Scaffolding English language learners' mathematical talk in the context of Calendar Math

Teachers of elementary mathematics face multiple, convergent demands. These demands include supporting the growing population of English language learners (ELLs) and facilitating mathematical discussions across relevant curricular contexts. The authors used a comparative case study to examine how two teachers attempt to facilitate discussions while enacting a Calendar Math curriculum, in Grade 4 classrooms with high concentrations (>50%) of ELLs. The authors found that these teachers' use of Calendar Math did not provide a supportive context for conceptually based discussions. However, teachers did support ELLs in mathematical discussions by including display questions, elaborating student responses, modeling the use of mathematical vocabulary use, and use of self-talk. Teachers differed with regard to how often they elaborated responses, used vocabulary, the amount of teacher speech and the length of lessons. We discuss what these practices may mean for ELLs.     

Family-School Communication in Preschool and Kindergarten in the Context of a Relationship-Enhancing Intervention

The present study is a longitudinal examination of family-school communication in preschool and kindergarten. Preschool and kindergarten teachers and family workers of 75 children from families with low SES logged the frequency and characteristics of family-school communication, resulting in over 22,000 contacts. Data were collected during a period of implementation of an intervention designed to enhance relationships upon the transition to school. Family demographic information and information about family support for academics at home were assessed through parent interviews and children's behavior problems were measured through teacher questionnaires in preschool and kindergarten. Familyteacher communication decreased between preschool and kindergarten and there was a shift from shorter to longer types of communication between the two years. Communication differed as a function of program. Counter to expectation, few family factors and experiences predicted frequency of family-school communication, and more frequent communication in preschool was unrelated to more frequent communication in kindergarten. Findings have several implications for practice. Families experience a great decrease in communication between preschool and kindergarten and interventions designed to ease the transition to kindergarten need to either ameliorate the decrease or acknowledge its existence to prepare families. Otherwise, this contrast may be interpreted negatively. Given that our findings show no relation between a family's communication in preschool and kindergarten, it appears that it is not enough to support communication in preschool to ensure frequent communication in kindergarten.     

Looking for inhibition of return in pigeons

We conducted four experiments in order to investigate whether pigeons' responses to a recently attended (i.e., recently pecked) location are inhibited. In Experiments 1 and 2, stimulus displays were similar to those used in studies of inhibition of return (IOR) with humans; responses to cued targets tended to be facilitated rather than inhibited. In Experiments 3 and 4, birds were presented with stimulus displays that mimicked clusters of small grains and were relatively localized, which should have been more appropriate for detecting IOR in pigeons. The results from these experiments again provided evidence for facilitation of responding to cued targets, rather than for IOR.     

‘They might know a lot of things that I don’t know’: investigating differences in preservice teachers’ ideas about contextualizing science instruction in multilingual classrooms

This paper describes the results from a qualitative study of 72 preservice teachers’ initial ideas about contextualizing science instruction with language minority students. Participants drew primarily on local ecological and multicultural contexts as resources for contextualizing instruction. However, preservice teachers enrolled in the bilingual certification program articulated more asset-oriented and less stereotypical ideas than those not seeking bilingual certification. Results can inform teacher education programs that aim to prepare graduates for teaching science in multilingual classrooms.     

University sustainability reporting: taking stock of transparency

This paper interrogates the case for improved and broadened public sustainability reporting by universities, and explores whether and how global performance measures capture the institutional attitudes and activities pertinent to universities’ contributions to sustainability. The analysis explores all stand-alone, English language reports produced by universities world-wide since 2007. The analysis focuses primarily on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) index. The paper finds that those universities which have adopted the GRI share a distinct conceptualisation of their role in society. The GRI framework is helpful in capturing universities’ environmental impacts and benefits, but is lacking in relation to universities’ human rights and social concerns. The paper identifies value in universities adopting a globally accepted sustainability reporting framework and makes specific suggestions as to how the framework might be better adapted for universities.     

“We are Just as Confused and Lost as She is”: The Primacy of the Graphic Novel Form in Exploring Conversations Around Deafness

Cece Bell’s (El Deafo, Amulet, New York, 2014) is a middle childhood graphic novel memoir that explores the author’s experiences of losing her hearing and growing up with a severe hearing loss. As a graphic novel, the story is able to avoid a medicalized view of disability by combining image and text, a format that allows readers, those with hearing and those without, to step inside the narrative and deeply consider Bell’s experiences. The narrative elements typically found in graphic novel autobiography create a communal reading experience, which does not allow readers to forget who the book is about. After an analysis of the primacy of these narrative graphic novel elements in telling a story about a disability, this article shares the reading experiences of university students in exploring this story, during which students used both the image and text to help them confront misconceptions they had about deafness, broadening their understandings and experiences around disability.     

Improvement in National Test arithmetic scores at Key Stage 1: Grade inflation or better achievement?

The aim of the National Numeracy Strategy is to raise standards in numeracy. Strong evidence for its success has, however, been lacking: most of the available data come from performance on National Test assessments administered in schools or from Ofsted reports, and is vulnerable to suggestions of bias. An opportunistic analysis of data from a population cohort study extending over three school years compares school‐based scores at school entry and at age 7–8 with clinic‐based scores on similar tests. The results show a small but statistically significant rise between 1998 and 1999 and between 1998 and 2000 in scores on both KS1 arithmetic SATs taken in schools and the arithmetic component of the WISC test taken in an independent research clinic. This is evidence for a real rise in generalised arithmetic ability over this period which may be attributable to the children's experience of the National Numeracy Strategy.