Mind What Teachers Say: Kindergarten Teachers’ Use of Mental State Language During Picture Story Narration

The study focuses on the mental state language kindergarten teachers use when narrating picture stories. The aims were to examine (a) individual differences in the frequency with which kindergarten teachers use mental state terms, (b) the types of mental state terms (e.g., emotion, desire, belief terms) teachers use most frequently, and (c) the effect that the content of the story to be narrated has on teachers’ use of mental state language. A total of 38 kindergarten teachers took part in the study. Participants were asked to narrate a familiar picture story and six short illustrated stories that fell into one of two categories: behavioral or mentalistic. Behavioral stories emphasized the story characters’ actions, whereas mentalistic stories emphasized the story characters’ mental states. Research Findings: The results showed a significant variation in kindergarten teachers’ use of mental state terms. Moreover, teachers used significantly more cognitive state terms than terms expressing other mental states (e.g., emotions and desires). The content of the picture story (behavioral, mentalistic) was not found to have an effect on teachers’ use of mental state language. Practice or Policy: Implications of these findings for educators are discussed.     

Using iPads for the social communication and emotional regulation of autistic pupils: an exploration of key stakeholders' perspectives and practices

Little research has focused on the implementation of iPad practices in real contexts and the identification of relevant challenges and enablers. This work explored practices relating to using iPads for autistic pupils' social communication (SC) and emotional regulation (ER) based on key stakeholders' perspectives. It employed two case studies undertaken in two primary schools located in the United Kingdom's West Midlands. The data were gathered by interviewing practitioners and parents and analyzing the schools' computing policies. The outcomes varied from iPads being used as multimodal learning tools, to teachers focusing on SC and ER, and parents mainly on recreation and ER. The findings were evaluated using Abbott's concept of e-inclusion (2007), considering the impact of the relationship between technology, individuals and context on iPad use in situ. Issues are highlighted around pedagogy and teaching methods, offering insights into what drives teachers to make decisions regarding technology use.     

Distracted Walking,Bicycling, and Driving: Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Mobile Technology and Youth Crash Risk

This article examined the impact of mobile technology on young pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers. A systematic search yielded 41 articles meeting inclusion criteria: peer‐reviewed, published before February 1, 2016, behavioral outcome related to pedestrian, bicycling, or driving in the presence of mobile technology use, youth sample. Eleven studies were meta‐analyzed to evaluate increased risk for crash/near‐crash while distracted. Risk of bias and quality of research were assessed. Across methodologies, developmental stages, and type of distracting task, mobile technology use impairs youth safety on the road. Quality of evidence was low (pedestrian) to moderate (driving). Findings are discussed from the perspective of cognitive and visual distractions. Policy and behavioral efforts should continue to reduce mobile technology use in transportation settings.     

Teacher Educators’ Activity Aiming to Support Inquiry Through Mathematics and Science Teacher Collaboration

This study explores teacher educators’ (TEs’) activity as they support mathematics and science teacher collaboration in co-designing and jointly implementing tasks. We view TEs’ activity through the lens of Activity Theory and expansive learning and draw evidence from data generated within the mascil project that linked mathematics and science teaching with workplace situations through inquiry-based teaching. We focus on five TEs’ actions and goals, use data from their professional development sessions with teachers and from the TEs’ interactions during their own meetings, and highlight the illuminating case of one teacher educator. We trace evidence indicating paths of actions followed by each Teacher Educator and look for indications of their professional learning. Our analysis reveals generic and content-focused actions. All TEs faced different kinds of contradictions and had difficulties handling them. In terms of professional learning, all TEs adapted their prior teacher education practices and appreciated the critical role of epistemological differences between the two disciplines.

     

A primary teacher’s mathematics teaching: the development of beliefs and practice in different “supportive” contexts

This article refers to a longitudinal case study of a primary school teacher over a period of 4 years. The focus is on the development of the teacher’s beliefs regarding mathematics teaching and learning from the last year of her university studies up to the third year of teaching mathematics in school. This development has been investigated within three different contexts, which have been distinguished in terms of the kind of support provided to this teacher. Two dominant beliefs emerged which have been traced through the period of the study from both the teacher’s reflections and actions. The first belief drew on the idea that what was considered an easy mathematical task by an adult could also be easily understood by children, while the second was that children learn mathematics through their actual involvement in a variety of teaching activities. The results indicate the way that teacher’s experiences from her university studies, actual classroom practice and inservice education interact and influence her beliefs and professional development.     

Interpreting a Community of Practice Perspective in Discipline-Specific Professional Development in Higher Education

Through this study we explored a community of practice framework applied to faculty professional development at a mid-size state university in order to examine the issues unique to discipline-specific professional development in higher education. Through content-focused professional development activities conducted by the authors, several key areas were identified that point to challenges in building a faculty community of teaching practice: (a) the need for a culture of professional development, (b) developing old-timers and recruiting newcomers, (c) the need for teaching scholars to coordinate professional development, (d) challenging the “culture of service”, and (e) the need for a language to mediate thinking about practice. Maria Blanton  received a Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from North Carolina State University. She is currently a Senior Executive Research Associate in the Kaput Center and an Associate Professor in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Dept at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Her research interests focus on applications of sociocultural theory in understanding teaching and learning mathematics in both elementary grades and higher education. Despina Stylianou  received an Ed.D. in mathematics education from the University of Pittsburgh. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Secondary Education at the City College of New York. Her research interests are in the area of mathematical cognition; her work explores the mathematical skills, sensibilities, and habits of mind and action that are critical to doing, learning, and using mathematics proficiently.     

Lexical stress assignment in Italian developmental dyslexia

Stress assignment to Italian polysyllabic words is unpredictable, because stress is neither marked nor predicted by rule. Stress assignment, especially to low frequency words, has been reported to be a function of stress dominance and stress neighbourhood. Two experiments investigate stress assignment in sixth-grade, skilled and dyslexic, readers. In Experiment 1, skilled readers were not affected by stress dominance. Dyslexic children, although affected by word frequency, made more stress regularisation errors on low frequency words. In Experiment 2, stress neighbourhood affected low frequency word reading irrespective of stress dominance for both skilled and dyslexic readers. Words with many stress friends were read more accurately than words with many stress enemies. It is concluded that, in assigning stress, typically developing and developmental dyslexic Italian readers are sensitive to the distributional properties of the language.     

Young People's Accounts of Experiences With Sexual Content During Childhood and Teenage Life

This article revisits young people's experiences with sexual content in the light of dominant arguments in the public debate concerning the potential effects, or risk and harm for young people. Drawing upon a research project I conducted in 2011, I argue in this article that there might be an alternative approach to young people's experiences with sexual content, one deriving from the Foucauldian perspective on sexuality as a self-governing discourse. Set in a social constructionist framework my discussion prioritises young people's accounts as reflections on a constructed notion of sexuality.