ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Humour and Self-Concept: A Multicultural Perspective
Author: Søbstad, Frode
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Humor,Self Concept,Correlation,Interests,Elementary School Students,Foreign Countries,Gender Differences,Play,Learning,Cultural Influences,Indigenous Populations,Cultural Differences,Interviews,Self Concept Measures,Children,Self Esteem,Interpersonal Competence,Cognitive Ability

Humour and play have many features in common, both of which are important aspects in children's lives. In this article the focus is set on the relationship between different aspects of children's self-concept, including their humoristic self-concept, and interest in learning, play and local cultural activities. Participants in this study were drawn nonrandomly from primary schools in Australia, Norway and the United States. The students in the sample were 8 to 11 years old and were recruited from the majority culture and from Indigenous groups in the three countries. Results show interesting relationships between the humour self-concept and gender. More boys than girls describe themselves as funny. In the majority cultures humoristic self concept seems to be related to interest in free play, free learning and free local cultural activities. Within the Indigenous groups these relations were not significant. There are reasons to consider most of the documented differences to be caused by dissimilarities between cultures, school systems, and how representatives of different cultural groups perceive and think about upbringing and education. In particular, the gender differences found call for further research.
&quot;At a School Like This&quot; Implementing Policy in a Kindergarten Reading Program
Author: Harris, Pauline
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Program Implementation,Kindergarten,Reading Programs,Foreign Countries,Reading Instruction,Teaching Methods,Literacy Education,Case Studies,Observation,Interviews

This paper examines influences in a teacher's working context on policy implementation in a Kindergarten reading program. This exploration is based on a year's observations, interviews and artefact collection in the teacher's classroom; and is framed by Bernstein's notion of the pedagogic device (2000). Positioned between policy and the history of her own beliefs and practices, this paper describes the operational space that Sandra carved out. In this space, a number of messages converged which mediated the teacher's policy implementation. These mediating messages are described in terms of teaching philosophy; children's needs, predispositions and resources; parents' expectations; collegial interactions; and organisational priorities, norms and provisions. In light of this study, policy implementation in the class reading program is seen to be anything but clear-cut; and recent unilateral approaches to literacy policy reform and their underlying assumptions are brought into question.
Important Ingredients for a Successful Transition to School
Author: Mirkhil, Moska
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Adjustment,Qualitative Research,Case Studies,Attitude Measures,Parents,Preschool Teachers,Elementary School Teachers,Foreign Countries,Student Needs,Student Characteristics,School Readiness,Kindergarten,Elementary School Students,Semi Structured Interviews

The transition from the home environment or an early childhood setting to formal schooling is an important turning point in a child's educational journey. Research literature has identified that the manner in which a child experiences the transition to school has significant implications for children's future social and academic success at school (Cassidy, 2005; Dockett &amp; Perry, 2007). This article presents some of the findings from a recent study that examined the interwoven nature of children's transition to school. This qualitative case study examined the perceptions of key adult stakeholders about the processes involved in a seamless transition to school. The stakeholders who were involved in this study were parents, early childhood educators and primary school teachers. The study was carried out across three kindergartens and three primary schools in inner suburban Melbourne. The findings from this component of this study indicated that all key stakeholders vary in their views about the necessary ingredients that contribute to a child's transition to school, although it is significant that their ultimate and common goal is for children to experience a successful transition to school.
Beginning the Day with the IWB in an Early Childhood Classroom
Author: Harlow, Ann
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Early Childhood Education,Information Technology,Technology Uses in Education,Foreign Countries,Interactive Video,Educational Technology,Educational Equipment,Preschool Children,Preschool Teachers,Bulletin Boards

There is a substantial demand in New Zealand for professional learning opportunities to help early years' teachers to make use of ICT for teaching and learning (Harlow, Cowie and Jones, 2008), and where interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are increasingly being purchased by schools as instructional technologies. This paper reports on the findings of a researcher who was invited by a teacher in a small rural school in New Zealand to describe and understand the use of an IWB with young children aged five to six years. In this paper, the role of the IWB to enhance learning particularly in the use of language, symbols and texts is examined. The research involved collecting data from intensive classroom observation over a week using video and audio recordings as well as student and teacher interviews. Data were analysed using a framework developed by Kennewell and Beauchamp (2007), who identified how teachers used features of ICT/IWBs to enhance learning. The findings indicate that it was the way the teacher integrated the IWB into her pedagogy to improve the learning activities that made the IWB such an effective tool in this classroom.
We&apos;re Not Doctors and Nurses: The Teacher&apos;s Role in the Management of Anaphylaxis in Primary School Settings
Author: Eastwood, Kate
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Drug Therapy,Allergy,Teacher Role,Elementary School Teachers,Foreign Countries,Coping,Stress Management,Anxiety,Interviews,Prevention,Ethnography

