The effects of dyad reading and text difficulty on third-graders’ reading achievement

This study replicated, with modifications, previous research of dyad reading using texts at various levels of difficulty (Morgan, 1997). The current project measured the effects of using above–grade-level texts on reading achievement and sought to determine the influences of dyad reading on both lead and assisted readers. Results indicate that weaker readers, using texts at two, three, and four grade levels above their instructional levels with the assistance of lead readers, outscored both proficient and less proficient students in the control group across multiple measures of reading achievement. However, the gains made by assisted readers were not significantly different relative to the various text levels. When all assessments were considered, assisted readers reading texts two grade levels above their instructional levels showed the most robust gains in oral reading fluency and comprehension. Lead readers also benefited from dyad reading and continued their respective reading developmental trajectories across measures.     

Student self-assessment: why do they do it?

Abstract

This study explores factors that predict students’ self-assessment intentions and practices using a framework based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). A total of 1425 Hong Kong students (Primary 4 to Secondary 3) participated in this study. Students’ intentions and practices pertaining to self-assessment and the predictors of their intentions and practices were assessed with 11 self-report scales aligned to the TPB constructs. The psychometric properties of scales were examined with Rasch analysis and the relations among the variables were investigated with path analysis based on Rasch-calibrated person measures. The results showed that attitude, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and perceived controllability were statistically significant predictors on intention to self-assess, while self-efficacy and intention had significant influence on self-assessment practice. Psychological safety was also found to have relatively weak but significant impact on both self-assessment intention and practice. This study lays a foundation for future investigations on how to promote meaningful self-assessment behaviour which is crucial for self-regulated and life-long learning.     

Alternative Perspectives on Playroom Practice Autres Perspectives sur les Pratiques en Salle de Jeux Perspectivas Alternativas sobre la Pra´ctica en el Cuarto de Juegos

This paper reports on research designed to explore alternative perspectives on playroom practice. Two perspectives on the role of practitioners were articulated. One was an outside, context-free perspective constructed in consultation with a group of experienced assessors of pre-school provision and presented as a Framework for Good Practice. Observations of acknowledged good practice (using the Framework as the observation tool) and interviews with practitioners supported its ready applicability to the range of pre-school settings typical in Scotland. The second perspective was an 'insider' view encapsulating the way in which practitioners think about their work in the playroom, their professional craft knowledge. The characteristics of each perspective and the insights that can be derived from each are discussed, along with the value of considering first the 'insider' perspective when staff are engaged in continuing professional development. Cet article fait état de recherches conçues dans le but d'explorer de nouvelles perspectives sur les pratiques en salle de jeux. Deux perspectives sur le rôle des praticiens ont été retenues. L'une consiste en une perspective externe, totalement dénuée de contextuatisation, élaborée en consultation avec un groupe d'inspecteurs d'établissements préscolaires expérimentés et présentée en tant que Structure de bonne pratique. Des observations de bonne pratique reconnue (se référant à cette Structure comme outil d'observation) ainsi que des entretiens auprès de praticiens sont venus étayer son application pratique dans la gamme d'établissement pré-scolaires typiques en Écosse. La seconde perspective représente une vue e interne f qui retrace la façon dont les praticiens réfléchissent àleur travail en salle de jeux, leurs connaissances professionnelles sur le terrain. Les caractéristiques de ces deux perspectives et les aperçus qui sont offerts sur chacune d'entre elles font l'objet de discussions. Est également débatue la validité d'introduire en premier la perspective e interne f dans le cadre d'un programme de formation continue éventuellement suivi par le personnel. Este artículo informa sobre una investigación diseñada para explorar las perspectivas alternativas sobre la práctica de los juegos en el aula. Se articulan dos perspectivas sobre el papel de los docentes. Una era una perspectiva externa, libre de contexto construida tras consultar a un grupo de asesores con experiencia en la disposición preescolar y presentada como un Marco para la Buena Práctica . Las observaciones de una reconocida buena práctica (usando el Marco como una herramienta de observación) y las entrevistas con los docentes apoyaron su pronta aplicación en el ámbito de los escenarios preescolares típicos en Escocia. La segunda perspectiva es una visión interna que engloba la manera en la que los docentes reflexionan sobre su trabajo en el aula de juego, el conocimiento profesional de su oficio. Se habla de las características de cada perspectiva y de las percepciones que pueden extraerse de cada una, junto con el valor que tiene considerar primero la perspectiva interna cuando los docentes están comprometidos con un continuo desarrollo profesional.     

