The complexities of supporting Asian international pre‐service teachers as they undertake practicum

Increasing numbers of Asian international students are choosing to undertake their tertiary studies in English‐speaking countries. For universities, international students are an important source of revenue. However, Asian international students face multiple challenges in adapting to a foreign culture, understanding the expectations of their role, and adjusting to language, communication and cultural differences. These challenges are manifested, in particular, during practicum or field experience. This paper investigated the concerns of twenty Asian pre‐service teachers before and after their practicum in Australian schools by drawing upon data from focus group interviews. Although language barriers and cultural differences were identified concerns before the practicum, concerns about their relationship with their supervising teachers and the limited time in which they had to learn also emerged after the practicum. Whilst the findings are limited to the present study, implications for supporting Asian international pre‐service teachers during practicum are discussed.     

Exploring the Affective Inner Experiences of Therapists in Training: The Qualitative Interaction Between Session Experience and Session Content

Thirty‐four 1st‐year counseling students recorded their inner experiences following a simulated counseling session. Using a qualitative collective case study approach to extract emotion from a large pool of inner experience, 6 judges identified samples of affect through a triangulation process using intensity, extreme, and critical case sampling and then coded them into naturally occurring core ideas and domains. Affective experiences in the inner experiences were found frequently and were often quite intense. Affect was verbally suppressed and was mostly not noticeable on the audiocassettes. Four predominant affective themes emerged from the inner experiences: anger/frustration, disappointment/regret, anxiety/fear, and happiness/excitement.     

Prenatal Risk and Infant Regulation: Indirect Pathways via Fetal Growth and Maternal Prenatal Stress and Anger

Pathways from maternal tobacco, marijuana, stress, and anger in pregnancy to infant reactivity and regulation (RR) at 9 months of infant age were examined in a low‐income, diverse sample beginning in the first trimester of pregnancy, with fetal growth and postnatal stress/anger as potential mediators, and infant sex as a moderator. Participants were 247 dyads (173 substance‐exposed infants). There were no direct effects of prenatal risk on RR and no moderation by sex. However, there were significant indirect effects on RR via poor fetal growth and higher postnatal anger. The study adds to the sparse literature on joint effects of tobacco and marijuana, and highlights the role of fetal growth and maternal anger as important pathways from prenatal risk to infant RR.     

Scientists' views of science,models of writing,and science writing practices

Written and oral communications and the processes of writing and reading are highly valued within the scientific community; scientists who communicate well are successful in gaining recognition and support from members of their own communities, the research funding agencies, and the wider society. Yet how do scientists achieve this proficiency? Are expert scientists equally expert writers in and of science? Do scientists' perceptions of the nature of science influence their writing strategies and processes, and their beliefs about the role of writing in knowledge construction? This study used a questionnaire and semistructured interviews to document these perceptions, strategies, processes, and beliefs in a nonrandom sample of Canadian university scientists and engineers. The results indicate that the scientists subscribed to a contemporary evaluativist view of science, used common writing strategies, held similar beliefs about scientific writing and nonscientific writing, and agreed that writing generates insights and clarifies ambiguity in science. The engineers held a different view of technology than the common views of science or technology as simply applied science. These findings were slightly different than those found for American scientists from a large land‐grant university. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 338–369, 2004     

How Do Faculty Make Formative Use of Student Evaluation Feedback?: A Multiple Case Study

This multiple case study explored faculty formative use of student evaluation feedback. Results were based on interviews of ten education faculty members at a midwestern research university and reviews of relevant documents. It was found that end of semester student evaluation, originally used for summative evaluation, was also used by faculty for teaching improvement purposes. Faculty cared for student evaluation feedback and used discretion in using the feedback to improve their teaching. Faculty also experienced anxiety and tensions in the context of a mandated summative evaluation. Variations were found in faculty use of evaluation feedback, as a result of difference in background and experience.     

Preschoolers' Ability to Distinguish Living Kinds as a Function of Regrowth

In order to acquire a theory of biology, children must acquire knowledge about living kinds. Although many studies have shown that preschool children do not accurately classify living kinds and do not use appropriate properties when asked to decide whether something is a living kind, recent work has shown that 3- and 4-year-olds do know something about biological growth. The ability of kinds to heal through regrowth was used in this paper as a measure of children's implicit understanding that plants and animals can be grouped together. In 3 experiments, children were told that animals, plants, and artifacts had been damaged and were asked whether the objects could heal through regorwth and whether a person could mend them. In all studies, children were sensitive to ontological kind, 4-year-olds realized that both plants and animals can regrow but that artifacts must be fixed by human intervention. 3-year-olds were less knowledgeable but did realize that artifacts cannot regrow. Overall, children showed some biological knowledge, implicity grouping plants and animals together and differentiating them from artifacts.     

Lenghth of Maternity Leave and Quality of Mother-Infant Interactions

The aim of this study was to assess the association between the length of maternity leave and the quality of mother-infant interactions; 198 employed mothers of 4-month-old infants were interviewed and videotaped in their homes during a feeding time. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated a direct association between shorter length of leave and more negative affect and behavior in maternal interactions with their infants. Infant and mother stressor/protective variables added significantly in predicting the quality of the mother-infant relationship. There were also significant interaction effects between the length of leave and these variables. Mothers who either reported more depressive symptoms or who perceived their infant as having a more difficult temperament and who had shorter leaves, compared with mothers who had longer leaves, were observed to express less positive affect, sensitivity, and responsiveness in interactions with their infants. The public policy implications of the relation between length of maternity leave, maternal and infant individual differences, and the quality of mother-infant interactions are discussed.     

A study of conceptual development in early childhood

This paper reports part of a study which investigated young children's conceptions of scientific and technological phenomena and the conceptual change that occurs during the teaching of science in pre-school, Transition/Year One and Year Two/Three classrooms. Science lessons from each school/centre were audio and video taped for a period of six months. Informal interviewing of teachers occurred in direct response to lessons observed. Informal interviewing of children was conducted to determine current scientific thinking in relation to the science lessons presented by the teacher. Two main elements emerged. First, different types of teacher-child interactions were evident during the science lessons observed and it was found that specifically focused interactions led to conceptual development in young children. Second, children's views (whether scientific or not) were maintained over a three month period.     

Exploring teachers' knowledge of children's literature

In the context of the current debate about teaching reading, research to ascertain primary teachers' personal and professional reading practices was undertaken. The study explored teachers' reading habits and preferences, investigated their knowledge of children's literature, and documented their reported use of such texts and involvement with library services. Questionnaire responses were gathered from 1200 teachers. The data were analysed and connections made between the teachers' own reading habits and preferences, their knowledge of children's literature, their accessing practices and pedagogic use of literature in school. This paper reports on part of the dataset and focuses on teachers' knowledge of children's literature; it reveals that primary professionals lean on a narrow repertoire of authors, poets and picture fiction creators. It also discusses teachers' personal reading preferences and considers divergences and connections between these as well as the implications of the teachers' limited repertoires on the reading development of young learners.