Worldwide the prevalence of severe and life threatening allergies is rising. In 2007 35% of Victorian schools had students at-risk for anaphylaxis (Office of the Premier), and three children have allegedly died from anaphylaxis in Australian school and early childhood education settings during the last six years alone. Teaching personnel are increasingly responsible for the safety of severely allergic children, yet there is a dearth of research examining anaphylaxis management in Australian educational and child-care facilities. This study examines the teacher's role in anaphylaxis management through indepth interviews with 12 Victorian primary school teachers. The resulting data indicate that teachers' roles in anaphylaxis management were complex, multifaceted, and emotionally demanding. Stress and anxiety were strongly associated with the onus to prevent a reaction, and to provide medical care in the event of an emergency. Participants considered such responsibilities beyond the reasonable parameters of teacher duties yet an increasingly common expectation in a teaching climate characterised by work intensification. Stress and coping was impacted primarily by a number of local sociocultural factors such as the attitude of parents and colleagues. Factors identified in previous literature were also significant, namely, clear policy and procedures; and practical considerations such as teacher education and safety measures.
Kindergarten Postponed: Examining Parents&apos; Decisions and Teacher Opinions Concerning School Readiness
Author: Donath, Tracy
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Parents,Kindergarten,Decision Making,Teacher Attitudes,School Readiness,School Entrance Age,Enrollment,Age Grade Placement,Preschool Teachers,Parent Teacher Cooperation,Teacher Surveys,Parent Surveys,Parent Attitudes,Educational Attainment,National Surveys

In the United States of America, the practice of kindergarten redshirting i.e., of waiting to enroll a child into kindergarten until the year after the child was originally eligible, is becoming more common in today's schools. This study offers insight into the reasons why some parents elect to redshirt their child at the kindergarten level. A secondary focus was to determine the views of kindergarten teachers in regards to redshirting and to compare the opinions of parents and teachers in this area. Survey data was collected from 24 kindergarten teachers and 63 parents of redshirted children. The results show that parents who redshirt their child are more likely to consider their emotional concerns for their child. Alternatively, teachers are more likely to support redshirting when utilized for academic or maturational needs. Suggestions for researchers, parents, and educators are provided.
Exploring Four Year Old Indigenous Students&apos; Ability to Pattern
Author: Warren, Elizabeth
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Indigenous Populations,Young Children,Mathematics Skills,Interviews,Kindergarten,Mathematical Concepts,Foreign Countries,Concept Formation,Pretests Posttests

The gap between young Indigenous and non-Indigenous students' capability within mathematics is widely acknowledged. This gap is conjectured to exist at all levels of schooling, including pre-school, and widens as students mature. Most of these findings are based on research relating to students' understanding of number and space. Little is known about what knowledge Indigenous students bring to early years' settings with regard to patterning, an area that is widely acknowledged as fundamental to the development of concepts, process and knowledge of mathematics. One on one interviews were conducted with 35 Indigenous students (average age 4 years and 4 months) as they entered kindergarten. The results indicate that these students enter these settings with some intuitive understanding of repeating pattern, and that this knowledge is at odds with the hypothesised learning trajectory (Sarama and Clements, 2009) for repeating patterns. The results also begin to delineate the types of activities within these settings that have a significant impact on young Indigenous students' ability to pattern.
Researching an Everyday Teacher in 1940s New Zealand: New Liaisons-New Stories.
Author: Bethell, Kerry
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Photography,Teacher Characteristics,Teacher Background,Professional Identity,Teaching Experience,Primary Sources,Participatory Research,Teacher Salaries,Teacher Promotion,Teacher Persistence,Educational Researchers,Educational Facilities Planning,Preschool Teachers

The growth of interest in historical research into the commonplace provides opportunities to explore the different means through which we can understand the everyday world of teachers. Unlike the &quot;well-known&quot; in education past, where significant traces of their lives remain in archives and official records, little such evidence exists of the lives and work of &quot;ordinary&quot; teachers. Traditional biographical approaches are of limited use. Alternative approaches are needed to find teachers' stories of their everyday work. This paper explores our dynamic research process to piece together a partial story of the work of Miss Audrey Newton, a New Zealand kindergarten teacher in the 1940s. Fragments of evidence including photographs and other personal sources provide previously unknown evidence of Audrey's life over this time and glimpses into her experience of teaching. Also significant was our collaborative relationship that evolved bringing together historical and dialogic methodologies. These newly found sources of data, and our collaborative analysis of them, reveal a fuller and more complex picture of Audrey and of the context in which she taught than first considered.
Observing Children When Using Computers with a Focus on Their Self-Esteem
Author: Hatzigianni, Maria
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Self Esteem,Preschool Children,Computer Use,Foreign Countries,Preschool Education,Intervention,Educational Technology,Computer Uses in Education,Video Technology,Observation,Coding,Statistical Analysis