The efficacy of embedding special education instruction in teacher preparation programs in the United States

This study examined the effects of embedding special education instruction into preservice general education assessment courses. Participants were teacher candidates in the United States enrolled in a required evaluation and measurement course (n=208). A self-report survey was developed assessing knowledge of and attitudes toward teaching students with learning disabilities. Results indicated that embedded instruction significantly increased teacher candidate's knowledge of inclusion terminology and assessment adaptations (p<.01), and improved confidence levels in meeting the needs of students with learning disabilities improved by 60% over the control group. These results suggest the need to provide faculty in the content area adequate professional development opportunities to ensure that current special education best practices are embedded across the curriculum of teacher candidates.     

What Can We Learn from Art Practices? Exploring New Perspectives on Critical Engagement with Plurality and Difference in Community Art Education

The article presents a case of community art education in Leuven, Belgium. Participants who belong to disenfranchised groups of the local community were invited to engage in artistic actions and performances aiming at familiarising them with modern art practices. Such experiments are often disqualified as being irrelevant to the life‐conditions of these families in poverty, and hence as non‐emancipatory. In this article, the emancipatory quality of such initiatives is explored with reference to the art practices of the Belgian/Mexican artist Francis Alÿs and the reflections on emancipation by the French philosopher Jacques Rancière. These reflections help to shed a new light on the emancipatory dimension of community art practices and to consider theoretical concepts such as ‘poor pedagogy’.     

Education for Australia's information future

Digital disruption and an increasingly networked society drive rapid change in many professions and a corresponding need for change in tertiary education. Across the world, information education has, to date, prepared graduates for employment in discrete professions, such as librarianship, records management, archives and teacher librarianship. However, contemporary information practices are less defined and are demanding of new professional skill-sets and understandings. This paper reports a study that consulted Australia's tertiary academics about the current circumstances of information education in the academy and elicited a vision and a concern for future directions in Australian information education.     

Transformative Learning Theory in Gerontology: Nontraditional Students

Mezirow (1978) applied and used Transformative Learning Theoretical (TLT) processes while studying women who reentered academics during the 1970s. Similar to Mezirow's original 1975 Mezirow , J. ( 1975 ). Education for perspective transformation: women's reentry programs in community colleges . New York , NY : Center for Adult Education, Teachers College, Columbia University . [Google Scholar] work, we identify “factors that impeded or facilitated” participants' progress to obtain their undergraduate degree during the traditional student time, but then returned later in life, after age 40, to pursue their doctorate. Through semistructured interviews, eight women describe their life course of education through the TLT phases of realization—or in Mezirow's terms, justification, critical reflection, and exploring rational discourse. The women discuss their concerns on technological challenges, rationalization to self and others concerning a return to school, and reactions of family, friends, peers, and professors, including ageist comments. As more women return to the educational system to pursue advanced degrees, specifically within gerontology or aging studies, this research is key to understanding the various events and meaning ascribed to their journey. Data analysis reveals overlapping thoughts to frames of reference in their meaning perspectives and themes when discussing their transformative process to new status as a PhD.     

Beginning to untangle the strange coupling of power within a neoliberal early education context

Policymakers across the globe continue to promote access to early education programmes as a means to improve children's readiness for school. Many of their reforms are rooted in a neoliberal conception of governance that frames policy solutions through economic rather than democratic terms. Such policies foster an image of the successful learner as one who becomes an earner and consumer rather than an active member of the larger democratic society. This shift in the conception of publicly supported early education affects teachers of young children in multiple ways. This article examines how a sample of early educators in the USA responded to a set of neoliberal reforms in their pre-kindergarten teaching context. Examining their responses, which ultimately mimicked their policy-makers’ neoliberal reforms, reveals the subtlety of these policies in overtaking their attempts to resist them. It also illuminates the challenges they and other early educators face as policy-makers’ neoliberal policies continue to alter the purpose and direction of early childhood. Finally, it ends by considering the ways in which early educators working in similar contexts might respond to and navigate such reforms.