Integrating children’s literacy and science learning has become a new focus in literacy instruction. Imagination, an integral part of children’s learning experience, remains marginalized in today’s early childhood education curriculum. Drawing on a yearlong ethnographic study in a first-grade classroom, this paper explores the potential affordance of imagination in integrating young children’s literacy and science learning. The findings showed that the integration opportunities were organically constructed in and through children’s natural engagement of imagination in their reading process. A dialogic approach is presented as one way to ignite children’s imaginations in their literacy and science learning.

The ways in which teachers and students speak to each other in middle and secondary English language arts classrooms is integral to the type of learning that occurs there. Ways of engaging in “classroom talk” can be characterized as teacher-centered or student-centered. Teacher-centered classroom talk typically unfolds as a sequence of three steps – a teacher asks a question with a predetermined answer, a student responds, and the teacher evaluates the response. In contrast, student-centered classroom talk is engaging, collaborative, and reciprocal – in these scenarios, teachers and students both ask questions that have multiple answers, students talk to other students, and the discussions grow organically. Working with students in the student-centered way is called dialogic teaching, and while we know dialogic teaching is beneficial to student learning, we also know engaging in this type of teaching is fraught with difficulties. This study sought to explore these difficulties by examining the lived experience of dialogic teaching through the perspectives of six middle and secondary English language arts teachers. The study offers portraits of each teacher’s respective experiences as well as themes that cut across all the teachers’ experiences. Insights are offered about dialogic teaching in terms of lesson planning and attitudes toward students; these insights are termed dialogic by design and dialogic by disposition, respectively.

In this investigation, the researcher explored the construction of conceptual knowledge within the discipline of science through a review of related theory and research.<p>Following a review of literature that emphasizes the theory of social constructivism as well as critical pedagogy as significant to learning; and utilizing a working definition of the six strands of language as established by Saskatchewan Education; the researcher observed and interviewed three Grade Five students and their teacher throughout their involvement in a science unit. <p>In-class observations of the strands of language as well as the information from the interview transcripts were triangulated with the literature to provide validity for the theory and support the researchers implications for an inquiry model of teaching and learning.<p>Findings suggest an absence of explicit language being modeled and expected within the course of study as well as the absence of a framework of science concepts. Disconnections and fragmentations throughout various levels of pedagogy within curriculum, resources, strategies and activities were revealed. The unintentional illusion of a rich learning experience was created through collaborative, hands-on activities, demonstrations and modeling by the teacher, fluency and accuracy in reading as well as the correct completion of activities. In reality these acts merely masked the absence of deeper transformational experiences which are required for students to build the conceptual knowledge and linguistic competence needed for academic success.

Dialogical communication is considered to be the most ethical way of practicing public relations. Especially social medias’ potential for engaging in dialogue is mostly not exploited to its full potential. This study aims to shed light on new technology-based firms’ use of dialogical communication on Twitter. The focus hereby is on the formal side of dialogue and not on its content. Moreover possible explanations for the presence or absence of dialogue are taken into consideration. To be able to classify the results they are discussed in the context of the Fortune 500 companies’ use of Twitter. In order to do so a content analysis of both the Twitter profiles and tweets of 89 new technology-based firms was undertaken. The results showed that the Fortune 500 companies were communicating more dialogically than the new technology-based firms did. Bigger companies engaged in dialogue more often. The performance was furthermore improved by listening rather than posting. An implication is that a profound knowledge of communication is necessary in order to use the social medium successfully. A pure knowledge of technology was not found to be beneficial for this public relations practice.

In this investigation, the researcher explored the construction of conceptual knowledge within the discipline of science through a review of related theory and research.<p>Following a review of literature that emphasizes the theory of social constructivism as well as critical pedagogy as significant to learning; and utilizing a working definition of the six strands of language as established by Saskatchewan Education; the researcher observed and interviewed three Grade Five students and their teacher throughout their involvement in a science unit. <p>In-class observations of the strands of language as well as the information from the interview transcripts were triangulated with the literature to provide validity for the theory and support the researchers implications for an inquiry model of teaching and learning.<p>Findings suggest an absence of explicit language being modeled and expected within the course of study as well as the absence of a framework of science concepts. Disconnections and fragmentations throughout various levels of pedagogy within curriculum, resources, strategies and activities were revealed. The unintentional illusion of a rich learning experience was created through collaborative, hands-on activities, demonstrations and modeling by the teacher, fluency and accuracy in reading as well as the correct completion of activities. In reality these acts merely masked the absence of deeper transformational experiences which are required for students to build the conceptual knowledge and linguistic competence needed for academic success.

