A High Impact Practice that Works: Connecting Mentors From the Professional Community to Teacher Education Students

A high impact mentoring program at a community college connected professionals from the special education and early intervention fields with small groups of teacher education students. Two federal grants from U.S. Department of Education funded tuition scholarships and mentoring for 76 Special Education students and 78 Early Childhood Education/Early Intervention students in associate degree programs. The mentor programs consisted of individual monitoring by project staff, consistent contact with a mentor from the professional community and with other students in mentor groups, and structured monthly dinner meetings. Students who participated in the mentoring programs showed increased persistence and higher grade point average when compared with the general population of similar majors. Within each grant-funded population, students who showed low participation in the mentor programming presented lower retention rates and lower GPA than grant-funded students who took full advantage of the mentoring program.     

Children's Evaluations of Gender-Stereotypic Household Activities in the Family Context

Research Findings: The goal of this study was to analyze children's (N = 120) evaluations about parental decisions regarding gender-stereotypic household family activities. Children at 5, 8, and 10 years of age were individually interviewed. Contrary to prevailing findings, the majority of children used stereotypic expectations and social-conventional justifications to explain parental exclusion decisions; this pattern was more pronounced for male-stereotypic than female-stereotypic activities. Overall, children's social judgments revealed age-related increases in making stereotypic choices. Boys were more likely than girls to condone stereotypic expectations regarding father–son activities than mother–daughter activities. Practice or Policy: The results are discussed in terms of (a) social–cognitive reasoning about family decision making in the home and (b) gender-stereotypic expectations between parents and children in the home context.     

Why Diverse Zines Matter: A Case Study of the People of Color Zines Project

Historically, zines have been an alternative outlet for niche topics, or writers and writing, that are ignored by mainstream media. Zines are significant because they offer the opportunity for connection, community, and networking between those interested in these diverse topics. The developments in digital technology have enabled zines to extend into the online sphere: this increased access has resulted in increased participation (by readers and writers). This paper will focus on (digital) zines that are created by people of colour (POC). In recent years, there has been much discussion and media coverage about the lack of diversity in cultural output, and various campaigns, to promote diverse writing have followed. Through a case study of the POC Zines Project—a community-building project that promotes zines by POC—this paper will look at how creators of zines are experimenting with digital formats and social platforms, and will consider what mainstream publishers can learn from this. As Radway (in: Anouk (ed) From codex to hypertext. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 2012) outlines “zine-ing is a social phenomenon, a form of social action driven by desires for new forms of sociability and new ways of being in the world” (p. 140): this paper will highlight the important of social collaboration and production on opening up the creative process and offering a response to the under-represented in traditional publishing.     

Marginalia in the digital age: Are digital reading devices meeting the needs of today's readers?

For centuries, readers have added marginal commentary to books for a variety of personal and public purposes. Historians have mined the marginalia of important historical figures to observe their sometimes raw, immediate responses to texts. Now, reading and annotation practices are changing with the migration of content to electronic books. A survey of reader attitudes and behavior related to marginalia for print and electronic books reveals that the majority of readers write in their books and want e-readers to support this feature. However, many readers report that annotating electronic books is too difficult, time-consuming, or awkward with current technology. In addition, the way readers annotate books depends on whether they are reading for pleasure or for work or education. These findings can guide the development of future devices to better satisfy reader needs.     

A Collaborative Process Model for Promoting Successful Referrals in College Counseling

The need to refer students to off‐campus mental health providers is common in college counseling. Such referrals can be challenging for college counselors who strive to meet students' counseling needs while adhering to ethical and center policy guidelines. In this article, the authors explore the nature and challenges of referral in college counseling settings and introduce a collaborative process model to enhance the likelihood of successful referrals. A case study is provided to illustrate the model.     

The influence of reading unit size on the development of Stroop interference in early word decoding

The purpose of the experiments was to determine the automatic use of large or small word reading units in young readers in the absence of word decoding strategies. Picture-word Stroop interference was examined from four types of conflicting labels: (a) words containing both highly predictable grapheme–phoneme correspondence (GPC) units and highly consistent rime units (henceforth, Hi-GPC + Hi-Rime); (b) words with highly predictable GPC units and less consistent rime units (Hi-GPC + Lo-Rime); (c) words with low predictability GPC units and highly consistent rime units (Low GPC + High Rime); (d) nonwords that contained both highly predictable GPC and highly consistent rime units. Naming time for pictures containing these labels was compared against that for pictures with random letter strings or no labels. In Experiment 1, Stroop interference was examined in first, second, and third grade children to determine whether there was developmental change in the presence of rime or GPC interference. In Experiment 2, Stroop interference was examined as a function of relative reading skill in first grade children. In Experiment 3, Stroop interference in adults was compared to the use of rime or GPC pronunciation strategies for nonword reading. In all experiments, Stroop interference in picture naming was longer for pictures with highly predictable GPC unit labels than less predictable GPC unit labels. However, in Experiment 3, even though adults showed interference from predictable GPC units in the Stroop task, they always preferred rime pronunciation for ambiguous nonwords in the nonword reading task. It is argued that the current experiments provide evidence for a flexible units model. The results of this study were presented at the Cognitive Development Society meeting, November 2001, Virginia Beach, VA, and the American Educational Research Association meeting, April 2004, San Diego, California.     

Where is the (postmodern) child in early childhood education research?

Within early years education research there is a lack of research that focuses on the child and that constructs the child as co‐constructor of knowledge, culture and identity. Although there is much writing on early childhood education with regard to teacher practice, pedagogy and curriculum, these discussions are rarely informed by the perspectives of children. The author conducted a review of the literature of prominent early childhood research journals from 2006. This discussion, informed by examples from the literature review, demonstrates the various ways in which children are constructed within research, with specific discussion on the ‘postmodern’ child within early childhood education research, and implications for postmodern research projects with children. This paper is intended to provoke reflection, conversation and research on the ways in which the child is constructed in education research and literature.     

Assessment of creative writing in Vietnamese primary education

The teaching and assessment of essay writing at primary schools throughout Vietnam is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Training. The analytical error-recognition method of assessment, however, does not facilitate direct interpretation of students’ writing competence. In this study, which involved samples of Grade 5 students in five provinces in Vietnam, a combination of traditional and partial credit scoring rubrics was developed to enable data analysis using the Rasch model. Based on such analysis, a continuum of writing ability at Grade 5 level was identified and a mastery level defined in terms of writing skills. The study has implications for possible changes in future assessment and marking schemes.     

Children’s sibling relationships and gendered practices: talk,activity and dealing with change

This article addresses children’s sibling relationships as a site of social learning involving the (re)production of femininity and masculinity, drawing on in‐depth qualitative interviews with children aged 8–12. We begin by noting the lack of focus on gender in the majority of previous work on siblings. After introducing our own study, we look at the ways in which children understood their siblings in relation to themselves, highlighting points of closeness and division, and pointing to class distinctions around individuality and collectivity. We then explore how ‘talk’ and ‘activity’ are key gendered features of children’s relationships with their sisters and brothers, revealing versions of femininity and masculinity, and interplays of power. Finally, we consider how these gendered features of sibling practices have implications for children’s ability to deal with change in relationships with their sisters and brothers, especially living apart from each other, and we return to class as a feature of their understandings.