with the other two. Each suffices well in its own domain. Yet each is, by itself, insufficient as a campuswide lingua franca of continuous improvement. These languages may continue to coexist. If a college is really to accomplish a paradigm shift throughout the institution, however, it must generate its own language—a language spoken by all, a language that describes and discusses a campuswide system of quality, improvement, and change.     

Riding the Cutting Edge

When Western Wisconsin Technical College created the Health Benefits Improvement Team, they had no experience with the complexity and ever-changing demands of health care and its associated costs. See how they've embraced their mission and are changing the way business is done in their community.     

Changes in Understandings of Three Teachers' Beliefs and Practice Across Time: Moving From Teacher Preparation to In-Service Teaching

Beliefs often guide a teacher's decision-making, thinking, and practice in the classroom (Vartuli, 2005 Vartuli, S. 2005. Beliefs: The heart of teaching. Young Children, 60: 76–86.  [Google Scholar]). There is limited longitudinal research on how early childhood preservice teachers develop new knowledge about their beliefs as they transition into in-service teaching positions (Joram & Gabriele, 1998 Joram, E. and Gabriele, A. J. 1998. Preservice teachers' prior beliefs: Transforming obstacles into opportunities. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14: 175–191. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Across 4 years that encompassed a series of three studies, this article chronicles three teachers' understandings of how their beliefs and practices were interrelated and informed by one another. Preservice teachers were interviewed and completed written reflections as they moved from under the umbrella of an undergraduate early childhood teacher preparation program into classrooms as in-service teachers. Findings reveal (a) how the preservice teachers' beliefs were initially unstable and nascent during Study One, (b) how a transactional nature between beliefs and practice began to emerge during Study Two, and (c) how, during Study Three, this relational exchange contributed to an increase in deliberate action as in-service teachers. Implications for early childhood teacher preparation programs include ensuring opportunities for preservice teachers to use self-reflection and inquiry across a range of course and field experiences as they identify and make connections between beliefs and practice.     

COLLABORATION AMONG EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHERS AND FACULTY THROUGH A REGGIO INSPIRED LONG‐TERM PROJECT

To effectively teach young children, early childhood teachers must be prepared to collaborate with families of diverse backgrounds. Studying the unique cultural contexts of children and families in American early care and education programs and communities will offer early educators information needed to develop empathy for the families with whom they wish to partner. This study investigated the attitudes of Chinese graduate students in the United States toward American early care and education programs. Chinese graduate students are a unique and growing population of approximately 189,000, 40% of whom have at least one child attending American early care and education programs. Chinese graduate students’ educational expectations for their young children and reasons behind these expectations were also explored. Findings showed that participants’ views of American early care and education reflected Chinese culture and life experience. In terms of American education, these Chinese graduate students compared the American programs’ curricula to the Chinese national curriculum, a curriculum they successfully mastered. Implications for early childhood teacher education programs are discussed.     

Literacy Growth in the Academic Year Versus Summer From Preschool Through Second Grade: Differential Effects of Schooling Across Four Skills

Differences in literacy growth over the summer versus the school year were examined to isolate how schooling affects children's literacy development from preschool through second grade across four literacy skills. Children (n = 383) were tested individually twice each year for up to 4 years on measures of phonological awareness, decoding, reading comprehension, and vocabulary. Growth curve analyses indicated that schooling effects were greatest for decoding skills and reading comprehension, were medium in size for phonological awareness, and were less evident for vocabulary. Except for vocabulary, relatively small amounts of growth were observed for preschoolers, followed by a period of rapid growth for kindergarteners and first graders, which slowed again for second graders. Findings demonstrate the differential effect of schooling on four separate literacy skills during the crucial school transition period.     

Increasing Adult Learner Motivation for Completing Self‐Directed E‐Learning

This article explores methods organizations can use to increase self‐directed e‐learning completion rates and overall satisfaction. It focuses on three main areas of application: (a) increasing organizational support and positive initial user expectations, (b) reducing factors that lead to learner mental overload, and (c) designing motivational strategies into the learning content. Although applicable as general principles, relevent strategies, theories, and models are discussed with a focus on organizations offering technical product training for their clients.