Joint Attention and Conversation in Mother-Infant-Sibling Triads

The current study investigated the general nature of joint attentional and conversational interaction in mother-infant-sibling triads. 9 19-month-old infants and 9 24-month-old infants were videotaped during 20 min of free play with their mothers and preschool-aged siblings around a common activity. Analyses revealed that even 19-month-old infants were capable of participating in triadic interactions and conversations, and that the proportional frequency of both these measures increased with age. Triadic conversations were nearly 3 times longer and elicited nearly twice as many infant turns per conversation as dyadic conversations. Infants were more likely to join into an ongoing conversational topic than to initiate one themselves, and they were more likely to take a turn in those conversations if they were in a joint attentional state with the speaker. Infants were just as likely to respond to a comment or request directed to another person as they were to one directed to themselves, indicating reliable comprehension of language not addressed to them. These results suggest that the mother-infant-sibling interactive context differs in important ways from the mother-infant dyadic context and that it is a richer language learning environment than previously supposed.     

Culture, food, and language: Perspectives from immigrant mothers in school science

The article explores the role of immigrant parents in middle school science as both teachers and learners as part of an urban middle school curriculum, the Linking in Food and the Environment (LiFE) program. The curriculum engaged parents as partners with science teachers to teach science through food. Over a 2-year period, parents attended a series of bilingual workshops, collaborated with classroom teachers, managed activities, guided student inquiry, and assisted in classroom management. The following study analyzes the role of culture, language, and identity as four mothers navigated their position as ‘insiders’ in a science classroom.

A Partnership Approach to Information Technology in Initial Teacher Training

ABSTRACT

This paper describes the changes to the IT element of the secondary Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) course at the University of East Anglia, in the light of the government initiatives requiring a shift to a partnership approach to initial teacher training. This shift means that only one third of the 36 week course is now delivered at the University. The paper describes the recommendations of a joint working party representing partnership schools and university staff. The implementation of the group's suggestions involved a fundamental revision of the IT component for both university and school based elements and a re‐definition of the roles of all staff involved. This paper concludes with a discussion of the evaluation of the new scheme, including the results of a student questionnaire, after it had been implemented for one year. This found that our move to deal with IT as a subject specific issue was successful and highlighted the level of IT use in school subject departments as the single most important factor determining students’ use of IT in the classroom.     

Effectiveness of a simulated clinical examination in the assessment of the clinical competencies of entry-level trainees in a family medicine residency programme

Clinical competence is a multidimensional concept and encompasses a variety of skills including procedural, problem-solving and clinical judgement. The initial stages of postgraduate medical training are believed to be a particularly important time for the development of clinical skill competencies. This study reports on an evaluation of a Simulated Clinical Examination (SCE) method as a means of assessing the clinical skill competencies of entry-level family medicine residents. Two entering cohorts of PGY1 family medicine residents (N = 35) participated in a SCE encompassing realistic clinical encounters with standardised patients (SPs). Residents were asked to complete pre- and post-evaluation surveys, and both faculty and residents were invited to participate in separate focus groups. The SCE was perceived as a useful method during the early phases of postgraduate training for assessing clinical skill competencies, providing constructive feedback to residents and enhancing self-awareness and confidence. The SCE also appeared to be useful in fostering confidence in interviewing and diagnostic reasoning, however self-reported confidence in the ability to perform clinical skill tasks related to history taking, physical examination and differential diagnosis was not associated with observed performance in these areas. The SCE was an effective technique for benchmarking skill performance, however further research is required to evaluate the effect of this on the self-assessment abilities of trainees over the course of postgraduate medical education.