The Effects of Information and Feedback on Teachers’ Classroom Behaviour and Students’ Academic Engaged Time

Research has shown a positive relationship between academic engaged time (AET), academic learning time (ALT) and student achievement. Previous work has reported a relatively non‐intrusive, cost‐effective method for increasing AET in the classroom involving the presentation of research information followed by feedback to teachers of students’ AET in their classes. This study aimed to replicate these findings in a primary school setting and to establish what effects the information plus feedback had on teachers’ instructional behaviours which have been found to correlate with students’ AET and ALT. In addition, we looked at the effects of more precise feedback based on students’ task difficulty measures. The results provided strong support for the utility and efficacy of information plus feedback as a method for increasing student AET and ALT and for enabling teachers to change their instructional behaviours in the direction of published research findings.     

Classroom Activities and Areas: Regularity of Use and Perceptions of Adaptability by General Early Educators

This report describes a mail survey of general early educators from Head Start, public school pre-kindergarten, public school kindergarten, and community preschool/child care programs. The purposes were to secure information about the availability of classroom activities and areas, and to obtain the respondents' perceptions of the ease with which activities and areas could be adapted to accommodate children with disabilities. Of the 893 mailed questionnaires, 483 (54.1%) were returned and coded. The respondents reportedly used a wide range of classroom activities and areas, and they rated those activities and areas as moderately easy to adapt. Also, respondents from mainstreamed programs used slightly more activities and perceived the activities as easier to adapt than did respondents from non-mainstreamed programs. The findings appear to indicate that placement of children with disabilities in segregated programs cannot be justified on grounds that integration will restrict the range of activities available to typically developing children, or on the grounds that the adaptations are perceived by program staff as too difficult to be accomplished.     

Itinerant Booksellers: Necessary Evils to the Book Trade in Ghana?

Itinerant booksellers play very significant but less noticeable role in the book trade in Ghana and many developing economies. They are the mobile booksellers who carry their collections to the doorsteps of their consumers. This paper highlights the contributions of itinerant booksellers to book distribution in Ghana. The paper makes a case for and against itinerant bookselling in Ghana. First, the paper raises issues with the quality and content of some of the reading materials peddled by the itinerant booksellers and discusses their implications for copyright and book development. The paper then argues that in spite of their shortcomings, itinerant booksellers have the potential to assist in finding a lasting solution to the book distribution problems of the country, and, need to be encouraged and assisted by book industry players such as the Ghana Development Council, Ghana Book Publishers Association, and the Ghana Booksellers Association to contribute meaningfully to Ghana??s book business.     

Production Guides

Martin Clifford's Microphones: How They Work and How to Use Them (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, 1977—$8.95/ 5.95)

James Carroll and Ronald Sherriffs, TV Lighting Handbook ($12.95, 226 pp.)

Harry Kybett, The Complete Handbook of Videocassette Recorders ($9.95/5.95, 280 pp.)

Dave Ingram, The Complete Handbook of Slow-Scan TV ($14.95/9.95, 304 pp.)

G. Paul Smeyak's Broadcast News Writing (Columbus, Ohio: Grid Publishing, 1977—$7.95, paper)     

Telecommunications

Robert Lee Chartrand and James W. Norentz, Jr., eds. Information Technology Serving, Society (Oxford and New York: Pergamon Press, 1979—E12.50/$25.00)

Rosario Joseph Tosiello, The Birth and Early Years of the Bell Telephone System: 1376-1880 (New York: Aicno Press, 1979—$32.00)

James E. Brittain, ed. Turning Points in American Electrical History (New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Press [dist. by John Wiley], 1977– $20.00, paper)

Harry L. Van Trees, ed. Satellite Communications (New York: IEEE/John Wiley, 1979—$27.00, paper with a hardback edition available)

Dave Ingram's Oscar: The Ham Radio Satellites (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa: Tab Books, 1979—$8.95/4.95)

Clayton Hallmark's How to Repair Old-Time Radios (Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: Tab Books, 1979—$12.95/7.95)

Telecommunications Law Reform (American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1150 17th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20036 —price not given, paper)     

Reconceptualizing Elementary Teacher Preparation: A case for informal science education

The purpose of this case study was to explore the ways in which 3 different informal science experiences in the context of an elementary methods course influenced a group of prospective elementary teachers' ideas about science teaching and learning as well as their understandings about the role of informal science environments to teaching and learning. In order to address this question, data were collected in a period of an academic semester through the following sources: journal entries for each of the 3 experiences, a personal teaching philosophy statement and a 2-hour long semi-structured interview with each of the 12 participants. Open coding techniques were used to analyze the data in order to construct categories and subcategories and eventually to identify emerging themes. The outcomes of the analysis showed that the inclusion of informal science experiences in the context of teacher preparation has the potential to support beginning elementary teachers' development of contemporary ideas about science teaching and learning related to inquiry-based science, the nature of scientific work and the work of scientists, connecting science with everyday life, and making science fun and personally meaningful. These findings are discussed alongside implications for policy, teacher preparation, and research under these themes: (a) addressing reform recommendations; (b) developing positive orientations toward science and science teaching; and (c) constructing understandings about scientists' work.     

The Role of Narrative in Communicating Science

The present theoretical paper presents a case for the use of narrative (i.e., fictional written text) in science education as a way of making science meaningful, relevant, and accessible to the public. Grounded in literature pointing to the value of narrative in supporting learning and the need to explore new modes of communicating science, this paper explores the potential of narrative in science education. More specifically, in this paper we explore the question: What is narrative and why might it be of value to science education? In answering this question we propose a view of narrative and its necessary components, which permits narrative a role in science education, and is, in fact, the main contribution of this paper. Also, a range of examples of narrative text are offered in the paper to make the case for a representation of fictional narrative in science. In order to address questions connected with the use of narrative in science education, a research agenda based on perspectives of narrative implications for learning is framed.     

Formative assessment: the role of participatory action research in blending policy and practice in Uganda

This paper documents teachers’ assessment practices and pupils’ learning to read and write in large classes. To gain insights into the assessment practices and pupils’ learning, the principles of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development and participatory action research (PAR) design were adopted. Collaboratively, teachers reflected on their assessment practices, developed, implemented and monitored the assessment practices. Through observation, in-depth interview and review of exercise books, data were obtained. We argue that teachers’ involvement in PAR has contributed to changing assessment practices in large classes and in improving pupils’ competencies in reading and writing. On the other hand to promote better assessment practices, we advocate for reduced number of pupils in a class and teachers’ workload to enable them offer more support to the pupils during assessment of reading and writing.