Do High-Quality Kindergarten and First-Grade Classrooms Mitigate Preschool Fadeout?

Prior research shows that short-term effects from preschool may disappear, but little research has considered which environmental conditions might sustain academic advantages from preschool into elementary school. Using secondary data from two preschool experiments, we investigate whether features of elementary schools, particularly advanced content and high-quality instruction in kindergarten and first grade, as well as professional supports to coordinate curricular instruction, reduce fadeout. Across both studies, our measures of instruction did not moderate fadeout. However, results indicated that targeted teacher professional supports substantially mitigated fadeout between kindergarten and first grade but that this was not mediated through classroom quality. Future research should investigate the specific mechanisms through which aligned preschool-elementary school curricular approaches can sustain the benefits of preschool programs for low-income children.     

Accuracy in identifying students’ miscues during oral reading: a taxonomy of scorers’ mismarkings

Reading and Writing - Informal reading inventories (IRI) and curriculum-based measures of reading (CBM-R) have continued importance in instructional planning, but raters have exhibited difficulty...     

Careers guidance services within the European Community: contrasts and common trends

The main features of the guidance systems for young people aged 14–25 in the Member-States of the European Community are outlined. A number of important differences are analysed: in terms of the main location of guidance services, the focus of such services, the range of guidance activities, the structure of financing, and the professional identity of those occupying guidance roles. At the same time, three common trends are identified which have a general if not universal validity across the Member-States: the view of educational and vocational guidance as a continuous process; the emergence of a more open professional model; and the greater emphasis on the individual as an active agent, rather than as a passive recipient, within the guidance process.     

Book reviews

International Review of Education -     

Protecting Museum Collections from Vibrations Due to Construction: Vibration Statistics,Limits, Flexibility and Cooperation

ABSTRACT

Vibrations due to heavy construction work continue to be a major concern for museums. Although there has been an increase in research on the effect of vibrations on objects of cultural heritage in recent years, selecting measures to protect collections and remain open during construction work continues to be difficult because of a lack of data on what objects can actually withstand, the complexity of vibration loads, and the uniqueness of each situation. The major renovation of the Central Library in Liverpool, UK, which shared walls with the World Museum and Walker Art Gallery, both of which belong within National Museums Liverpool, showed how museums and other institutions can successfully deal with such situations. An integral approach was taken, beginning with an extensive risk analysis to determine which objects could remain on display, which needed extra protection and regular condition monitoring, and which had to be removed. The museums then negotiated a vibration protocol and action plan with the contractors, including continuous monitoring, and trigger levels requiring consultation or work stoppage. Vibration data were also stored and used for later analysis. This integral approach was successful in protecting the collections on exhibition, with only two incidents of reported damage directly related to vibrations. A combination of museum staff experience, excellent communications with the contractors, and some flexibility in defining vibration limits provided a successful recipe for both museums. The analysis of the vibration data using the basic engineering concept of the Palmgren-Miner rule, supports a more flexible approach to setting vibration limits based on recently published guidelines.     

Teaching technological determinism and social construction of technology using everyday objects

Courses: Communication Technology, Communication Theory, History of Communication, Media and Society.

Objectives: Students will develop an understanding of the two principal theories of technology and culture: technological determinism and the social construction of technology.     

Linguistic and pedagogical factors affecting children's understanding of arithmetic word problems: A comparative study

2493 children aged from 5 to 15 years in 114 classes in 25 primary schools were asked to do a similar set of 22 arithmetic word problems. 1195 of the children were in Grades K through 6 in Victorian schools (Australia) and 1298 were in Grades 4 through 6 in Papua New Guinea (PNG) schools. For both samples the questions were posed in English. This was the first language for most children in the Victorian sample but, for the PNG sample, English was usually the second, third, or even fourth language (even though it is the language of instruction in PNG schools). While the test instrument was based on widely accepted information processing models of how children solve arithmetic word problems, the data obtained were not so much in accord with these models as with psycholinguistic theories on children's acquisition of polarised comparative pairs (like more and less). The data also indicate that children from the two samples used similar strategies and made similar errors, with the order of relative difficulty being the same for both samples, the main factor determining difficulty being the semantic structure of the questions. Differences in performance between corresponding grades from the two samples can be attributed to differences in the degree of English language competence rather than to numerical facility.     

In search of a better means of increasing student receptivity to science: a look at American Buddhists and their disproportionately high acceptance of the theory of evolution

Cultural Studies of Science Education - This paper examines how Buddhists in America have been able to integrate evolution into their worldview to a much greater extent than other religious groups...