A nine‐country survey of youth in Europe: selected findings and issues

A nine‐country survey of the life orientations, values and institutional trust of 8948 young people at the upper end of the secondary school age range was set up at the University of Würzburg in the year 2000. Key findings demonstrate that these young people value personal autonomy and are orientated to success in their professional lives and that they especially trust human rights and environmental groups. Religion is associated positively with humanitarianism and in some countries negatively with modernity. These findings provide an indication of the typical life stances of future opinion‐formers and illustrate methodological issues thrown up by international research.     

Acquisition of three word knowledge aspects through reading

A number of studies have shown that second or foreign language learners can acquire vocabulary through reading. The aim of the study was to investigate (a) the effects of reading an authentic novel on the acquisition of 3 aspects of word knowledge: spelling, meaning, and collocation; (b) the influence of reading on the acquisition of partial and deeper knowledge of the words; and (c) the relationship between word frequency and learning gains. The results show that there was significant improvement in all three aspects of word knowledge. The measuring instrument detected greater partial than deeper knowledge gains in word meanings and collocations. The greatest learning gains in all three aspects of word knowledge were demonstrated for the words that occurred between 11 and 20 times in the text. The findings suggest that incorporation of extensive reading into language learning programs can contribute to significant improvement of learners' vocabulary knowledge.     

Tell another story,teacher!

The classroom is still. The children are watching the teacher, wide-eyed. The teacher is dressed in a red cape and hood. Softly she begins: Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Red Riding Hood ...Kay Singley is a former Kindergarten Teacher who lives in Moulton, Iowa.     

Teacher candidates research,teach, and learn in the nation's first net zero school

Teacher candidates conducted field hours in the nation's first net zero school, which uses the same amount of energy, measured annually, as it produces. These teacher candidates saw firsthand integration of the net zero advantages by completing a Collaborative Research Project and a Net Zero Lesson, which incorporated the use of the net zero building features as part of the lesson plan criteria. As a result, teacher candidates experienced how students can learn from their constructed environment and how that learning could contribute to a more sustainable world.     

Reclaiming Teacher Agency in a Student-Centred Digital World

This article examines the current dilemma faced by many teachers: the drive for a modern day pedagogy advocating student-centred, technology-enabled learning is at odds with teacher comfort zones still nestled in a teacher-talk, print-based classroom. Put another way, the 'techno-reluctance' of many teachers represents a negative reaction to the perception that new technologies represent a threat to their traditional roles and general sense of practical agency in the learning process or classroom. The paper interprets some of the key factors impacting on techno-reluctance as a means of moving beyond such a simplistic view of the connection between digital technologies and changing teacher roles. On this basis, it goes on to discuss the concept of 'technoliteracy' as a means of reclaiming teacher agency in a studentcentred, computer-mediated environment and also reframing teacher attitudes to electronic texts and related literacy practices.     

Have the shifting sands of Fordism resulted in ground lost or ground gained for distance education?

Industrialisation and distance education make uncomfortable bed fellows. This article critically analyses the paths travelled by distance education when burdened by industrial sociology. The models for industrialisation, specifically Fordist and post‐Fordist ones, whether methodologically anchored in modernity or post‐modernity, are argued as having relevance only to the production aspects of distance education. The attempts of various authors in distance education over recent years to identify strong paradigmatic links between distance education and industrialisation have resulted in the qualities of distance education as an educational process being overlooked or rejected in favour of a supposedly more ‘open’ form of teaching and learning.     

Caregivers of quality: One mother's search for child care

Too often, guidelines for quality child care emphasize the physical site, the equipment, safety, and the staff-child ratio. However, to ensure high-quality child care for our children, the personal and professional attributes of quality caregivers must be considered. The most important caregiver attributes are discussed, as one mother describes her search for child care.