Relations Between Dialect Variation, Grammar, and Early Spelling Skills

Relationships among African American English (AAE), linguistic knowledge, and spelling skills were examined in a sample of 92 children in grades one through three whose speech varied in the frequency of morphosyntactic AAE features. Children were separated into groups of high (AAE speakers) and low (standard American English, SAE, speakers) use of AAE features in speech, and asked to produce, recognize, and spell four inflected grammatical morphemes because variable omission of these endings in speech is a morphosyntactic characteristic of AAE. The groups differed in their spelling and elicited spoken production of inflections, but not recognition of these forms. AAE speakers omitted the inflections more often at each grade. Density of morphosyntactic AAE features in speech was related directly to spelling inflections, but this effect was mediated by children’s understanding of standard grammatical forms.     

Are Pupils Equipped for Group Work without Training or Instruction?

This account of teacher practical research examines the question of whether pupils need instruction about how to operate effectively in groups. It is taken for granted that pupils ‘know’ how to ‘work’ in groups and that teachers need only set it up and give directions to groups for successful outcomes. The author organises ‘work’ in groups and observes and evaluates the outcomes. Her conclusions are that many factors impinge on the success of groupwork as outlined in the paper and indicate the importance of teachers taking time to discover inter-relationships and other factors in the social framework of teaching that can overcome barriers to successful teaching. The account is self-challenging and reflective.     

Communication Practices of Professional Service Providers: Predicting Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

This study examined customers' perceptions of personalized service communication performance in relation to their expectations as predictors of their satisfaction and loyalty intentions in four professional service contexts. Survey data were obtained from 253 customers regarding their expectations and experiences with physicians, dentists, auto mechanics, or hairdressers. Multisample covariance structure analysis procedures were performed to assess the level of support for alternative theoretical models across all four professional contexts. Results provided support for one model, specifying that customers' perceptions of communication performance accounted for significant variation in customer satisfaction, which, in turn, predicted customers' loyal behavioral intentions. Customers' expectations did not play an influential role in predicting customer satisfaction and loyalty, as proposed in an alternative model     

Coming of Age? Overview of Career Guidance Policy and Practice in Australia

In recent years significant international focus has highlighted the critical importance of managing life, learning and work in a constantly changing labour market. This changing world and the corresponding need for individuals to engage in repeated decision-making about learning and work has raised the importance of and necessity for the provision of career development services across the lifespan. This challenge is being addressed by many countries across the globe. Within this context, this paper discusses the initiatives enhancing the status of career service provision in Australia.     

Planning changes to health library services on the basis of impact assessment

Background: Various methods of impact assessment for health library services exist, including a toolkit developed for the UK. The Knowledge, Resource and Information service (KRIS) for health promotion, health service commissioning and public health (Bristol area, UK) commissioned an independent team at Aberystwyth University to provide an impact assessment and evaluation of their services and to provide evidence for future planning. Objective: The review aimed to provide an action plan for KRIS through assessing the impact of the current service, extent of satisfaction with existing services and views on desirable improvements. Methods: Existing impact toolkit guidance was used, with an adapted impact questionnaire, which was distributed by the KRIS staff to 244 users (response rate 62.3%) in early 2009. The independent team analysed the questionnaire data and presented the findings. Results: Users valued the service (93% considered that relevant information was obtained). The most frequent impacts on work were advice to patients, clients or carers, and advice to colleagues. Literature searching and current awareness services saved staff time. Many users were seeking health promotion materials. Conclusion: The adapted questionnaire worked well in demonstrating the service impacts achieved by KRIS, as well as indicating desirable improvements in service delivery.     

Analysing the professional development of teaching and learning from a political ethics of care perspective

This paper uses Tronto's political ethics of care as a normative framework to evaluate a model of teaching and learning professional development. This framework identifies five integrated moral elements of care – attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness and trust. This paper explicates on each of these elements to evaluate the piloting and implementation of a teaching and learning professional development model at a South African higher education institution. The political ethics of care was found to be a useful normative framework for a group of higher educators to reflect on the process of engaging in teaching and learning professional development in that it revealed the importance of differential power relations, the importance of working collaboratively and being attentive to the needs of both caregivers and care receivers.     

EDITORIAL

Novice nurses encounter numerous factors that impact on their learning in the complex healthcare workplace. Registered nurses often work one‐on‐one with novices as preceptors to facilitate the development of novices’ clinical skills and socialisation into the profession. This paper explores the concept of preceptorship from novice nurses’ and preceptors’ perspective, drawing upon data from a project between a large healthcare organisation and a university in Melbourne, Australia. The study, framed in ethnomethodology, included fieldwork observation, interviews and student surveys; this paper focuses on data collected over a series of individual interviews with nursing students (n = 28) and preceptors (n = 25). Thematic analysis yielded six key themes: workplace socialisation, empathy, individuality, willingness to engage, changing support and a realisation [by novices about the preceptor role]. Findings highlight the complexity of workplace learning that is influenced by the idiosyncrasies of the individuals involved and the social milieu in which the learning takes place.