Hearing Status, Language Modality, and Young Children's Communicative and Linguistic Behavior

This study examined early pragmatic skill development in a group of 38 children with severe or profound hearing loss between 1 and 4 years of age who were enrolled in a simultaneous communication (SC) approach to language learning. Both their use of intentionally communicative acts and their use of language were studied in an analysis of 30-min play sessions between a child and the primary caregiver. Results were compared with previously published data from two age-matched groups: 38 deaf children who were enrolled in oral communication (OC) programs and 84 normally hearing (NH) children. All groups showed a significant improvement with age in the communicative behaviors measured; therefore, the overall trend was toward growth-in all age groups-even when the rates of growth differed. By age 3 years, a pattern of communicative function use had emerged in all three groups. Patterns exhibited by deaf children in the SC and OC groups were similar to each other and to younger NH children but dissimilar to NH age mates. Although the use of signed input by normally hearing parents and teachers did not serve to ameliorate the profound effects of hearing loss on communication development in SC children, it did provide some early advantages. The children in SC groups did not exhibit an advantage over children in OC groups in their overall frequency of communication or the breadth of their vocabulary but they began using words earlier and used mature communicative functions significantly more often. Although children in the OC groups did not exhibit a significant advantage in the overall amount of speech used, they showed an advantage in the breadth of their spoken vocabulary in a conversational setting. Implications for early intervention programming are discussed.     

Living in contradiction without shame: the challenge of intertextual response in GCSE poetry

Changes to the GCSE Literature syllabuses introduced in 2004 have raised a number of pedagogical challenges for teachers and their pupils. One of the most significant is the increased emphasis on intertextuality. In many ways, the fact that students are now expected to be able to make comparisons between texts, as well as to locate them within their political, social and historical context, is to be welcomed. However, this shift in emphasis from the relation between text and reader to one between text and text could threaten the importance of personal response. Insecure readers, particularly, may find it difficult to achieve and demonstrate the appropriate qualities of critical detachment—with their emphasis on complex skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation—which the new assessment objectives demand. This article explores one young writer's response to an examination question designed to test these skills and seeks to offer some pedagogical explanations for the candidate's relative lack of success in meeting two key examination imperatives: ‘choose’ and ‘compare’.     

Students’ perceptions of the value of electronic feedback—Does disciplinary background really matter?

Feedback on student work is a key mechanism for improving learning in higher education (HE) and can be provided in a variety of forms. Recently, many institutions have moved to the provision of electronic feedback, although evidence for the effectiveness of this is mixed. While many studies evaluating the students’ perception of feedback are now available, there is little evidence of contrasting perceptions of its value according to different disciplines. This work aims to evaluate the relationship between students’ expectations and perception of feedback, especially electronic, and the disciplinary area of study in HE. Students (n = 1017) across different courses from a post-1992 university in the UK were surveyed and categorised into five disciplinary clusters: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics; Business and Accounting; Art and Design; Media and Languages; and Psychology and Social Care. Perceived relevance as well as the most pertinent features and expectations of the quality of electronic feedback for students varies according to disciplinary cluster and thus closely aligns with a specific cluster’s learning and teaching practices. The findings of this study may help institutions to reflect on the role of electronic feedback as part of their ongoing assessment practice and how teaching in the different disciplines may result in different understandings of the value of electronic feedback.     

Supervisory Style: Its Relation to the Supervisory Working Alliance and Supervisor Self‐Disclosure

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between supervisor perceptions of their supervisory style and elements of the supervision process, including the supervisory working alliance and supervisor self‐disclosure. Data from 137 counselor supervisors demonstrated a significant positive relationship between attractive, interpersonally sensitive, and task‐oriented supervisory styles and the (a) goals, tasks, and bond components of the supervisory working alliance and (b) frequency of supervisor self‐disclosure. Limitations and implications for counselor supervision theory, research, and practice are addressed.     

