Labor Market and Teaching Staff Considerations for Making Early Childhood Education Work for Migrant Head Start Teachers: The Case of Michigan Migrant Head Start

This paper considers the case of the Michigan Migrant Head Start program to describe and analyze the labor market conditions and teaching staff characteristics to identify the challenges faced by Migrant Head Start grantees in attracting, hiring, retaining, and training degreed teachers. The emphasis is on describing and analyzing the child care labor market characteristics that confront Migrant Head Start grantees in upstream locations and on describing the characteristics and opinions of Migrant Head Start teachers and interpreting their significance for developing educational programs that facilitate the ability of Migrant Head Start teachers to become degreed in early childhood education. The implications of the findings for making early childhood education work for Migrant Head Start teachers are discussed from the perspective of administrators of Migrant Head Start programs and teacher preparation programs at community colleges and universities.     

Relationship between sociometric types and academic achievement in a sample of compulsory secondary education students / Relación entre tipos sociométricos y rendimiento académico en una muestra de estudiantes de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse the relationship between sociometric types, behavioural categories and academic achievement in a sample of 1,349 compulsory secondary education students (51.7% boys), ranging in age from 12 to 16 years. The students’ sociometric identification was performed by using the Programa Socio and academic performance was measured by school marks provided by teachers in the subjects of Spanish language, mathematics and average academic performance. The results show that sociometric types were significant predictors of academic achievement, as students who were rated positively by their peers (popular, leaders, collaborators and good students) were more likely to have high academic achievement (in mathematics, Spanish language and average academic achievement) than students rated negatively by peers (rejected-aggressive, rejected-shy, neglected and bullies).     

Effectiveness and motivation towards the use of video tutorials when learning how to use music software / Efectividad y motivación hacia el uso de videotutoriales para el aprendizaje de un software musical

Abstract

The objective of this study is to highlight the potential of video tutorials for learning how to use music editing software as well as students’ perceptions of their use. The project has been developed within a flipped-classroom approach, in which students studied with two types of resources: video tutorials and printed tutorials created ad hoc. Using a quantitative study with a quasi-experimental design, students participating in the project (n = 48) were divided into an experimental group (video tutorials) and a control group (printed tutorials) in order to evaluate the resource used according to: (1) academic results achieved; (2) students’ independence; (3) time spent completing tasks; (4) motivation generated by the resource. The resource used did not result in an improvement of academic performance in those students who used video tutorials. However, there has been an improvement in time invested in the production of scores, students’ autonomy in relation to the teacher and motivation towards the resource used.     

How international students select offshore programs: the influence of image, attitude, subject norm, and perceived behavioral control

Previous research studies identified country image as an important variable in international students’ selection of onshore programs, and it is often perceived that there is little difference between onshore and offshore program selection. Looking at a sample of high school students in China and their selections of offshore programs (from a sample program in Australia, the UK, and the US), this study reveals an insignificant influence of country image. Instead, both higher education country image and the local partner institution image significantly influence the students’ selections. The findings also indicate that the effects of attitude toward behavior, subject norm, and perceived behavioral control appear to be more significant than those of the images in most of the analyses. Implications for international educators and marketers of offshore programs are discussed.     

饮茶不当对健康的危害:现象、机理及对策

对不合理饮茶引起健康危害的各种现象、机理及预防对策等进行了文献综述和分析。     

Reading and reading-related skills in children using cochlear implants: prospects for the influence of cued speech

We assessed the reading and reading-related skills (phonemic awareness and phonological short-term memory) of deaf children fitted with cochlear implants (CI), either exposed to cued speech early (before 2 years old) (CS+) or never (CS-). Their performance was compared to that of 2 hearing control groups, 1 matched for reading level (RL), and 1 matched for chronological age (CA). Phonemic awareness and phonological short-term memory were assessed respectively through a phonemic similarity judgment task and through a word span task measuring phonological similarity effects. To assess the use of sublexical and lexical reading procedures, children read pseudowords and irregular words aloud. Results showed that cued speech improved performance on both the phonemic awareness and the reading tasks but not on the phonological short-term memory task. In phonemic awareness and reading, CS+ children obtained accuracy and rapidity scores similar to CA controls, whereas CS- children obtained lower scores than hearing controls. Nevertheless, in phonological short-term memory task, the phonological similarity effect of both CI groups was similar. Overall, these results support the use of cued speech to improve phonemic awareness and reading skills in CI children.     

Charting a Future for fMRI in Communication Science

Neuroscientific investigations into communication phenomena using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are becoming increasingly popular in communication science. This presents opportunities for new discoveries, but also for the rapid spread of questionable practices. Here, we look to the future of fMRI in communication science: first, highlighting and advocating for several relatively new methods that should enable communication scholars to address novel research questions; and second, pointing out various controversies or pitfalls that exist in the use of several of the more widely used fMRI analysis methods within the field. Given the rapidly changing nature of the fMRI analysis landscape, such reflection is an essential part of being a good scholar in this domain. Our aim is to ensure that the future of fMRI in communication science is healthy, robust, and rich in variety, by encouraging all researchers in the field to think critically about the methods they use, whether that means adopting new analysis methods that can answer previously unanswerable questions, or adjusting their use of methods they already use to align with the latest recommended practices.