Letter knowledge in parent–child conversations

Learning about letters is an important component of emergent literacy. We explored the possibility that parent speech provides information about letters, and also that children’s speech reflects their own letter knowledge. By studying conversations transcribed in CHILDES (MacWhinney, 2000) between parents and children aged one to five, we found that alphabetic order influenced use of individual letters and letter sequences. The frequency of letters in children’s books influenced parent utterances throughout the age range studied, but children’s utterances only after age two. Conversations emphasized some literacy-relevant features of letters, such as their shapes and association with words, but not letters’ sounds. Describing these patterns and how they change over the preschool years offers important insight into the home literacy environment.     

Reexamining the Link Between Cultivation Factors and Viewer Involvement: Investigating Viewing Amount as a Catalyst for the Transportation Process

In an effort to expand on prior cultivation research involving narrative processing (Bilandzic &; Busselle, 2008 Bilandzic , H. , &; Busselle , R. W. ( 2008 ). Transportation and transportability in the cultivation of genre-consistent attitudes and estimates . Journal of Communication , 58 ( 3 ), 508 – 529 . doi: 10.1111/j.1460–2466.2008.00397.x [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), this study examined the interrelationships between viewing amount and the transportation process. Results showed that transportation mediated the relationship between genre-specific television viewing and perceived realism, while overall television viewing directly predicted reduced counterarguing. In addition, structural equation modeling was employed to test a combined cultivation-transportation model leading to changes in viewer excessive drinking perceptions. Findings indicated that genre-specific television viewing indirectly influenced beliefs through increased transportation. Conversely, a significant, direct path was found between overall viewing and excessive drinking beliefs, supporting the original cultivation perspective.     

An analysis of management and economics journals at the University of Lethbridge: Beyond usage data

This article investigates the importance of journal titles in the area of Management and Economics at the University of Lethbridge in southern Alberta, Canada. Not wanting to rely solely on usage data, the author undertook a citation analysis to see which journals were most frequently published in by the university's authors. The results showed that usage data does not tell the whole story when it comes to a journal's importance to an institution. The analysis also illuminated publishers providing journals which were most frequently used.     

A Collective Impact Approach To The Reading Achievement Gap

Abstract

This essay profiles The Big Lift, a multi-agency initiative to improve third-grade reading proficiency in San Mateo County, California. The Big Lift is an example of collective impact, in which organizations from different sectors unite around a common agenda to solve a social challenge. This kind of initiative goes beyond collaboration, requiring its own infrastructure, dedicated staff, ongoing communication and shared measurements of success. Library participation is critical to the success of community and literacy-focused collective impact projects like The Big Lift.     

Engaging the Experts in Museum Computing: Seven Years of Queries on MCN‐L

MCN‐L, an email listserv administered by the Museum Computer Network, is open to anyone interested in discussing information technology in museums and other cultural heritage organizations. To determine how MCN‐L meets the needs of museum information professionals, this study presents an analysis of more than 6,000 emails sent to the listserv over a seven‐year period (2004–2011). The results of this analysis indicate that MCN‐L adds value to the online community of museum information professionals by providing an online communication channel focused on professional outreach and expert support, backed up by specific examples drawn from personal experiences. MCN‐L's emphasis on personal expertise is a key characteristic that speaks to the listserv's lasting value to the museum community and has implications for researchers and practitioners as they consider the future of computer‐mediated communication for all museum professionals.     

Design and Teaching: A Bibliographic Essay

Abstract

Distance education, particularly online education, is becoming a standard experience in formal learning environments, particularly at the postsecondary level. As more faculty and students have expectations that distance education is a part of the learning experience, we need to build a deeper understanding of how to design effective environments to enhance and extend the learning process. Further, we need to explore how to best facilitate learning in these contexts. This bibliographic essay explores the literature related to design and teaching in distance education as presented in the third section of Moore's (2007a) Moore, M. G. 2007a. Handbook of distance education, 2nd, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.  [Google Scholar] Handbook of Distance Education (Table 1 provides an overview of all the chapters in the Design and Teaching section of the Handbook).     

Changes in Examination Performance in English Secondary Schools over the Course of a Decade: Searching for Patterns and Trends Over Time

The article explores changes in the examination performance of a random sample of 500 English secondary schools between 1992 and 2001. Using econometric methods, it concludes that: there is an overall deterministic trend in school performance but it is not stable, making prediction accuracy poor; the aggregate trend does not explain improvement over time at school level, where there is very considerable variation in improvement paths; there is a degree of persistence with respect to changes in performance at school level but it is short-lived; whilst there is evidence of a general upward trend across schools, there is a large amount of year-to-year variation and little evidence of sustained improvement at school level; and the model applied has little ability to forecast the direction of change for particular schools in the following year(s).     

Service ‘CUIDE'‐‐Coopération Universitaire pour l'Information et la Documentation des Enseignants

The ongoing reform in science education in many countries, including Israel, has attainment of scientific literacy for all as one of its main goals. In this context, it is important to provide teachers with the opportunity to construct meaning for the term science literacy and by doing so to obtain a clear understanding of the new teaching goals. Here we report on a study in which teachers, as part of their professional development, were involved in defining the term ‘chemical literacy’; they discussed the need for it, and suggested educational experiences that are necessary in order to attain it. The programme was conducted as part of a reform in the content, as well as in the pedagogy, of chemistry education in Israel. The collected data provide some insights regarding the process by which the teachers’ perception of ‘chemical literacy’ developed and the way actual school practice influences teachers’ perception of ‘chemical literacy’.