Proposals for an Associate Degree - the search for the 'missing link' of British higher education

This paper revisits debates about the place of an intermediate qualification in British higher education and suggests that arguments can be revitalised to meet the criticisms of earlier proposals. The paper maintains that a suitably defined interim award remains necessary for the establishment of a national qualifications framework facilitating student choice and progression, and as a vehicle to deliver the next stage of expansion in higher education and beyond. Support for an 'Associate Degree' is likely to depend on characteristics which offer advantages to students and their employers, making it different from previous proposals and other international versions.     

The use of examples in expository texts: Outline of an interpretation theory for text analysis

Much has been made about the difficulties students have in transferring their learning from one context to another. We suggest that students learning from examples use imitation, a subtype of analogical problem solving (APS). Whereas APS involves manipulating a mental representation, imitation involves mapping the surface features of a source example to a target problem and no assumptions are made about what a student knows. Often imitating a close variant of a source problem is likely to be relatively successful; however, trying to solve a distant variant by imitating an example creates difficulties in mapping values and adapting the source example to the target. In this paper we argue that some students' inability to transfer their learning is very often due to the teaching material rather than any failure on the part of the student. To this end, we have developed an interpretation theory based on the proportional analogy framework (a:b::c:d) which can be applied to text analysis. The theory is demonstrated using examples taken mainly from computer programming textbooks.     

Reading: A Pastime of the Past?

It is somewhat of a truism to say that reading is not what it used to be. ‘Texts’for reading now include many other media than simply print on pages and this fact has occasioned some concern among those who fear that reading television or computer-based texts may reduce or impoverish children's overall reading experience. Chris Robertson and her students have been investigating these issues through interviews with children and have found that reading and technology are not actually in conflict but can be mutually supportive. This article suggests that teachers need to think more creatively about how to use alternative texts in developing children's reading.     

The Relative Effect of a Code-Oriented and a Meaning-Oriented Early Literacy Program on Regular and Low Progress Australian Students in Year 1 Classrooms which Implement Reading Recovery

A within-school study of the effects of two different early literacy instructional programs on the reading proficiency of Year 1 students was undertaken in three schools in New South Wales, Australia all of which used Reading Recovery. The first program under examination was a "meaning"-oriented program used by six Kindergarten and Year 1 classrooms in the three schools. The second program, a "code"-oriented one, was implemented in the same six Kindergarten and Year 1 classrooms one year later. The code-oriented program, known as Schoolwide Early Language and Literacy (SWELL), stresses the explicit instruction of phonological awareness and the alphabetic code in context. All students, including both regular and Reading Recovery students, in the six non-SWELL classrooms were tested on four early literacy measures at the end of Year 1 when they had completed two years of schooling (comparison group). At the end of the following year, all Year 1 students in the six SWELL classrooms were tested on the same early literacy measures, when they had completed two years of schooling (experimental group). Results indicated that all regular and Reading Recovery students in SWELL classes significantly outperformed their regular and Reading Recovery counterparts in non-SWELL classes on tests measuring pseudoword decoding, reading connected text, invented spelling, and a standardised reading measure at the end of Year 1. However, Reading Recovery students as a group, whether in SWELL or non-SWELL classes, did not reach the average level of their peers on any of the four literacy measures used. Implications for the most effective combination of whole-class and tutorial programs for children at-risk of literacy failure are considered in the discussion.     

Cultural Components of Sex Differences in Color Preference

Preferences for pink and blue were tested in children aged 4–11 years in three small-scale societies: Shipibo villages in the Peruvian Amazon, kastom villages in the highlands of Tanna Island, Vanuatu, and BaYaka foragers in the northern Republic of Congo; and compared to children from an Australian global city (total N = 232). No sex differences were found in preference for pink in any of the three societies not influenced by global culture (ds − 0.31–0.23), in contrast to a female preference for pink in the global city (d = 1.24). Results suggest that the pairing of female and pink is a cultural phenomenon and is not driven by an essential preference for pink in girls.     

An introduction to the special section on the Capability Approach to career guidance

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This editorial introduces readers to the Capability Approach to career guidance. It outlines the origins of the approach in the work...     

School-based early intervention and later child maltreatment in the Chicago Longitudinal Study

Investigated were the effects of participation in the Title I Child-Parent Centers (CPC) on substantiated reports of child maltreatment for 1,408 children (93% of whom are African American) in the Chicago Longitudinal Study. The CPCs provide child education and family support services in high-poverty areas. After adjusting for preprogram maltreatment and background factors, 913 preschool participants had significantly lower rates of court petitions of maltreatment by age 17 than 495 children of the same age who participated in alternative kindergarten interventions (5.0% vs. 10.5%, a 52% reduction). Participation for 4 to 6 years was significantly associated with lower rates of maltreatment (3.6% vs. 6.9%, a 48% reduction). Findings based on child protective service records (as well as combined protective service and court records) were similar. Preschool length, family risk, and school poverty were associated with lower rates of maltreatment. Parental involvement in school and school mobility were significant mediators of intervention effects.     

Parallel literacy classes and hidden strengths: learning to read in English,Urdu and classical Arabic

The aim of this article is to explore young bilingual children’s early literacy experiences in three different languages, English, Urdu and classical Arabic, and in three strikingly different types of classes in England. It draws on a larger ethnographic study that sets out to discover what kinds of advantages or additional strengths bilingual children might bring from their community literacy practices and from their experiences of learning to read in two or more languages simultaneously into their English literacy lessons. The main focus of the article is on one bilingual boy, Ikram, of Pakistani background, who at the beginning of the study was 5 years old. The participant observations in these three different types of classes and audio and video tapes of some these lessons show that at the age of 7 Ikram has begun to read in three languages. I argue that in doing so he is developing additional strengths that are generally overlooked. These new types of literacy strengths derive from the fact he is learning to read simultaneously in three languages. Yet they remain hidden within his English lessons.