There has been considerable research into the teaching and learning of argumentation (e.g. Andrews, 2009; Sadler, 2004), focusing on strategies designed to help students to structure their written arguments. My study, however, focuses on the process of argumentation because I want to help sixth form students, aged 16-19 years old, improve the written argument in their A level History essays. The methodological approach followed was an adapted form of Design-based research, which incorporated an exploratory study, teacher trials and three case studies as part of the iterative design process. A classroom intervention was devised underpinned by design principles based in persuasive argumentation (Kuhn, 2005) and dialogic talk (Wegerif, 2012), derived from an extensive literature review, and the findings of the exploratory study. The exploratory study involved interviews with History education academics and examiners as well as classroom observations and semi-structured interviews conducted in collaboration with the teachers and students of four secondary History departments. Observations were taken of the teacher trials of the prototype intervention, whereas the data gathered from the case studies included pre and post intervention essays, audio and video recordings of the developed intervention in action, post intervention student interviews and questionnaires as well. In Case study 1 and 2, AS and A2 students’ post-intervention causation essays, when measured for argumentation, showed improvement but those whose written arguments improved the most were those students who had engaged in interactions rich in dialogic talk (Wegerif, 2012). The findings from Case study 3, which involved the integration of documentary evidence into AS History essays, were unexpected. Students found the integration of source-based evidence difficult not only during the course of the spoken argumentation but also in their written responses. Further development of the intervention is necessary to help students handle source material effectively in both the spoken and written forms of argument.

The growing marketisation of education has resulted in curriculum being conceptualised as a predesigned means to an end. Many South African scholars such as Jansen, (1999, 2009, 2011) and Du Preez (2009, 2011, 2012) have critiqued the instrumental nature of the post-apartheid curriculum and pleaded for an ethical perspective on curriculum conceptualisation that would encourage the construction of dialogic spaces in curriculum. This study questions technical and critical approaches to curriculum conceptualisation and advocates a reflexive conceptualisation of curriculum, intra-dialogue, identity construction, consciousness, becoming and human rights values within an ethical perspective to curriculum conceptualisation in the post-structural paradigm. The central theme of this reflexive reconceptualisation is the hope of continual revolutionary new beginnings by which identity construction (who we are) and the realisation of human rights values in the ethical relation self:other can be re-imagined. This hope has also been central to the (re)structuring of the post-apartheid curriculum premised on the values of The South African Constitution and Bill of Rights (1996). Curriculum, structured within a predesigned market-related and instrumental approach to curriculum, can however not aid identity construction, re-imagine a new society or realise human rights values. A new society is re-imagined between teacher:child, disrupting how and what they know of self:other and re-imagining new ways of knowing and being with self:other rooted in human rights values. The conditions for intra-dialogue, namely the ethical relation self:other and spaces of togetherness, are also interrelated elements in intra-dialogic curriculum spaces. The ethical relation teacher:child roots intra-dialogic curriculum spaces in human rights values and the consciousness of responsibility for self:other. Spaces of togetherness situate teacher:child in specific and non-linear space and time in which they narrate their different life experiences from which identity is constructed. Intra-dialogue is the disruptive, revolutionary and intentional action between self:other as simultaneously singular in equal difference and together in a shared humanity. Human rights values are dialogic, relational and revolutionary in nature. Human rights values are realised when teacher:child within intra-dialogic curriculum spaces premised on equal difference, freely confess autobiography and continually (re)construct identity and the relation self:other. In equal difference teacher:child are received and defined as someone – unique, dignified and irreplaceable. As equal and irreplaceable partners teacher:child disrupt, deconstruct and re-imagine the ethical relation self:other. Within intra-dialogic curriculum spaces, teacher:child can reclaim the revolutionary capacity of curriculum and revolutionise self, self:other, education and society in continual becoming. / Thesis (PhD (Curriculum Development Innovation and Evaluation))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

