Peer Mentoring: A Way Forward for Supporting Preservice Efl Teachers Psychosocially During the Practicum

During the past several years, the importance of practicum as a vital proportion of the preservice teacher education program has been increasingly emphasized. There have been a number of initiatives for supporting preservice teachers. Among these, peer based relationship is increasingly emerged as an innovative strategy to provide additional support to preservice teachers. This paper reports on part of a larger study which investigated the impact of peer mentoring in the context of Vietnam. Using mixed methods research design, the study investigated the impact of a peer mentoring model on the preservice teachers’ perceptions of their psychosocial support from their peers during their practicum in Vietnam. A peer mentoring model was implemented with a group of preservice teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Data were collected from questionnaires and focus group interview with both a group of formally peer mentored preservice teachers and a group of formally non-peer mentored. The results revealed the preservice EFL teachers in the experimental group perceived more psychosocial support from their peer than those in the control group. The study affirms the empirical evidence for implementing a peer mentoring model for preservice EFL teachers during the practicum and echoes the need for a reform in the practicum

Parenting and Child Self-Regulation as Mechanisms for the Relationship of Household Food Insecurity with Child Dietary Behavior

Background: Food insecurity is both a nutritional problem and a stressful life experience of adults and children in households dealing with food shortage. Potential mechanisms of the associations between food insecurity and adverse outcomes in children’s health and development are through parenting and child self-regulation. Objectives: We investigated parenting and child self-regulation as potential mechanisms for the relationship of food insecurity with child dietary behaviors with two specific aims. Specific aim 1 was to understand how food insecurity and its change over time relate to parenting in early childhood. Specific aim 2 was to understand the relationship of parenting in food-related and non-food-related settings with dietary intake of young children and the role of child self-regulation in this relationship. Methods: Data were from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort. Parent-child dyads with non-missing outcomes were included into the analysis. Analyses were done separately for boys and girls. Regression models with full information maximum likelihood were used accounting for clusters in Stata. For specific aim 1, the parenting outcomes were parent-child interaction, difficulty sticking with rules, harsh disciplinary practices, rules about watching television, rules about food, routines of eating evening meals as a family and at a regular time in years 2, 4, and 5. Each parenting outcome was first regressed on the earlier food insecurity and covariates, then additionally regressed on the concurrent food insecurity. For Specific aim 2, the child’s dietary outcomes were weekly frequency of intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, sweet foods and desserts, salty snack foods, fruits, and vegetables in year 5. Each child dietary outcome was regressed on food parenting variables at age 4 (i.e., rules about foods, and meal routines of eating as a family and at a regular time) and covariates. General parenting variables at age 4 (i.e., parent-child interaction, difficulty sticking with rules, harsh discipline, rules about watching television, and rules about bedtime), child difficulty in self-regulation at age 4, and their interactions were then added sequentially. Results: For specific aim 1, earlier food insecurity was associated with using harsh disciplinary practices in year 5, having rules about food in year 4, and having evening meals at a regular time in years 2 and 4 among parents of girls. Among parents of boys, earlier food insecurity was associated with having evening meals at a regular time in years 2 and 4. Concurrent food insecurity was associated with parenting in years 2 and 4 for boys and girls but not in year 5. The magnitude of the associations over time of earlier and concurrent food insecurity with harsh disciplinary practices, rules about food, and meal routines were generally greater for girls than boys. For specific aim 2, better food parenting practices at age 4 were associated with less frequent intake of unhealthy and more frequent intake of healthy foods and beverages in both boys and girls at age 5, with some differences by gender. General parenting practices at age 4 were associated with dietary behaviors differently for boys and girls. Difficulty in self-regulation at age 4 significantly modified the association between parenting practices and child’s dietary behaviors for boys (evening meals at a regular time and intake of sweet foods and desserts) and girls (parent-child interaction and intake of sugar-sweetened beverages; difficulty sticking with rules and intake of sweet foods and desserts; rules about foods and intake of fruits and vegetables; and harsh discipline and intake of fruits). Conclusions: In early childhood, earlier and concurrent food insecurity were linked with suboptimal parenting in structuring a general and food-related living environment for young children, particularly for girls and by the age of 5, through increased use of harsh discipline, lack of rules about foods, and irregular meal routines. Better food parenting and general parenting practices at age 4 were associated with children’s healthy dietary behaviors at age 5, and the child’s difficulty in self-regulation plays an important role in modifying this association, particularly in girls. Further investigations on the potential mechanisms for the relationship of earlier and concurrent food insecurity with parenting in early childhood and how these mechanisms change as the children reach age 5 are needed. Given that both parents and children could be active agents in the development of children’s dietary behaviors, further investigations will help to identify interventions and programs targeting both parents and children to promote positive parenting in food and non-food settings and support children with difficulty in self-regulation

Mentoring EFL pre-service teachers in EFL writing

Effective mentoring of preservice EFL teachers may advance EFL teaching practices. Five factors for mentoring have been identified, namely, Personal Attributes, System Requirements, Pedagogical Knowledge, Modelling, and Feedback. An empirically-based survey instrument focused on 106 Vietnamese preservice teachers’ perceptions of their mentoring for EFL teaching across these five factors. Apart from acceptable Cronbach alpha scores for four of the five factors, (System Requirements was .08 below the accepted .70 level), analysis revealed that more than 50% of these preservice teachers perceived they had not received mentoring for developing their teaching of English writing on 29 of the 34 survey items. The mentoring instrument can be used to gauge mentoring practices and attributes for identifying mentors’ professional development needs towards enhancing such practices

Creating and Sustaining Professional Learning Partnerships: Activity Theory as an Analytic Tool.

