Spelling of Deaf Children Who Use Cochlear Implants

The spellings of 39 profoundly deaf users of cochlear implants, aged 6 to 12 years, were compared with those of 39 hearing peers. When controlled for age and reading ability, the error rates of the 2 groups were not significantly different. Both groups evinced phonological spelling strategies, performing better on words with more typical sound–spelling correspondences and often making misspellings that were phonologically plausible. However, the magnitude of these phonological effects was smaller for the deaf children than for hearing children of comparable reading and spelling ability. Deaf children with cochlear implants made the same low proportion of transposition errors as hearing children. The findings indicate that deaf children do not rely primarily on visual memorization strategies, as suggested by previous studies. However, deaf children with cochlear implants use phonological spelling strategies to a lesser degree than hearing peers.     

Assessment and interpretation of teachers’ attitudes towards students with disabilities / Evaluación e interpretación de la actitud del profesorado hacia alumnos con discapacidad

Abstract

The process of including students with disabilities is necessarily influenced by teachers’ attitudes towards them and towards their inclusion in education. After detecting the need to study the attitudes present in preschool and primary and secondary school teachers, this study was proposed as it was decided that an analysis of such attitudes could help to develop a better understanding of the current needs of the education system. This study analysed data on attitudes from a total of 175 teachers (29.10% male) working in state schools (50.30%) and semi-private schools in different autonomous communities of the Spanish state. An adapted version of the teacher questionnaire on attitudes towards students with special educational needs arising from disability was used. After analysing the psychometric properties of the questionnaire, further purification of these properties resulted in an assessment instrument comprising 22 items. It is worth highlighting the appraisal that teachers carry out of their training, the existence of resources, as well as their own level of involvement.     

Reflecting on teaching: The influence of context

The nature of teaching and learning in higher education is dependent on a complex web of factors: the philosophy and personality of the faculty member, the characteristics of students, the discipline and the course content, the vision and the atmosphere of the institution, and the larger social context within which the teaching takes place. When any one of these factors changes, teaching changes. It is our intent in this paper to describe how faculty experience a change in teaching context, how that change leads to reflection on practice, and how beliefs and assumptions about teaching may be revised.     

Collaborative course design: changing the process,acknowledging the context,and implications for academic development

This research study describes the experiences and perceptions of an instructor and an instructional design specialist who collaborated on the design and implementation of a university course using a new course design process. Findings uncovered differences between an informal collaboration process and the adaptation of that process for implementation in a classroom setting. Recommendations support the concepts of a long‐term collaboration, consideration of classroom constraints, and the importance of course participant voices and perspectives. Thoughtful consideration of the interaction of the design and implementation processes and commitment to continual course design collaboration can have positive implications for academic development.

Cette étude décrit les expériences et perceptions d’un enseignant et d’un spécialiste du design pédagogique ayant collaboré au design et à la mise en ?uvre d’un cours universitaire à l’aide d’un nouveau processus de développement de cours. L’étude a permis de mettre en lumière les différences entre un processus informel de collaboration et l’adaptation de ce processus de façon à le mettre en ?uvre dans le contexte d’une classe. Les recommandations présentées soutiennent les concepts de collaboration à long terme, la considération des contraintes de classe, et l’importance de la voix et de la perspective des participants au cours. Une réflexion approfondie de l’interaction entre les processus de design et de mise en ?uvre, de même qu’un engagement à l’égard d’une collaboration continue en matière de design pédagogique peuvent avoir des implications positives sur les expériences de développement pédagogique.     

‘Speaking’ deficit into (or out of) existence: how language constrains classroom teachers’ knowledge about instructing diverse learners

This article explores the talk among novice teachers who participated in an inquiry project designed to rethink the instruction for their struggling students by drawing upon competence rather than deficiencies. A critical discourse analysis (CDA) based on theories of systemic functional linguistics and CDA provided tools to explore how their use of language afforded or constrained their efforts to better serve diverse learners in their urban elementary classrooms. The analysis indicates the power of normative and deficit discourses that continue to predominate within educational culture. It reflects on this analysis and discusses potential benefits of centralising language awareness and a social/critical lens to ongoing professional development.     

