The impact of a systematic and explicit vocabulary intervention in Spanish with Spanish-speaking English learners in first grade

This study examined the impact of a 15-min daily explicit vocabulary intervention in Spanish on expressive and receptive vocabulary knowledge and oral reading fluency in Spanish, and on language proficiency in English. Fifty Spanish-speaking English learners who received 90 min of Spanish reading instruction in an early transition model were randomly assigned to a treatment group (Vocabulary Enhanced Systematic and Explicit Teaching Routines [VE-SETR]) or a comparison group that received general vocabulary instruction using the standard reading curriculum with general strategies designed to increase the explicitness of instruction (General Systematic and Explicit Teaching Routines). Results indicated a statistically significant difference in depth of student Spanish vocabulary knowledge favoring the VE-SETR group. Differences on language proficiency in English, general vocabulary knowledge in Spanish, and oral reading fluency in Spanish were not statistically significant. Implications for future research are discussed.     

The effect of culture on the learning of science in non‐western countries: the results of an integrated research review

Abstract

An increasing number of researchers are investigating the effect of students’ prior knowledge and beliefs on their development of scientific concepts. Much of this research is taking place within the framework of constructivism, and is attracting the attention of science educators in non‐western countries. This integrative research review has been undertaken to help researchers and practitioners to identify issues for further investigation and reflection. The results suggest that ‘cosmetic’ attempts to nationalize western science curricula in non‐western countries are likely to prove ineffective because the problem, from the students’ perspective, is one of poor ‘fit’ between their world‐views, language meanings and prior beliefs and those inherent in the subject. A constructivist paradigm seems to offer good prospects for both understanding the problem and formulating learning strategies in science education which are better suited to non‐western cultures. Nevertheless, constructivist pedagogies imported from the West should be examined for their cultural appropriateness.     

Classification of learning outcomes: evidence from the computer games literature

Following up on an earlier issue of The Curriculum Journal (Vol. 16, No. 1), this article focuses on learning outcomes in the context of video games. Learning outcomes are viewed from two theoretical frameworks: Kirkpatrick's levels of evaluation and the CRESST model of learning. These are used to analyse the outcomes claimed in journal articles that report empirical work, indicating the usefulness of the frameworks, and the necessity to consider the role of affective learning. The article ends with some comments on the relationship of instructional design to effective games and learning outcomes.     

Teachers engaging in action research: challenging some assumptions

A number of recent professional development projects in Australia have expected teachers to engage in action research as a process for professional learning and educational reform. This study investigated the experiences of ten teachers from one school who spent a year undertaking action research projects as part of the Innovative Links Project. The author was a participant observer in the study in her role as the school's ‘academic associate’ for the project. In this article, the project's expectations of the teachers are examined to reveal the extent to which they were based on realistic assumptions about the conditions within which the teachers worked as they tried to achieve them.     

Application of analytical geometry to the form of gear teeth

Nearly all gear wheels manufactured today have teeth with a profile based on the involute of a circle. The story of how this particular curve gained such mundane prevalence can be traced back to the pioneering work of European natural philosophers, in particular Euler. It involves the application of analytical geometry to a real world engineering problem.     

Factor Analysis of High School Variables and Success in University Subjects for the First Semester in the University

A stress management program was evaluated in sixth-grade classes of an urban public and a suburban parochial school. Sample 1, from the urban public school, and Sample 2, from the suburban parochial school, received pre- and posttests. Sample 3, from the suburban parochial school, was divided into pretest-only and posttest-only groups. Six self-esteem and 1 each stress and social-skills children's self-ratings and 1 each teachers' ratings of children's overall stress management and stress measures were used. All 10 measures showed improvement in the Samples 1 and 2 independently. Findings in Sample 2 replicated the positive effects in Sample 1. In both sixth-grade classes, children's stress level (self- and teachers' ratings), children's social skills and self-esteem self-ratings, and teachers' ratings of children's stress management skills improved significantly. Sample 3 posttest-only group scores did not differ significantly from the posttest scores of Sample 1 and 2 children. Rival hypotheses (e.g., history, maturation, testing) appeared implausible. Results support using skills-oriented stress management programs in regular grade school classes.     

Editorials

An Essay on Elocution. By Samuel Kirkham. New York 1833. Elements of Beading and Oratory. By Henry Mandeville, D. D. New York 1849.     

GIRLFRIEND THEOLOGY: GOD‐TALK ACROSS RELIGIOUS BORDERS

Abstract

Girlfriend Theology is a method of religious education by which women who have found power, voice, and authority might nurture resilience in adolescent girls within faith communities. This essay relates one portion of a larger project involving ethnographic research with fifteen females. These females gathered in small groups and followed a four‐part method that began with one person telling a story from her life. This paper shares one of these ninety‐minute story sessions in which a religiously diverse group engages in God‐talk. From four such Girlfriend Theology sessions arose seven theological assertions—statements about God, humanity, and communities of faith—that sometimes affirmed and sometimes challenged traditional interpretations. These assertions reflect emancipatory theological motifs when analyzed through the lens of womanist, mujerista, and Asian‐feminist theology. This essay draws connections between the story session reported and two of the seven theological assertions of Girlfriend Theology.

What would it mean for a girl—against the stories read, chanted, or murmured to her—to choose to tell the truth of her life aloud to another person at the very point at when she is invited into the larger cultural story of womanhood—that is, at . . . adolescence?

—Lyn Mikel Brown, Telling a Girl's Life