Teacher e-mail message strategies and students' willingness to communicate online

In light of the prevalent use of e-mail between teachers and students, researchers have highlighted the need to assess its uses and effects. Relying on the research and thinking of teacher immediacy and extra-class communication, we developed a scale that measures those e-mail message strategies that influence students' willingness to communicate online with their teachers. Next, we isolated those reasons that students use e-mail to interact with their teachers: (1) to clarify course material and procedures, (2) as a means of efficient communication, and (3) for personal/social reasons. Finally, we examined student characteristics such as gender and ethnicity, and history of e-mail use that may (or may not) influence their attitudes toward e-mail exchanges with teachers.     

English Language Learners and Learning Disabilities: Research Agenda and Implications for Practice

Although little is known about learning disabilities (LDs) in English language learners (ELLs), there is a substantial knowledge base about the identification, assessment, and intervention of and for LDs in monolingual native English‐speaking students. Building on this knowledge, participants at an October 2003 National Symposium on Learning Disabilities in English Language Learners were asked to suggest research questions, priorities, and suggestions on how to build the necessary infrastructure to address critical research needs. In the discussions that took place, important themes emerged: (1) identification and assessment of LD and/or reading disabilities (RD) in ELLs (ELL/Ds), (2) understanding of the language and literacy developmental trajectories of ELLs, (3) understanding of the individual and contextual factors affecting outcomes, (4) the intersection of all of these areas with neurobiology, and (5) developing and testing the effectiveness of interventions for learning disabilities in ELL/Ds. These themes, and the research agenda that was forged around them, are presented. In addition, the practice implications of this agenda are presented, along with some suggestions for current practice while we await future research findings.     

Resisting plateauing: Four veteran teachers’ stories

This paper describes and interprets the career experiences of four veteran secondary teachers and their ability to resist plateauing. Three areas of veteran teacher research informed this study: career stages, plateauing, and resiliency. In-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted to investigate and depict the meanings these teachers attached to their career experiences.Several factors emerged for each participant’s resilience. First, building leaders influenced their enthusiasm and professional growth. Second, positive effects on students’ lives affirmed their work. Third, interactions with colleagues promoted growth, and individual support systems helped them bounce back from career frustrations.     

Epistemic states and traits: preschoolers appreciate the differential informativeness of situation-specific and person-specific cues to knowledge

Previous research has demonstrated that preschoolers can use situation-specific (e.g., visual access) and person-specific (e.g., prior accuracy) cues to infer what others know. The present studies investigated whether 4- and 5-year-olds appreciate the differential informativeness of these types of cues. In Experiment 1 (N = 50), children used others' prior labeling accuracy as a cue when learning labels for, but not the visual identity of, hidden objects. In Experiment 2 (N = 64), with both cues present, children attended more to visual access than prior accuracy when learning the visual identity of, but not labels for, hidden objects. These findings demonstrate that children appreciate the difference between situation- and person-specific cues and flexibly evaluate these cues depending on what information they are seeking.     

The effect of context on student engagement in engineering

The self-belief, motivation, tendency to procrastinate and learning styles of engineering students are discussed. It is proposed that engineering has developed an idiom and a learning approach that favours the dominant client, i.e. men, while simultaneously undermining the self-efficacy and motivation of women. Thematic coherence and teaching within a context that is familiar to students have been shown previously to be effective approaches for engaging students and are extended here to utilise the common experiences of all students to initiate the learning cycle. These approaches are combined with a template for teaching that uses the 5Es (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate) in order to render the fundamentals of engineering more accessible to all students. This methodology can be introduced by individual instructors, who will be rewarded by students who are more engaged, more motivated and more likely to give a higher rating to the instructor and the course.