Kindergarten Teachers and Classrooms: A Transition Context

Demographic and structural features of kindergarten classrooms are described using data from the National Center for Early Development and Learning's (NCEDL) Transition Practices Survey, a nationally representative survey of kindergarten teachers (n=3595), as a first step in investigating the context of the transition to kindergarten. Findings indicate that kindergarten teachers have a lot of education and experience, but lack specific training on facilitating transitions to kindergarten. Kindergarten classrooms generally meet National Association for the Education-of Young Children (NAEYC) (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997) guidelines for class size, but are larger than some research indicates is optimal (Mosteller, 1995). All estimates are presented for the overall population and by metropolitan status, district poverty, and minority enrollment. Few differences were found between subgroups on teacher education, experience, transition training, or class size.     

An activity for learning to find percentiles

This classroom activity is designed to help students practice calculating percentiles. The approach of the activity involves physical sorting and full classroom participation in each calculation. The design encourages a more engaged approach than simply having students make a calculation with numbers on a paper.     

Where Pop Meets Purl: Knitting,the Curation of Craft,and the Folk/Mass Culture Divide

Since the 1970s, the de‐differentiation of high and low culture has legitimized the curation of craft and popular culture. The curation of some crafts, such as quilting, has assisted in reducing art‐craft distinctions, and the exhibition of fashion and popular music has highlighted links between folk culture (e.g., stories, songs, and crafts) and mass culture. With reference to the craft of knitting, we draw on the concept of the contact zone) to show how the current breaching of museum boundaries by yarn bombers can draw further attention to inclusions and exclusions in museum curation. Just as traditional age and gender distinctions are both problematized and perpetuated in public images and press reports on knitting, we argue that discussion of new forms and new contributors to curation processes may be tempered by broader analysis of the representation of craft within popular culture.     

The superstar phenomenon in the knowledge management and intellectual capital academic discipline

This paper reports on the first documented attempt to investigate the presence of the superstar (or Matthew) effect in the knowledge management and intellectual capital (KM/IC) scholarly discipline. The Yule–Simon model and Lotka's square law were applied to the publication data obtained from 2175 articles from 11 KM/IC journals. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the KM/IC discipline represents a very young, attractive academic field that welcomes contributions from a variety of academics and practitioners. In their paper acceptance decisions, KM/IC journal editors are not biased towards a small group of highly productive researchers, which is a positive sign that the field has been progressing in the right direction. The discipline is driven more by academics than by practitioners, and the distribution of articles is more concentrated among a few academic but not practitioner institutions. It was also observed that the Yule–Simon model and Lotka's square law may produce different distributions with respect to institutions.