A Collaboration between ESL and Regular Classroom Teachers for ELL Students’ Literacy Development

This article presents a teacher‐research project on collaboration between an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher and a fourth‐grade classroom teacher to enhance the literacy development of English language learners (ELLs). It illustrates how two teachers worked closely in helping their ELL students develop their writing skills and the benefits both the students and teachers gained from this collaboration.     

Development and validation of the environmental literacy instrument for adolescents

Environmental education (EE) practitioners struggle to consistently and rigorously evaluate their programs, particularly when little time is available for evaluation. Since environmental literacy (EL) is the goal of environmental education, a very short EL instrument – amenable to use when longer tests are not practical for practitioners – would address an important EE need. We describe the development and validation of the Environmental Literacy Instrument for Adolescents (ELI-A) that is short enough for use in field applications (i.e. 5–15 min) and measures four domains of environmental literacy (ecological knowledge, hope, cognitive skills, behaviour). Factor analysis, item response theory, and concurrent validity tests were used in the validation process. Structural equation modelling supported the fit between the ELI-A and prevailing EL frameworks. The results support a valid and reliable instrument that is short enough for practical use but comprehensive in measuring four primary components of EL. This instrument could help fulfil the call to evaluate EE programming in both formal and informal settings.     

Motivating Young Native American Students to Pursue STEM Learning Through a Culturally Relevant Science Program

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Data indicate that females and ethnic/race minority groups are underrepresented in the science and engineering workforce calling for innovative...     

Taking the risk to engage in race talk: professional development in elementary schools

Developing public education where every child has the right to learn requires that teachers pay attention to and engage in race talk – open discussion about race, social construction of race, and racism. While it is clear that children engage and reflect critically about these aspects of race even at a young age, teachers rarely engage in race talk with them. In this study, an African-American preservice teacher and a White teacher educator explore how African-American, Polynesian, and White in-service teachers, participating in Courageous Conversations professional development, address or avoid race talk in their elementary schools through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and what risks they take when they do. Findings, through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, demonstrate that (1) racism was observed and/or experienced by all teachers in elementary schools; (2) lived racial experiences impacted teachers’ approach to conversations about race; (3) creating an open space was crucial for race conversations; (4) Courageous Conversations provided a ‘new language’ to talk about race; and (5) administrative support facilitated more attention to race. Findings indicate the road to greater equity in schools requires more professional development about race talk in elementary schools.     

Who Benefits Most from a University Degree?: A Cross-National Comparison of Selection and Wage Returns in the US,UK, and Germany

Recent research on economic returns to higher education in the United States suggests that those with the highest wage returns to a college degree are least likely to obtain one. We extend the study of heterogeneous returns to tertiary education across multiple institutional contexts, investigating how the relationship between wage returns and the propensity to complete a degree varies by the level of expansion, differentiation, and cost of higher education. Drawing on panel data and matching techniques, we compare findings from the US with selection into degree completion in Germany and the UK. Contrary to previous studies, we find little evidence for population level heterogeneity in economic returns to higher education.     

Early Childhood Educators’ Wellbeing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Early Childhood Education Journal - The importance of Early Childhood (EC) educators’ wellbeing has been brought into sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, as educators have navigated...     

Preservice training in response to intervention: Learning by doing an interdisciplinary field experience

Marking major changes in professional role performance, response to intervention (RTI) is now in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004) as a possible method to improve the identification of specific learning disabilities. Moreover, RTI and related concepts and initiatives have fundamentally influenced more general methods of prevention, instruction and intervention services, and decision making in schools. Although RTI will continue to evolve, core characteristics of RTI that form the basis of state initiatives are well founded in intervention and instructional research and practice. These core characteristics (i.e., data‐based decision making, evidence‐based intervention, teaming, and problem solving) represent skills immediately needed by professionals‐in‐training. This article reports collaboration between school psychology and special education faculty in designing and implementing an integrative field experience in RTI. Training, student, and program outcomes are used summatively for accountability. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Information and Communication Technologies for Development: The Bottom of the Pyramid Model in Practice

The currently influential model for information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) is based on increasing the well-being of the poor through market-based solutions, and by using low-cost but advanced technologies. Using ethnographic methods, we chart out the contradictions that could arise when such a development-through-entrepreneurship model is implemented. We examine the Akshaya project, a franchise of computer-service kiosks in Kerala, India, which strives simultaneously for social development through access to computers and financial viability through cost recovery and entrepreneurship. We show that tensions within the state and among entrepreneurs and perceptions of public versus private among consumers make it challenging to meet the twin goals of commercial profitability and social development.     

A comparison of perceptions of self among university students in Ireland and the U.S.: Implications for counselling

The study compared 50 Irish and 50 American graduateand undergraduate psychology and counselling studentson the ways they rated My Real Self and My Ideal Selfon a Semantic Differential using Osgood et al.'s (1957)Semantic Differential Technique. A 2×2×2 MANOVA wasused for the data analysis where the status variableswere country, class, and gender, and the dependentvariables were the evaluative and potency scales ofthe Semantic Differential for both My Real Self and MyIdeal Self. It was found that males, as a whole,rated the potency of both My Real Self and My IdealSelf higher than females. Implications forcounselling are discussed.