A biographical narrative inquiry into teachers’ knowledge: an intergenerational approach

This study is an investigation into Chinese EFL teachers’ knowledge and understanding of teaching English as a foreign language within the context of a time of tremendous social change in China. In a medium-sized city, biographical narrative interviews and observation were used to three Chinese secondary EFL teachers, of three successive generations. An in-depth narrative analysis interpreting their metaphors, and constructing their life stories is employed to understand the biographical narrative data. It indicates how individual teacher’s knowledge is both constrained and enabled by themselves and by the wider society they live in, and how change and continuity are intertwined in the teaching and learning practices of the three generations. This paper also addresses certain key issues in biographical narrative studies, namely subjectivity, representation, and cultural bearings, and teachers’ knowledge, all of which constitute a form of pedagogy in educational research.     

Chemical bleaching of wood: an investigation into the bleaching of mahogany,walnut, rosewood,padauk, and purpleheart

This paper investigates chemical bleaching of wood to make species-specific practical recommendations for colour adjustment of veneer in furniture conservation. In more detail, chemical bleaching of Honduras mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), European walnut (Juglans regia), Rio rosewood (Dalbergia nigra), padauk (Pterocarpus spp.), and purpleheart (Peltogyne spp.) is investigated using 11 different bleach solutions. Both oxidative (e.g. hydrogen peroxide and potassium permanganate) and reductive (e.g. oxalic acid and sodium bisulphite) solutions were used. The results show that the wood species react differently with the investigated bleach solutions. It can also be noted that not all investigated solutions were suitable for all wood species. Based on the results, wood species-specific bleach solutions are recommended.     

Training reading and phoneme awareness skills in children with Down syndrome

The authors report a short-term reading intervention study involving 15 children with Down syndrome (DS) who attended mainstream schools. The intervention programme taught children phoneme segmentation and blending skills in the context of learning letter-sounds and working with words in books. The children were taught by their learning support assistants, who received special training for this purpose. Compared to a waiting group, a group of eight children with DS improved significantly on measures of early literacy skills (letter-sound knowledge, Early Word Recognition) following eight weeks of intervention. The waiting group started to make progress once they received the intervention. Both groups maintained progress on the literacy measures five months after the intervention had finished. The results suggest that children with DS can benefit from structured, phonics-based reading intervention.     

Peers'' Perceptions of the Consequences That Victimized Children Provide Aggressors

Fourth- through seventh-grade children (mean age 11.5 years) estimated the likelihood that various consequences would occur following hypothetical acts of aggression toward victimized and nonvictimized classmates. Children also indicated how much they would care if the consequences were to occur. When contemplating aggression toward victimized classmates, children were more likely to expect tangible rewards, more likely to expect signs of victim suffering, and less likely to expect retaliation than when considering aggression against nonvictimized classmates. Also, when considering aggression toward victimized classmates, children cared more about securing tangible rewards but were less disturbed by the thought of hurting their victims or by the thought of their victims retaliating than when imagining aggression toward nonvictimized classmates. The foregoing pattern was stronger for boys than for girls. Implications for theories of aggression and for intervention with aggressive and victimized children are discussed.     

The role of dispositions in the development of pedagogical knowledge for pre-service science teacher education

ABSTRACT

Research on teacher education, especially on the development of teacher educators, is limited. This paper considers the role of dispositions in the development of pedagogical knowledge (PK) for science teacher educators (STEs), across stages of career. It argues that beliefs and perceptions shift and change along with, but not directly related to, what STEs pay attention to and when they pay attention to it. The eight participants were asked to identify the critical experiences (CEs) of their career that impacted on their development of PK. CEs were analyzed using Morine-Dershimer and Kent’s (1999) model of PK as a framework, but also to identify common emergent themes across participants and common emergent themes for individuals that led to identification of patterns of actions and finally, participant’s dispositions. The notion that beliefs, dispositions and PK are all developed for each individual at their own pace and in their own way is reinforced.     

Individual and Peer Characteristics in Predicting Boys' Early Onset of Substance Abuse: A Seven-Year Longitudinal Study

Early onset of substance abuse is a clear marker for future maladjustment in adolescents. The present study employed data originating from 755 6-year-old boys from low SES neighborhoods, who were followed through age 13, to predict this marker. 3 models were tested using LISREL analyses to determine whether individual characteristics and/or peer influences were linked to subsequent substance abuse. Individual characteristics consisted of fighting, hyperactivity, oppositional behaviors, and likability. Peer influences referred to mutual friends' characteristics (aggressiveness and likability). Data were obtained from 3 different sources: teacher ratings, peer ratings, and self-reports. Results were replicated at ages 10, 11, and 12 years with 3 subsamples of the original sample and indicated that individual characteristics, more than friends' deviance, are pivotal in the development of substance abuse. This finding is consistent with results from other longitudinal studies involving children from a variety of cultural backgrounds. It suggests that prevention programs should target individual characteristics and begin at an early age.     

How Specific are Specific Comprehension Difficulties? An Investigation of Poor Reading Comprehension in Nine-Year-Olds

This study explores the incidence of poor comprehenders, that is, children identified as having reading comprehension difficulties, despite age-appropriate word reading skills. It supports the findings that some children do show poor reading comprehension, despite age-appropriate word reading, as measured with a phonological coding test. However, the proportion of poor comprehenders was smaller than the frequently reported 10–15%, and smaller yet, when average sight word recognition, measured with an orthographic coding test, was also set as a criterion for word reading skill. Compared to average comprehenders, the poor comprehenders’ orthographic coding and daily reading of literary texts were significantly below those of average readers. This study indicates that a lack of reading experience, and likewise, a lack of fluent word reading, may be important factors in understanding 9-year-old poor comprehenders’ difficulties.