CD-ROM Storybooks: Reading Strategies of Learners of English as a Second Language

Technology has had a huge impact on pedagogy and this impact is increasing with more educationally sound computer software becoming available. CD-ROM storybooks are an example of such software, and this study was an attempt to discover how beneficial these computerised books are, to the reading strategies of English as a second language (ESL) learners. The subjects of this study were eight ESL learners from grades 3 and 4 of primary school (five female and three male). Four subjects were born in Australia, and the remaining four were born overseas. However, all subjects were exposed to a language other than English, in the home environment. First languages represented in this study were Serbo-Croat, Macedonian, French, Vietnamese, Cantonese and Egyptian. The research consists of eight individual case studies in which each subject was required to read narratives from both CD-ROM storybooks and traditional books. The Data were collected through observations and field notes; checklists; audio recordings; retells of narratives; and miscue analyses. Data were then analysed to isolate and compare reading strategies that were used in both media, and similarities and differences were noted. Results indicated that during the reading of CD-ROM storybooks, ESL learners demonstrated more fluency and expression; increased levels of metacognition; an increased repertoire of reading strategies; and more use of the semantic cues in the text. Some strategies and behaviours were observed transferring from the reading of CD-ROM storybooks to the reading of traditional books later in the study. Benefits from CD-ROM storybooks were also found to be more substantial for those readers who needed support during reading. The more proficient readers required little support and rarely accessed assistance from the CD-ROM storybook. It was thus concluded that benefits to reading strategies were negligible, if learners did not access the help facilities of the CD-ROM storybook

A qualitative study exploring the general population's perception of rheumatoid arthritis after being informed about disease adaptation

Purpose: This study aimed to gain an understanding of what factors induce individuals to alter their opinions about a health condition after being informed about disease adaptation and being given time to reflect and deliberate on this information. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) states are used as an illustration. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 members of the general population. They completed two time trade-off exercises for three RA states and underwent an adaptation exercise (AE) which consisted of listening to recordings of patients discussing how they adapted to RA. Also included was a structured discussion to encourage the participant to reflect on how the patients have adapted. Participants were shown their own health state values, as well as patient values. Findings: After being informed about disease adaptation and reflecting on the information, participants were more likely to consider adaptation and alter their opinions of RA if they were able to empathise with the patients in the AE. This enabled individuals to feel that they could cope by reflecting on their experience of RA in family and friends, by drawing on others for support if they had RA, and by having a positive attitude towards life. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that there is a range of reasons for which people change their perceptions about RA; this requires further exploration

A qualitative study exploring the general population's perception of rheumatoid arthritis after being informed about disease adaptation

Purpose: This study aimed to gain an understanding of what factors induce individuals to alter their opinions about a health condition after being informed about disease adaptation and being given time to reflect and deliberate on this information. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) states are used as an illustration. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 members of the general population. They completed two time trade-off exercises for three RA states and underwent an adaptation exercise (AE) which consisted of listening to recordings of patients discussing how they adapted to RA. Also included was a structured discussion to encourage the participant to reflect on how the patients have adapted. Participants were shown their own health state values, as well as patient values. Findings: After being informed about disease adaptation and reflecting on the information, participants were more likely to consider adaptation and alter their opinions of RA if they were able to empathise with the patients in the AE. This enabled individuals to feel that they could cope by reflecting on their experience of RA in family and friends, by drawing on others for support if they had RA, and by having a positive attitude towards life. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that there is a range of reasons for which people change their perceptions about RA; this requires further exploration

A qualitative study exploring the general population’s perception of rheumatoid arthritis after being informed about disease adaptation

Purpose: This study aimed to gain an understanding of what factors induce individuals to alter their opinions about a health condition after being informed about disease adaptation and being given time to reflect and deliberate on this information. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) states are used as an illustration. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 members of the general population. They completed two time trade-off exercises for three RA states and underwent an adaptation exercise (AE) which consisted of listening to recordings of patients discussing how they adapted to RA. Also included was a structured discussion to encourage the participant to reflect on how the patients have adapted. Participants were shown their own health state values, as well as patient values. Findings: After being informed about disease adaptation and reflecting on the information, participants were more likely to consider adaptation and alter their opinions of RA if they were able to empathise with the patients in the AE. This enabled individuals to feel that they could cope by reflecting on their experience of RA in family and friends, by drawing on others for support if they had RA, and by having a positive attitude towards life. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that there is a range of reasons for which people change their perceptions about RA; this requires further exploration.health state valuation; qualitative research; quality of life; disease adaptation

Preservice teachers, sixth graders and instructors use dialogue journals to extend their classroom communities

The use of dialogue journals has been studied extensively for its positive effect on children\u27s personal adjustment, development of awareness for audience, understanding of others, increased motivation for purposeful writing, improved skill in conversing, and overall growth as writers. This manuscript extends that research to preservice teachers\u27 exchanging journals with sixth graders. As a result of participation in this project, preservice teachers experienced the value of journal-based written and oral discourse activities for understanding and fostering their own social and academic development and that of their younger partners. University and classroom instructors\u27 written observations and reflections shared from their own journals modeled what can be learned about one\u27s students through systematic observations and reflections on them

