Continuing Education Module Top 10: Tips on Teaching Lamaze Classes

Lamaze classes should help women think differently about birth, dispel myths, and ultimately make informed decisions that are right for them. In the current maternity care environment, this is a monumental task. In this column, the authors discuss 10 teaching tips that serve as a guide for teaching childbirth classes and ultimately facilitate learning.     

Reflections on the “Push for Your Baby” Campaign

In this editorial, a board member of Lamaze International describes the “Push for Your Baby” campaign to urge women to advocate for more evidence-based practice for better births. She also reflects on her hopes and worries about the “Push for Your Baby” campaign launched by Lamaze in May 2012. Discussing the realities of current maternity care practice, she asks how we can work with obstetric nurses and providers to have them support what most women value—vaginal birth.     

A Commitment to Excellence

In this column, the editor of The Journal of Perinatal Education describes two international credentialing programs, the Magnet Recognition Program and the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative. Both require an ongoing commitment to excellence. The editor also describes the contents of this issue, which offer a broad range of resources, research, and inspiration for childbirth educators in their efforts to promote, support, and protect natural, safe, and healthy birth. Open in a separate windowWendy C. BudinEditor     

Continuing Education Module Styles Vary When Teaching Expectant Parents About Medications

In this column, the author presents information from prominent Lamaze childbirth educators and from the literature to describe various options that educators can share with expectant parents regarding the use of pain relief medications during labor and birth. Ann Tumblin teaches about epidurals in a hospital class without losing sight of evidence-based practices that support normal birth. Jessica English focuses her classes on the natural processes of giving birth and spends only a little time presenting information about pain medications. Judith Lothian encourages educators to consider a new framework for Lamaze classes that involves letting go of the details and incorporating Lamaze’s six Healthy Birth Practices and storytelling.     

Flipped classrooms: implications for K-12 students with learning and behavioural challenges from an international exploratory study of teacher educators

Flipped classrooms represent a new instructional paradigm for presenting K-12 instruction. Whereas in traditional classrooms new content is taught during the school day and application activities are assigned for homework, in flipped classrooms students are expected to acquire new content by working through assigned tasks at home prior to the next day’s class. Subsequently, class time is used for application activities. To date, limited, conflicting analyses of research about the efficacy of the flipped classroom paradigm have been reported. This lack of a clear consensus is of concern for students with serious learning and/or behavioural challenges who have not been the focus of these analyses and whose learning characteristics arguably run counter to what students must do to be successful in flipped classrooms. The investigation reported herein addresses one aspect of the aforementioned void in the literature. Data from an international survey of teacher educators from 33 countries that ascertained their thoughts about the appropriateness of the flipped classroom paradigm for students with serious learning and/or behavioural challenges are reported. Results indicate that teacher educators have reservations about the appropriateness of flipped classrooms, but that their opinions are not fully informed by knowledge about, and experience with, these classrooms.     

Infant educators’ beliefs about infant language development in long day care settings

This study examined infant educators’ beliefs about infant language development in the context of early childhood classrooms. Participants were 59 educators who were employed to work directly with under-two-year-old children. Educators were interviewed to determine their understandings of infant language development and Grounded Theory qualitative techniques were used to develop a conceptual model which illustrates their perceptions of the relationships between contextual, personal and teaching and learning components of their classroom contexts. The model provides a means of conceptualising ‘insider’ practitioner voices on how, as a dynamic system, contextual, individual and pedagogical components mutually interact to bring about the kinds of experiences and interactions that can shape language development. Findings have implications for understanding educators’ perspectives on infant room quality, suggesting that issues related to educator-infant ratios, staff consistency, qualifications and professional knowledge about language development processes may impact efforts to provide intentional language development support.     

Uncertain identities of non-higher-education-based EFL teacher educators: a third space theory perspective

ABSTRACT

Although research on teacher educators’ identities has received increasing attention in recent years, non-higher-education-based teacher educators’ professional identities are still under-researched. Informed by the third space theory perspective, this paper presents a study that investigated 139 non-higher-education-based English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher educators’ identities through the lens of metaphors. An analysis of the metaphors revealed four types of identities, namely, the willing communicators, the discontented jack-of-all-trades and master of none, the struggling professional leaders, as well as the caring supporters. These terms capture the participants’ self-images and specify their obligations and responsibilities as teacher educators. The paper concludes with some implications for teacher educators’ preparation and continuing development.     

黄溥的教育情感及其启示

近代以来国家沦丧,爱国志士急寻解救之法,"教育救国"就是其中之一。教育家黄溥身体力行,走上教育之路。在从教的一生中,黄溥扮演了专科教师、中学校长、大学教育学院院长等多种教育角色,形成了内涵丰富的教育情感,包括时不我待的紧迫感和舍我其谁的使命感、尽心尽力的责任感及奉献一生的热爱感等,这些情感同专业知识等因素一起造就了教育家黄溥。学习黄溥的教育情感,对促进教育工作者的专业成长,进而推动教育强国有重要作用。     

高校德育主体的创新观念

高等教育培养学生的创新精神和创新能力是时代发展的需要。具备创新精神与创新观念是高校德育主体正确履行其职能和职责的先决条件。创新是德育主体实施创新教育应具备的一种基本能力，高校德育主体必须更新教育观念，不断提高创新素质，才能更好地实施创新教育。