Revolution is in the Everyday: Métissage as place of education

Positing that place has a pedagogy that can be harnessed for educative means and ends or left to chance and that partnering place and its pedagogy with teaching magnifies the influence of place and teaching, I conceptualize métissage as place of education. Because few scholars in education have written about métissage and even fewer have conceptualized it as place of education, I begin by defining métissage illustrating the multi-layered definition with literary, historical, and autobiographical examples. I then examine métissage as place of education with its own pedagogy whose influence increases when partnered with teaching, portray this phenomenon at play in one urban school, demonstrate ways for teachers to subvert negative school places by rejecting, challenging, and countering them and by using the everyday as a revolutionary tool, and pose questions about such a pedagogy's potential dangers.     

Predicting response to early reading intervention from verbal IQ, reading-related language abilities, attention ratings, and verbal IQ-word reading discrepancy: failure to validate discrepancy method

Additional analyses of a previously published study addressed three questions about growth in word reading during early reading intervention: (1) How well do Verbal IQ, reading-related language abilities (phonological, rapid naming, and orthographic), and attention ratings predict reading growth? (2) How well do language deficits predict reading growth? and (3) How well does Verbal IQ-word reading discrepancy predict reading growth? Univariate analyses showed that Verbal IQ, phonological skills, orthographic skills, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and attention ratings predicted the response to early intervention, but multivariate analyses based on a combination of predictors for real-word reading and pseudoword reading showed that Verbal IQ was not the best unique predictor. Students with double or triple deficits in language skills (RAN, phonological, and orthographic processing) responded more slowly to early intervention than students without language deficits. Verbal IQ-word reading discrepancy did not predict the response to early intervention in reading. Overall results supported the use of reading-related language and attention measures rather than IQ-achievement discrepancy in identifying candidates for early reading intervention.     

ENGAGING WITH FACULTY TO DEVELOP,IMPLEMENT, AND PILOT ELECTRONIC PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS OF STUDENT TEACHERS USING MOBILE DEVICES

This article discusses the development and implementation of a technology-supported student teacher performance assessment that supports integration with a larger electronic assessment system. The authors spearheaded a multidisciplinary team to develop a comprehensive performance assessment based on the Pathwise framework. The team collaborated with a third party vendor to implement and field test these assessments supported with mobile technologies in the field. Twenty supervisors completed the field test using 10 iPAQ PDAs and 10 laptops. Eighteen participated in a posttest survey and eight in a focus group debriefing session. Supervisors were overwhelmingly positive about the experience, the value of the updated assessments, and the ongoing plans to support field observations with mobile technologies. However, issues related to training, support, and trust loom largely for successful adoption, diffusion, and successful use of technology-supported assessments.     

Issues in secondary teacher preparation

As teacher educators who have had extensive experience working in the field‐based secondary programs of two universities, the authors recognize the benefits, as well as the challenges, of forming partnerships with secondary educators to design and deliver collaboratively the teacher preparation program. In this article, experiences are shared and some of the major issues related to secondary teacher preparation that have been identified and contemplated are discussed.     

Work placement experience: should I stay or should I go?

The opportunity to experience work placements that complement taught and practical courses in higher education has become a central strand of many undergraduate degree programmes. While there is tacit agreement that such placements are a good thing, in recent years the numbers of students opting for work placements has been declining. This paper uses a mixed method research design to probe the learning outcomes, attitudes and perceptions of undergraduate students who choose not to go on a work placement. Findings highlight some areas of concern that could be considered by institutions of higher education working to enhance good practice in students’ work placement experiences.     

The Kinematics and Kinetics of the Running Pattern of Two-, Four-, and Six-Year-Old Children

Abstract

Selected kinematic and kinetic variables in the running pattern of 2-, 4-, and 6-year-old children were investigated. Cinematographic records and force-plate tracings were used to study the running patterns of the 28 Caucasian subjects, 15 male and 13 female. A 2 × 3 (sex × age) factorial analysis of variance was used to determine whether effects of variation between and within age and sex factors for each of the dependent variables of selected kinematic (displacement and velocity) and kinetic (ground reaction force) variables were significant. The running speeds improved with age. Although height and weight gains influenced the improvement shown in performance, certain biomechanical variables also contributed to the development of the running pattern. In the majority of the selected kinematic and kinetic variables there were significant differences between the 2-year-old group and the other two groups. Where there were significant differences in the variables, the differences tended to be in displacement, velocity, and magnitude of force measures, rather than in time of occurrence measures. Significant differences between male and female subjects appeared in five kinematic variables related to the swing leg.     

The structural relationship between writing attitude and writing achievement in first and third grade students

This study tested three models of the structural relationship between the writing achievement of primary grade students and their attitude towards writing (defined here as an affective disposition involving how the act of writing makes the author feel, ranging from happy to unhappy). The three models tested were: (a) writing attitude influences writing achievement in a unidirectional manner, (b) writing achievement influences writing attitude in a unidirectional manner, and (c) the effects of writing attitude and achievement are bidirectional and reciprocal. The model that best fit the data was based on the assumption that writing attitude influences writing achievement. In addition, the direct path between attitude and achievement in this model was statistically significant. Although third grade students were better writers than first grade students, there was no statistical difference in younger and older students’ attitude towards writing. In addition, girls were more positive about writing than boys, but there was no statistical difference in their writing achievement related to gender. This research extends models based on the cognitive and language processes of writing to include the role of attitude, which is an affective component of motivation.     

Student/Faculty Connections in the Development of Teaching

This project directly involved students in two different models of instructional development. The first model was a Student Consultant program in which faculty selected from a menu of instructional services carried out by students. Typical services included attending class as impartial observers, soliciting feedback from other students on their learning experiences, videotaping class sessions, and evaluating course Web sites. The second model of instructional development was a program of student‐assisted teaching seminars for college faculty. Student Associates helped serve as panelists and facilitators. Assessments of attitudes toward teaching indicated that faculty members viewed both professors and students as collaborators in the classroom as a result of the seminar series.