Significant attention has been paid to the forms and practices of effective school-university partnerships in recent times as they are commonly seen as a key element to improve the quality of teacher education programs and thus graduate teachers. However, analysis of the effectiveness of such partnerships has not been so evident. This article critically reviews the notion of partnership and its practice in Australia, then presents a conceptual lens via activity theory through which to analyse opportunities and challenges, particularly with respect to school-university partnerships, within the current climate. A Professional Learning Partners Program in a specific context in Australia is also described to present one initiative that aims to develop an effective partnership between school and university

Teachers’ perceptions about their work with EAL/D students in a standards-based educational context.

Education in Australia is changing in ways that reflect increasing cultural and linguistic diversity of students and also teachers. Responding to increased cultural and linguistic diversity, Australian educators have recognised the importance of providing a diverse range of opportunities for social learning, multicultural engagement and support for students learning English as an additional language or dialect (EAL/D). However only a few studies examine the experience and work EAL/D teachers (Cruickshank et al., 2003; Hammond, 2014) especially in reference to the standards framework provided by the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST). In this case study teachers’ perceptions about their roles, as teachers of EAL/D students, are explored. The lens of activity theory and expansive learning is used to examine the tensions and conflicts they reveal especially in respect to the APST which are currently used to describe teachers’ work. Data was collected through both focus group and individual interviews across four sites. All the participants were teachers of EAL/D students working in public schools in NSW. It is hoped that this study will raise awareness of the professional learning needs of teachers who work with EAL/D students

Globalization, English language policy, and teacher agency: focus on Asia

This paper focuses on English teachers in Asia in the context of globalization, the global spread of English and the emergence of English as an "Asian language". It highlights the dilemmas facing these teachers in meeting the growing social demands of English proficiency in a technology-influenced, managerial and neoliberal education environment with limited expertise, skills and policy support. We locate the paper in language policy and planning ( LPP) within which the concept of micro-level agency provides a critical lens. We draw on insights from several Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Vietnam. We argue that while English teachers are found to exercise their agency to meet changing demands of English proficiency, this agency can be seen as the result of what we call "policy dumping" at the macro-level-i.e. education policymakers not paying due attention to the requirements of policy implementation but dumping down policies to educational institutions and English teachers for their implementation. We conclude the paper by suggesting implications for English language policies in Asian countries that respond to globalization and the dominant discourses of English in a globalized world

Voluntary Social Insurance Policy Through the Evaluation of Workers in Tay Ho District, Hanoi City, Vietnam

Vietnam’s voluntary social insurance (VSI) policy has been in force since 2008 and by 2018 included 270,000 participants (accounting for 0.79% of the labor force). Hanoi City is the capital of Vietnam, with 21,156 participants (0.56%). The proportion of people participating in VSI is still very low. Workers who have at least 20 years of participation will receive a monthly pension and their beneficiaries will receive a death benefit in case of their demise. The opinions of workers about VSI policies are presented in the report through interviews with 170 voluntary social insurance participants and 168 non-participants in Tay Ho District, Hanoi City. The research results in new findings using comparison between participants and non-participants. In addition, in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 people, including social insurance officials in Tay Ho District, ward officials, and workers, to clarify why the number of VSI participants is low. Based on the research and evaluation of workers concerning VSI policies and regulations, we identify the main causes of this situation, as well as the policyand communication-related shortcomings, and suggest solutions for improving the social insurance participation rate of individuals in Hanoi City in particular, and Vietnam in general

Globalization, English language policy, and teacher agency: Focus on Asia

This paper focuses on English teachers in Asia in the context of globalization, the global spread of English and the emergence of English as an “Asian language”. It highlights the dilemmas facing these teachers in meeting the growing social demands of English proficiency in a technology-influenced, managerial and neoliberal education environment with limited expertise, skills and policy support. We locate the paper in language policy and planning (LPP) within which the concept of micro-level agency provides a critical lens. We draw on insights from several Asian countries including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan and Vietnam. We argue that while English teachers are found to exercise their agency to meet changing demands of English proficiency, this agency can be seen as the result of what we call “policy dumping” at the macro-level—i.e. education policymakers not paying due attention to the requirements of policy implementation but dumping down policies to educational institutions and English teachers for their implementation. We conclude the paper by suggesting implications for English language policies in Asian countries that respond to globalization and the dominant discourses of English in a globalized world.

How do we retain teachers? Supporting them to work together could help

I wrote an article for The Conversation about my PhD research

A new species of the paper wasp genus Ropalidia Guérin-Méneville, plebeja group (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Polistinae), from Vietnam

A new species, Ropalidia daklak Bui, Mai & Nguyen, sp. nov., belonging to the plebeja-group of the genus Ropalidia Guérin-Méneville, 1831 is described and figured based on females and males from Vietnam. The nest structure of the new species is described, and an updated key is provided to all known species of the group