Literacy and oracy across the U.S.-Mexico border: A look at the Plazas Comunitarias programme

ABSTRACT

This article explores the relationship between literacy and oracy in the context of Plazas Comunitarias, a basic education programme in Spanish for immigrants in the United States. I reflect on my experiences as a former Plazas facilitator, analyse key literacy materials from the programme and offer observations on reading aloud in an adult literacy classroom context. Additionally, I suggest that beyond facilitating overall reading development, the Plazas programme fulfils a key literacy function by fostering community building and provides access routes to community-based civil society organisations and key social institutions for immigrant groups.     

Collection Condition Assessment in a Midsized Academic Library

In 2014, Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks conducted its first collection condition survey. The institutionally significant Alaska Collection was chosen as a manageable project. Research design based on the literature review led the researcher to conduct two surveys: one examining the entire collection and one looking at only those books most recently circulated. The combined surveys revealed that the circulating books are much more badly damaged that the books in the collection that do not circulate, across a variety of attributes.     

A Moderate Hermeneutical Approach to Empathy in History Education

The concept of empathy in history education involves students in the attempt to think within the context of historical agents’ particular predicaments. Tracing the concept’s philosophical heritage to R. G. Collingwood’s philosophy of history and ‘re-enactment doctrine’, this article argues that our efforts in history classrooms to understand historical agents by their own standards are constrained by a tension that arises out of the need to disconnect ourselves from a present that provides the very means for understanding the past. Though rather than serving to undermine the concept, it is proposed that the moderate hermeneutics of H.-G. Gadamer, through a positive conception of prejudice, tradition and temporal distance, transforms the factors typically seen as inhibitors to empathy’s operation into those that potentially enable it. The article aspires to shed new light on what is at play when history students engage in the intellectually demanding task of empathizing in history.     

Determining the academic and affective outcomes of dyad reading among third graders

Abstract

Dyad reading involves a lower level reader paired with a higher level reading partner who models proficient oral reading while providing access to challenging texts. Previous research has reported increased reading fluency and comprehension for participants of dyad reading; however, to date no research has investigated how dyad reading may influence student attitudes toward reading. Using mixed effects linear modeling, this quasi-experimental study of third graders investigated the academic and attitudinal outcomes for students who read in dyads for 15?minutes daily for 90 school days. Results indicated that dyad readers experienced mixed outcomes in improving reading proficiency and a pattern of decline in reading attitudes compared to students in the control group. While lower level dyad readers demonstrated significant gains on a measure of comprehension, there were no differences between groups on several other measures of reading. Recommendations target how to maximize the use of dyad reading to support students’ reading development without eroding their perceptions of themselves as readers.     

Educational States of Suspension

In response to the growing emphasis on learning outcomes, life-long learning, and what could be called the learning society, scholars are turning to alternative educational logics that problematize the reduction of education to learning. In this article, we draw on these critics but also extend their thinking in two ways. First, we use Giorgio Agamben and Gilles Deleuze to posit two educational logics—tinkering and hacking, respectively—that suspend and render inoperative learning logics, expectations, and evaluative metrics. Second, we argue that contemporary artists and designers such as Katerina Kamprani and Grupo de Arte Callejero have much to offer educational philosophers and theorists interested in practices of suspension. In conclusion, we suggest ways in which educators can tinker with and hack into the curriculum by playing with the quintessential embodiment of learning: the test.     

Semetsky,Inna

In this paper, the author describes recent developments in the assessment of research activity and publication in Australia. Of particular interest to readers will be the move to rank academic journals. EPAT received the highest possible ranking, however the process is far from complete. Some implications for the field, for this journal and particularly, for the educational foundations are discussed.