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books 50 (09) 1997

published or submitted for publicatio

Contemplations on sport, complexity, ages of being and practice

From my experience of working alongside coaches, I would say that they are complexpeople. The people they coach are complex too. In the present paper, I considercomplexity as an underlying dynamic to (coaching) practice, something that might beunderstood, not only through one's own life, but through the notion of shared lives.The central thematic of the story to follow is that we live and practice through different‘ages of being' and that our complication changes as we age. These ideas and theirrelevance to critical thinking and personal practice are illustrated through a personal story,a father and son story. The tale begins, as many sporting father and son stories might, asthey run together on a windswept beach. From that childhood memory, a meandering taleof growth, companionship and critical reflection unfolds. By charting this particularrelationship, one shaped and sustained by a shared history, yet defined by different ‘agesof being', I contemplate often fractured and sometimes shared relationships betweenourselves and with sport. It is a story described partly in parallel, across generational andworking contexts and in life-long terms. The story telling ends with an attempt at definingmyself, my complexities and my own practice in the present day. Through this, I urge al lcoaching practitioners to reflect on their work and on the intentions and scope of theirresearch and, finally, the associations of such thinking with their own ages of being

A real time, longitudinal, qualitative evaluation of the first two cohorts to participate in the Queen’s Nurse Development Programme.

Background: The Queens Nurse Development Programme (QNDP) has been delivered to community nurses in Scotland since 2017, born out of a commitment to reintroduce the Queen’s Nurse title in Scotland after 50 years. The aim of the QNDP was to connect individuals with a shared passion for delivering high - quality nursing throughout Scotland’s communities, to create a safe space where participants could develop and grow on a personal level to become change makers, to inspire others, help those most in need and champion community nursing. As such, the participants selected were employed in a wide-range of diverse roles, from throughout Scotland. The programme takes place over a nine-months, during which participants engaged with a varied programme involving residential workshops, where they experienced a range of creative and contemplative awareness based change practices, the development of a practice issue, and individual coaching. This report presents an independent evaluation of the QNDP based on the first two cohorts of participants to engage with the programme (2017 & 2018). Evaluating the QNDP is important to optimise the programme for subsequent cohorts of Queen’s nurses and to inform the transferability of the programme to other professions and contexts. Methods: A comprehensive, longitudinal, qualitative evaluation, where data was collected at various time points, using interviews, focus groups and a ‘member-checking’ event with all 41 QNDP participants (20 fromcohort 1 and 21 fromcohort 2), as well as 12 community nursing managers and the 3 QNDP facilitators. The purpose was to uncover and explore perceptions and experiences of the QNDP: what was learned; how this was implemented into everyday practice; as well as the impacts and sustainability of changes. The data was analysed using Braun and Clarke’s six-point framework of analysis; familiarisation, coding, generating themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes and writing up (Clarke et al., 2015). Double coding and independent analysis ensured trustworthy, rigorous and valid findings. Summary and Conclusions: Participants were overwhelmingly positive about the programme, and appreciated its design, facilitation, approach and methods utilised, as well as the resulting impacts and outcomes. Engaging with the QNDP led to an unexpected ‘journey of self-discovery and transformation’, with notable self-development, growth and positive change. Essentially, the programme enabled participants to see through a new lens, re-position themselves and embody new (person-centred) ways of being and doing, which transcended both their personal and professional lives as community nurses, colleagues, ‘leaders’, service providers, networkers, family members and friends. The participants perceptions of this work and learning was that as it was personal, changing their thinking and identity and therefore, the impact of the programme and the personal and professional transformation and changes introduced were perceived to be sustainable for the rest of their professional life and beyond. The programme facilitated the building of close bonds with their peers which enabled them to confidently share problems and challenges, reinforce their learnings and new thinking, and engage them in a journey of transformation. As such, a community of practice has been created within and across the cohorts which has the potential to become a social movement as intended by QNIS. The programme also equipped them with novel, creative approaches, skills and tools that they were able to share with colleagues, friends and family. Thus, the programme achieved a key aim of connecting individuals and equipping QNDP participants with a range of new skills. The findings of this evaluation and the QNDP are likely to be transferable to other health and social care professionals and beyond the Scottish context

THE SUPREMACY OF WHITE PEOPLE IN HARRIET BEECHER STOWE’S UNCLE TOM’S CABIN OR LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY AS A CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

This research aims to identify White supremacy in the Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a children’s literature and to understand how it is constructed in the novel as well as the danger of it. The theory of White Supremacy by Frederickson and racial differences in colonial and postcolonial societies by Fanon are used to answer the objectives. This research was qualitative in nature and a descriptive-qualitative method was used to analyze the data. The main source of this research was a novel entitled Uncle Tom’s Cabin or Life Among The Lowly by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The data were phrases, clauses, sentences, and expressions related to White Supremacy and the construction of it found in the novel. The data analysis was conducted through six steps: identifying, reading and re-reading, coding and categorizing, and sorting the data, making the interrelation between the description of the data and the theory, and making an interpretation of the findings. To obtain trustworthiness, the researcher used intra-rater technique and peer debriefing method. The findings of this research show that there are two categories of White supremacy that match the kinds of White supremacy portrayed in the novel. Those two categories are White supremacy in the religious context and in the political context. First, it can be seen that the novel depicts the desirability of teaching Christianity to Blacks and to show White supremacy through the use of religion and political messages embedded in the novel. Second, it is to recognize in what way white supremacy is constructed in the novel. The next findings are derived from Fanon’s theory of racial difference in colonial and postcolonial societies. There are three forms of construction of white supremacy that can be identified from the novel. The three categories are the use of language, stereotypes, and the symbolization. The discussion includes the implication of the danger of White supremacy in the insight of children’s literature. As it is understood from the findings that although Uncle Tom’s Cabin is considered an antislavery literary work, it does not mean that Blacks are meant to be equal and belong to America