Context and user needs in virtual learning in pursuit of qualities of learning

Learning is integral in the present dynamic environment characterized by factors, such as intense technological innovation and global economy. Thus, learning is constantly required as, for example, rapid development of technologies is both a push factor in learning requirements and a vehicle to advance the learning process. The global nature of the environment today calls for virtual learning because of convenience, time and cost factors. This research seeks to draw measures to promote virtual learning experience. The research is based on a virtual learning of a master’s level information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) course at the University of Tampere in 2016. This course was offered two times and to two sets of different student groups. A questionnaire was conducted at the mid-course stage to assess the virtual learning experience and propose the ways to improve learning process. The assessment included how well the virtual environment and pedagogy promoted qualities of learning, these are, active, constructive, collaborative, intentional, contextual, transfer and reflective learning. Excellence in learning should always be promoted and in virtual environment, there is always new opportunities because of the advances in technology. This research seeks to promote qualities of learning by considering context in terms of assessing the learning environment that is, participants’ virtual learning experience, study contents and learning technologies. Context is important in order to map the learning process that suits the learners and study contents. The results of this study include highlighting of pedagogical techniques and technological tools that fit the learners’ and study content requirements to foster learning in a virtual environment.     

Enhancing Career Development Through the Career Success Club

The career development of students, demonstrated by students performing appropriate career developmental tasks, is important to institutions of higher education because career developed students are more likely to have career objectives, persist in their academic goals, gain career-related work experience, find employment in their chosen fields, and graduate. The purpose of this study was to determine if the career development of students by class level had been enhanced by participation in a career management plan specifically prepared for undergraduates. The intervention of a career management plan (i.e., the Career Success Club) was successful, especially for seniors and middles, in enhancing the career development of undergraduates. Career management plans may help students that are academically undecided to become more connected to their majors by focusing more on academic and career matters.     

Investigating agentive urban learning: an assembly of situated experiences for sustainable futures

ABSTRACT

In this article we explore the dynamic between the pedagogical and the urban, attending to ‘agentive urban learning’. By this we mean processes by which young people build agency in the urban context, in using the resources of the city to develop their own agency, and of developing agency to act within the city. By agency, we refer to the capacity to imagine and act to create individual and collective futures. Our interest is how young people develop such agentive urban learning themselves and how it might be enhanced pedagogically at school and university. Three case studies explore different facets—the first how young people themselves develop this agency in situated settings and the tools that they use to reflect upon the future; the second how digital tools might be used to enhance students’ understanding of the city as a site of change, in this instance, climate change; and the third how such agency might be developed collectively in partnership with other city dwellers. We conclude that a diversity of students’ engagement in urban contexts of learning offers ways from which to further investigate how identity, setting, and stakeholder relationships matter as part of potentially sustainable agentive learning futures.     

Early career researchers and their authorship and peer review beliefs and practices: An international study

This article reports on the findings of an international online survey of early career researchers (ECRs) with regard to their authorship and peer review, attitudes, and practices, which sought to discover how the new wave of researchers were utilizing these key aspects of the scholarly communications system. A questionnaire was developed on the back of a 3‐year longitudinal, qualitative study and was distributed through publisher lists, social media networks, university networks, and specialist ECR membership organizations. Identical English, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and French versions of the questionnaire were used. Results from 1,600 respondents demonstrated that 82.7% had co‐authored a paper, and most had performed a variety of authorship tasks. Almost half the respondents reported being subject to various authorship policies, although a quarter said they were not aware of any such policies. Almost all Chinese ECRs reported being subject to authorship policies, but only a third of UK ECRs reported the same. Three‐quarters of ECRs had experience in responding to peer review, and half had been peer reviewers. Half the respondents had a good experience of review and viewed it as a valuable way to improve their authorship skills. However, there was some criticism of some shortcoming such as lengthy peer review and superficial or uninformed comments by reviewers. Double‐blind review was the preferred methodology, and there were few suggestions for how to improve the review process.     

Does the scholarly communication system satisfy the beliefs and aspirations of new researchers? Summarizing the Harbingers research

A study from the Harbingers research project provides a comprehensive assessment of the main features of the scholarly communications system as viewed by early career researchers (ECRs) in the final year of the study (2018). Aspects covered are: discovery and access, authorship practices, peer review, publishing strategies, open access publishing, open data, sharing, collaboration, social media, metrics, impact, reputation, libraries, publishers, and scholarly transformations. Nearly 120 science and social science researchers from seven countries were questioned about these 16 aspects. It was found that some scholarly features work well for ECRs, and in this category can be included: discovery and access, authorship practices, sharing, collaboration, and publishers. Reputation, publishing strategies, and impact are more problematical, and they, in turn, cause tensions regarding some other factors – social media, open access, and open data. Of the rest, libraries are largely invisible, and ECRs have conflicting views concerning ethical behaviour. Few envisage that transformational change will take place in the next 5 years.