Preschool Teachers’ Implementation of Vocabulary Strategies During Shared Reading: a Comparative Study

Research Findings: Shared reading is reported to be the single best instructional practice for emergent literacy skills. Vocabulary instruction practices implemented during shared reading by both Head Start (HS) teachers and teachers from more affluent private school settings were compared to determine whether there were differences between the 2 groups of teachers in their implementation of research-based practices. HS teachers implemented vocabulary instruction practices during shared reading more often, and chose different words to instruct, than private school teachers. Whereas 78% of HS teachers provided some vocabulary instruction during shared reading, only 59% of private school teachers did so. Among those teachers who provided vocabulary instruction during shared reading, HS teachers used significantly more contextualization strategies for word instruction than private school teachers. These findings suggest that preschool teachers who work with children from high-needs backgrounds use vocabulary instruction during shared reading as a way to bolster children’s vocabularies more frequently than teachers working in private preschools that serve children from more privileged backgrounds. Extratextual language was also compared, and private school teachers had a higher mean length of utterance and type–token ratio than the HS teachers. Practice or Policy: Professional development is recommended for preschool teachers to increase the implementation of best practices for vocabulary instruction during shared reading.     

Moral philosophy,Te Whāriki and gender

Abstract

Early childhood practice in Aotearoa New Zealand is guided by Te Whāriki, a curriculum which is rich in moral concepts. While there are opportunities for early childhood educators in Aotearoa New Zealand to reflect upon moral concepts in their educational settings, it is the position of this paper that critical engagement with these concepts is hindered by two major factors: lack of exposition on the moral concepts maintained within the English version of the early childhood curriculum document, and a historical gendered divide between theory and practice in early childhood education Aotearoa New Zealand. To address these concerns, the author draws from the philosophical writings of Iris Murdoch with particular focus upon her concept of attention. The theoretical plurality in Te Whāriki and the maternal image of the early childhood teacher are discussed. The author articulates the opportunities offered by Murdoch’s vision to view the curriculum and the early childhood teacher anew.     

Inclusion in Mozambique: a case study on a cooperative learning intervention / La inclusión en Mozambique: un estudio de casos sobre una intervención de aprendizaje cooperativo

Illiteracy is one of the main obstacles preventing a country from overcoming poverty. The Mozambican government’s recent efforts aim to guarantee education for all its citizens, including those with disabilities, in order to reach both cognitive and social skills which maximize their growth and development. This paper offers a complex analysis of a case study dealing with an intervention based on a cooperative learning approach for the inclusion of students with special education needs (SEN) in a class of a secondary high school in Maputo city. A clinical and qualitative perspective is adopted in reporting the data, attempting to analyse the organizational, psychosocial, relational and emotional dimensions. Some reflections are provided which refer to key factors which could affect the sustainability of good inclusive practices over time.     

A survey of pre-service primary teachers' experiences of science in schools

In 1990, a large proportion of third year primary trainee teachers at Victoria College had observed or taught very few or no science lessons during the first two years of their course. The students felt that a lack of content knowledge, a crowded school curriculum, and problems associated with managing resources and equipment, were the main factors contributing to the low level of science being taught in schools. By the end of their third year significantly more students had taught science than after the second year. There was also a change in approach to teaching science with more practical activities being included than previously. The science method unit taught to the students in the third year of their course contributed to this increase. The students considered the hands-on activities in class to have been the most effective aspect of the unit in their preparation for the teaching of primary science. Specializations: children's learning in science, primary teacher education. Specializations: student understanding of biology, evaluation of formal and informal educational settings. Specializations: gender, science and technology, environmental education. Specializations: children's learning in science, language and science.     

Interrupted experiences: reflection, listening and negativity in the practice of teaching

This inquiry explores the educative meaning of interruptions or breaks in teacher’s experiences by looking at their role in reflection and listening. Reflection and listening are not only two vital and distinct aspects of teaching, but are also interrelated and as such can serve to productively inform one another. In this context, I develop the notion of negativity of experience to describe the space that opens up when our experience has been in some way interrupted, the space where we dwell between old and new experiences and where new thoughts and ideas emerge. I demonstrate throughout my discussion that it is in this space that listening and reflection take place. To begin, I analyze the works of John Dewey and Donald Schön to take up a few particular aspects of reflective thinking and its relation to the practice of teaching. In this context, I point out similarities and important learning-theoretical differences between the notion of ‘negativity of experience’ and Schön’s notion of ‘messy situations’. The second section examines the role of negativity of experience in listening. Here, I seek to explore ways to include listening in the contemporary discussion on reflective teaching and practice. The inquiry concludes by considering the meaning of reflection, listening and negativity for the education of professional teachers.     

Ground rules for testing: Expectations and misunderstandings in test situations

Since young children have little experience in answering test questions, misunderstandings easily arise when they are subjected to tests. The experimenter wants to test the children, whereas they expect the experimenter to help them solve the problem. In an experiment the expectations of children about the interaction with the experimenter were influenced in a pre-task. In condition Exp:A (Expectation: Assistance) it was suggested that the experimenter would help the child. In condition Exp:T (Expectation: Test) children were made to expect that the experimenter would give no assistance. A third condition was a standard condition (S) without a pre-task. The experimental task was a conservation of number problem. The subjects in condition Exp:T performed significantly better than the children in the other conditions. It is concluded that unfamiliarity with the rules of testing contributes to children's poor results in this kind of experiment. Making explicit what is intended leads to better performances.     

Conditions for young infants' perception of object trajectories

When an object moves behind an occluder and re-emerges, 4-month-old infants perceive trajectory continuity only when the occluder is narrow, raising the question of whether time or distance out of sight is the important constraining variable. One hundred and forty 4-month-olds were tested in five experiments aimed to disambiguate time and distance out of sight. Manipulating the object's visible speed had no effect on infants' responses, but reducing occlusion time by increasing object speed while occluded induced perception of trajectory continuity. In contrast, slowing the ball while it was behind a narrow or intermediate screen did not modify performance. It is concluded that 4-month-olds perceive trajectory continuity when time or distance out of sight is short.     

Understanding the use of domain and task knowledge in the interpretation of graphical displays

Given the complexity of most cognitive processes and that of the associated knowledge base, which facilitates effective and efficient use of electronic diagnostic equipment, this paper addresses the important area of understanding how human operators interact with and construct meaningful understanding from the data displayed by such devices. Some work has been done in areas related to graphical and diagrammatical information processing. However, none of these studies considered the interaction of domain and task experts’ performance on similar graphical tasks. The exploratory study presented in this paper intends to identify patterns in cognitive processes used by ultrasound operators, and to provide an explanation for the reason for such patterns in light of the structure and deployment of domain and task-knowledge. The findings illustrate the complex interrelatedness of theoretical and practical knowledge, which constitutes professional knowledge. Professional knowledge becomes more complex when individuals depend on sophisticated tools to assist in their thinking. The study suggests a possibility to think about professional knowledge as a distributed knowledge across task and domain knowledge and knowledge inherent in the tools. Such distributed knowledge in professional practice needs further exploration.     

Tailored for China: did it work? Reflections on an intensive study abroad programme for Chinese student teachers

ABSTRACT

This study examines how a cohort of 32 Chinese student teachers experience a 3-week Intensive Study Abroad Programme in Canada, which focused on facilitating understanding of teaching and learning from an international perspective. Research findings underscore the effectiveness of a context responsive approach to cross-cultural teaching and learning that places emphasis upon modelling and deliberate explication of teaching practice, experiential learning and dialogic reflection.