Policy reform: testing times for teacher education in Australia

In Australia as well as elsewhere, initial teacher education has become centre stage to a political agenda that calls for global competitiveness in the knowledge economy. The common problem cited has been declining educational standards linked with the quality of teaching and teacher education. The avalanche of review and policy reform has exposed teacher education to neoliberal demands as well as political and public scrutiny. A policy web of interconnected concerns related to selection, curriculum, professional practice, graduation as well as employment fuels current reforms.     

Transition to Kindergarten: Family Experiences and Involvement

The transition to kindergarten is an important developmental milestone for young children, their families, and teachers. Preparing students for successful kindergarten transition has been identified as a national priority, yet the degree to which parents are involved in kindergarten preparation is rarely considered. This study investigated the family experiences and involvement in kindergarten transition in 132 families whose children had completed early education programs and were beginning kindergarten. Results suggest that the majority of families wanted more involvement in the transition to kindergarten planning and wanted information about kindergarten readiness, including academic and behavioral expectations. The top concerns expressed by families were attending a new school and difficulties with following directions or other behavior problems. Families with fewer financial resources reported less involvement in transition activities than families with more resources. Implications for early childhood education are discussed, in light of the growing emphasis on parent involvement and kindergarten readiness. The present work was supported, in part, by a Science of Learning Center Catalyst grant (0350341) from the National Science Foundation awarded to the second and third authors.     

Religious education and social literacy: the ‘white elephant’ of Australian public education

As a result of globalisation, the boundaries that once limited the trade of ideas and culture have largely dissolved. In Australia, the fruits of intercultural exchange have largely been enjoyed, yet this expansion of Australian interaction with diverse Others has posed a perceived threat to some. This parallel expansion and contraction of cultural engagement demonstrates the need for Australia to represent diversity more adequately as a part of our society. A central point of tension in this discussion is religion. This paper reports on a study that explored the question: Why is it so hard to talk about religion in public classrooms? This narrative inquiry attempts to unpack some of the challenges facing Australian educators at present. This study brings out the conflicting priorities and pressures of the secular system against student needs and puts forward an argument for the development of social literacy education that addresses education about religion in Victorian public schools.     

Using story dictation to support young children's vocabulary development: Outcomes and process

Creating opportunities for children to apply newly learned vocabulary in meaningful contexts is an important aspect of supporting vocabulary development. However, previous research has not adequately examined how this can be accomplished in preschool classrooms. To address this issue, we explored using story dictation to support preschoolers’ expressive vocabulary development. Thirteen children in a Head Start classroom were videotaped dictating a total of 38 stories. Scribed stories and videos of story dictation sessions were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively to examine the outcomes and process. Results indicated that children used and learned target vocabulary during story dictations, and that target word use increased in number and complexity over time. How the teacher supported story dictations and target word use is discussed.     

Paraprofessionals use of group school-based instrumental mentoring: Examining process and preliminary outcomes

Many schools use paraprofessionals to implement and monitor interventions. Though paraprofessionals are cost-effective, many questions remain about the training and skills they need to implement a wide array of school-based interventions. In this study, we compare paraprofessionals' (i.e., undergraduates) implementation of the Group-Academic Mentoring Program for Education Development (Group-AMPED) to school psychology graduate students' implementation of Group-AMPED. Ten paraprofessionals and five school psychology graduate students provided approximately eight sessions of Group-AMPED to 35 sixth-grade students. Results indicated no significant differences between middle school students' engagement when groups were led by either school psychology graduate students or paraprofessionals. Similarly, self-reports of fidelity and supervisor postsession implementation confidence indicated no difference between paraprofessionals and graduate students' implementation of Group-AMPED. Follow-up measures indicated that mentors and proteges perceived Group-AMPED as feasible, acceptable, and understandable. Most importantly, middle school students participating in Group-AMPED had significantly higher second-semester grades in comparison to a small control group.     

Social support and physical activity participation among healthy adults: a systematic review of prospective studies

The objective of this review was to determine the direction and strength of the prospective relationship between social support and PA among healthy adults. A systematic review was conducted; including studies up until December 2015, in the following databases: Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychINFO, SPORTDiscus, and Scopus. Published English and French written studies were included if the reported study used a longitudinal design; examined the relationship between social support and PA over at least two intervals; and assessed a sample of healthy adults between 18–65 years of age. Two reviewers independently extracted study information and independently assessed the risk of bias in each study. The initial search yielded a total of 2892 citations, and 20 studies were included in the review. Follow-up period ranged from 2 weeks to 10 years. Irrespective of the type and source of support, the strength and direction of the association between social support and PA was inconsistent across studies, with effect sizes ranging from small to large and from negative to positive. Based on meta-analysis, there was a small positive association between support for PA from friends and future PA. Researchers are encouraged to continue to conduct longitudinal studies to better understand the relationship between social support and PA.     

Genetics with Jean: the design,development and evaluation of an affective tutoring system

This paper details the design, development and evaluation of an affective tutoring system (ATS)—an e-learning system that detects and responds to the emotional states of the learner. Research into the development of ATS is an active and relatively new field, with many studies demonstrating promising results. However, there is often no practical way to apply these findings in real-world settings. The ATS described in this paper utilizes a generic affective application model to infer and appropriately respond to the learner’s affective state. This approach brings several advantages, notably the potential direct support for re-use and retrospective addition of affect sensing functionality into existing e-learning software. Skin conductivity and heart rate variability measurements were used to infer affective activation and valence. The evaluation involved an experiment in which the effectiveness of the fully functional ATS was compared with that of a non-affective version, and was conducted with 40 adult participants. The evaluation of the effectiveness of this tutoring system showed that measurable improvements in perceived learning may be obtained with a modest level of software development.