Japanese and Korean Kindergartners’ Perspectives of Play Using Photos

The purpose of the study was to examine Japanese and Korean kindergarteners' perspectives by asking them to photograph play and explain why their photos represent play (photo elicitation interviews). The participants consisted of 50 kindergarteners on Japan’s main island and 50 kindergarteners in South Korea. Japanese and Korean kindergartners were provided with digital cameras and were asked to photograph their views of play without adult accompaniment. Afterwards, the children were asked to describe why their photos represented play. “Can you tell me why this means play to you?” The data were analyzed using content and thematic analyses and the photos were reviewed along with children’s responses. The thematic analysis of results revealed that Japanese and Korean kindergartners’ perceptions were related to interactions with other children, pretend play, schoolyards, and toys or props. The findings of this study indicated the ways in which Japanese and Korean children’s play perceptions were related to cultural and social contexts. Implications for early childhood education were also discussed

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Navigating a bilingual/biliterate childhood: a longitudinal study of three second-generation young learners in the U.S.

This qualitative ethnographic inquiry examines the longitudinal journey of three Asian-American young learners in becoming bilingual/biliterate. With a view of language and literacy acquisition and development as naturally interactive and culturally embedded processes of socialization, I longitudinally investigated three siblings??? bilingual and biliteracy acquisition and development in their natural daily setting for six years. I also explored the focal children???s situated and reformulated linguistic and cultural identities as second-generation Korean-Americans in the United States. This case study of three children growing up in one immigrant family attempts to capture the multi-layered and interwoven socio-cultural and educational experiences of early bilingual and biliteracy development. Three research questions were examined: 1. What were the language and literacy practices of these three second-generation children in the United States? What kinds of language and literacy events occurred in this family? What factors influenced the literacy practices of these young children in their daily lives? 2. What were the goals and beliefs of the focal participants, parents, educators, and community members about early bilingual/ biliteracy development? What processes did they implement to achieve their goals in daily practice? What were their difficulties and obstacles in achieving these goals? 3. How did the participants construct and negotiate their identities when learning the primary language of the society they lived in while maintaining their heritage language? Vygotsky???s (1978, 1986) social-constructivist theory explaining early learning and development as a socially collaborative procedure, and Wenger???s (1998) theory of communities of practice were used as the basis on which to investigate bilingual and biliteracy practices within and across diverse communities, including the home, school, church, playground, heritage language school, and neighborhood. These socio-cultural theoretical frameworks fit the nature of my inquiry because of their focus on socio-cultural influences and reflective discourses in early bilingual and biliteracy development as well as identity formation of early bilingual/biliterate learners within and across different social settings. Based on these theoretical frameworks, extensive qualitative data from multiple sources was collected in the following forms: in-depth interviews, participant observation, document review, and informal/narrative assessment that measured focal students??? bilingual and biliteracy development in two different socio-cultural contexts. In order to analyze various situational discourses; social and educational activities; and written artifacts and documents, I coded both oral and written data and looked for emerging themes. In each chapter, major characteristics and issues are explored, such as similarities and differences among all participants within one family context and across each individual characteristic in the course of acquiring and developing another language and literacy as second-generation immigrant children. The findings were generated from comparative, cross-case, and holistic analysis of multiple sources of descriptive and qualitative data (Yin, 1989). This study makes the daily practices of young second-generation bilingual/biliterate/ bicultural young learners visible as I look into their socio-cultural influences over the course of six years. Forming bicultural and bilingual/bliterate identites via daily heritage linguistic and cultural experiences, as well as maintaining linguistic and socio-cultural motivations, are vital. High-quality dual immersion programs including heritage language/cultural schools should be available to every young diverse learner. Continuous longitudinal research on those programs along with family literacy research for specific language and ethnic groups should be systemized for early multi-lingual/literate and multi-cultural education in the United States

Japanese and Korean Kindergartners’ Perspectives of Play Using Photos

The purpose of the study was to examine Japanese and Korean kindergarteners' perspectives by asking them to photograph play and explain why their photos represent play (photo elicitation interviews). The participants consisted of 50 kindergarteners on Japan’s main island and 50 kindergarteners in South Korea. Japanese and Korean kindergartners were provided with digital cameras and were asked to photograph their views of play without adult accompaniment. Afterwards, the children were asked to describe why their photos represented play. “Can you tell me why this means play to you?” The data were analyzed using content and thematic analyses and the photos were reviewed along with children’s responses. The thematic analysis of results revealed that Japanese and Korean kindergartners’ perceptions were related to interactions with other children, pretend play, schoolyards, and toys or props. The findings of this study indicated the ways in which Japanese and Korean children’s play perceptions were related to cultural and social contexts. Implications for early childhood education were also discussed

Serum Cholesterol Levels and Risk of Cardiovascular Death: A Systematic Review and a Dose-Response Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies

Introduction: Numerous studies have demonstrated that abnormal levels of cholesterol are associated with a high attributable risk for the occurrence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, there has been no comprehensive study to investigate the relationship between serum cholesterol levels and cardiovascular mortality. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Methods: A systematic literature search of key databases, including EMBASE and MEDLINE, was conducted and included all the published epidemiological studies that contained estimates of the hazard ratios (HR) of serum cholesterol of CVD mortality. Data extraction, eligibility, and assessment of the risk of bias were assessed by two reviewers independently. All published risk estimates were hazard ratios and analyzed by quantitative meta-analysis using a random-effects model and dose-response relationships of serum cholesterol with CVD mortality. Results: A total of 14 independent reports, including 1,055,309 subjects and 9457 events, were analyzed. The pooled HR (95% CI) was 1.27 (95% CI, 1.19–1.36) for total cholesterol, 1.21 (95% CI, 1.09–1.35) for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and 0.60 (95% CI, 0.50–0.72) for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). We observed a linear association between serum cholesterol (TC, HDL-C) levels and CVD mortality in this meta-analysis. Conclusions: Serum total cholesterol and LDL-C level is associated with increased CVD mortality, but HDL-C level is inversely associated with CVD mortality

Requirement for Bbp1p in the Proper Mitotic Functions of Cdc5p in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The polo-box domain of the budding yeast polo kinase Cdc5p plays an essential role for targeting the catalytic activity of Cdc5p to spindle pole bodies (SPBs) and cytokinetic neck-filaments. Here, we report the isolation of Bbp1p as a polo-box interacting protein by a yeast two-hybrid screen. Bbp1p localizes to the periphery of the central plaque of the SPB and plays an important role in SPB duplication. Similarly, Cdc5p localized to the cytoplasmic periphery of the SPB. In vitro binding studies showed that Cdc5p interacted with the N-terminal domain of Bbp1p (Bbp1pΔC), but apparently not with Mps2p, a component shown to form a stable complex with Bbp1p. In addition, Bbp1p, but likely not Mps2p, was required for proper localization of Cdc5p to the SPB. The C-terminal coiled-coil domain of Bbp1p (Bbp1p(243–385)), which is crucial for both the homodimerization and the SPB localization, could target the localization-defective Cdc5pΔC to the SPB and induce the release of Cdc14p from the nucleolus. Consistent with this observation, expression of CDC5ΔC-BBP1(243–385) under CDC5 promoter control partially complemented the cdc5Δ defect. These data suggest that Bbp1pΔC interacts with the polo-box domain of Cdc5p, and this interaction is critical for the subcellular localization and mitotic functions of Cdc5p