Inter-professional working and learning: instructional actions and boundary crossing or boundary making in oral healthcare

Inter-professional teams are typical in health care, and inter-professional education has thus become more common. This empirical study explores the instruction-related challenges when students of dentistry and oral hygiene collaborate during their internship in caring for the oral health of patients. The conceptual framework of the study stems from cultural-historical activity theory, the aim being to explore the instructional actions and boundary crossing of clinical instructors while they were supervising the students. The main data comprise 17 videotaped treatment sessions, which were organised three-dimensionally in sequences, themes and topics, and analysed in terms of the instructional and boundary-crossing actions. The results reveal chains of subtle and rich instructional actions classified as instructive, evaluative and collaborative. Instructional boundary crossing occurred rarely and was also boundary-making: positioning, moving and communicating. It should be taken into account in the field of inter-professional working and learning that instructional boundaries seem easier to maintain than to cross, and professional teachers at educational institutions and instructors in workplaces need to be aware of this.     

Child Care Quality in The Netherlands Over the Years: A Closer Look

Research Findings: We assessed the quality of child care in a nationally representative sample of 200 Dutch child care centers using the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale–Revised and/or Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale–Revised and compared it with a previous assessment in 2005. The Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP) scales were used to rate the quality of caregiver–child interactions. Results showed a significant and substantial decline in quality compared to 2005, with 49% of the groups now scoring below the minimal level. The CIP scales showed relatively high scores for the basic caregiver interactive skills of sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, and structuring and limit setting but much lower scores for the more educational skills of verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions. Caregiver sensitive responsiveness was significantly lower in infant groups (0–2 years) than in preschool groups (2–4 years); caregiver respect for autonomy, verbal communication, developmental stimulation, and fostering positive peer interactions were significantly lower in infant groups than in preschool groups and mixed-age groups (0–4 years). Practice or Policy: Quality of child care is not stable across the years, and regular quality assessments are therefore needed to monitor child care quality. The low scores on the more educational versus the more basic caregiver interactive skills indicate that these skills deserve more attention in caregiver education and training. Training programs should be attuned to the individual interaction skill profile of caregivers.     

Induction and Mentoring of Beginning Researchers at Academic Colleges of Education in Israel

This study focuses on similarities and differences in expectations of cooperating teachers and student teachers in the initial stage of the mentor relationship in the context of an Israeli practicum program for pre‐service student teachers. These expectations, particularly when they conflict, can serve as major obstacles to the formation of contexts for learning. A focus group technique was used to bring the expectations of the participants concerning the role of the cooperating teacher to awareness and articulation. The theoretical framework of Calderhead and Shorrock (1987) was used to analyze the participants’ expectations into categories of educational orientations. Expectations of a practical and technical nature were found to be prevalent among members of both groups, whereas the student teacher group held more expectations for a personal relationship than the cooperating teacher group. Suggestions are given for bridging the gap in expectations between cooperating teachers and student teachers in the initial stage of the practicum program.     

Music and the Music Business

Sidney Shemel and M. William Krasilovsky's This Business of Music (New York: Billboard Publications, 1977— $16.95)

Marianne Lindvall's ABBA: The Ultimate Pop Group (New York: A&W Publishers, 1977—$6.95, paper)

Caroline Coon's 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1978—$4.95, paper)

Mark C. Gridley's Jazz Styles (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1978—price not given, paper)

Raoul Abdul's Blacks in Classical Music (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1977—$8.95)

David Horn's The Literature of American Music in Books and Folk Music Collections: A Fully Annotated Bibliography (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1977—$20.00)

Arthur Jacobs' British Music Yearbook: 1977-78 (New York and London: Bowker, 1977— $27.50)

The Book of Music (London: Macdonald Educational Ltd., 1977—E8.50 or about $17.00)     

A case study of using peer feedback in face-to-face and distance learning classes among pre-service teachers

This study investigated a feedback exchange activity for engaging pre-service teachers and the nature of such feedback in two undergraduate classes, a distance learning (DL) and a face-to-face (F2F) class. The research question asked if the nature of peer feedback was different between F2F and DL class formats. Students’ work samples were collected during class time to examine feedback function ratings. Participants also completed an online questionnaire to examine the nature of expectations of the feedback given. For both the nature of expectations and feedback function ratings, results for chi-square analyses demonstrated no statistically significant difference between the two modes of instruction (F2F versus DL), and the peer feedback categories. However, provision of feedback was significantly favoured in the F2F class over the DL class. Implications for course curriculum and future research are discussed.     

Social Learning as an Approach to Environmental Education: Lessons from a program focusing on non-indigenous,invasive species

We used a social learning framework to evaluate the results of an extension education program focusing on non-indigenous, invasive species (NIS) in New York State. Sixteen teams of professional staff and volunteers from Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and a land trust participated in a 2-day NIS workshop, following which they worked with local government agencies, schools, industry, and non-profit groups to implement 15 education and 7 management programs. Developing collaborative programs that address local needs is an important aspect of social learning and learning communities in extension education. However, the program lacked other elements of social learning, e.g. educators evaluating and sharing the results of their local efforts. The potential for using social learning theory, which previously has been applied to sustainable agriculture and natural resources management, in environmental education may be viewed in light of motivating factors, benefits, and challenges for participants.     

Inquiry-based science teaching in community secondary schools in Tanzania: role played by the language of instruction

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Developing learners’ critical thinking skills through inquiry-based teaching has been an important aspect of science education. This is an exploratory...     

Traditional and Evaluative Aspects of Flexibility in Gender Roles, Social Conventions, Moral Rules, and Physical Laws

Traditional and evaluative aspects of flexibility regarding transgressions across several domains (masculine and feminine gender roles, moral rules, social etiquette, and physical law) were assessed in 24 4-year-olds, 40 8-year-olds, and 46 college undergraduates. Traditional and evaluative aspects of flexibility yielded distinctly different patterns of response. Data indicated an age-related increase in flexibility on traditional measures (i.e., traditional rule flexibility, cultural relativity) for transgressions in all domains, except physical laws. In contrast, subjects in all age groups were consistently negative in their evaluations of transgressions in moral rules, etiquette, and masculine gender roles. Female subjects viewed masculine gender role transgressions with greater flexibility and less negativity than did male subjects. Results demonstrate the multidimensional character of flexibility development in different social and physical domains. Results suggest that masculine and feminine gender roles and social etiquette may not fall within a common domain of social convention.