Policy and advocacy content in early childhood teacher education: Results of a national survey

Abstract

One important strategy for strengthening policy and advocacy in early childhood education is through the incorporation of specific course content in teacher education programs [New Perspectives in Early Childhood Teacher Education: Bringing Practitioners Into the Debate, Teachers College Press, NY, New York, 1994]. Yet, to date, little is known about the extent to which content relating to these two important issues are incorporated into teacher education programs. In response to this gap, an exploratory study of early childhood teacher education programs was conducted to determine the nature of policy and advocacy content included in undergraduate and graduate programs in the United States. Public and private institutions, ranging in size from small four‐year colleges to large public universities, participated in this national survey. Results indicated that advocacy and policy content is incorporated in most teacher education programs in a varied, yet unsystematic, manner. Respondents also identified a range of current and needed resources to support advocacy and policy education as well as a number of barriers that impede incorporation of such content in their programs.     

Still Missing? History Chapters in Introductory Early Childhood Education Textbooks From the 1990s to the 2010s

This article compares history chapters in recent introductory early childhood education textbooks with those from an earlier study, reviewing history chapters on four dimensions: the rationale for the study of history, the dominant story of the history, the facts of the history, and the image of the history. Ten textbooks are reviewed, including six from the original study that are still in publication. Foundation textbooks are described as important sources of knowledge for beginning students. In the earlier study, the dominant story was derived mainly from the contributions of “giant thinkers” in psychology, education, and philosophy. A notable current trend is identified, that textbooks have improved their attention to international and non-Western developments. Nevertheless, while there is some evidence of a change in the presentation of history in the textbooks in the current survey, the article concludes by identifying some missing pieces, as in the original survey.     

Mining students' learning patterns and performance in Web-based instruction: a cognitive style approach

Personalization has been widely used in Web-based instruction (WBI). To deliver effective personalization, there is a need to understand different preferences of each student. Cognitive style has been identified as one of the most pertinent factors that affect students' learning preferences. Therefore, it is essential to investigate how learners with different cognitive styles interact with WBI programs. This paper presents an empirical study, which examines the effects of cognitive styles on students' learning patterns and the effects of learning patterns on their learning performances. Riding's cognitive style analysis was used to identify the students' cognitive styles. Data mining, especially a clustering technique, was used to analyze the results. It was found that field independent students frequently used an alphabetical index whereas field dependent students often chose a hierarchical map. Such learning patterns also have great effects on their performance, especially for field dependent students.     

The work of the audience: visual matrix methodology in museums

ABSTRACT

Visual matrix methodology has been designed for researching cultural imaginaries. It is an image-led, group-based method that creates a “third space” research setting to observe audience groups re-enacting lived experience of an event or process that takes place in the third space of a cultural setting. In this article, the method is described through its use in relation to an art-science exhibition, Human+ Future of the species, where three audience groups with investments in technology worked with exhibition material to achieve a complex ambivalent state of mind regarding technological futures. The visual matrix has been designed to capture the affective and aesthetic quality of audience engagement in third space by showing what audiences do with what is presented to them. We argue that such methodologies are useful for museums as they grapple with their role as sites where citizens not only engage in dialogue with one another but actively re-work their imaginaries of the future.     

Place,food practices,and scientific knowledge

Cultural Studies of Science Education - This commentary seeks to extend the discussion on place, food practices, and ancestral scientific knowledge presented in Silvia Lizette Ramos de...     

Three suggested teaching strategies for students who are deaf or hard of hearing

This paper addresses current issues in deaf education including poor academic progress and employment outcomes of individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) as well as provides suggestions for improving overall academic achievement of this population. Specifically, three instructional strategies are recommended for teachers: choral responding, response cards, and peer tutoring. These three strategies have been shown to increase active student responding in classrooms for children who are typically developing and children who have disabilities. For international deaf students in countries that may rely on volunteers who lack basic requisite skills these general education teaching strategies are easy to use even by novice teachers. Recommendations are tendered for how teachers can include these simple teaching strategies in classrooms serving students who are D/HH.     

Strategies in assessing the need for updating evidence-based guidelines for six clinical topics: an exploration of two search methodologies

BACKGROUND: Because of the expense of updating practice guidelines, recent attention has focused on approaches that can reliably assess any updating required. Shekelle et al. (Journal of the American Medical Association 2001, 286, 1461-7) proposed using limited literature searches with expert involvement to reduce resources used in assessing whether a guideline needs updating. OBJECTIVES: This study compared Shekelle's method and the traditional systematic review method regarding comprehensiveness and effort. METHODS: Two research teams translated critical key questions on screening test treatments and outcomes to Medical Subjects Headings (MeSH) and search strategies. They refined Shekelle's method over three iterations, seeking greater efficiency. Using both methods independently, teams assessed the need to update six topics from the 1996 Guide to Clinical Preventive Services (US Preventive Services Task Force). Outcomes included completeness of study identification, importance of missed studies and effort involved. RESULTS: The revised review approach produced fewer citations than the traditional approach and saved time, identifying fewer eligible studies than the traditional approach. None of the studies missed was rated important by the experts consulted. CONCLUSIONS: The revised review approach provides an acceptable method for judging whether a guideline requires updating. Librarians were an integral part of the research process that streamlined the searches.