BUILDIT

看,乐乐搭了—座房子!你也来搭—座房子吧!你会把什么放在房子里面把什么放在房子外面呢？     

Exploratory Talk and Task-based Learning: A Case Study of a Student’s Learning Journey on an MA (Education) English Language Teaching Course

This article records and evaluates a student’s learning journey in two modules on an MA (Education) English Language Teaching (ELT) programme: an Oracy and ELT Pedagogy module and an Educational Technologies module. The notions of ‘exploratory talk’ and ‘task-based learning’ are explored using a single case study with material drawn from the student’s autobiography and diary, the spoken and written assignments, and the student and lecturers’ reflections on completion of the modules. We show, through the use of autobiography and critical reflection, what the student brings to the course and how this reflection allows him to use and transfer knowledge from one module to another. We analyse the ways in which the modules complement each other and how this influences the student’s learning and teaching practice. We then identify the key features of his learning in relation to ELT pedagogy.     

The emergent literacy skills of four-year-old children receiving free kindergarten early childhood education in New Zealand

This study investigated the emergent literacy and language skills of four-year-old children in New Zealand during their kindergarten year prior to school-entry. A total of 92 four-year-old children from a range of socio-economic areas were seen individually at their local kindergarten and were assessed on code-related measures (letter name knowledge, initial phoneme awareness, emergent name writing) and meaning-related measures (story comprehension and retelling ability). Approximately, 60% of the parents completed a home literacy questionnaire. Regression analyses showed no effect for age on any of the code-related measures. In contrast, significant effects for age were found on story comprehension and retelling ability. There were no differences in performance based on gender with two exceptions: Girls performed better than boys on letter name knowledge and early name writing. Questionnaire results suggested literacy activities were valued in the home environment with most parents reporting reading to their child each night, and the majority of parents reported owning more than 60 children’s books. Results from the current study suggest more explicit teaching may be necessary within the kindergarten curriculum to facilitate the code-related skills linked to successful word recognition ability and early spelling development.     

Attitudes to the Teaching of History and the use of Creative Skills in Japan and England: a comparative study

Students in Cambridgeshire comprehensive schools and in Yamanashi junior high schools aged between 12 and 13 years were given the same questionnaires which explored their views on the nature of history and their experience of history teaching methods. They undertook a test on the creative use of four historical pictures dealing with life for black South Africans in the 1970s, a topic which none had studied at school. The English National Foundation for Educational Research non‐verbal test of intelligence was also administered. In spite of the fact that the use of sources and empathetic historical thinking do not form part of the Japanese historical curriculum, the Japanese students did not perform significantly worse than the English, for whom the interrogation of sources and the deployment of creative thinking are a normal part of the history curriculum. If Japanese teachers want to make a change in their students’ attainment in history, there will be no alteration until there is a change in attitude about the nature of history, the way it is taught and the manner in which is is assessed.     

A Constructivist Approach to Teaching Permutations and Combinations

A lesson is described where students construct their own knowledge of permutations and combinations by exploring a problem situation. This helps students gain an appreciation of real-world implications of these topics while developing a strong conceptual understanding of them.     

Identifying Screening Abilities to Reduce the Uncertainty of Worker Task–Environment Fit

A potential problem for individuals in an organization, for the organization, and for researchers of organizational behavior is the lack of recognition of individual differences as an explanation of differences in behavior within the organization. Often research results indicate an aggregate of behavior of all individuals within the organization ignoring how the individual behavior of a single person can have an effect of the performance of that individual and on organizational effectiveness. This paper examines the interrelationship of stimulus screening, the nature of an individual's task and environment setting and its impact on individual per formance and organizational effectiveness. A rationale for the topic, review of literature, and issues pertinent to organizational research and practice are presented.