The benefits and costs of web surfing

Although the Web audience is growing exponentially, little research has explored the benefits that the audience derives from their use of the Web. This study took a cost‐benefit approach to exploring the specific benefits and opportunity costs associated with World Wide Web use. We hypothesized that greater benefits coupled with fewer opportunity costs (e.g., computer and Internet access, computer expertise, connection speed, effort, and multimedia) would have an impact on the amount of time people spend on the Web and the value they attach to their Web use. We conducted a Web‐based survey of 250 students enrolled at two “wired” universities who were required to use the Web for coursework. The results revealed that Learning was the most salient benefit of the Web, followed by Pass Time and Entertainment. We found some support for the impact of opportunity costs on Web use. Stronger support was found for the impact of benefits and costs on Web surfing value. We also found that Entertainment and sports Web sites were the ones most likely to be linked to beneficial Web use. The discussion relates the results of the study to speculations about the future of the Web audience and the impact of reduced opportunity costs on Web use.     

Listening to learning outside the classroom: student teachers study playground literacies

This article reports on ongoing work in initial teacher education (ITE) where student teachers have been required to observe and record children's play, to describe and analyse this, and to consider the pedagogical implications. They have been introduced to a theoretical background, which takes into account the increasingly multi‐modal nature of literacy practices, and have been shown a methodology for conducting a small‐scale ethnographic research project on the playground. They have been encouraged to consider how the unofficial literacy practices of the children's homes, communities and popular culture might affect the official practices of the school, and to understand how children absorb and recreate texts from beyond the school curriculum. The article reflects the student teachers' findings on school playgrounds, with narratives re‐enacted and drawn from popular media, imaginative use of playground space, and games that explore the pupils' present and future lives. Student teachers begin to recognise the vital role of socio‐dramatic play in the development of emergent literacy. They also develop insights on applying children's expertise outside the classroom to their literacy practices within the school.     

‘There are lots of different kinds of normal’: families and sex education – styles,approaches and concerns

This paper reports on qualitative research with Australian parents concerning their attitudes to sexuality and relationships education, both at home and in school. A wide range of values and attitudes were represented among parents in this study. Regardless of the varying approaches parents used, all participants expressed a desire for their children to be well informed about sex, sexual health and relationships, yet many felt inadequate to the task of providing high-quality sex education to their children. Some participants blamed this lack of confidence on their own limited education about sexuality. Their main concern was to ensure that their children are safe and that when they do become sexually active their experiences of sex are positive. Most participants saw sex education as primarily their responsibility, with school sex education as an important adjunct. They wanted to be well informed about the timing and content of school programmes for their children, and to be assured that those educators who will be teaching their children about sexual health have the skills and qualifications to do their job well, while remaining sensitive to the diversity of values among students and their families. While most parents who participated in the research supported sexuality education in schools, they did so with reservations. In particular, they wanted schools to take an active role in communicating with them about the content of sexuality education programmes and be open to meeting with those parents who expressed concerns.     

The Association between Language and Symbolic Play at Two Years: Evidence from Deaf Toddlers

The association between expressive language and symbolic play was investigated in 3 groups of 2-year-olds: deaf children with hearing parents (dH), deaf children with deaf parents (dD), and hearing children with hearing parents (hH). (Each group included 6 girls and 4 boys.) 3 language-level groups were defined. The highest group was well into the vocabulary "explosion" and frequently produced multiword/sign utterances; a middle group was beginning the period of vocabulary expansion and occasionally produced utterances of more than 1 word/sign; a third group produced single word/sign utterances only, and had a limited vocabulary. Hearing status was associated with duration of symbolic play (deaf > hearing). Higher language levels were associated with more canonically sequenced and preplanned play, even when language delays were due to exogenous factors.     

Writing instruction in first grade: an observational study

As schools work to meet the ambitious Common Core State Standards in writing in the US, instructional approaches are likely to be examined (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010). However, there is little research on the current state of instruction. This study was designed to provide a comprehensive analysis of first-grade writing instruction across 13 schools in one state in the US. Daylong observations were conducted four times during the year in 50 first-grade classrooms. Using a time-sampled, observational protocol, observers coded multiple dimensions of instruction, including grouping, instructional focus, teacher instructional activity, and student writing activity. Results revealed that writing was taught for less than 30 min a day on average, and instruction in skills or process writing was common. Most instruction was organized in whole-class settings with teachers either presenting information or asking students questions. Variability in the amount and focus of writing instruction and in student writing activity was examined at the classroom and school levels. A small number of classrooms and schools were identified with distinctive patterns in their approach to instruction and writing activity. Several moderate relationships were found between the writing instructional focus and the nature of student writing. These findings suggest that first-grade writing instruction is inconsistent across classrooms and schools and point to instructional implications for teachers and schools in the US.     

