Attitudes of preservice kindergarten teachers toward the integration of computers and the reduction of the digital divide in kindergartens

Educational technology research and development - Given the great importance of integrating computers into kindergartens and the fact that today such integration has been implemented only...     

Engaging with ‘English in a Historical Perspective’ Through Analysing Texts

Though there is little in the literature on the teaching of the history of English, criticism of textbooks which over-simplify the story as the rise of the standard variety has been more vocal of late. Meanwhile, some academics have argued for focusing teaching on the analysis of texts. This article reports on a unit/module taught at a British university that makes the analysis of texts central to teaching and assessment. It sets out to demonstrate what can be learned from approaching the subject in this way by presenting composite textual analyses created by the first-named author drawing on the work of his co-authors (five of his final-year undergraduate students). This was for two assignments, one focusing on an Early Modern English text and the other a more contemporary piece. A discussion highlights the benefits of making the analysis of texts central to the unit, and considers practical applications for teachers of the subject in other parts of the world.     

Do, Show, and Tell: Children's Event Memories Acquired through Direct Experience, Observation, and Stories

To investigate how source of event information influences children's event representations, 5- and 6-year-old children were exposed to a novel event through direct experience, observation, or a story. 2 of the 4 scenes comprising the event contained actions that were logically organized, and the remaining 2 scenes contained actions that were arbitrary in their organization. Children received either 1 or 3 exposures to the event. For children receiving multiple exposures, 2 scenes contained actions that varied across exposures. A few days following their last exposure, children were asked to verbally recall and reenact the event. Reports were generally more complete, organized, and accurate when the event was directly experienced compared to when it was observed or heard about through a story. However, the impact of information source interacted with interview (recall, reenactment) and number of event exposures. Furthermore, children's sensitivity to event structure was dependent on information source and exposure. These results highlight the importance of information source in the formation of children's event representations.     

Reading ability and memory span: Long-term memory contributions to span for good and poor readers

A number of studies have shown that childrenwith reading difficulties perform poorly ontests of verbal memory span. The extent towhich differences in memory span for good andpoor readers can be explained by differences ina long-term memory component to span as well asby differences in short-term memory processeswas investigated in this study. Memory spanand rehearsal rate were measured for high andlow frequency words and nonwords. Althoughmemory span performance for high frequencywords was comparable for all reading abilitygroups, good readers had better memory spanperformance for low frequency words. This wasattributable to differences in both short-termand long-term memory contributions to spanperformance. Differences between readingability groups also emerged when memory spanfor nonwords was measured. In this case,differences between groups also appeared to bethe result of difficulties which poor readersencountered in learning newphonologically-based materials (i.e. nonwords). The nature of the inter-relationships betweenmemory span, reading and measures ofphonological awareness are discussed in thelight of these findings.