Intake assessments for alternative teacher education: moving from legitimation towards predictive validity

There is little empirical evidence concerning the predictive validity of indicators used in intake assessments for alternative teacher education programs. However, pinpointing potentially successful candidates requires predictors of teacher competence, which may be used to assess candidates’ dispositions, knowledge and skills. Available evidence regarding six possible predictors of teacher competence is examined and their limitations and possibilities are pointed out. Recommendations and methodological guidelines are given for developing and using these indicators in valid and reliable ways. Directions are explored for instrument development and assessment practice.     

Helping Military Families Who Have a Child with a Disability Cope with Stress

This exploratory study investigates perceived levels of family stress for military families who have a young child with a disability. Two primary areas of study were the sources and levels of stress, and the benefits of resources designed to help families cope. Results of the study indicate an increased level of stress for families when the demands of military life were coupled with the demands of caring for a young child with a disability. Events such as separation from family members, relocation, deployment, and personal safety and health issues emerged as concerns of the military personnel. The importance of coordinating services for these families is discussed.     

Simulating the global workplace for graduate employability

Higher education institutions increasingly recognise the need to develop both disciplinary knowledge and soft skills to foster the employability of their graduates. For students in International Studies programmes, the workplace opportunities to develop soft skills relevant to their intended professions are scarce, costly and unavailable to many. This paper argues that universities can harness the power of ICTs in ways that students find engaging and offer opportunities to gain professional experience that prepares them for an international workplace. We describe a new work-integrated learning model that embeds a multi-layered in-person simulation within an academic context. Facilitated by cross-national pedagogical collaboration, students participate live in cross-campus experiential learning with online peers. Students’ reflections on the model indicate that this model can foster a range of generic soft skills that enable them to apply their academic knowledge, collaborate with a culturally diverse group and work in a digital world. To refine this blended learning model, more attention needs to be paid to designing appropriate evaluation tools and harnessing cultural diversity more effectively.     

Mapping pre-service teachers’ evolving information and communication technologies pedagogy

The research examined the nature and scope of e-portfolio reflective writing by primary pre-service teachers about their classroom implementation of information and communication technologies. Familiar and new technologies require a teacher to be able to confidently identify the pedagogical potential for effective learning and teaching. With the author as a teacher educator, uncovering of aspects of commonality and patterns of emphasis in pre-service teachers’ reflective writing prompted reconsideration of established education practice. A qualitative thematic coding approach was adopted using an initial stimulus of Mezirow et al.’s notions of transformational learning: content, process and premise reflection. Extracts were coded by case, structurally and thematically using qualitative analysis software. Distinct categories emerged from cycles of analysis and a comprehensive typological map was created that provided insights into pre-service teachers’ emergent pedagogic thinking in relation to their use of technology whilst on school placements. The research led to revised scaffolding prompts, particularly in relation to premise reflection, for pre-service teachers engaged in reflective writing as a tool to transform and enrich their pedagogical understanding of the interplay between technology, teaching and learning.     

Metacognition of young readers in an early intervention programme

This qualitative study was designed to investigate the metacognitive behaviour displayed by young children during their involvement in a reading intervention program, using videotapes of both intervention sessions and stimulated recall to access metacognition. The children demonstrated a wide range of metacognitive behaviour consistent with models of metacognition for older children proposed by researchers such as Flavell (1979) and Paris (Cross and Paris, 1988). Most metacognitive responses during intervention sessions involved self-regulation whereas responses during stimulated recall tended to reflect metacognitive awareness of reading strategies. Results support the need to use multiple measures of metacognition with young children as well as the need for further research on the relationship between metacognition and reading achievement of children in reading intervention programmes.     

Experiences in the internationalization of education: Strategies to promote equality of opportunity at Monterrey Tech

This article provides an analysis of the reasons why educational institutions choose to internationalize the services they offer, how universities are internationalizing and to explore who is participating in the internationalization process. It not only addresses the theory surrounding the internationalization of education but also the practical issues of implementing it and making it accessible to students from a wide range of socio-economic situations. A case study of a summer study program in Poland for students from the Monterrey Tech (in Spanish El Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, ITESM), Cd. Juarez Campus, Chihuahua, Mexico, is used to explore two theoretical questions: can equality of opportunity be achieved for all students in the process of the internationalization of education and what are the characteristics of the internationalization of education which affect development? These issues take on concrete forms when an educational institution attempts to internationalize the education it offers. At that time, organizations and the people in them must confront questions such as: what strategies can be implemented to internationalize the education offered and how can students of fewer economic means be included in the international opportunities available? My focus is on the benefits and costs to the undergraduate student with an emphasis on examining equality of opportunity for each student.     

