The moderating influence of instructional intensity and word type on the acquisition of academic vocabulary in young English language learners

This study used a within-subjects design to explore two instructional conditions for developing vocabulary in second-grade Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs)—extended instruction and embedded instruction implemented during shared interactive reading. Words assigned to the extended condition were directly taught using a multifaceted approach that included visuals, bilingual definitions, examples, spelling, and partner-talk about the words’ meaning. Words assigned to the embedded condition were taught solely through brief definitions to embedded text, writing activities, and songs. In the control condition students heard the target words read aloud during shared interactive reading but without definitions or direct instruction. The study also explored the interaction between instructional condition and word type. Four types of words—abstract cognates, abstract noncognates, concrete cognates, and concrete noncognates—were randomly assigned to each condition. Nine teachers in four schools and 187 second-grade ELs participated in this within-subjects intervention, which took place in transitional bilingual classrooms. Findings indicated that across all word types, both extended and embedded instruction were more effective than the control condition in helping ELs acquire vocabulary. Findings also indicated that extended instruction was more effective then embedded instruction for all word types except concrete cognates suggesting that these young Spanish-speaking ELs were advantaged by word knowledge in their home language. Finally, while embedded instruction was less effective than extended instruction, it was much more effective than a control condition. Embedded instruction takes significantly less preparation and instructional time than extended instruction, offering teachers a practical way to teach more vocabulary to ELs.     

高等教育财政

在所有OECD国家以及很多其他国家所出现的高等教育扩张,既是必要的、有益的,同时也是昂贵的,它需要与其他公共服务竞争政府的财政支出.高等教育财政的重要性不言而喻,但并不是所有国家都充分地认认到了这一点,同时这也是政治上很敏感的一个话题.本文先从经济理论以及一些国家的实际经验两个方面分析高等教育财政,继而从这两个角度审视了英国2004年公布的高等教育财政改革方案,最后在总结中指出了那些尚未完成的工作.     

Racialised Education in Singapore

The Singapore education system plays a central role in the mythology of the young country’s nation building project. The education system is portrayed as the cradle of Singapore’s multiracialism, fostering racial harmony and understanding. Yet this historical study of primary school English textbooks from the 1970s to the present reveals that since the beginning of the 1980s they have been systemically designed in such a way that they evoke high levels of racial consciousness, and at their worst have displayed a pro-Chinese bias that has deprived non-Chinese children of inspiring role models. This study helps to explain the results of recent sociological research that has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Singapore education system as an instrument for promoting racial harmony.     

Formula-based research incentive plans at colleges and universities

Financial problems at colleges and universities have led many institutions to initiate extra efforts to obtain extramural funds. One such effort has been the establishment of formula-based research incentive plans. These plans generally utilize the recovery of indirect costs as the basis for allocating additional incentive funds to various areas as an encouragement to obtain additional extramural funds. Data from surveys conducted by the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Ohio University were combined with National Science Foundation reports to provide information about this relatively recent phenomena. The increasing popularity of these plans was shown in that a majority of institutions had such plans in effect during FY 1979. Analyses of the effectiveness of these plans showed no statistically significant differences between institutions with incentive plans and those without such plans, although mean federal research expenditures were approximately 20% greater at those institutions without these incentive plans. The evidence presented indicates that the receipt of federal research funds is not associated with the use of a formula-based research incentive plan.     

Developmental Changes in Imitation from Television during Infancy

Infants' (N = 276) ability to learn from television under seminaturalistic conditions was examined in five experiments with 12-, 15-, and 18-month-olds. In all experiments, an adult performed a series of specific actions with novel stimuli. Some infants watched the demonstration live, and some infants watched the same demonstration on television from prerecorded videotape. Infants' ability to reproduce the target actions was then assessed either immediately or after a 24-hour delay. Infants of all ages exhibited imitation when the actions were modeled live. There were age-related and task-related differences, however, in infants' ability to imitate the same actions modeled on television. The role of perceptual, attentional, and cognitive development in the ability to learn from television is discussed.     

Effects of a Brief Mindfulness Based Group Intervention On College Students

Increases in the number of college students seeking mental health services require counseling centers to explore innovative strategies to provide effective and efficient treatments. Group interventions offer an alternative to traditional individual counseling, allowing centers to serve more students with fewer clinical staff (Burlingame et al., 2016). Of current group modalities, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been growing in popularity as an effective approach for addressing college students’ increasingly complex needs. This study describes the evaluation of a three-session mindfulness-based intervention on students’ mindfulness, symptoms, and stress. Compared to a comparison group of 109 students not seeking counseling center services, 78 students who received the intervention reported increased mindfulness, and decreased symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress at the end of the group. Furthermore, improvements in mindfulness mediated intervention effects on symptoms of depression and anxiety. These gains were generally maintained 3 weeks later. These findings support the benefits of brief group interventions for college students. Suggestions for modifications to the intervention and for future research are discussed.     

INTERVIEWS

Four groups of student teachers taught short lessons to small classes of children. According to the micro‐teaching format developed at Stanford University they then retaught a similar lesson approximately one hour later to a comparable but different group of children. In the intervening one‐hour period they received various kinds of feedback about the first lesson they had given. Analysis of the second lessons showed that the students who had both seen videotapes of their first lesson and been given information about their interaction with the class were likely to lecture less, elicit more spontaneous talk by the children and be rated higher by them.