Trajectories of Infants’ Biobehavioral Development: Timing and Rate of A‐Not‐B Performance Gains and EEG Maturation

This study examined how timing (i.e., relative maturity) and rate (i.e., how quickly infants attain proficiency) of A‐not‐B performance were related to changes in brain activity from age 6 to 12 months. A‐not‐B performance and resting EEG (electroencephalography) were measured monthly from age 6 to 12 months in 28 infants and were modeled using logistic and linear growth curve models. Infants with faster performance rates reached performance milestones earlier. Infants with faster rates of increase in A‐not‐B performance had lower occipital power at 6 months and greater linear increases in occipital power. The results underscore the importance of considering nonlinear change processes for studying infants’ cognitive development as well as how these changes are related to trajectories of EEG power.     

Social Pretend Play in Korean- and Anglo-American Preschoolers

Ninety-two preschoolers (46 Anglo- and 46 Korean-American) were observed during free play activities and videotaped in an experimental toy play setting. Cultural differences were examined in the frequency of social pretend play, communicative strategies, and pretend play themes. Anglo-American children engaged in more pretend play during free play activities than Korean-American children. In the experimental setting, there were no cultural differences in the frequency of pretend play; however, there were significant differences in children's communicative strategies and in their play themes. Korean-American children's play included everyday activity and family role themes, whereas Anglo-American children enacted danger in the environment and fantastic themes. Anglo-American children described their own actions, rejected their partners' suggestions, and used directives, whereas Korean-American children described their partners' actions and used tag questions, semantic ties, statements of agreement, and polite requests. The findings suggest that play is a common activity for most children. However, the thematic content and the communicative strategies used to structure and maintain pretend play are influenced by culture.     

Siblings bridging literacies in multilingual contexts

It is a common assumption that economically disadvantaged and ethnic‐minority families are unlikely to share similar educational aims, beliefs and values to those of teachers. Such families are assumed to participate in very different home literacy practices from those of the school and children’s early reading difficulties have been attributed to such cultural differences. However, such dissonance is not always found. This paper explores the reciprocity of beliefs and literacy practices between two schools and their respective communities in London’s East End. The literacy practices, both in school and out of school, of Bangladeshi British and Anglo‐British primary school children were monitored and play activities between siblings recorded and analysed. The results showed older siblings reflecting the values of both community and school as they blended practices from each domain in their play with their younger brothers and sisters.     

Teachers’ views of co-teaching approaches in addressing pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in multi-grade classrooms

This study focused on primary teachers’ views of co-teaching approaches in addressing the learning needs of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in multi-grade classrooms in Irish primary schools. A case study incorporating a mixed methods approach was chosen. Views of 22 multi-grade and special education teachers (SET) were ascertained through self-administered questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The findings indicate that while teachers believe the learning needs of pupils with SEN can be met through co-teaching approaches, the withdrawal of pupils for supplementary support remains the dominant approach. Teachers indicate that they would prefer a combination of withdrawal and in-class support as opposed to choosing one approach over the other. Teachers refer to the challenges posed by co-teaching in delivering instruction for pupils with SEN including planning time, teaching personalities and teaching styles in the multi-grade context. When co-teaching does occur, the most common form used is station teaching. The data demonstrate that teachers lack a clear understanding of the various in-class approaches available and what exactly they entail, and point to teachers’ desire for continuing professional development (CPD) specific to co-teaching.     

Perceptual Differences in Approaches to Censorship: Information Intermediaries and the Implementation of Law

Censorship exists wherever there is preselection of information made available to a particular group of potential users-that is, wherever there is an information intermediary between the information source and the user. Therefore, one cannot ask whether or not there should be censorship. Nor is it realistic to declare that freedom of expression should override censorship. A more useful approach is to ask what checks and balances should be in place to ensure freedom of expression and other basic information rights in the face of the necessity and reality of the information selection process. Two forms of legal intervention have been used to create our current regime. This article first examines delegation of the censoring/selecting power to particular intermediaries in the information cycle. Historically, power to select appropriate information for dissemination was delegated to the 'censors,' and examples of this approach continue in our law in such areas as access and copyright legislation and in unlegislated areas of the law such as confidential information. Second, the paper examines situations where the law regulates the censoring activity itself. In situations such as libel and obscenity, for example, our law preempts the intermediary by dictating the decision itself. The law, however, does not necessarily mirror actual decisions being made by information intermediaries. Empirical evidence suggests that selection/censorship decisions, which the current law might have been expected to affect, may be being made by other intermediaries and on other criteria than theoretical examination of the law would lead one to expect. These 'extralegal' forms of censorship can be very effective, but are we content to leave those decisions without legal control? The article concludes that more strategic empirical analysis of our current legal attempts to create effective checks and balances on the censoring decisions made by intermediaries will assist us in further law reform attempts.     

“Interpersonal” Clients,Students, and Supervisees: Translating Robert Kegan

The counseling profession prides itself on its developmental focus. However, counselors, counselor educators, and supervisors have generally applied only phasic, and not stage, theories to counseling and supervision practice and have not incorporated developmental concepts into their teaching. This article continues the effort of rectifying this situation by explicating the relevance of R. Kegan's (1982, 1994) subject‐object theory for counseling, supervision, and counselor education. The author reviews Kegan's (1982, 1994) interpersonal and institutional stages and applies the theory to promoting development beyond the interpersonal stage in 3 case illustrations: a counseling case, a counselor educator's experience, and a supervision challenge.     

“Dancing” Together: Infant–Mother Locomotor Synchrony

Pre-mobile infants and caregivers spontaneously engage in a sequence of contingent facial expressions and vocalizations that researchers have referred to as a social “dance.” Does this dance continue when both partners are free to move across the floor? Locomotor synchrony was assessed in 13- to 19-month-old infant–mother dyads (N = 30) by tracking each partner’s step-to-step location during free play. Although infants moved more than mothers, dyads spontaneously synchronized their locomotor activity. For 27 dyads, the spatiotemporal path of one partner uniquely identified the path of the other. Clustering analyses revealed two patterns of synchrony (mother-follow and yo-yo), and infants were more likely than mothers to lead the dance. Like face-to-face synchrony, locomotor synchrony scaffolds infants’ interactions with the outside world.     

The Impact of Advancement Via Individual Determination on the College Readiness of First-Generation Hispanic Students in an Urban South Texas High School

The Urban Review - This study examined the phenomenon of college readiness in Hispanic first-generation college students. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship exists between...     

浅议非英语专业英语口语教学改革

非英语专业学生口语能力有待提高.如何提高学生的口语水平始终是英语教学中的难点和重点.传统教学模式下的大学英语教学束缚了学生学习潜能的发挥.大学英语教学模式的改革可以考虑采用"任务型教学法".任务型教学模式是20年来交际教学思想的一种发展形态,它把语言运用的基本理念转化为具有实践意义的课堂教学模式.本研究将任务型教学理念应用于非英语专业英语口语教学之中,通过对任务型教学理论的定义、特征和理论基础等方面的阐析,提出任务型口语教学的总体设计思路和具体教学改革措施.