Moving Toward Family-Centered Early Care and Education: The Past, the Present, and a Glimpse of the Future

Over the past 4 decades, early care and education programs in the United States have struggled to overcome obstacles to active parent and family participation, especially in the wake of recent welfare reform guidelines requiring parents to work outside the home. This article highlights the vision and activities of four Wisconsin Early Childhood Centers for Excellence, which offer family-centered services along with services to young children. Using various strategies, these programs have empowered parents and strengthened bonds between parents and professionals. Their success suggests that new models based on family-centered goals can improve the overall quality of early care and education for young children.     

Attitudes and aspirations regarding engineering among Chinese secondary school students: comparisons between industrialising and post-industrial geo-engineering regions of Mainland China and Hong Kong

School-based pipelines/routes for university and technical engineering education are recognised as important for economic development and the high-school years are critical for shaping students’ career aspirations and attitudes. This study examined a range of attitudes/experiences on the aspirations of secondary students to pursue engineering education and vocation. Experiential/attitudinal aspects covered demographic characteristics, family/school support, practical learning experiences, curricular/extra-curricular experiences, attitudes, perceptions and engineering-efficacy that may affect aspirations. A validated questionnaire capturing these variables was administered to respective samples of secondary school students from four Chinese geo-engineering regions (Beijing, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and ShanXi; 5965 students) that represent differing degrees of industrialisation. Comparative analyses across regions show ‘doing’ engineering is key to motivating students’ aspirations; while regional variations suggest that schooling and family factors are generally more significant in industrialising Mainland cities, and extracurricular opportunities and personal factors are more significant for students in post-industrial Hong Kong.     

THE ROLE OF UNIVERSITIES IN PROMOTING LITERACY

This article offers a critique of the traditional role of the university in relation to the promotion of universal literacy. It describes some of the developments in university Involvement in adult basic education in the United Kingdom and suggests possibilities for the future. K argues that universities must commit themselves to a lifelong learning approach to education. They must support new access routes for adult students and collaborative models of research and practice in developing the field of literacy.     

Correlates of leisure-time reading

Pupils from middle-class homes devoted an average of 7.2 per cent of leisure time to reading. The relationship between home environment, attitude to reading and motivations for reading on the one hand and leisure-time reading on the other, was examined. The addition of these sets of variables to previously established correlates of leisure-time reading, achievement, sex, and library membership increased the proportion of variance accounted for in leisure-time reading by a significant amount (10.1 per cent). Correlations tended to be low, since leisure reading is a relatively sporadic type activity. From the perspective of developing the reading habit, the results suggest that what parents do is more important than what they are; the emphasis placed on reading in the home, on academic development and on intellectuality was related to leisure-time reading. Attitude to reading correlated more highly with leisure-time reading than any of the other variables included in the study; the correlation between attitude and time was significant even after controlling for sex, reading achievement and library membership. Among the motivational variables, reading for enjoyment was related to leisure-time reading whereas reading for utilitarian or escapist reasons was not.     

如影随形的电话

Verizon makes a new vow to marry phones to the PC It's one of the most maddening(发狂的) features of all the technology in our lives. There are so many gadgets (小玩意) to connect us—cell phones, e-mail, land-line phones—yet most of the gadgets aren' t connected to each other.     

Announcing The Encyclopaedia of School Stories

Editorial Introduction

Announcing The Encyclopaedia of School Stories     

中澳两所大学促进大学新生角色转换的对比研究

2004年7月在教育部留学基金委的双语教学项目的资助下,笔者之一(董艳)有幸到澳大利亚悉尼大学学习进修。该校作为澳洲历史最古老的大学之一,建立于1850年,有着较为深厚的文化底蕴和研究传统。学习期间,笔者对该校理学院的“学生角色转换研讨会”项目产生了浓厚的兴趣。从中发现悉尼大学在促进新生从高中到大学的角色转换方面,作了许多富有成效的工作。如从量化的角度(问卷调查)收集大学生对大学生活诸方面的体验数据,以促进学校和院系的改革等。目前,世界许多国家的高校把大学新生的角色转换作为一个重要的课题,且已产生许多研究成果。基本…     

The Effects of Morning Naps, Car Trips, and Maternal Separation on Adrenocortical Activity in Human Infants

3 studies of adrenocortical activity in healthy 9-month-old infants were conducted to examine unanticipated results obtained in previous research. In the first study, morning naps were examined and found to be associated with significant decreases in salivary cortisol. These decreases were followed by a significant return to prenap cortisol concentrations. In the second study, riding for 40 min in the car was also shown to significantly lower salivary cortisol concentrations. This effect was obtained both for infants who did and who did not sleep during the car trip. In the third study, the effect of 30 min of maternal separation in the laboratory on salivary cortisol was compared to the effect of 30 min of play with mother present. Separation resulted in significantly higher salivary cortisol concentrations as compared to play with mother present. In general, correlations between cortisol and behavior were found to be nonsignificant under conditions that did not produce stress elevations in cortisol, while less positive, more distressed behaviour was significantly correlated with cortisol under separation or stress conditions.     

Transforming administration to support science in the schoolhouse for students with disabilities

I examine the role that administrators play in facilitating the development, adoption, use, and evaluation of scientifically based interventions within the school culture to support the educational outcomes of students with learning disabilities (LD). Two ways of transforming the administrative role to support science in the schoolhouse are presented; one considers the importance of including language in future legislation that acknowledges the role of administrators in school reform, and the other focuses on establishing a national research agenda addressing issues of leadership and special education. I argue that these 2 venues should serve to identify and to stimulate the use of evidence-based administrative practices that ultimately increase educational outcomes for students with LD, improve teacher instruction, and transform the leadership mission.