Peripheral Ritualized Practices—Threads Connecting Decorations to the Cloak of Identity

This is an ethnographic study which investigates the practices of language maintenance and ethnic identity affiliation for immigrant/migrant Nepalese families with primary to middle school children in the United Kingdom. The study presents a comparative case study analysis of three Nepalese immigrant/migrant families. Participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and historical narrative interview were used. The study investigated prior exposure to home country, ethnic, cultural, and social literacy practices that occurred in various contexts during a nine-month period. This analysis revealed a phenomenon I termed peripheral ritualized practices. Exposure to peripheral ritualized practices over time creates positive changes in attitudes toward multilingualism and diversity.     

国内外信息素质教育研究现状及实践情况

文章以信息素质的定义、内涵和标准为基础,介绍了国内外信息素质教育理论研究与实践进行的情况。     

India: Demographics for Publishers

The essential demographic data and related information for India is provided specifically for the publishing industry. The focus has been placed on the economics, education and computer industry in relation to the complex cultural factors of different languages and religions. The role of India in relation to the other three BRIC countries or Brazil, China and Russia is explored.     

School entry age and reading achievement in the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

Evidence regarding the effect of early reading instruction on later reading achievement is unusually sparse, given the emphasis often placed on early and intensive reading instruction. Capitalising on international differences in school entry age (SEA), international reading studies may provide such evidence; however, only one quantitative analysis has been conducted that looked at nine-year olds over 17 years ago. Therefore, data from the reading portion of the 2006 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study were re-analysed. The relative reading achievement—as a function of SEA—of 15-year-old students across 55 countries was investigated, controlling for social and economic differences. Results suggested no significant association between reading achievement and SEA. Theoretical explanations for these findings are discussed.     

An examination of the construct of legitimate peripheral participation as a theoretical framework in literacy research

This review critically examines the use in literacy research of Lave and Wenger's (1991) construct of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP), a view of learning as participation by which newcomers adopt a group's ways, moving from periphery to the center of a practice. From a search through 10 literacy-relevant journals from 1991 to the present, we purposively selected 20 pieces that relied centrally on LPP and analyzed these for ways in which practice and apprenticeship were instantiated. Regarding practice, we inquired about legitimacy and engagement; regarding apprenticeship, we asked about the deployment of experts' attention and the cost of newcomers' mistakes. Using the benefit of the 20+ years since the original publication, our critique offers six principles to evaluate researchers' use of LPP and community of practice as constructs to describe learners' experience, and summarizes how some of our 20 studies made felicitous use of the constructs and others less so.     

The representation of fraction magnitudes and the whole number bias reconsidered

Two experiments investigated the whole number bias in the representation of fraction magnitudes with adults. A fraction magnitude comparison task was used where half of the comparisons were consistent with whole number ordering and the other half were not. Distance effects were found in Experiment 1 indicating that participants were comparing the magnitude of the whole fraction rather than just the parts. However, accuracy and response time also depended on the comparisons' consistency with whole number ordering. Experiment 2 manipulated the distance between the fraction pairs and showed that the whole number effect was strongest when the distance between the fraction pairs was very small. The results suggest that even skilled adults do not always have direct access to a fraction's magnitude on the number line. When the magnitudes are especially close together, adults may rely on alternative implicit or explicit strategies, such as examining the whole number parts, to evaluate the comparison.     

Teacher coaching in Kenya: Examining instructional support in public and nonformal schools

Instructional coaching has improved student outcomes in the United States, and may help to solve Kenya's literacy problems. Coaching is costly, however, and evidence is lacking regarding the most cost-efficient teacher-to-coach ratio. We used student literacy outcome data from more than 8000 students participating in the Kenya Primary Math and Reading Initiative—a randomized controlled trial of instructional interventions in public and nonformal schools—to fill this gap. Coaches in larger public zones made fewer visits per teacher, and teacher-coach ratio and student performance were negatively associated. Using causal methods, we concluded that lower ratios might improve nonformal school outcomes.     

Mathematical language and mathematical abilities in preschool: A systematic literature review

It is well established that early general language during preschool is critical for children's mathematical abilities. In an attempt to further characterize this association between language and mathematics, an increasing number of studies show that one specific type of language, namely mathematical language or the key linguistic concepts that are required for performing mathematical activities, is even more critical to children's mathematical abilities. The purpose of this systematic review is to summarize the evidence on mathematical language and mathematical abilities. We focus on preschool children as nearly all of the existing work has been done at this age. We first explain how mathematical language has been defined across studies, and report how it has been evaluated in studies in preschool. Next, we present the results of our systematic review. Following the PRISMA guidelines and after a critical appraisal, we ended with a set of 18 papers that were all of sufficient methodological quality. In these studies, mathematical language was defined as terms that are about numbers and operations on numbers (e.g., nine), but also included linguistic terms that do not directly refer to numbers, yet are important to understand mathematical concepts (i.e., quantitative and spatial terms such as fewest and middle, respectively). Some of these studies evaluated children's performance on mathematical language tasks, while others evaluated the mathematical language input provided to the child by their (educational) environment (teachers/parents/interventionists). Mathematical language correlated positively with children's mathematical abilities, concurrently and longitudinally. It also directly affected children's mathematical abilities, as was shown by intervention studies. We discuss potential directions for future research and highlight implications for education, arguing for more support for teachers and parents to improve the use of mathematical language in the classroom and in home settings.     

基于山东省高等学校在线开放课程的教学改革--以“概率论与数理统计”课程为例

基于信息技术在教育领域的飞速提升,在线课程融入课堂势在必行。混合式教学是目前高等教育教学改革的热点。山东中医药大学教学改革团队依据培养应用型人才的毕业要求,对“概率论与数理统计”课程进行了混合式教学改革。“概率论与数理统计”课程知识点多且内容抽象,课堂容量较大,从而导致传统课堂重知识技能的传授,难以展开知识的应用,这进一步导致学生学习兴趣不高。另外,课程思政元素的融入也是一个亟待解决的问题。首先将知识点拆分,重构知识框架,建成山东省高等学校在线开放课程“医药数理统计”,在此基础上将智慧树平台翻转教学互动工具用于课堂教学,改革成果初见成效。     

独立学院数学建模培训模式的探索与改革

随着独立学院的蓬勃发展,独立学院报名参加数学建模竞赛的队伍越来越多,但很多学院的成绩不理想。本文从数学建模的培训模式这方面出发,根据近几年的实践,总结了教改的经验,提出了一套有效的培训模式。