Who cares for the child in day care? An examination of caregivers from three types of care

As part of a larger study, the Victoria Day Care Research Project, caregivers representing three different types of caregiving arrangements (licensed center-based day care, licensed family day care homes, and unlicensed family day care homes) were interviewed. The structured interviews of approximately 1 hour covered the following caregiver-related areas: caregiver personal, socioeconomic status (SES), and support system factors; caregiver relationships with the chldren's mothers and general attitudes towards maternal employment; caregivers' perceptions of their own programs and children they care for; and caregivers' satisfaction with their employment. From the interview data, distinctive profiles emerged for each of the three caregiving groups. The data on the three caregiver groups and their composite profiles are presented in the article.     

SYMPOSIUM: HOW, AND HOW NOT, TO STUDY OTHER CULTURES

The papers that comprise this symposium are adapted from remarks delivered on 31 May 2002 in Washington, DC, at the NAS's tenth national conference titled "Higher Education and Democracy in Peace and War."     

A Retrospective of Four Decades of Community College Research

In the 40th publication year of the Community College Journal of Research and Practice (CCJRP), the authors present a 39-year retrospective on research on the community college through the lens of the journal. It is not known exactly what the body of community college research wholly consists of. Without access to the larger picture of community college research, both the research and practitioner communities remain generally unaware of the existing research, areas lacking in study, and opportunities to build upon past research and to explore adaptation of practices that have been implemented at other institutions. The purpose of this study was to explore the evolution of community college research by surveying topics in community college research published over the past 39 years within the context of the CCJRP, highlighting implications for future research, policy, and practice. Findings from this content analysis study demonstrate more attention to student success, teaching and learning, and community college leadership than other topics. Overtime, topics such as college mission and international perspectives cycled across the decades, while others, such as access, held steady. Findings also show the popularity of policy and innovation topics and changes in authorship over time, particularly as related to gender.     

L'Attitude Et La Motivation Des Eleves Israeliens Dans L'Apprentissage Du Francais,Seconde Langue Etrangere

Résumé L'étude d'une seconde langue étrangère en Israël, et particulièrement l'étude du français, est dans la plupart des cas, réservée aux élèves qui obtiennent de bons résultats dans les tests d'aptitude à l'apprentissage d'une première langue étrangère et de bons résultats dans l'étude de cette première langue (l'anglais).Beaucoup d'élèves, enfants d'immigrants d'Afrique du Nord, obtiennent des résultats peu élevés dans les tests d'aptitude mais sont fortement motivés à apprendre le français. Nous avons voulu tester l'hypothèse que la motivation et l'attitude personnelle à l'égard du français et de la culture française jouent un rôle important chez un grand nombre d'élèves israëliens. Notre étude vérifie l'importance de ces deux facteurs dans l'apprentissage du français, seconde langue étrangère.

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The study of a second foreign language in Israel, and in particular the study of French, is most frequently restricted to those pupils who get good results in aptitude tests for learning a first foreign language, and good results in the study of that first language (English).Many pupils, children of immigrants from North Africa, obtain poor results in the aptitude tests, but are strongly motivated to learn French. We wished to test the hypothesis that motivation and personal attitude towards French language and culture play an important part in the case of a large number of Israeli pupils. Our study bears out the importance of these two factors in the learning of French as a second foreign language.

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Zusammenfassung In Israel bleibt das Erlernen einer zweiten Fremdsprache, insbesondere des Französischen, grösstenteils solchen Schülern vorbehalten, die in Fähigkeitstesten für das Lernen einer ersten Fremdsprache (English) sowie in deren Studium gute Resultate erzielen.Viele Schüler aus nordafrikanischen Immigrantenfamilien schneiden bei den Fähigkeitstests schlecht ab, sind jedoch stark motiviert, Französich zu lernen. Ein Test der Hypothese, dass Motivation und persönliche Einstellung zur französischen Sprache und Kultur bei einer grossen Anzahl israelischer Schüler eine wichtige Rolle spielen, hat die Bedeutung dieser beiden Faktoren für das Erlernen des Französischen als zweiter Fremdsprache bestätigt.

     

Changes in educational beliefs and classroom practices of teachers and students in rich technology-based classrooms[1]

This study was conducted in the framework of a project that sought to change the school learning and teaching environment and adapt it to current reality through the proactive use of technology in the search for knowledge. It is an exploratory, longitudinal, case study of a single school, in one city in central Israel, which examines changes in educational beliefs, classroom practices, and knowledge restructuring processes of six teachers of grades 4-6, who for three years experienced an approach to teaching and learning focusing on information-rich tasks in an information-rich environment. The main findings show different patterns and rates of change in teacher educational beliefs, knowledge restructuring processes and classroom practices. They also demonstrate that students of teachers whose educational beliefs and classroom practices radically changed and which reflected a constructivist approach to learning regarded learning as a process of engaging with complex, context-related tasks requiring multiple viewpoints, whereas students whose teachers had a traditional positivist approach saw technologyassisted learning as learning with technical tools. The study indicates a reciprocal rather than unidirectional relationship between teacher classroom practice and changes in teacher educational beliefs and knowledge restructuring processes.