Pre-service teachers use e-learning technologies to enhance their learning

The purpose of this study was twofold. The primary purpose was to improve pre-service teacher education by using technology to help pre-service teachers bridge the gap between academic preparation and practice. The secondary, but still important, objective was to familiarize pre-service teachers in the use of technology to support their future pedagogical activities. Therefore, this research sought to develop a method for training undergraduate students in designing, implementing, and evaluating lesson plans to solidify the relationship between research, pedagogy, and teaching practice. Specifically, this study investigated the implementation of e-learning as a method of instruction to help pre-service teachers evaluate and improve upon the implementation of their lesson plans during their real world practicum experiences. The study was guided by the following research questions: 1) What successes, challenges, and benefits do university instructors and pre-service teachers experience in using and analyzing video in teacher education methods coursework? 2) In what ways did the use of e-learning help the pre-service teachers improve their teaching during the practicum experience? Results showed that participants reported improved lesson planning, improved lesson implementation, visual interpretations of best practices, modeling, and peer and university instructor feedback as successes of the e-learning project. Challenges included participants’ frustrations of being overworked and overwhelmed with the technical problems associated with e-learning. Overall participants judged the e-learning project as a very positive aspect of their teacher training

Buying Time: Real and Hypothetical Offers

This paper provides the results of a field test of contingent valuation estimates within a willingness to accept framework. Using dichotomous choice questions in telephone-mail-telephone interviews, we compare responses to real and hypothetical offers to survey respondents for the opportunity to spend time in a second set of interviews on an undisclosed topic. Five hundred and forty people were randomly split between the real and hypothetical treatments. Our findings indicate no significant differences between people's choices with real and hypothetical offers. Choice models indicate the size of the offer and income were significant determinants of respondents' decisions, and these models were not significantly different between real and hypothetical offers.

2012 State of Metropolitan Housing Report

This report updates Metropolitan Housing Coalition's nine annual measures of fair and affordable housing for the Louisville, KY Metropolitan Statistical Area: Concentration of Subsidized Housing; Housing Segregation; Renters with Excessive Cost Burden; Production and Rehabilitation of Affordable Housing; Homeownership Rate; Access to Homeownership; Foreclosures; Homelessness; and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) and HOME Funds.The 2012 State of Metropolitan Housing Report clearly demonstrates Metropolitan Louisville's growing need for safe, fair, and affordable housing. For the first time, the tenth annual State of Metropoltian Housing Report includes data on the number of children experiencing homelessness in the MSA's public school systems; before MHC reported only on Jefferson County Public Schools.The 2012 report also includes a focus topic: vacant properties and their impact on the community as well as current efforts and best practices that to address this issue. Additionally, the report also drills down into the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, a federal program designed to address the issue of vacant properties, and how it was used in Louisville

An Analysis Of Structural Social Capital And The Individual’s Intention To Share Tacit Knowledge Using Reasoned Action Theory

The sharing of tacit knowledge is important and its relationship with the development of social capital in a University of Technology is critical in the construction of a model to support and promote appropriate tacit knowledge sharing behavior. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between structural social capital and reasoned action theory and the individual’s intention to share tacit knowledge.  Structural social capital incorporates strong network ties and a high level of network resources.  Specifically, the study examined the relationship strong network ties and a high level of network resources and the individual’s attitude towards sharing tacit knowledge.  It further examined the relationship between the individual’s attitude towards tacit knowledge sharing, their perceived norms about tacit knowledge sharing and their intention to share tacit knowledge. The research design was a case study incorporating quantitative research (five hundred and ninety questionnaires).  A model of the individual’s intention to share tacit knowledge was developed and evaluated using structural equation modeling. The results indicated that structural social capital positively affects an individual’s attitude towards tacit knowledge sharing and that the individual’s attitude towards tacit knowledge sharing positively affects their intention to share tacit knowledge

Persona dolls and anti-bias curriculum practice with young children : a case study of early childhood development teachers

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 137-145).Anti-discrimination, one of the central principles of South Africa's Constitution and Bill of Rights, is central to the Early Childhood Development curriculum. The anti-bias, or anti-discrimination, approach challenges prejudice and oppression of all kinds and aims to develop self-esteem, respect for diversity, awareness of human rights, and a sense of fairness in all children. This study examines the use of the Persona Doll Approach as a component of anti-bias practice in order to learn more about the approach, and about how it is used to engage with the realities of bias in the ECD phase of education in the South African context of poverty, and past and present discrimination. The study was conducted under the auspices of Persona Doll Training, South Africa (2003 - ). Four hundred and twenty Early Childhood Development, foundation phase and preschool teachers from different socio economic, rural and urban contexts in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, participated in the study. All of the teachers received Persona Doll Approach training, which they then applied in their classrooms. The study adopted a qualitative approach that included teacher questionnaires, observations, interviews and trainer reports, to gain an understanding of how the teachers used the Approach and what anti-bias understandings were reflected in their practice. Vignettes based on observations were constructed to illustrate the application of the Approach. They provide a vivid picture of the classroom situation and atmosphere. Four Anti-bias Goals: Identity and self-esteem, empathy, unlearning negative attitudes, and problem-posing/ activist approach provided the conceptual framework for the study. The findings indicate that the PDA training and subsequent classroom implementation led, to a greater or lesser extent, to improved self-esteem, empathy and the ability to challenge and unlearn discrimination among both the teachers and the children. Thus, the Anti-bias Goals were achieved, at least in the short term. There were also other, unexpected, outcomes. These included proactive activist work by some teachers, positive behaviour changes in children, the emergence of children's voices, and greater appreciation of children's voices by teachers. The study also highlighted teacher's and children's prejudices, and lack of support for teachers as challenges. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for the development of the PDA, and related training and teacher support, and for further research. The study confirms the value of the PDA approach and provides the motivation for continuing, and expanding, Persona Doll Training - South Africa

Does Nature Limit Environmental Federalism?

This research considers whether the principles developed to analyze the optimal jurisdiction for producing public goods can be applied in cases where regulations of private activities provide the primary means to deliver different amounts of public and quasi-public goods. The analysis evaluates how devolution affects the development of benefit cost analyses for regulations and the role of economic versus environmental factors in defining the extent of the regulatory market. Using a study of nutrient control for the Neuse River in North Carolina, the analysis develops area specific measures of the benefits and costs of regulations and illustrates how changes in the composition of the areas allowed to "count" for policy design can affect decisions about the levels of control judged to meet the net benefit test.

Early childhood portfolios as a tool for enhancing learning during the transition to school

From 2005-2008 Mangere Bridge Kindergarten in New Zealand carried out a Centre of Innovation research project exploring the transition between early childhood education and school. A flexible action research approach was used, with the three teacher researchers, supported by two university research associates, developing and researching a range of strategies for supporting children’s learning as the children and their families ‘crossed the border’ from early childhood education to school. Many of these initiatives involved working closely with teachers in the local school setting. This paper focuses on one aspect of the findings, the ways in which the early childhood portfolios could be used to enhance children’s learning during the transition to school. Portfolios were identified as a belonging and empowerment tool; a means for school teachers to access to children’s funds of knowledge; playing a role in constructing a positive self-image about learning; and as valuable literacy artefacts