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Forum on Public Policy Online

Spring 2009 edition (Posted September 2009)

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• Pedagogy
• Slam Poetry and Cultural Experience for Children
  Kathryn E. Boudreau, Associate Professor, Middle Tennessee State University
• Differentiating Language Arts in Belize
  Pamela R. Cook, Doctoral student, University of Windsor
• Effects of Language Learning Interventions in Pre-School Children: a Longitudinal Study
  Gasteiger-Klicpera, B. , Knapp, W. , Kucharz, D. , Schabmann, A. & Schmidt. B.
• The Use of British Nursery Rhymes and Contemporary Technology as Venues for Creating and Expressing Hidden Literacies Throughout Time by Children, Adolescents, And Adults
  Lisa A. Hazlett, Professor of Secondary Education, The University Of South Dakota
• Pre-school children discerning numbers and letters
  Mona Holmqvist and Charlotte Tullgren
• A Different Set of Classrooms: Preparing a New Generation of Clinicians
  Catherine A. Jackson  and Janice D. Woolsey
• Criterion-Referenced Assessment for Language Organization:  An Example of Evidence-Based Practice
  Joan S. Klecan-Aker and Karen Colson
• Helping Children Cope through Literature
  Danielle F. Lowe, Elementary Education Department, State University of New York at New Palt
• Literacy Courses and the Prevention of Reading Difficulties
  Mary Knight-McKenna, Assistant Professor, Elon University
• Bildung as a Powerful Tool in Modern University Teaching
  Mogens Noergaard Olesen, Associate Professor, Department Of Economics, University Of Copenhagen
• Does Assessment Have to Drive the Curriculum?
  Helen Cole, Kathy Hulley and Peggy Quarles
• Developing Safe Schools Partnerships with Law Enforcement
  John Rosiak, Technical Assistance Specialist

Slam Poetry and Cultural Experience for Children
Kathryn E. Boudreau, Associate Professor, Middle Tennessee State University

Slam poetry, being not just recitation or memorization, affords children the opportunity express their own personal cultural experiences and values. Slam is a spoken word performance; a competition among poets. Audience commentary is ongoing during the performance and vigorous audience participation is essential in a slam format. The founders of slam, Marc Kelly Smith and Bob Holman, seek to reintegrate poetry into everyday life. The topics of slam poetry reflect the life experiences of the poets. The performance of the poem injects the poet’s emotional thrust of the words. The competition creates a dynamic relationship between poet and listener. These characteristics of the slam format make it a robust vehicle for teaching children to appreciate poetry and enhance their relationship to language. Due the personal nature of the poem presented in slam, the use of poetry slams is also effective in presenting and respecting cultural or ethnic values. The paper explores the history of slam, children’s reactions to slam, and the merit of slam competition in teaching literacy skills.

Differentiating Language Arts in Belize
Pamela R. Cook, Doctoral student, University of Windsor

Purpose: There is limited amount of research that constitutes non-traditional curricula implemented within an institutionalized context of developing countries. An attempt is made in this project to gain a clearer understanding of a non-traditional early learning program within an orphanage campus setting of Ladyville, Belize, Central America. This program is supported through the Belizean Ministry of Education and the University of Belize. In 1996, a comprehensive literacy survey was conducted in Belize that indicated the functional literacy rate to be approximately 40 percent (Cornerstone, 2007). In addition, it is estimated within developing countries one person in four is illiterate (Terryn, 2006). Liberty Learning Centre (LLC) of Ladyville, Belize implemented non-traditional theoretical curricula reflecting the social-constructivist theory to early learning. The methodologies include: Pikler, Montessori and components of the Reggio Emilia philosophy. The staff of LLC discovered creative, innovative and strategic ways to differentiate traditional academic learning through a diverse non-traditional learning environment.
Procedures: Responses from the administration, caregivers, teachers, staff and students were interpreted and documented through various means of audio/DVD/video recordings, photography, interviews and journals.  In addition I used detailed anecdotal field notes that became pieces to the methodology for the project.
Findings: Responses, thoughts, ideas and viewpoints were given by the administration, teachers, students and staff regarding the implementation of non-traditional curricula within an institutionalized and non-traditional learning environment of a developing country.
Implication: An institutionalized and international socio-cultural perspective will extend early childhood education further through a qualitative ethnographic study in Belize. This project gives voice to the silent and voiceless.

