Rethinking Equity: Preservice Teachers' Perceptions and Practice Around Policy

Despite the body of literature around practicing teachers and policy (Knapp, Ferguson, Bamberg, &; Hill, 1998; Kumar &; Scuderi, 2000; Lortie, 1975/2002), little is known about the involvement of their preservice counterparts. Preservice teachers have limited exposure to policy-related coursework in their professional training (Floden &; Meniketti, 2005) and scholarship is relatively silent regarding preservice teachers' experiences with educational policies and their sense-making process (Spillane, 2004; Weick, 1995; see Heineke, Ryan, &; Tocci, 2015, for a notable exception).

This paper examines preservice teachers negotiating and making sense of a particular policy, the Massachusetts' Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners (RETELL). It addresses the following questions: First, what do preservice teachers know about policy in general and the RETELL language policy in particular? Second, how do preservice teachers make sense of the implementation of the RETELL policy in the various settings of their professional training? Third, in what ways do preservice teachers' experiences with the policy influence their orientations toward teaching emergent bilingual students? This analysis demonstrates that preservice teachers have limited general knowledge of educational policy process, and limited specific knowledge around the RETELL language policy. Yet, they learn important lessons about how to “do” policy from their field supervisors and play an important role in policy implementation. The impact of the RETELL policy on preservice teachers' beliefs about teaching emergent bilingual students is mediated by the lack of policy information they receive and by their experiences in the field. This paper adds to the limited literature around preservice teachers involvement in policy and offers recommendations for highlighting the importance of policy education in teacher training.     

Potential knowledge management contributions to human performance technology research and practice

This article considers three aspects of the knowledge management (KM) literature that have the potential to enhance human performance technology (HPT) research and practice. First, we believe the recent attempt by economists to describe and quantify intellectual capital can help HPT to better evaluate and defend organizational expenditures/investments for performance improvement initiatives. Second, the emerging KM literature explores the linkages between information, learning and performance, provides a common point of intersection for our fields, and can enhance our analysis and implementation of information (as opposed to training) solutions as well as inform and expand our conceptual and theoretical understanding. Third, we have observed that both KM and HPT practitioners are increasingly concerned with the learning that takes place outside the confines of traditional formal training environments. We briefly review the electronic performance support systems literature from HPT and KM, noting the similarities in epistemology, design, and interventions. Finally, we highlight the KM research agenda and suggest related opportunities for HPT research.     

Impact of school inspections on improvement of schools—describing assumptions on causal mechanisms in six European countries

School inspection is used by most European education systems as a major instrument for controlling and promoting the quality of schools. Surprisingly, there is little research knowledge about how school inspections drive the improvement of schools and which types of approaches are most effective and cause the least unintended consequences. The study presented in this paper uses interviews with inspection officials and a document analysis to reconstruct the “program theories” (i.e. the assumptions on causal mechanisms, linking school inspections to their intended outcomes of improved teaching and learning) of Inspectorates of Education in six European countries. The results section of the paper starts with a summary of the commonalities and differences of these six national inspection models with respect to standards and thresholds used, to types of feedback and reporting, and to the sanctions, rewards and interventions applied to motivate schools to improve. Next, the intermediate processes through which these inspection models are expected to promote good education (e.g. through actions of stakeholders) are explained. In the concluding section, these assumptions are critically discussed in the light of research knowledge.     

Application of radio frequency identification technology to study library users' information-seeking behavior

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has application to research on information-seeking behavior of library users. A user study was conducted to track traveling paths using the RFID system. Three undergraduate students carried a reader/writer and explored information sources in a library to complete a given set of tasks. Data regarding the traveling paths and information sources used were collected. The information offers insight into participants' information-seeking patterns. For example, all participants started in the online public access catalog zone; they used secondary sources for fact-based tasks more than for topic-based tasks. In addition, they spent the most time exploring the general book zone. A small percentage of tag recordings had to be removed or created because of errors in transmission readings; however, the procedure and results of the experiment were not affected. The results suggest that RFID technology provides data accurate enough to explain library users' information-seeking behavior, and can be applied to future studies.     

