Teacher adaptation to flexible learning environments

Learning Environments Research - Teaching practices respond to the prompts, resources and inherent potential of a school’s physical, social and cultural landscape. This study involved how...     

Parent–Child Joint Behaviors in Novel Object Play Create High-Quality Data for Word Learning

This research takes a dyadic approach to study early word learning and focuses on toddlers’ (N = 20, age: 17–23 months) information seeking and parents’ information providing behaviors and the ways the two are coupled in real-time parent–child interactions. Using head-mounted eye tracking, this study provides the first detailed comparison of children’s and their parents’ behavioral and attentional patterns in two free-play contexts: one with novel objects with to-be-learned names (Learning condition) and the other with familiar objects with known names (Play condition). Children and parents in the Learning condition modified their individual and joint behaviors when encountering novel objects with to-be-learned names, which created clearer signals that reduced referential ambiguity and potentially facilitated word learning.     

Adult Tactile Stimulation during Face-to-Face Interactions Modulates Five-Month-Olds'' Affect and Attention

3 studies were designed to investigate infant responses to tactile stimulation during brief adult-infant interaction using a modified still-face (SF) procedure. When adults pose a neutral SF expression, infants decrease gazing and smiling at the adults, and some increase grimacing, relative to normal interaction periods. This SF effect was substantially reduced in Study 1 when mothers or strangers continued to touch infants during the SF period. In Studies 2 and 3, tactile versus visual and active versus passive aspects of adult touch were isolated during different SF periods. Visible, active adult hands unaccompanied by touch elicited infant attention, but not smiling, during the SF period. By contrast, active, not passive, adult touch substantially reduced the SF effect, even when the adult's hands were invisible. In the latter condition, infants continued to gaze and smile at the adult's SF. Thus, adult facial expressions are not the only modulator of infant affect and attention during social exchanges; adult touch appears to play an active role.     

Successful students who are deaf in general education settings

The study identified successful students who were deaf and were receiving most of their educational services in general education settings, in order to examine factors contributing to their success. Teachers in a western state were asked to nominate students who were deaf who were in the upper elementary through high school grades and were receiving most of their educational services in general education classrooms. Qualitative procedures were used to gather information on 20 successful students who were deaf. Inquiry focused on observation of the students in general education settings and interviews to gather perceptions of (a) the successful students themselves, (b) deaf education teachers, educational interpreters, and paraprofessional note takers serving these students, (c) general education teachers working with these students, and (d) parents. The students' primary communication modes were closely divided between sign language and spoken English; communication mode did not seem to be a salient factor in success. Results of the interviews with each group, a summary of observations, and themes that emerged across groups are provided.     

University teacher preparation programmes as a quality enhancement mechanism: evaluating impact beyond individual teachers’ practice

Conceptually, practically and rhetorically teaching is at the core of quality in higher education. University teaching preparation programmes (TPPs) are regularly advocated to foster enhancement of teaching but there remains limited evidence to demonstrate their effectiveness or impact as a quality improvement mechanism. Support for such programmes is largely a matter of faith amongst their advocates. This paper presents an analysis of the impact of one initial TPP to add to the body of evidence on the efficacy of such programmes. The results reinforce other research indicating that such programmes do have beneficial effects on individual academics. The benefits extend to work groups and have value to the institution. However, the transfer of learning by academics to practice takes time and is mediated by many factors. Nevertheless, where institutional and local departmental cultures value teaching, TPPs provide a useful strategy for quality enhancement in higher education.     

Book reviews

SPEAKING CHICANA: VOICE, POWER, AND IDENTITY. Edited by D. Letticia Galindo & Maria Dolores Gonzales. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999; pp. viii + 226. $45.00 cloth; $19.95 paper.

CULTURAL BOUNDARIES OF SCIENCE: CREDIBILITY ON THE LINE. By Thomas Gieryn. Chicago: University Press, 1999; xiv + 398. $58.00 cloth; $16.80 paper.

ILLNESS AND CULTURE IN THE POSTMODERN AGE. By David B. Morris. Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1998. $19.25 cloth.

DANCING IN CHAINS: NARRATIVE AND MEMORY IN POLITICAL THEORY. By Joshua F. Dienstag, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997; pp. 1–268. $45.00; $16.95 paper.

CIVIC WARS: DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC LIFE IN THE AMERICAN CITY DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. By Mary Ryan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. 376 pp. $40.00 cloth; $14.36 paper.

TELLING THE SUCCESS STORY: ACCLAIMING AND DISCLAIMING DISCOURSE. By P.J. Benoit. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1997. $39.50 cloth; $12.95 paper.

BLOOD SACRIFICE AND THE NATION: TOTEM RITUALS AND THE AMERICAN FLAG. Carolyn Marvin and David W. Ingle. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1999; pp. 398. £50.00 hardback; £18.95.     

UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ VIEWS OF THE ROLE OF MATHEMATICS IN THEIR FUTURE

We report on an international study about mathematics students’ ideas of how they will use mathematics in their future study and careers. This builds on our previous research into students’ conceptions of mathematics. In this paper, we use data from two groups of students studying mathematics: those who participated in an in-depth interview and those who completed an open-ended questionnaire. We found that their responses could be grouped into four categories: don’t know; procedural skills; conceptual skills; and professional skills. Although some students held clear ideas about the role of mathematics, many were not able to articulate how it would be used in their future. This has implications for their approach to learning and our approach to teaching.     

Developing a model for e‐prints and open access journal content in UK further and higher education

A study carried out for the UK Joint Information Systems Committee examined models for the provision of access to material in institutional and subject‐based archives and in open access journals. Their relative merits were considered, addressing not only technical concerns but also how e‐print provision (by authors) can be achieved – an essential factor for an effective e‐print delivery service (for users). A ‘harvesting’ model is recommended, where the metadata of articles deposited in distributed archives are harvested, stored and enhanced by a national service. This model has major advantages over the alternatives of a national centralized service or a completely decentralized one. Options for the implementation of a service based on the harvesting model are presented.