Family Science Talk in Museums: Predicting Children's Engagement From Variations in Talk and Activity

Children's developing reasoning skills are better understood within the context of their social and cultural lives. As part of a research–museum partnership, this article reports a study exploring science‐relevant conversations of 82 families, with children between 3 and 11 years, while visiting a children's museum exhibit about mammoth bones, and in a focused one‐on‐one exploration of a “mystery object.” Parents' use of a variety of types of science talk predicted children's conceptual engagement in the exhibit, but interestingly, different types of parent talk predicted children's engagement depending on the order of the two activities. The findings illustrate the importance of studying children's thinking in real‐world contexts and inform creation of effective real‐world science experiences for children and families.     

Using Cultural Identity to Improve Learning

Many South-African learners, bringing their particular cultural identity to the higher education environment, find it challenging to achieve the academic literacy required for successful mastery of their studies. Though they want to realize academic success, a cultural chasm may exist between their cultural roots and their academic identity.

This article explores a model of academic language support that acknowledges cultural identity to facilitate access to academic scientific content and language. An action research project was conducted to test this model and discover whether incorporating indigenous knowledge in LEA 111 (English for Academic Advancement in Science and Health Sciences) would facilitate mastery of academic scientific content as well as language skills.     

The RAVE-O Intervention: Connecting Neuroscience to the Classroom

ABSTRACT—This article explores the ways in which knowledge from the cognitive neurosciences, linguistics, and education interact to deepen our understanding of reading's complexity and to inform reading intervention. We first describe how research on brain abnormalities and naming speed processes has shaped both our conceptualization of reading disabilities and the design of a multicomponent reading intervention, the RAVE-O program. We then discuss the unique ways this program seeks to address the multiple and varied sources of disruption in struggling readers. Finally, we present efficacy data for the RAVE-O reading intervention across multiple school settings.     

Friendship and Popularity in Preschool Classrooms

The development of friendships and peer acceptance and their relation to children's emotional regulation and social-emotional behavior with others among a group of 3-5-year-old children was examined. Peer relationships and social-emotional skills were assessed early in the preschool year and peer relationships were assessed again late in the year. Preschool friendships were prevalent, moderately consistent across situations, and moderately stable over the course of the school year; peer acceptance also was moderately stable. Popularity of preschool children was related to their social behavior with peers both early and late in the school year but acceptance by the group was unrelated to children's emotion regulation. Number of mutual friendship choices was related to children's emotional regulation but not to social behaviors with peers late in the year. Acceptance by the peer group was related to number of mutual friends but there were some well-liked children who had no friends and disliked children who had friends. These results show the importance of popularity and early friendships in preschool classrooms. That is, these peer relationships are lasting and related to social and emotional development. Therefore, efforts to foster both group relations and mutual dyadic relationships should be included in preschool programming.     

Teacher reform in Indonesia: can offshore programs create lasting pedagogical shift?

Regional and national interest in reforming teaching in Indonesia has seen governments, NGOs and education specialists combine to drive pedagogical changes among school teachers there. Results of these programs have been indifferent at best. This paper reports on teacher reform programs in Provinsi Papua, one of the most marginal societies in Indonesia. The Papuan Provincial Government, AusAID and an Australian University focused on bringing cohorts of secondary teachers and Principals for professional development to Australia. An evaluative, survey inquiry was conducted into the effectiveness of a series of AusAID (now DFAT Australian Aid) Scholarship programs on changing capacities and approaches of teachers and Principals at least eighteen months after their off-shore experience. Findings revealed significant changes in teaching practices, improved quality of teacher-student relationships and improved interactions with colleagues. We argue that our findings demonstrate an appetite for student-centred approaches to teaching and that off-shore programs may have important outcomes that larger scale, in-country programs fail to realise. This has implications for DFAT Australian Aid-funded and similar Scholarship programs.     

Manager communication and workplace trust: Understanding manager and employee perceptions in the e-world

Today's business environment is populated with individuals who are digitally connected to clients, contractors, managers, and employees. Traditionally, the ways and behaviors of managers had developed and thrived within face-to-face work environments, but as computer-mediated technologies continue to change the boundaries of the business community, permit alternative worksites to increase, and the traditional workday to disappear, the role of the manager has changed. This article focuses on the communication behaviors between managers and their employees, and how these behaviors have changed as digital communication methods have become mainstream within organizations today. The variables of interest are manager communication and workplace trust. The intended outcome is to uncover the expectations that have yet to be agreed upon within the manager–employee e-relationship.