Educational policy and notions of citizenship in four asia-pacific societies

The future schooling scenarios prepared by the OECD/CERI (OECD, 2001) are the focus of this article, first because they provide a useful tool for futures thinking in educational settings and, second, because they provide an analytic framework to investigate how notions of citizenship are embedded in educational policies and in the organisation of compulsory schooling. This article outlines the scenarios developed by the OECD/CERI, describes how these were used to conduct a survey of educational policy-makers in the Asia-Pacific region and then uses the scenarios as a framework to investigate the embedded nature of citizenship characteristics in educational policy positions. Examples will be drawn from four societies in the Asia-Pacific region - New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan.     

Nonreaders and nonwriters in special education: Crossing new literacy thresholds

This paper reports on the way in which a teacher led the literacy development of two students who were nonreaders and nonwriters. The two students received instruction in a special education room for students with learning disabilities. The teacher implemented an integrated instructional program in reading and writing that was designed to: (a) embed literacy instruction in meaningful and purposive activities, (b) respond to the needs, capabilities and interests of learners, and reflect their zones of proximal development, (c) promote self-regulated learning, and (d) foster students' membership in a literacy community. This paper focuses on the strategies the teacher used to mediate reading and writing development and the effects of the strategies on the narrative and expository writing performance of her students.     

Communicate with curriculum

“What did you do in school today?” asks the eager, interested parent. “We played,” responds the child. Parents have a right to know what their children are doing when in a day care center, nursery school, or kindergarten, and teachers have the responsibility to communicate what happens during the day children spend in a center.     

Preschool Contexts and Teacher Interactions: Relations with School Readiness

The majority of early education programs promote children’s learning through a mix of experiences in child- and teacher-managed contexts. The current study examined time spent in child- and teacher-managed contexts and the nature of children’s experiences with teachers in these contexts as they relate to children’s skill development. Participants were preschool children (N = 283, M age = 52 months, 48% girls, 70% Mexican or Mexican American) from families of a lower socioeconomic status. Observations captured children’s time in child- and teacher-managed contexts and experiences with teachers in each context. School readiness was assessed directly and through teacher reports. Research Findings: Time spent in teacher-managed contexts was positively related to children’s academic and social skill development. Experiences in child-managed context predicted vocabulary, math, and social skills when teachers were directly involved with children. Overall, the findings suggest that teacher engagement is related to positive outcomes even during child-managed activities. Practice or Policy: Given these findings, preservice and professional development programs for early childhood educators should have a component that focuses on how to enhance the teacher’s role during child-managed activities.     

Convergence of observer ratings and student perceptions of reform practices in sixth-grade mathematics classrooms

As part of a research project examining relationships between instructional practices and student cognitive and social outcomes in middle-school mathematics classes, external observers and students reported perceptions of teachers’ instructional practices. The extent to which students in classrooms identified by external raters as reform-oriented actually perceive instruction in ways aligned with reform principles has not been established. A 25-item observation protocol aligned with the reform practices called for in the Standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) was used to develop a quantitative profile of instructional practices across two lessons in each of 28 classes of 15 participating teachers. Students in each of the observed classes completed a 49-item survey of their perceptions of instructional practices. As items for both the observation protocol and Student Survey were designed to measure alignment with the same dimensions of reform practice, the convergence of these two data sets was examined as a means to confirm the observation ratings. The findings show moderately strong correlations between ratings of external observers and perceptions of sixth-grade students across three dimensions (pedagogy, tasks and mathematical interactions) of reform-oriented teacher practice in mathematics classrooms. Implications of these findings for future research are discussed. The research in this article was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant REC 0125868. The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of NSF. The research was also supported by the Roysters’ Fellowship to Mark Ellis from the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.     

Cognitive, academic, and attitudinal predictors of the grade point averages of college students with learning disabilities

This study examined cognitive, academic, and attitudinal predictors of college grade point average (GPA) among college students with learning disabilities (LD). The study population included 84 youth who attended a large private university in the midwestern United States. Measures of cognitive and academic functioning, along with a self-report measure of study habits and study attitudes, were used to predict college GPA. The results indicated that Full Scale IQ and one factor on the self-reported study habits scale accounted for a significant amount of variance in students' college GPA. These findings suggest that variables other than traditional cognitive and academic skills are important for determining the performance of youth with LD during college. The implications of these findings for future research efforts and practice are discussed.     

Constructivist Science Teaching: Intellectual and Strategic Teaching Acts

This paper attempts to provide some productive starting points for discussion in the context of science teaching. Embedded in the current practice of methodologies such as messing about, hands-on, minds-on activities, science-technology-society related approaches, and inquiry-based learning, is often a sense of confusion and frustration. Such current methodologies in elementary science teaching are founded on constructivist learning theory. This paper attempts to pinpoint possible ways in which this child-centered, interactive learning theory can lead to confusion for students and teachers alike. It attempts to distinguish the necessary criteria for successful science teaching from much of today's practice in the elementary school science class. It does not attempt to draw conclusions on the reasons behind some of the practices.     

Child sexual abuse prevention: Evaluation of a teacher training model

Teachers are potentially helpful resource persons for large numbers of sexually abused children who may have difficulty disclosing abuse, particularly to family members. In the present study, the effectiveness of a 6-hour teacher training workshop on child sexual abuse prevention was evaluated. Responses of 26 female elementary teachers who participated in the workshop were compared to responses of 19 control teachers on several pre-, post-, and follow-up measures. Relative to controls, trained teachers demonstrated significant increases from pre- to post-testing in knowledge about child sexual abuse and pro-prevention opinions. On a post-only vignettes measure, trained teachers were better able than control teachers to identify behavioral indicators of abuse and suggest appropriate interventions for hypothetical sexually abused children. Over a 6-week follow-up period, trained teachers read more about child abuse than control teachers but did not differ on other behavioral dimensions such as reporting suspected abuse cases. Further research will examine the effects of additional teacher training over an extended follow-up period.     

An exploratory study of science educators' use of the internet

As is true of all segments of society, science educators' use of the Internet has been increasing. Yet little research is available on the current use of this medium by science educators. This study was conducted with two surveys on two populations. The first, a telephone survey concerning use of the Internet, was administered to a known group of science educators. The second instrument, a revision of the first survey, was administered through the Internet to an unknown population of science educators. Results from the Internet survey showed that time online could be categorized into use of e-mail, bulletin boards, gopher sites, or other uses. In addition, most of the respondents accessed a fee network, rather than a commercial, or fee-paid network. Readers are cautioned that response to the survey was limited, therefore this study does not represent a general statement of science educators' use of the Internet. This study, while it has some limitations, is important in the exploration of Internet use by science educators.