Children are born into a rich technological environment and by the time they attend preschool they already have accumulated a wide variety of technological experiences, skills and knowledge. This paper reports on part of a project undertaken in Melbourne, Australia, which had as a primary aim to explore the existence or not of a relationship between computer use and young (4-6 year old) children's self-esteem. Observing children's interactions with computers was one of the data collection methods utilised in this study. The twofold analysis of the observations, the findings related to self-esteem and children's interactions with computers are the focus of this paper and are considered to be interesting and useful for the early childhood educators.
Evaluating New Zealand Early Childhood Education Professional Development: Access, Barriers and Effectiveness
Author: Cherrington, Sue
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Early Childhood Education,Faculty Development,Program Effectiveness,Mixed Methods Research,Educational Quality,Educational Improvement,Barriers,Program Evaluation,National Surveys,Interviews,Teacher Surveys

&quot;Pathways to the Future: Nga Huarahi Arataki,&quot; the ten year strategic plan for early childhood education (ECE) in New Zealand, identified reviewing the delivery of professional development as one strategy for &quot;promoting the effective delivery of 'Te Whariki'&quot;(Ministry of Education, 2002, p. 15) within the overall goal of improving quality within ECE services. This paper reports on aspects of a national evaluation of ECE professional development undertaken for the Ministry of Education in 2005-06. The paper describes the multi-method approach taken, and highlights findings in two key areas: issues around access to professional development and barriers to practitioners engaging in PD, and the effectiveness of professional development programmes in supporting and sustaining shifts in pedagogical practices underpinned by &quot;Te Whariki.&quot;
Environmental Influences on Independent Collaborative Play
Author: Mawson, Brent
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Environmental Influences,Cooperation,Play,Peer Relationship,Early Childhood Education,Foreign Countries,Qualitative Research,Observation,Parent Attitudes,Semi Structured Interviews,Social Influences,Cultural Influences

Data from two qualitative research projects indicated a relationship between the type of early childhood setting and children's independent collaborative play. The first research project involved 22 three and four-year-old children in a daylong setting and 47 children four-year-old children in a sessional kindergarten. The second project involved 14 parent educators and 31 children in an Auckland Playcentre. There was substantially greater complexity of the play, and more mixed gender independent collaborative play in the daylong centre than in the kindergarten, and independent collaborative play was largely absent in the Playcentre. Three factors appeared to explain the differences in the nature and frequency of the independent collaborative play. These were the physical environment, the educator's pedagogy, and the nature of the relationships within the setting. The paper discusses these factors and suggests some implications for early childhood educators.
Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS): Through a Complexity Lens
Author: Power, Clare
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Peer Teaching,Communities of Practice,Cooperative Learning,Foreign Countries,Theories,Higher Education,Models,Student Leadership,Organization,Educational Change

Although the Supplemental Instruction (SI) model is offered in a wide range of contexts across many educational institutions in 29 countries, it maintains an identifiable essence. Each SI program, known in Australia as PASS, tends to operate autonomously within its particular institution while maintaining some of the features that interlink all programs that formally identify with this model. These features include near peers facilitating collaborative learning situations that improve attendees' learning outcomes and increase retention. This paper suggests that complexity theory provides a useful conceptual lens for analysing this multifaceted and multilayered peer learning model. Dimensions of complexity such as self-organisation, fractality, dynamism and emergence seem to offer ways of seeing and sense making that can enhance our understanding of the SI/PASS model, both organisationally and pedagogically. In this initial exploration of complexity and SI/PASS, particularly in its organisational features, I hope to foster conversations that will consider the implications and opportunities of seeing this particular peer learning approach as self-organising, dynamic and emergent.
Supplemental Instruction (SI) at the Faculty of Engineering (LTH), Lund University, Sweden. An Evaluation of the SI-Program at Five LTH Engineering Programs Autumn 2008
Author: Malm, Joakim
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Program Evaluation,Engineering Education,Problem Solving,Foreign Countries,College Faculty,Questionnaires,Study Habits,Academic Achievement,Teacher Attitudes,College Credits,High Schools,Grades (Scholastic),College Students,Supplementary Education,Administrator Attitudes