The ‘messy’ business of academic developers leading other academic developers: critical reflection on a curriculum realignment exercise

Little has been written about academic developers (ADs) working in teams leading other ADs. This paper chronicles the experience of a group of ADs in one Australian university working on a curriculum realignment exercise. Unexpectedly the dominant theme in participants’ reflections was group dynamics, not the process. We were confronted by unstated assumptions about ADs working collaboratively and shocked to realise that ADs, like academics, resist change. Our interpretation of that ‘resistance’ was a salutary reminder of the extent to which academic development work reflects broader social, political, and institutional contexts and discourses. Parallels between this context and ADs working with academics are drawn.     

Evaluating learning

Summary It is essential that any system of assessment or evaluation arise from what we are trying to do, what we value, what we think to be important. In informal education, we value growth and development, we value interest and involvement, and this must be reflected in the records we keep. We know that young children are at the beginning of the educational process, they are finding out about school, what's in education for them personally; they are learning about learning, building up learning styles and strategies. It is a critical period where learning power can be built or shifted, where learning can be exciting and personal, or dull and irrelevant. On no account can we allow irrelevant evaluation tools to get in the way of learning.The notions put forward here are that assessment and forward planning are interdependent. Continuous assessment is an essential feature of informal education and it is the basis of day-to-day planning. Additionally, there needs to be a profile, or cumulative record, of all aspects of children's growth throughout their school life.Examples of children's work kept in a folder over a long period of time provide the fullest example of the variety and range of a child's work and his growing ability to represent it, in writing and through the use of creative materials. They provide a basis for reporting to parents that gives them real information about their own child's learning.It is important that informal class teachers should develop some framework against which to measure children's work. The Piagetian tests provide measures of children's growth in mathematical, logical and moral spheres. There are instruments developed for measuring developing complexity in written and spoken language. Reading can be assessed and a diagnosis made using a simple inventory and the miscue analysis. These approaches have real relevance to informal education and once teachers become familiar with them, they can be used without fuss, without creating artificial conditions, without designating failures, in the everyday interaction of teacher and child.A teacher who finds a child failing, having particular difficulties, should have available skilled help for expert diagnosis. The school health service and the psychological service offer this kind of help. Particularly, a child who shows no sign of beginning to learn to read should not go beyond 7 years without careful screening to ascertain any real physipal or psychological problem. His late start may be due to immaturity or lack of experience or low intelligence. It may be due to poor teaching, or changing schools. A skilled psychologist and a medical examination will eliminate or confirm the likelihood of any other problem.One of the most damaging misconceptions about informal education is that it is woolly and vague. We can counteract this accusation only if we can show a high degree:of professionalism, and evidence or real knowledge about what and how children are learning, and demonstrate our competence in assessing this learning as a basis for future planning. Moira McKenzie is warden of the Ebury Center for Language in Primary Education in London. Wendla Kernig is headmistress of a London primary school. This article is taken from their forthcoming bookThe Challenge of Informal Education,to be published this fall by Agathon Press.     

Coping strategies and the influence of perceived parental support in junior national age swimmers

This study examines how national junior age group swimmers cope with poor performance and explores whether coping strategy use changes with perceptions of parental support. One hundred and four junior age group swimmers (mean age 14.2 years) completed a modified version of the COPE scale (Crocker & Issack, 1997) and the perceptions of Perceived Parental Support Scale (Van Yperen, 1995). Results showed that the swimmers in this sample used a mixture of behavioural and cognitive strategies with an emphasis upon individual or internally focused approaches. When analysing coping strategies and perceptions of parental support (high, medium and low), significant differences were found in the use of behavioural and cognitively orientated approaches. When perception of parental support was low, swimmers reported using less active and training-orientated mechanisms and a tendency to use strategies such as self-blame and venting of emotion. These findings suggest that the effectiveness and ability of coping strategies to adapt to differing situations may be contingent upon perceptions of perceived support for junior swimmers. This highlights an area for future research.     

OWL (On‐line Webstories for Learning): a unique web‐based literacy resource for primary/elementary children

Technology resources created for use by children have often been drill and practise or game‐like in approach. For a literacy resource, the use of narrative provides an opportunity for children to become more immersed in an environment rich in print and illustrations that supports the development of reading skills while encouraging the enjoyment of reading. This paper will examine the rationale for the incorporation of narrative in the OWL (On‐line Webstories for Learning) resource, and how the narrative line is supported by on‐line and off‐line activities.