The growing marketisation of education has resulted in curriculum being conceptualised as a predesigned means to an end. Many South African scholars such as Jansen, (1999, 2009, 2011) and Du Preez (2009, 2011, 2012) have critiqued the instrumental nature of the post-apartheid curriculum and pleaded for an ethical perspective on curriculum conceptualisation that would encourage the construction of dialogic spaces in curriculum. This study questions technical and critical approaches to curriculum conceptualisation and advocates a reflexive conceptualisation of curriculum, intra-dialogue, identity construction, consciousness, becoming and human rights values within an ethical perspective to curriculum conceptualisation in the post-structural paradigm. The central theme of this reflexive reconceptualisation is the hope of continual revolutionary new beginnings by which identity construction (who we are) and the realisation of human rights values in the ethical relation self:other can be re-imagined. This hope has also been central to the (re)structuring of the post-apartheid curriculum premised on the values of The South African Constitution and Bill of Rights (1996). Curriculum, structured within a predesigned market-related and instrumental approach to curriculum, can however not aid identity construction, re-imagine a new society or realise human rights values. A new society is re-imagined between teacher:child, disrupting how and what they know of self:other and re-imagining new ways of knowing and being with self:other rooted in human rights values. The conditions for intra-dialogue, namely the ethical relation self:other and spaces of togetherness, are also interrelated elements in intra-dialogic curriculum spaces. The ethical relation teacher:child roots intra-dialogic curriculum spaces in human rights values and the consciousness of responsibility for self:other. Spaces of togetherness situate teacher:child in specific and non-linear space and time in which they narrate their different life experiences from which identity is constructed. Intra-dialogue is the disruptive, revolutionary and intentional action between self:other as simultaneously singular in equal difference and together in a shared humanity. Human rights values are dialogic, relational and revolutionary in nature. Human rights values are realised when teacher:child within intra-dialogic curriculum spaces premised on equal difference, freely confess autobiography and continually (re)construct identity and the relation self:other. In equal difference teacher:child are received and defined as someone – unique, dignified and irreplaceable. As equal and irreplaceable partners teacher:child disrupt, deconstruct and re-imagine the ethical relation self:other. Within intra-dialogic curriculum spaces, teacher:child can reclaim the revolutionary capacity of curriculum and revolutionise self, self:other, education and society in continual becoming. / Thesis (PhD (Curriculum Development Innovation and Evaluation))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

This is a study of the emergence of William Wordsworth’s literary reputation during his lifetime. It is constructed as a variety of biography, organized chronologically in order to attempt a fuller sense of the negotiation of public image and reputation that went on between Wordsworth and his audiences. Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism structures the study as a series of “conversations,” interconnected and moving outward from self, to intimate group or coterie, to public, reviewers, and culture at large. The coterie and members of it have a large part to play in Wordsworth’s emerging style. The evidence drawn upon for each “conversation” moves from biography to letters to published poems and prose works to published reviews of those works, again roughly describing a movement outward from self to coterie to culture at large. The “conversations” appeal to two or more different kinds of audience, however, because of a “multi-voiced” feature of Wordsworth’s published collections, especially noticeable in the critical success of the sonnet form. Further, members of the coterie, notably Coleridge, later emerge as important interpreters, advocates, and critics themselves, adding to the critical success of William Wordsworth in the larger cultural conversation. Ultimately, Wordsworth is recognized for his contribution – a triumph of his confidence in his own style, as well as the education of a new kind of reader that now engages with Wordsworth’s poetry at a level of intimacy that makes the reader feel like a member of the coterie.

The purpose of the study was to examine the feasibility of a dialogic book-reading intervention for bilingual preschool children with expressive vocabulary delays. The intervention was provided in English and Spanish concurrently to an experimental group of six children, while six children were in a delayed treatment control group. Dialogic book-reading has been shown previously to be effective with monolingual children, and the current study was the first to extend it to bilingual children. The children participating in the study were 22 – 41 months-old and were recruited from the waiting list of an agency providing speech-language services. The intervention was provided in English in the children’s homes by the primary investigator and in Spanish by the children’s mothers, who were trained in the techniques of dialogic book-reading. Thirty fifteen-minute sessions in each language using dialogic book-reading strategies were provided to each child in the intervention group over six weeks. The study examined the acquisition of ten target words selected for each child in English and Spanish separately, in addition to overall increases in the children’s vocabularies. The children in the intervention group learned significantly more target words in each language following the intervention than did the children in the control group. The children in the intervention group were also able to produce the acquired words at a delayed posttest six weeks following the posttest. The intervention also led to an improvement in the ability of the children in the intervention group to stay focused on book-reading tasks. The gains in the overall vocabulary of the children in the two groups did not differ significantly. The mothers’ evaluations of the intervention revealed their satisfaction with the approach. The mothers were successful in learning dialogic book-reading strategies and stated that they felt empowered to improve their child’s vocabulary development.