Effects of Language Learning Interventions in Pre-School Children: a Longitudinal Study
Gasteiger-Klicpera, B. , Knapp, W. , Kucharz, D. , Schabmann, A. & Schmidt. B.

Abstract
The aim of the present contribution is to evaluate and discuss the impacts of language learning interventions in pre-school children with German as a first or a second language.
The sample consisted of 864 children in intervention groups and 294 children as a comparison group within two successive cohorts. The instruments used were the SSV (Grimm 2003) and the CPM (Bulheller and Häcker, 2002). Language related and cognitive skills as well as social abilities were assessed at the beginning and end of the intervention period. The intervention took place in a separate room of the kindergarten. Specially qualified pre-school teachers worked intensively in small groups with children who presented language learning difficulties.
The main results of this research are the following: there was a developmental growth in all of the participant children; differences in achievement were found between the two groups of children in the examined developmental domains. Teaching experience, age of the children and extent of language intervention showed to be the most significant factors to positively impact the learning experience.
Implications of those results for language learning interventions of children are therefore considered. Particularly, we will discuss the question of whether not only children who qualify to take part in the interventions but also pre-school children in general would benefit from such a program.

The Use of British Nursery Rhymes and Contemporary Technology as Venues for Creating and Expressing Hidden Literacies Throughout Time by Children, Adolescents, And Adults
Lisa A. Hazlett, Professor of Secondary Education, The University Of South Dakota

Abstract
Power and status are captivating, especially the desire for social status and its commensurate authority and security.  Cliques, smaller clusters within larger peer groups sharing similar views, behaviors, and attitudes, are a means of attaining societal power.
                Because cliques are typically composed of the disenfranchised holding views different from official ones, asserting powerful, contentious statements while escaping retribution and retaining anonymity is difficult.  Hidden literacies, i.e., words or phrases with double meanings, are cliques’ simple yet subversive communicative format.
                Such literacies refute and/or contest official social expectations and afford opportunities to join the current social power structure, as contributions generally disseminate views to larger populations and cause unease among those in power, a central goal.
                Written by adults and chanted by and to children, British nursery rhymes of old were hidden literacies. Their verses were powerful, subversive opinions of political, social, or religious commentary regarding then-contemporary events. Likewise, contemporary hidden literacies are technological communications used by youth for clandestine conversing.  Although nursery rhymes and contemporary technology are parallel forms of hidden literacies, their authors, contents, audiences, and impacts are diametrically opposed with this paper exploring and discussing these comparisons, contrasts, and implications.
The desire for social status, and its commensurate authority and security, is indeed powerful.   Although extant social groupings are situational with desirability and importance dependent upon individuals and circumstances, people have belonged to, rebelled against, and attempted status advancements respective to the groups with which they retained membership throughout history. 

Pre-school children discerning numbers and letters
Mona Holmqvist and Charlotte Tullgren
Abstract
Research on learning has shown the importance of the learner’s possibilities to discern what differs as well as what is similar when meeting new phenomena. But how does this kind of understanding develop when young children try to understand their environment in natural settings? The results of Tolchinsky’s research (2003) about young children’s understanding of numbers and letters before being taught are considered in this study. Tolchinsky’s results showed that children can separate cards that can be read from those which can not be read. Even more, the results showed that children did not separate cards with numbers in the same way. In this study the point of departure is variation theory, and Tolchinsky’s results are seen through the perspective of what children do discern, what they discern simultaneously and what kind of variation they seem to need to discern. The aim of this study is to describe in what ways pre-school children seem to discern letters and numbers, what kind of similarities they discern among these phenomena and what kind of variations of the targeted phenomena they are aware of. Three children, aged 4, 5 and 6, have been interviewed when sorting cards with letters/words and numbers. The cards offered have been prepared to include some similarities and some differences, which enable the child to sort in many different ways. As Tolchinsky has found, the children rejected the card that only included letters that could not form a word; they could differentiate cards with numbers from those with letters/words, and no cards including numbers were rejected. In this study we also found how children used chain-complex when talking about the relations between the cards in terms of similarities and differences.  Symbols such as the decimal point and minus sign were not commented on at all by the children and had no influence on their sorting.