The study presents an evaluation of the SI program in five engineering programs within the Faculty of Engineering (LTH) based on data from questionnaires to SI participants and SI-Leaders, credits taken by the students during the first year, and average grade data from high school for the first year students. The results show that participation in SI sessions markedly improves the chances of student success in studies during the first year. Furthermore, there are clear indications that the SI program creates a positive social introduction to engineering studies. The SI sessions also improve the participants' study techniques and develop common skills important for the engineer, such as problem solving, group work, and presenting/discussing results.
PASS Student Leader and Mentor Roles: A Tertiary Leadership Pathway
Author: Skalicky, Jane
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Leadership Role,Mentors,Undergraduate Students,Foreign Countries,Peer Teaching,Surveys,Postsecondary Education

In relation to developing leadership skills during tertiary studies, this paper considers the leadership pathway afforded by a Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) program which includes the traditional PASS Leader role and a more senior PASS Mentor role. Data was collected using a structured survey with open-ended questions designed to capture the personal experiences and self-reported learning outcomes of students undertaking leadership roles within the PASS program. Twelve aspects of leadership are presented from twenty-three Leaders and Mentors: organisation, facilitation, support, attitude, relationships, role model, collaboration, communication, responsibility, decision making, pedagogy, and session management. The qualitative differences between the comments of the Leaders and the Mentors highlight the pathway of growth students undertaking the PASS roles may experience as they move from Leader to Mentor. The more senior PASS Mentor role provides an avenue for developing leadership capabilities beyond the traditional PASS Leader role. In contributing to peer learning in higher education, this study positions leadership within the PASS/SI context and potentially alongside tertiary leadership programs more generally.
The Experience of Class Tutors in a Peer Tutoring Programme: A Novel Theoretical Framework
Author: Outhred, Tim
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Models,Peer Teaching,Tutoring,Grounded Theory,Females,Tutors,Tutorial Programs,Qualitative Research,Focus Groups,College Freshmen,Foreign Countries,Mentors,Psychology

The following paper presents the first known examination of the experiences of class tutors within a peer-assisted learning program. Three female first-year class tutors, aged 25-28 years, provided insight into how they experienced a novel peer tutoring program embedded in their tutorials. Using grounded theory techniques, it was found that the following five themes underlie their experiences: &quot;role exploration,&quot; &quot;sharing responsibility,&quot; &quot;regulation of the peer tutored groups,&quot; &quot;harnessing the peer tutors' role,&quot; and &quot;community.&quot; Literature from the domain was examined post-hoc and was found to complement these themes. Additionally, it was found that class tutors were beneficiaries of the program. It was suggested that future research address the limitations of the present study and test a number of hypotheses within a novel theoretical framework. The hypotheses were constructed to include the key roles within embedded peer tutoring, and learning climate typologies and dimensions (Little, 1975).
Pumping the Money Lever: Why State Approaches to Higher Education Finance Need an Overhaul
Author: Jones, Dennis
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Higher Education,Educational Finance,Public Policy,Financial Support,Full Time Equivalency,Tuition,Academic Achievement,Models,Student Loan Programs,Loan Repayment,State Aid

The demands of society and constraints on resources will require change in the financing models states use to fund their higher education enterprises. Models built on the priorities of student access and institutional growth will no longer suffice. Those based on student success and productivity increases consistent with getting more entering students through the pipeline will become ascendant. Models based on preserving the status quo will have to give way to those that foster purposive change. They will have to be more explicitly a tool of public policy rather than a device for institutional funding. To be effective, financing models need to comprise all four components identified in this article, coordinated in ways that make them mutually reinforcing. To this end, state policymaking will also have to change. (Contains 1 figure.)
Learning from a Distance: The Experience of Remote Students
Author: Owens, Janet
Date: 2009-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Experience,College Students,Interviews,Student Attitudes,Foreign Countries,Distance Education,Student Problems,Educational Technology,Computer Assisted Instruction,Electronic Learning,Computer Mediated Communication,Internet,Online Courses,Web Based Instruction,Virtual Classrooms,Asynchronous Communication,Synchronous Communication,Rural Education,Rural Population,Geographic Isolation

While there has been research into the provision of &quot;distance&quot; and &quot;off-campus&quot; education, both in relation to technology and to curriculum, little attention has been given to the experiences of students studying in geographically remote locations, where the remoteness has been an aspect of investigation. This study aimed to investigate the experiences of such students, and to suggest strategies to support them. The students recruited for this project were undergraduate and postgraduate students from remote locations around Australia who had studied at Deakin University between 2003 through 2007. They were interviewed by telephone. The three key issues identified by participants were a sense of isolation, the attitudes and knowledge of the teaching staff; and students' knowledge and use of learning technologies. (Contains 3 tables.)