Preschool cognitive and language skills predicting Kindergarten and Grade 1 reading and spelling: a cross‐linguistic comparison

The importance of cognitive and language skills on reading and spelling development were investigated in a cross‐linguistic longitudinal study of 737 English‐speaking children (US/Australia) and 169 Scandinavian children (Norway/Sweden) from preschool to Kindergarten and Grade 1. The results revealed that phonological awareness and print knowledge were the strongest predictors of early reading and spelling across orthographies. The contribution from rapid naming to literacy development was low in Kindergarten, but similar to that of phonological awareness and print knowledge in Grade 1. The present study identified a significant difference across orthographies in the effects of print knowledge and general verbal ability on spelling in Kindergarten. However, this pattern was explained by cultural rather than orthographic differences. The results indicate that cognitive and language skills underlying early reading and spelling development are similar across alphabetic orthographies.     

Not just another evaluation: a comparative study of four educational quality projects at Swedish universities

In this study, four recent self-initiated educational quality projects at Swedish universities are compared and analyzed. The article focuses on how the universities have handled the tension between external demands and internal norms. The aim is to contribute to an improved understanding of quality management in contemporary universities. On the one hand, the projects are found to be built on similar rationales associated with accountability, reputation building and strategic management. This is interpreted as a response to the shared external policy context. They are also found to mirror similar ambitions regarding raising the status of education. On the other hand, the projects are found to differ considerably in their actual design, methodology, implementation, stakeholders and outcomes. This is interpreted as an active adaptation to the unique internal academic norms and cultures that exist in each university.     

The mathematical textbook for young students

The mathematical textbook has always been an important influence in mathematics teaching. However, as more modern methods of teaching aim to engage the pupil in mathematical activity the textbook's role has become more problematical. In this paper the author analyses that problem and offers principles and examples from new Polish textbooks which illustrate some possible solutions.     

Structure and development of pre-service physics teachers’ professional knowledge

ABSTRACT

Teachers’ professional knowledge is considered one of the most important predictors of instructional quality. According to Shulman, such professional knowledge includes content, pedagogical content and pedagogical knowledge. Although recent research shed some light on the structure of the dimensions of professional knowledge, little is known how teacher education impacts pre-service physics teachers’ professional knowledge. In an effort to address this issue, we examined the content, pedagogical content and pedagogical knowledge of N?=?200 pre-service physics teachers enrolled in different years of teacher education at 12 major teacher education universities in Germany. We used structural equation modelling (1) to examine the relations amongst pre-service physics teachers’ content, pedagogical content and pedagogical knowledge, (2) to explore how the three kinds of knowledge and their relations differ across different stages of teacher education and (3) to identify factors affecting the level of each component of professional knowledge. Our findings suggest that content, pedagogical content and pedagogical knowledge represent distinct types of knowledge. Furthermore, our findings show that in the first years of professional education, pedagogical content knowledge is more closely related with general pedagogical knowledge while in later years, it is more closely related with content knowledge, suggesting that it develops from a general knowledge about teaching and learning into knowledge about the teaching and learning of specific content. Finally, beyond school achievement and years of enrolment as predictors, we find in particular the amount of classroom observations to have a positive impact on the professional knowledge of pre-service physics teachers.     

HUMANIZING EDUCATION AND THE EDUCATIONALIZATION OF HEALTH

Abstract Theorists often take a condescending stance when speaking about the educationalization of social problems. Given their confidence with postmodern and poststructuralist perspectives, the educationalization of social problems is easily perceived as a set of questionable interventions by governments into educational practices. In this essay, Bert Lambeir and Stefan Ramaekers question the extent to which one can conceive of social problems without an understanding of education or, put more sharply, the extent to which social problems are conceivable without some form of educationalization. After describing four meanings of the concept of educationalization, Lambeir and Ramaekers discuss three popular criticisms of it. With these criticisms as context, the authors use the example of concerns about and initiatives in health education to investigate whether education can be completely freed from the educationalization of social issues. They conclude that it cannot.     

语言正在全球5个热点地区快速消亡

语言学家警告说,每两个星期就至少有一种语言从地球上消亡。语言消亡这种现象是语言自身进化中的一个阶段还是退化中的一个阶段?在一些语言消亡的同时,一些新的语言也在出现。我们要尽可能地挽救语言消亡给人类文化带来的损失,但就语言本身来说,我们也不需要过分恐慌……