A Different Set of Classrooms: Preparing a New Generation of Clinicians
Catherine A. Jackson  and Janice D. Woolsey

Abstract

Educating the Millennial generation, a cohort of students accustomed to rapid transmission of ideas in the digital age, has necessitated changes in traditional educational and clinical training techniques.  Four innovations in curriculum and instruction are discussed which capitalize on the skills of this generational group.  These are: 1) introduction of online learning activities linking current literature to clinical observation and analysis; 2) use of peer mentoring in clinical education; 3) increasing use of problem-based learning activities, and 4) implementation of a educational tools which are delivered outside of a traditional classroom format (e.g. a new clinician “Boot Camp”).  The importance of tailoring learning activities to the skills and expectations of clinicians, faculty and community supervisors is reviewed as it relates to these changes in clinical preparation for speech-language pathologists.

Criterion-Referenced Assessment for Language Organization:  An Example of Evidence-Based Practice
Joan S. Klecan-Aker and Karen Colson

Abstract
Reliable criterion-referenced assessments are critical as one of the first steps in evidence-based practice.  These assessments must also be valid.  One of the most important skills to measure in school-age children with language disabilities is the ability to organize language in the form of narratives. 
                The purpose of this paper is to describe a criterion-referenced assessment as a baseline measure for improving language organization (narrative ability) in children with language disorders.  Descriptions of elicitation techniques, transcription methodologies, story grammar components, developmental levels, cohesive ties and referencing are included as examples of different ways to measure narrative ability. 

Helping Children Cope through Literature
Danielle F. Lowe, Elementary Education Department, State University of New York at New Paltz, and Elementary Educator, Enlarged City School District of Middletown, New York.

Abstract
As a primary educator, I have witnessed the impact literature can have on a child’s life. Unfortunately, in our society children are exposed to a much higher level of violence, instability, and death than in previous years. To assist children through these difficult times, it is best to provide them with an outlet of expression.  Bibliotherapy, or therapeutic reading, helps children relate to characters and therefore cope with their emotions.  Most readers are looking for a solution to their own personal life situation and feel more at ease when they learn that they are not the “only ones” dealing with this particular life crisis. Until recently, children’s books did not address sensitive topics such as death, divorce, and bullying.  In the past few decades and due to societal changes, there have been more books published dealing with these non-traditional issues.  Well written credited children’s literature is a wonderful avenue of expression, as well as an outlet where children can activate prior knowledge and relate to the feelings of characters in a book. When I began analyzing appropriate children’s books to assist children dealing with sensitive issues, I found some wonderful resources to share with other educators, parents, and caregivers, upon request.  Adults cannot take away the pain and anguish a child will feel when dealing with sensitive situations.  However, it is our responsibility to offer outlets to pave the road to healing and coping for the new generation. 

Literacy Courses and the Prevention of Reading Difficulties
Mary Knight-McKenna, Assistant Professor, Elon University

Abstract
Preventing reading difficulties in the early grades has been a topic of interest for more than a decade. Research has clearly delineated the components needed for early literacy programs to be effective in teaching nearly all children to learn to read. Teacher educators have a responsibility to ensure that candidates gain extensive knowledge about this research so that they learn how to prevent reading difficulties. This is a daunting challenge.

How can the prevention of reading problems be effective addressed in literacy education courses? What portion of the curriculum should be focused on the prevention of literacy problems? This article examines teacher education literacy development courses and the topic of preventing reading difficulties.

Bildung as a Powerful Tool in Modern University Teaching
Mogens Noergaard Olesen, Associate Professor, Department Of Economics, University Of Copenhagen

Abstract
In this paper we will demonstrate how powerful “Bildung” is as a tool in modern university teaching. The concept of “Bildung” was originally introduced by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (Kant 1787, 1798, 1804) and the Prussian lawyer and politician Wilhelm von Humboldt (Humboldt 1792, Bohlin 2008).  From 1810 “Bildung” was a key concept in German university teaching where the main purposes were to give the students: 1. advanced teaching based on research, 2. ability to carry out scientific research on their own, and 3. a large amount of scientific and philosophical knowledge within all academic disciplines such that they could act with dignity as members of the learned and academic society. (Flexner 1930, Huxley 1876, Jaspers 1923, 1946).