Mentoring – rhetoric and reality

This study looks at the impact of the recent changes in teacher training at an East Sussex Secondary School where teachers have responsibility for mentoring initial teacher trainees (ITTs.) While this has provided an opportunity to become more involved in the preparation of new teachers, a chance to change focus and, to a certain extent, increase job satisfaction, the speed of change has presented some practical difficulties and problems in implementing and fulfilling the role. Specific reference is made to Physical Education as the nature of the work in this area can pose unusual problems. The 'partnership' between the school and the Higher Education Institution is examined to ascertain the extent to which mentors feel that they are being adequately supported.

The information gained was collected through informal interviews with colleagues in school and Higher Education Institutions. This information has been analysed and forms the basis for some recommendations for partnerships' in initial teacher training.     

The relational selves of female graduate students during academic mentoring: from dialogue to transformation

This study, framed by social constructionism, retrospectively examines how faculty mentoring influenced the transformations of 10 female graduate students’ relational selves and their professional identities as qualitative researchers and scholars. Participants reported that effective mentorships often resulted in collaboration on research projects, as well as shared decision‐ and meaning‐making. Effective mentoring also led to the development of the students’ research skills while simultaneously constructing their professional and academic selves. These situated mentorships were shaped by the diverse values, expectations, and hopes that the participants associated with mentoring. Additionally, the local practices, power structures, and relationships at the department or university level influenced, and possibly discouraged, active communication and ongoing dialogue regarding the individuals’ experience of mentoring. Ultimately, participants described how their experiences of mentoring welcomed them into the scholarly community and ensured their professional competence as researchers and academics, which, in turn, transformed the students’ broader sense of self.     

Authoritative schools: A test of a model to resolve the school effectiveness debate

School effectiveness research has fueled debate on the importance of a press for academic excellence versus communal values. Research on parenting styles offers a theoretical framework that may resolve the debate. We hypothesized that dimensions of parenting styles—demandingness (academic press) and responsiveness (communal values)—predict students’ mathematics achievement, engagement, and locus of control. HLM analyses of NELS: 88 data on 19,435 eighth-graders partially supported the hypothesis: Students’ perceptions of school responsiveness predicted their engagement and internal control. In addition, students in responsive schools had smaller differences in mathematics achievement and internal control attributable to SES, suggesting that responsive schools may increase equity. We offer suggestions for further investigation of the model in hope of resolving the debate.     

Face[book] Management: Self-Presentation of Political Views on Social Media

This study explores Facebook users’ management behaviors related to their—and their friends'—political communication via social media, utilizing the concepts of context collapse and self-presentation. A new two-factor measure of Facebook management was developed, pilot tested (N = 139) and implemented in a survey utilizing a national sample (N = 352) of individuals aged 18–29. Results indicated Facebook users are not generally engaging in the strategic management of political disclosures or the political content to which they are exposed. However, as network sizes increase, participants engage in more disclosure behaviors and make greater efforts to manage content exposure. Additionally, participants with strong political beliefs engage in more Facebook management behaviors, possibly indicating an effort to limit cognitive dissonance.     

Backstabbing in Organizations: Employees’ Perceptions of Incidents,Motives, and Communicative Responses

This study examined employees’ perceptions of backstabbing in the workplace and an initial typology was developed for backstabbing incidents, perceived motives, and communicative responses. We employed thematic inductive analysis and unitizing to develop the typology and approached this study from the decoder's perspective (the target), whereas previous research on other negative behaviors in the workplace focused on the encoder's perspective (the perpetrator). Results indicated that active incidents (e.g., talked behind back) were more prevalent than passive incidents (e.g., withheld information), perceived motives were primarily self-interest (e.g., self-advancement), and communicative responses included interaction (e.g., confronted backstabber), action (e.g., left job), and inaction (e.g., ignored). Other responses were emotion and cognition. Demographics indicated that this phenomenon cuts across numerous organizations, industries, and hierarchical positions.