Lifelong learning and becoming a mother: evaluation of the Young Parents Program

The purpose of this research was to identify how lifelong learning has the potential to accommodate the changed circumstances and future needs of women who become mothers as teenagers. The research drew on the previously separate theories of lifelong learning and becoming a mother to frame this initial study. A qualitative case study was used to evaluate the Young Parents Program, which was devised to meet the informal learning needs of young mothers aged between 15 and 25 years. A total of eight mothers completed a survey and four of them also participated in a focus group interview to provide more in depth responses. The results indicate that the content of the programme provided relevant information that met the informal learning needs of the participants. The delivery of the programme helped participants to make connections with other young mothers in similar circumstances. The findings imply that informal learning programmes that respond well to the immediate needs of young mothers have the potential to prevent young mothers from becoming socially isolated. Young mothers who become engrossed in their own problems without access to relevant informal learning may fail to undertake formal learning opportunities that might be available in the future.     

Scaffolding 5-year-old children in Japanese kindergarten collaboratively retelling a tale

This study reports an analysis of how children in a Japanese kindergarten are scaffolded when facing the challenge of collaboratively retelling a kitsune story they have been told. What is referred to as a kitsune story is an example of a trickster tale with foxes as anthropomorphised animals. The participants were ten 5-year-old children and their teacher. Told a story by their teacher, the children were asked later to collaboratively retell it. How this retelling activity is supported – theorised in terms of the metaphor of scaffolding – is analysed on the basis of recordings. The findings show the nature of this evolving process. The conclusion is that the metaphor of scaffolding may require some contextual specification to remain a functional conceptual – and in extension, pedagogical – tool in activities fundamentally different from the activity studied in Wood, Bruner and Ross’ founding 1976 study.     

Carnosine in health and disease

Abstract

Carnosine was originally discovered in skeletal muscle, where it exists in larger amounts than in other tissues. The majority of research into the physiological roles of carnosine have been conducted on skeletal muscle. Given this and the potential for muscle carnosine content to be increased with supplementation, there is now a large body of research examining the ergogenic effects (or otherwise) of carnosine. More recent research, however, points towards a potential for carnosine to exert a wider range of physiological effects in other tissues, including the brain, heart, pancreas, kidney and cancer cells. Taken together, this is suggestive of a potential for carnosine to have therapeutic benefits in health and disease, although this is by no means without complication. Herein, we will provide a review of the current literature relating to the potential therapeutic effects of carnosine in health and disease.     

The inadvertent creation of a neocolonial culture: A study of western sojourners in India

Field work and structured interviews with 139 foreign sojourners in India were analyzed to describe the socialization of aliens into their role. Attitude scales measuring favorability toward the host country and people were also examined in relation to the respondent's occupational status and elapsed time in India. The results from the field work and interviews suggest that the privileges and high status accorded many Western visitors may contribute to the visitors' derogation of their hosts, a process which is often subtle but unmistakable. The visitors appear to become socialized into the world of aliens rather than the world of their hosts. The higher the visitor's status and the longer the elapsed time in India, the more pronounced these patterns appear. While the correlational nature of the study makes it impossible to determine whether persons with initially unfavorable attitudes are selected into the high status positions or whether the positions themselves create such attitudes, it appears reasonable to conclude that there would be less derogation and alienation if the lures of status and money were removed; persons would be neither selected nor influenced by such factors.     

Vulnerability to Bullying: Teacher-reported conduct and emotional problems,hyperactivity, peer relationship difficulties,and prosocial behaviour in primary school children

Twenty five class teachers completed a "Strengths and Difficulties" assessment for 523 children aged from 7 to 11 years of age. Children self-completed a 39-item "My Life in School" questionnaire. One third of the sample were self-reported victims of bullying behaviour. Boys with poor prosocial skills, emotional problems and general difficulties with social interaction, expression of emotion and hyperactivity were at greatest risk of being bullied. There was no significant effect of age. The data support previous research findings that gender influences the prevalence of bullying but not that younger children are more vulnerable. This study provides new evidence that teachers recognise social behaviour and interactions that can significantly affect whether primary school children are bullied.     

Interactive radiological anatomy eLearning solution for first year medical students: Development,integration, and impact on learning

A technology enhanced learning and teaching (TELT) solution, radiological anatomy (RA) eLearning, composed of a range of identification‐based and guided learning activities related to normal and pathological X‐ray images, was devised for the Year 1 nervous and locomotor course at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton. Its effectiveness was evaluated using a questionnaire, pre‐ and post‐tests, focus groups, summative assessment, and tracking data. Since introduced in 2009, a total of 781 students have used RA eLearning, and among them 167 Year 1 students in 2011, of whom 116 participated in the evaluation study. Students enjoyed learning (77%) with RA eLearning, found it was easy to use (81%) and actively engaged them in their learning (75%), all of which were associated to the usability, learning design of the TELT solution and its integration in the curriculum; 80% of students reported RA eLearning helped their revision of anatomy and 69% stated that it facilitated their application of anatomy in a clinical context, both of which were associated with the benefits offered by the learning and activities design. At the end of course summative assessment, student knowledge of RA eLearning relevant topics (mean 80%; SD ±16) was significantly better as compared to topics not relevant to RA eLearning (mean 63%; SD ±15) (mean difference 18%; 95% CI 15% to 20%; P < 0.001). A well designed and integrated TELT solution can be an efficient method for facilitating the application, integration, and contextualization of anatomy and radiology to create a blended learning environment. Anat Sci Educ 7: 350–360. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

What’s in a name? Preschoolers’ noun learning performance in relation to their risk for reading disability

This paper reports the findings of an investigation aimed at gaining a clearer understanding of the nature of vocabulary difficulties associated with dyslexia and associated risk status. Three studies were conducted to examine preschoolers’ access and mastery of syntactic- and phonological-based processes believed to support word learning. Results are reported for 82 participants whose (reading) risk status was assessed from a composite of measures known to be related to reading development. As expected, risk status correlated positively with participants’ ability to recall the phonological form of novel nouns. No relationship was found between risk status and participants’ use of syntactic form-class cues in interpreting the noun class of novel names in isolation. However, the ability to use form-class cues was impaired for at-risk participants on a task that required them to learn both the phonological form and noun class. Findings are discussed in relation to the suggestion that limitations in processing resources such as working memory rather than in the availability of language structures may be at the root of the reported poor performance by at-risk children on vocabulary and other linguistic measures.

Writing across the academic languages: introduction

Reading and Writing -     

老龄澳大利亚籍华人的身体活动观

身体活动指“由骨骼肌产生的体能消耗运动”．是保持身体健康、增进社会交往的重要方式和途径。在澳大利亚，虽然有研究调查民族群体身体活动的各个层面，但总体而言．多数研究更侧重于民族群体的同质性，而忽视了其异质性。本研究探讨在新南威尔士州居住的澳籍香港老年华人对身体活动的概念理解及对身体活动的态度。研究使用开放性问卷进行个体深度访谈，受访者22人。研究发现，大多数受访者不清楚“身体活动”这一术语的含义，对他们来说，“身体活动”是一个模糊的、复杂的术语。该群体对身体活动的态度反映了他们在预防性卫生保健方面的文化和健康观念。显然，提升澳籍香港老年华人的身体活动水平．需要一种基于文化特殊性的健康促进策略以解决对身体活动的误解，同时也需要具体的身体活动态度与华人整体性保健观念相匹配。