Surface plasmon resonance analysis to evaluate the importance of heparin sulfate groups' binding with human aFGF and bFGF

Human acidic and basic fibroblast growth factors (aFGF and bFGF) are classic and well characterized members of the heparin-binding growth factor family. Heparin is generally thought to play an extremely important role in regulating aFGF and bFGF bioactivities through its strong binding with them. In order to unravel the mechanism of the interactions between heparin and FGFs, and evaluate the importance of heparin sulfate groups' binding with FGFs, surface plasmon resonance analyses were performed using IAsys Cuvettes System. Heparin and its regioselectively desulfated derivatives were immobilized on the cuvettes. aFGF and bFGF solutions with different concentrations were pipetted into the cuvettes and the progress of the interaction was monitored in real-time by Windows-based software, yielding kinetic and equilibrium constants for these interactions. In addition, in order to reduce the delicate difference among the cuvettes, inhibition analyses of mixtures of FGFs and immobilized native heparin by modified heparins were also done. The data from these two methods were similar, indicating that all sulfate groups at 2-O, 6-O and N- in heparin were required for the binding to aFGF; and that their contribution to the binding was in the order 2-O, N- and 6-O-sulfate group. In contrast, definite contribution of the 6-O-sulfate group to the binding with bFGF was most apparent, while the other two sulfate groups appeared to be necessary in the order 2-O and N-sulfate group. These methods established here can be used for analysing the effect of sulfate groups in heparin on the binding with other human FGF members or other heparin-binding proteins. The project supported by the Scientific Research Foundation for Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry of China and Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (301306)     

Preschool Teachers’ Explanations for Hygiene Habits and Young Children’s Biological Awareness of Contamination

Research Findings: Preschools have many norms and rules children are supposed to follow. Among them, behavioral norms associated with mealtime are of great consequence because eating is an essential life function. The present study examined young Japanese children’s understanding of hygiene norms and rules at mealtime from the standpoint of their awareness of contamination. Previous studies on contamination sensitivity have mainly focused on children’s knowledge itself and have paid little attention to the origins of such knowledge. However, the present study examined how adults talk to children about contamination as 1 possible source of children’s knowledge. Practice or Policy: Study 1 involved 32 days of observations during lunchtime at 3 Tokyo preschools. The teachers frequently told children to adhere to hygiene habits such as washing their hands. Although preschool teachers attached much weight to hygiene, their explanations were not precise. They often used 1-word or 1-phrase directions (e.g., “Dirty”) or just input-output explanations such as “Please wash your hands, or you’ll get sick.” Explanations of why breaking hygiene norms would lead to sickness were seldom offered to children. In Study 2, 26 children age 3 (M age = 3.7) and 22 children age 5 (M age = 5.7) were asked to explain why breaking hygiene norms would lead to sickness. In contrast with teachers’ simple expressions in Study 1, even 3-year-old children frequently generated contamination mechanism explanations (e.g., referring to germs and disgust transmission spontaneously).     

An Integrative Review of Parenting Stress in Mothers of Children with Autism in Japan

Abstract

Parents of children with autism experience elevated stress that may be influenced by specific characteristics of the child and parent, including cultural norms and beliefs about parenting. However, there is little research on families of children with autism from cultural perspectives. The purpose of this integrative review is to identify factors influencing parenting stress in mothers of children with autism in Japan. A final sample of 15 primary research articles (2000–2015) on parenting stress in mothers of Japanese children with autism was selected using several databases. The findings suggested that these mothers experience much greater parenting stress than mothers of typically developing children and children with other disabilities. Japanese mothers also demonstrate stress related to attachment difficulties, low parenting efficacy and lack of support, reflecting Japanese parenting styles and gender ideology. Parent-directed and culturally calibrated interventions are needed to support parents of children with autism, especially cultural minority parents.     

Empirical study of motivators and barriers of teacher online knowledge sharing

The focus of this study was to understand knowledge flows among teachers by examining what types of knowledge was shared by teachers, as well as what motivates or hinders teachers to share knowledge online. We examined an electronic mailing list (listserv) supporting a community of practice of literacy teachers. Data were gathered on the teachers in the listserv through online observations. Additional data were collected through semi-structured telephone interviews with 20 teachers. Findings suggest that two motives of community involvement––collectivism, and principlism appear to be the main motivators for knowledge sharers to share knowledge, while lack of knowledge and competing priority appear to be the main barriers. Practical implications for knowledge sharing and suggestions for future research are discussed. The findings of this study inform teachers, listserv moderators, teacher associations, as well as researchers of educational technology who are interested in knowledge sharing among teachers within communities of practice mediated by computer networks.