Children’s oral narrative and reading skills in the first 3?years of reading instruction

This research investigated the link between oral narrative and reading skills in the first 3 years of reading instruction. Study 1 consisted of 61 children (M = 6:1 years) who had experienced 1 year of reading instruction on average. Children’s story retelling was scored for memory and narrative quality. The quality of children’s narratives correlated positively with their reading skill at this age, but narrative quality did not uniquely predict their reading skill 1 year later. Study 2 consisted of 39 children (M = 7:0 years) who had experienced 2 years of reading instruction on average. At this age, the quality of children’s narratives uniquely predicted their reading skill concurrently and 1 year later, even after controlling for their receptive vocabulary and early decoding. These findings have implications for theories of the oral language foundations of reading and for assessment in the early years of reading instruction.     

Teachers’ Work as Bricolage: implications for teacher education

The concept of bricolage, as it is developed by Levi‐Strauss, is useful in characterising the form of teachers’ work, it subsumes extensive research on the form of teachers’ work and provides a heuristic device for developing causal explanations of the form of teachers’ work as well as drawing together and unifying explanations developed in the literature. This assists and informs interventions to promote progressive pedagogy. The paper begins with an account of bricolage and its relationship to a science of pedagogy. Next, features of teachers’ work which push it towards bricolage are discussed, viz. conservatism, limited creativity, repertoire enlargement, teachers’ use of theory, the use of devious means, and ad hocism. Causal explanations of various of these features are discussed, viz. anticipatory socialisation, aspects of preservice teacher education experiences and constraints in the work situation. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for teacher education of taking seriously the suggestion that teachers’ work is bricolage and taking seriously the associated causal explanations. It is argued that a critical starting point for progressive change in educational practice is the provision of inservice for tertiary educators who may themselves be bricoleurs. Without this, the significant necessary changes to preservice students’ on‐campus and within school experiences are unlikely to be supported or legitimated.     

Regulation and socio-emotional interactions in a positive and a negative group climate

Collaboration in an online environment can be a socially and emotionally demanding task. It requires group members to engage in a great deal of regulation, where favourable emotions need to be sustained for the group’s productive functioning. The purpose of this cross-case analysis was to examine the interplay of two groups’ regulatory processes, regulatory modes, and socio-emotional interactions that contribute to or are influenced by emotions and socio-emotional climate perceived in the group. Specifically, this study compared a group of 4 students unanimously reporting a positive climate to a group of 4 students unanimously reporting a negative climate after completing a 90-min online text-based collaborative assignment. By drawing on two data channels (i.e., observed regulatory actions and socio-emotional interactions during collaboration and self-reported data about emotional beliefs and perceptions), four contrasting group features emerged: (a) incoming conditions served as a foundation for creating a positive collaborative experience, (b) regulation of emotions during initial planning, (c) negative emotions served as a constraint for shared adaptation in the face of a challenge, and (d) encouragement and motivational statements served as effective strategies for creating a positive climate. Implications for researching and supporting emotion regulation in collaborative learning are discussed.     

‘Creative destruction’: knowledge economy policy and the future of the arts and humanities in the academy1

Policy conceptualizations of the global knowledge economy have led to the channelling of much Higher Education and Research and Development funding into the priority areas of science and technology. Among other things, this diversion of funding calls into question the future of traditional humanities and creative arts faculties. How these faculties, and the disciplines within them, might reconfigure themselves for the knowledge economy is, therefore, a question of great importance, although one that as yet has not been adequately answered. This paper explores some of the reasons for this by looking at how innovation in the knowledge economy is typically theorized. It takes one policy trajectory informing Australia’s key innovation statement as an example. It argues that, insofar as the formation of this knowledge economy policy has been informed by a techno‐economic paradigm, it works to preclude many humanities and creative arts disciplines. This paper, therefore, looks at how an alternative theorization of the knowledge economy might offer a more robust framework from within which to develop humanities and creative arts Higher Education and Research policy in the knowledge economy, both in Australia and internationally.