Keeping Both Hands on the Wheel: Integrated Basic Education Skills Training (IBEST) for Commercial Truck Driving

IBEST is an innovative program that integrates English language skills with an intensive vocational training program and culminates in eligibility for a high wage commercial truck-driving career. Participants gain language skills, college credit, and vocational skills. Effective partnerships, scheduling, and instructional approaches are discussed.     

Creating Personas on Which to Build Services for Latinx Users: A Proof of Concept

The current article presents a proof of concept wherein personas were created that could support library services and collections for Latinx community members in the Midwestern United States. Personas are first described and their use in the library literature is explored. The reproducible method employed in creating the personas is then presented in detail, followed by a short discussion of the results of the persona creation. Next, a high-level discussion of the project is presented, as well as reflections on how librarians can adapt this process in efforts to design products and services to meet the needs of specific groups.     

Dyslexia and the Studio: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice

It is generally accepted that art and design related disciplines attract a higher proportion of students with dyslexia than traditional academic counterparts. Combined with this is a prevalent perception that dyslexia predominantly affects students’ writing and linguistic ability and it is this, as well as an increased visual‐spatial sensibility, that attracts students to art and design disciplines. This article examines these ideas through the experience of fine art students on a degree course with a mandatory written element. Drawing on focus groups and interviews with students, it argues that the studio component, in terms of its learning environment and teaching methods, presents an equally challenging context for students with dyslexia and that the written element or lecture‐based studies can provide students with a valuable counterpoint to their studio practice.     

The relationship between language dominance and pre-reading skills in young bilingual children in Egypt

This study explored the relationship among pre-reading skills, language proficiency, and visual perceptual abilities in 150 children who had been exposed to both English and Arabic (mean age 70 months). Information regarding language proficiency was gathered indirectly through reports from teachers and parents and directly through children’s test performance. Consequently, the children were divided into three language dominance groups: stronger in Arabic, stronger in English, or equally strong in both English and Arabic. The main aim of this study was to determine whether the pre-literacy skills (visual processing skills, phonological processes, and orthographic knowledge) differed across the three groups and were correlated with langauge dominance. No significant relationships were found between language dominance and tasks that pertained to phonological awareness skills, which may support the notion of the transfer of phonological processing skills between languages. Visual processing and visual memory skills did not differ across language groups, a finding which was expected, as these functions do not directly pertain to language dominance. However, overall the groups did better on the English orthographic task than on the Arabic orthography, perhaps because they found Arabic print more visually confusing and demanding than English.     

Getting Grandma Online: Are Tablets the Answer for Increasing Digital Inclusion for Older Adults in the U.S.?

Using information and communication technologies (ICTs) can improve older adults’ quality of life. ICT use is associated with decreased feelings of loneliness and depression, along with increased feelings of independence and personal growth. However, limited access and low technological self-efficacy are key reasons why some groups, especially older adults, are excluded from being fully engaged in the digital world. In this study, we focus on older adults’ technological self-efficacy, which is related to their actual use of technology and the second level digital divide. Specifically, we examine: (a) how older adults decide to use a new technology, tablet computers; (b) how they conquer the barrier of technological self-efficacy through using tablets; and (c) the impacts of using this new technology in their lives. Twenty-one in-depth interviews were conducted with older adults residing in independent living communities in a medium-sized city in the Deep South region of the United States. Observational and enactive learning played important roles for older adults in using tablets. Seeing others use tablets, getting recommendations from family members, or having tablets given to them were the primary reasons they started to use tablet computers. The ease of use feature of tablets helped solve the problem of lacking technological self-efficacy. Using tablets helped increase a sense of connectedness. Tablet computers may be one way to increase digital inclusion among older adults.     

‘Computer games can get your brain working’: student experience and perceptions of digital games in the classroom

There is considerable enthusiasm in many quarters for the incorporation of digital games into the classroom, and the capacity of games to engage and challenge players, present complex representations and experiences, foster collaborative learning, and promote deep learning. But while there is increasing research documenting the progress and outcomes of game-based learning, relatively little attention is paid to student perceptions and voice. In order to effectively target game-based learning pedagogy, it is important to understand students' previous experience, if any, of the use of games in the classroom, and what they made of these. In this paper, we present findings from a survey of 270 primary and secondary school students in Year Levels 4–9 (aged 9–14) in 6 Queensland schools at the start of a 3-year Australian Research Council project researching the use of digital games in school to promote literacy and learning.     

Impact of professional development on teacher practice: Uncovering connections

An Inquiry Learning Partnership (ILP) for professional development (PD) was formed between a university, science centre, and two urban school districts to offer 4–6th grade teachers specific science content and pedagogical techniques intended to integrate inquiry-based instruction in elementary classrooms. From pre/post content exams, PD surveys, focus group, and assessment data, teachers increased their science content knowledge, reported implementing inquiry practices in their classrooms and their students experienced modest gains on 5th grade standardized science achievement exams. While some teachers were transferring knowledge/skills gained in professional development to their classrooms, others encountered barriers to implementing PD. These obstacles included limited resources, time constraints, mandated curriculum pacing, language learning, and classroom management issues. Strategies to mitigate these barriers in order to maximize the impact of professional development need to be a priority in professional development reform.     

Assessment practices of professionals serving students who are deaf or hard of hearing: an initial investigation

Assessment currently plays a critical role in American schools and society, in tasks ranging from ranking schools' effectiveness, to determining individual placement, to planning instruction. The purpose of the study was to gather data about the formal and informal assessment instruments and processes used by professionals in deaf education. Respondents indicated that statewide annual assessments are the most frequently used measures, followed by the Stanford Achievement Test series and the Woodcock-Johnson III Test of Achievement. Commonly used assessment instruments and procedures for each academic area are reported in rank order. Issues about current practices are raised, and suggestions for additional research related to assessment practices in deaf education are provided.     

The 2000 Cohort of New Assistant Professors of Counselor Education: Reflecting at the Culmination of Six Years

This article features the final phase of a 6‐year inquiry focused on counselor educators who assumed their first full‐time faculty position in the fall 2000 academic term. Through in‐depth interviews and questionnaires, the participants described their experiences addressing (a) work environment, (b) sources of satisfaction and pleasure, (c) the interplay between professional and personal domains, and (d) change and transformation. References to tenure and promotion became frequent and prominent across all themes. Recommendations for counselor‐educators‐in‐training, candidates, new counselor educators, and veteran counselor educators are provided.