Language Development at Home and School: Gains and losses in young bilinguals

In this paper we examine the topic of the language development of three young bilingual children at both home and school. Our aim is to consider the language issues that arise in such children, taking into account their parents' language background and experience of school systems, language practices and 'policy' in the home, and the children's experience of a year of nursery school as reported by their teachers. We try to show how different strands of the children's experience fit together; their 'mother tongue', their mothers' aspirations for them, their teachers' view of their progression, and their competence in English, all considered against the background of current curriculum guidance. We conclude with an examination of the gains and losses these children have made in the school system so far, and with an analysis of what the roles of 'mother tongue' might be for children in these and similar circumstances.     

Differences in Shame and Pride as a Function of Children''s Gender and Task Difficulty

3-year-old children were presented with easy and difficult tasks and their emotional responses of shame and pride were observed. No shame was shown when subjects succeeded on the tasks and no pride was shown when they failed. Significantly more shame was shown when subjects failed easy tasks than when they failed difficult tasks, and significantly more pride was shown when subjects succeeded on difficult than on easy tasks. While there were no sex differences in task failures, girls showed more shame than boys. There were no sex differences in pride when subjects succeeded.     

Learner control in full and lean CAI programs

This study investigated the effects of two types of control over instruction (learner and program) and two modes of instructional programs (lean and full) on the achievement, option use, and time-in-program of 274 high-ability and low-ability students from grades 9 and 10. The basic instructional program in geometry was delivered by computer. Subjects under learner control scored significantly higher on the program posttest than those under program control, spent significantly more time in the program, and liked it better. Learner-control subjects appeared to “trust” their given version of the program, viewing many more optional screens in the full version than those in the lean one. High-ability learners adapted their study behavior to the lean version under learner control by choosing significantly more optional screens than their low-ability counterparts. This research was conducted while he was a graduate student at Arizona State University where Howard J. Sullivan is a professor in Learning and Instructional Technology.     

The use of open data as a material for learning

Educational technology research and development - Open data has potential value as a material for use in learning activities. However, approaches to harnessing this are not well understood or in...     

Learner preferences and prior knowledge in learner-controlled computer-based instruction

This study examined the effects of prior knowledge, learner preference for control, and type of control (learner or program) on the achievement of middle-school students in a computer-based instructional program on adding and subtracting integers. Students were blocked by preference-for-control scores and randomly assigned to either a learner-control or program-control version of instruction. A significant three-way interaction (prior knowledge × preference scores × type of control) revealed that students with high prior knowledge achieved better on the posttest when their preference for control was matched with the type of control they received, whereas students with low prior knowledge achieved better when their preference was mismatched. A significant three-way interaction on attitude reflected the same pattern found in the interaction for achievement scores. The overall results indicate that matching learner preference to the type of program they receive is an effective strategy for high-prior-knowledge students but not for those with low prior knowledge.

Abusive head trauma in Maine infants: medical,child protective,and law enforcement analysis

OBJECTIVE: To collect and compare the results of medical, child protective, and law enforcement evaluation of a sample of Maine children who were victims of abusive head trauma (AHT) in order to describe the clinical and evaluative characteristics as they relate to victims, families and perpetrators of such trauma and to improve the professional response to AHT in Maine.METHOD: Retrospective chart review of medical, child protective, and law enforcement records of all AHT victims admitted to two tertiary care hospitals in Maine or seen by the state medical examiner from 1991 to 1994.RESULTS: Nineteen children (age range 2 weeks to 17 months) were identified as victims of AHT (out of a total of 94 head trauma admissions) accounting for 20 hospitalizations during the study period. There was a history of prior injury in 30%, history of prior medical evaluations for possibly abuse related problems in 65%, while, on presentation, 75% had evidence or history of prior injury. The hospitals notified child protective services (CPS) in all 20 cases and correctly identified abuse in 18 (90%). Parental risk factors for abuse identified in CPS records included substance abuse (53%), domestic violence (42%), criminal history (32%), unrealistic expectations (42%), and attachment problems (32%). However, risk factors were inadequately assessed in 53% of homes. Law enforcement identified a likely perpetrator in 79% of cases and in the majority the identified suspect was the father. In the 15 cases where a perpetrator was identified by law enforcement, that person was alone with the child at symptom onset in 14 (93%).CONCLUSIONS: The medical response, at least at the inpatient level, was generally well done with regard to suspicion and reporting. Cases are possibly being missed at the outpatient level. Child protective risk assessment was limited overall yet in a third of the homes where AHT occurred, few if any risk factors were present to aid in identification and prevention. Law enforcement results suggest that a primary suspect for AHT is the caretaker alone with the child at the time of symptom onset.