Literacy education and diversity: Toward equity in the teaching of reading and writing

The school-age population in North America is characterized by increasing linguistic, cultural, and ethnic diversity. The authors argue that non-mainstream students do not perform as well in schools as mainstream students (predominantly whilte, middle-class English speakers) because they are not equitably served by the educational system. They explore some of the complexities of educational equity and consider equity issues in the literacy education of language minority students from four different perspectives: individual student characteristics, sociocultural factors, language issues, and instructional issues. In support of their position, they examine each of these areas in turn, providing illustrations and analysis. They conclude with several principles upon which to build practices to make literacy education more equitable for all students.     

The use of think-aloud protocols to compare inferencing abilities in average and below-average readers

In this study, we examined whether think-aloud procedures would uncover differences in the kinds of inferences generated by average and below-average readers. Participants were 40 third-grade children who were divided into groups of average and below-average readers. All participants completed measures of nonverbal IQ, reading, language, and working memory, and a story comprehension task that consisted of two conditions: listen through and think aloud. The major findings in this study were that (a) average readers generated significantly more explanatory inferences than below-average readers, and (b) comprehension performance as measured by story recall was significantly better for both groups in the think-aloud condition than in the listen-through condition. The discussion addresses the implications of these findings.     

Gender and use of instructional technologies: A study of university faculty

Instructional technologies have the potential to help highereducation faculty address increasing demands on their time and energy. Thisstudy investigated technology use by faculty at medium-sized, publicuniversity in the midwestern United States. Because a number of studies haveshown gender differences in technology use, survey data were analyzed alonggender lines. Results showed that males rated their knowledge and experiencewith some innovative technologies higher than did females. For frequency ofuse, no significant differences were found, with the exception of video,where females indicated slightly more frequent use. Both rated technologiesas important to instruction. For factors influencing technology use, femalesrated time to learn a technology, increased student learning, ease of use,training, and available information in discipline as more important than didmales. Such incentives as release time, merit pay, contribution to promotionand tenure, monetary rewards, and recognition by the university were ratedmore important by women, as were the barriers of lack of time and lack ofcontribution to professional advancement. These findings suggest that genderdifferences in technology use by university faculty may exist and need to beaddressed.     

Enhancing Peer Interactions Within the Context of Play

This paper provides a review of concepts and practices in the enhancement of peer relationships amongst young children in the context of play experiences, with particular emphasis upon the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities. We examine definitions and typical development patterns of social competence and a range of factors which influence it, including family issues. A set of best practice guidelines are then discussed in terms of the extant research literature, along with potential areas for future research in this field.