The treatment of Chinese and Japanese characters in American settings in selected works of fiction for children

Typescript.Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1982.Bibliography: leaves [230]-238.Photocopy.x, 238 leaves, bound 29 c

Working smarter: being strategic about assessment and accountability

The worth of any school program is based on its contribution to student achievement. How do teacher-librarians contribute to this overall goal? What evidence do we have of the learning that results from our teaching? How do we use the results to inform our school communities and influence improvements? This article provides discussion points related to these issues and scenarios to provoke reflection and action

Establishing communities of practice: a practice-based model of continuing education for school librarians and teachers

Introduction. Improving the quality of instruction among librarians in elementary and secondary schools in the United States requires a broad program of strategic recruitment and changes in school context. Within this broader program, professional development or continuing education plays a critical role. This paper focuses on reflective teaching practices fostered by a program of professional development for school librarians and teachers emphasizing learning in communities of practice. In this descriptive and analytical case study, the author introduces the concepts of reflection and communities of practice and how they influence a practice-based approach to continuing education. She also describes how a training team implemented these concepts in a course involving inquiry-based partnerships between teachers and librarians in Hawaii, USA. In this article, the author uses the following terms synonymously: continuing education, professional development, in-service training, and staff development. Method. The key research questions addressed were: What features of a practice-based approach to continuing education result in increased teacher and librarian knowledge about instructional design and changes to teaching practice? How does such training impact long-term practice in the schools? The data sources were: artifacts from the development team including agendas and planning notes; artifacts from the participants including instructional plans and reflection logs; semi-structured interviews with selected participants; and records of debriefing sessions involving the development team. Results. Data revealed that a practice-based approach in continuing education including use of peer critiquing mechanisms, ongoing mentoring follow-up to formal instruction, and reflective logs was critical in effecting change in teaching practices. Conclusion. Based on the findings, the study concludes with guidelines for designing professional development

Building evidence folders for learning through libraries

The controversy over the 65% Solution underscores the public’s perception that school libraries do not provide vital instructional programs. This legislation, which has been enacted in states such as Texas, Kansas and Louisiana, pumps 65 percent of a state’s educational budget into direct classroom resources (Toppo 2006). Unfortunately, school library media specialists are classified as non-instructional, support personnel according to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). This has led the American Association of School Librarians to produce a position statement on the instructional classification of school library media specialists (http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/positionstatements/instclass.htm) in hopes of including certified library media specialists as part of the NCES “instruction” classification. Even without the 65% Solution, however, library media programs are frequently on the chopping block when school budgets shrink. A principal in that predicament recently told me, “I would love to keep my librarian but I have to consider my priorities. I need to retain the positions and programs that show my students are actually learning.” Indeed! When building level administrators and school advisory councils meet to wrangle over budgets, they seek to support programs that demonstrate positive student growth in areas of high need. The big question is: As a library media specialist, are you able to produce this type of evidence? While many library media specialists spend a major portion of their week engaged in instructional activities, the impact of their teaching is often invisible (Harada and Yoshina 2006). The following are critical questions that library media specialists must wrestle with: How does your library media center support student learning? What compelling evidence do you have that students have achieved the learning targets? For library media specialists, who have been comfortable with traditional forms of reporting, responses to the above questions require a dramatic paradigm shift from an object-oriented approach to a student-oriented approach to assessment and evaluation. The object-oriented approach centers on evaluation reports that include statistical counting of “things” such as new acquisitions, circulation figures, and numbers of instructional sessions and planning meetings. The student-oriented approach focuses on assessment of student performance. It involves not only what students learn but also the degree to which student learning is demonstrated (Harada and Yoshina 2005).</p

Personalizing the information search process: a case study of journal writing with elementary-age students

Current teaching and learning paradigms emphasize a constructivist approach to building knowledge. At the core of this approach lies a fundamental question: How do we help children move from merely going through the motions of learning to actually making personal meaning of their world? In the case study reported here, a team comprised of school-level and university faculty focused on journal writing as a means of deepening students’ cognitive and affective awareness of the information-search process. The subjects were students in an upper elementary grade classroom in Honolulu, Hawaii. The study also explored the impact of journal writing on the school library media specialist’s reflective practices. This article describes the context for this field-based research, the questions investigated, methods employed, and findings gleaned from two cycles of research assignments. A 1999 AASL/Highsmith Research Award supported the study

Librarians and teachers as research partners: reshaping practices based on assessment and reflection

The key to building instructional leadership is empowering partners to examine their teaching practices through the lens of actual student behaviors. Practitioners effectively gain this knowledge when they collaborate with colleagues in implementing strategies, reflecting on the results, and sharing them with the professional community (York-Barr & Duke, 2004). This learning is situated in practice and must be learned in practice. In short, schools are places where educators as well as students learn (Hiebert, Gallimore & Stigler, 2002; Ball & Cohen, 1999). Frequent critical reflection is a formal and central part of inquiry. The idea of reflective practice, which was originally popularized by Donald Schon (1983), emphasizes that the tacit knowledge implicit in professional actions must be described through a process of observation and reflection. Mezirow (2000) states that such learning is transformative; that is, meaning is made by negotiating interpretations, using contextual understanding, critically reflecting on assumptions, and validating meaning by assessing rationales. Proponents of the notion of reflection-in-action maintain that this results in elaborating frames of reference, learning new frames, altering points of view, and transforming habits of mind (Mitchell, 2003; McNiff, 2002; McKernan, 1996; Schon, 1983). The process of reflection is not necessarily a private activity. Research on restructuring schools indicates that teachers in effective schools do not operate in isolation (Newmann & Wehlage 1995). Student achievement is related to teachers being collaboratively responsible for student learning. McGregor (2004) stipulates that library media specialists must situate themselves “solidly in the middle of this collaboration” (202). As key members of school communities, they have a crucial stake in contributing to the quality of teaching that shapes student learning. Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning (AASL & AECT, 1998) places student learning unequivocally at the core of services provided by the library media center. As instructional colleagues, library media specialists are strategically positioned to assume a leadership role in curriculum reform (Lance, 2003; Doiron & Davies, 1998; Todd, 1997; Woolls, 1997; Stripling, 1995). They help to resolve instructional problems and model reflective practice. Information Power states that “leadership is demonstrated when information literacy is integrated across all subjects and grades, when connections are made between information-based learning and the skills students will need in the workplace and home” (AASL & AECT, 1998, 52).</p

Empowered learning: fostering thinking across the curriculum

Most people will finish their formal education between the ages of 18 and 22. Today’s young adults are expected to have the longest average life span in the history of the world, with most living into their 70s and many living into their 80s and 90s. We can only guess what life will be like in the years 2050 or beyond. One likely prediction is that many of today’s young adults will be working at jobs that currently don’t exist and dealing with technologies that dwarf the imagination of present-day science fiction writers. What do they need to learn during their first two decades of life that will prepare them for their remaining years? (Halpern, 1997, 3