“Bildung” was one of the most important reasons for German science to become leading in Europe in the 19th century (Petersen 1993), and in many other countries “Bildung” was introduced at the universities from around 1850. (Oersted 1850). In Denmark this happened in 1848 where the great philologist Nicolai Madvig accomplished an extensive reform of the teaching at the University of Copenhagen. The faculties were reorganized and new disciplines such as economics were introduced. Especially he established the new discipline “Philosophicum”, a one year course in the most important philosophical items that was compulsory for all university students.  (Petersen 1993, Slagstad 2003).

In Denmark “Bildung” is called “Dannelse”, in Sweden they say “Bildning” but in English there is no word for it. Although we (with full right) might use the nouns “Education” or “Enlightenment” for “Bildung” none of these words are fully covering the concept, so we choose to say “Bildung” also in an English text.

University teaching where “Bildung” is a main ingredient requires many resources and long term studies such that the students have enough of time for intellectual reflection and contemplation. In the modern mass universities where it is a main purpose producing many candidates as quickly as possible the courses are often cut short and there is no time for deeper contemplation. In many cases there have even been set up an upper limit for the number courses the students are allowed to pass and it is obvious that “Bildung” more or less has disappeared as a tool in modern university teaching.

But university teaching without “Bildung” is a poor mass production with no perspective and without the core elements that make the students become academics. At the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, the teaching of mathematics has been changed since spring 2008 such that “Bildung” is brought into the lectures as a main ingredient with remarkable results. (Olesen (17) 2008). How this works and how “Bildung” has become a powerful tool in the teaching of mathematics is the theme of this paper.   

Does Assessment Have to Drive the Curriculum?
Helen Cole, Kathy Hulley and Peggy Quarles

Abstract
This paper presents the differing sides to the discussion of how much assessment is too much.   A teacher survey was administered to practicing teachers in the Lincoln Memorial University graduate program to determine how assessment affects classroom instruction and student learning.   The research reflects more often than not that assessment does leave student learning behind.   According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, recalling facts is at the lower end of critical thinking skills.  Test questions with only one correct answer rely on rote memorization.  We can conclude, therefore, that the current emphasis on assessment, testing what the student can or cannot recall, may be doing a disservice to students.  Prince Charles referred to assessment as a “straitjacket” and encouraged teachers to do what they do best: teach  British teachers, like their American counterparts, are chafing under the mandates prescribed by ECM (Every Child Matters) and NCLB (No Child Left Behind).  There is an alternative way to test student learning.  Is authentic assessment an answer?

Developing Safe Schools Partnerships with Law Enforcement
John Rosiak, Technical Assistance Specialist, ICF Macro, National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, Education Development Center, Inc., Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative, USA

Abstract
Safe schools are the concern of communities throughout the world. If a school is safe, and if children feel safe, students are better able to learn. But what are the steps to make this happen? First, it is important to understand the problem: What are the threats to school safety? These include crime-related behaviors that find their way to school each day, such as alcohol and other drug use, aggressive and violent behavior, self-destructive behavior, and the impact of child abuse. But communities also need to understand the challenges that exist when it comes to law enforcement—a key partner—working in collaboration with schools to help ensure safety. Because law enforcement and school personnel differ in so many ways, they face challenges in the areas of communications, perception, roles, responsibilities, and data sharing.

After defining the challenges, communities can build on the consensus that already exists—that safe schools are everyone’s business. Evidence-based strategies implemented with fidelity can increase the likelihood of success. Communities can employ a variety of strategies to overcome the challenges law enforcement faces in working effectively in schools by identifying leadership that fosters mutual trust, choosing and training law enforcement officers best suited for proactive work, and finding effective ways for law enforcement and school personnel to work in partnership carrying out complementary roles and responsibilities.