This two-year longitudinal study sought to describe and evaluate a newly developed information and communication technology (ICT) environment and the associated schoolbased ICT professional development (PD) project within a State Government primary school. The overall aim of the research study was to investigate the most effective requirements to support teachers to be skilled, knowledgeable and confident in the use of ICT in their teaching roles. The teachers were the focus of the Research Study and not the students. The ICT environment and the professional development project's effectiveness was evaluated using data collected from participating teachers and the literature regarding components of effective ICT professional development. The Research Study used qualitative and interpretive methods to illuminate and expand on what it means to provide effective ICT PD within the primary school context. The components of the ICT-enhanced environment were studied in detail to provide feedback and findings that may also be useful in other educational settings with modification. The study provided evidence that, apart from providing and developing individual ICT PD components, a collection of inter-related components was necessary at the same time for successful ICT PD to be achieved. The components of the PD project have been discussed individually and collectively in terms of their effect on the research subjects, the teachers themselves. Four global factors were identified for effective ICT PD and they were used as a framework for the study. These were teacher characteristics, authenticity, support and the ICT-enhanced environment.

Student discipline and subsequent placements are a common problem in education. This qualitative phenomenological study addressed a gap in the literature by discovering the experiences of middle school teachers and administrators regarding student discipline, classroom removal, and assignment of students to alternative education. This research describes the development of an interview protocol based on critical incident theory and demonstrates its usage in drawing out thick, rich descriptions which help increase the trustworthiness of qualitative research. Initial interview data are presented to highlight the utilization of critical incident theory to elicit specific information about how participants experienced various critical interactions that influenced academic decisions about the student removal process, the kinds of situations and safety issues they encountered, and training they received for managing student removal. Data were collected using audio recorded and transcribed in-depth interviews using open ended questions with participants. Six teachers and 2 administrators from 3 middle schools in the southern U.S. responded to 15 questions in semistructured interviews that were audio recorded and transcribed. Qualitative analysis of the interviews revealed an overarching theme of managing disruptive classroom behavior. Participants described classroom management difficulties, their methods of dealing with disruptive students, and their emotional reactions to disruptions. Some teachers shared that at times, they reconsidered their decision to teach due to classroom management problems, and some revealed that their classroom management training had been deficient. Recommendations include further research on the degree and kinds of stress resulting from teachers having to deal with student discipline problems. Implications for positive social change include motivating schools to evaluate their programs of continuing teacher education for dealing with classroom discipline and to provide opportunities for teachers to discuss, with their peers, their behavioral and emotional reactions to difficult student encounters, thereby contributing to teacher well-being and retention.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a storybook retell technique to facilitate vocabulary acquisition in children educated in Māori immersion class settings. A second aim of the study was to explore the cultural responsiveness and pedagogical appropriateness of the intervention approach and the importance of relationship building (whakawhanaungatanga) to successful interventions. Nine children participated in the study. These children (aged between 5 and 8 years) were recruited from two Kura Kaupapa Māori settings in differing urban areas in New Zealand. The children entered the study on a rolling basis in groups of three. The first three participants to enter the study were recruited from the one classroom on the basis of their demonstrating specific language impairment (SLI). The second group of three participants attended a different classroom and these participants were recruited into the study as a result of identified delayed reading development (RD). The third group of three participants from a third classroom was selected as the participants exhibited typical spoken and written language development (TD). The intervention technique utilized in this study adopted a structured approach to teaching the meaning of pre selected vocabulary items that were embedded in class story books. Three different books were selected and each book was read by the teacher to the whole class three times during a one week period. The target vocabulary was highlighted each time it occurred in the story through the following techniques: an adult definition was given for the word, an antonym or synonym was given, and the meaning was acted out by the teacher or the picture detailing the meaning of the word in the book was highlighted. A single subject research design using pre-intervention, intervention and post intervention assessment probes for the target vocabulary items was employed to examine the effectiveness of the intervention in teaching the children the targeted vocabulary. Teacher interviews were also carried out to assess the appropriateness of the intervention in relation to the philosophy of the Kura Kaupapa and its pedagogical appropriateness and cultural responsiveness. The results suggested that the children in all three groups (SLI, RD and TD) made moderate gains in the acquisition of the target vocabulary supporting the hypothesis that targeting vocabulary in story book retelling at a whole class level will lead to acquisition of the vocabulary by the participants' exposed to the intervention. However, using a Two Standard Deviation method to evaluate the significance of each participant's change, the gains made for the RD and SLI participants were not significant. The TD participants did demonstrate a significant difference in the number of words correct. The teachers of the participants involved in the study reported positively on the effectiveness and appropriateness of the intervention for inclusion within the Kura Kaupapa and classroom programme. In particular, teachers' reported that as the intervention included each child in the class (as opposed to a withdrawal intervention model) the intervention was more appropriate for the philosophy of the Kura Kaupapa. The teachers' also reported the effectiveness of the intervention for the development of collaboration and relationship building between the teacher and researcher (a speech-language therapist. The data showed that the intervention investigated in this study was culturally responsive and pedagogically appropriate. It could be included as a component of the class programme as it was responsive to the philosophy of the Kura Kaupapa. The participants' did make moderate gains in the acquisition of the vocabulary (although not at a level to be considered significant for children with delayed development). Further research is necessary to explore the effectiveness of what may potentially be a useful intervention to enhance vocabulary development for children in Kura Kaupapa.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a storybook retell technique to facilitate vocabulary acquisition in children educated in Māori immersion class settings. A second aim of the study was to explore the cultural responsiveness and pedagogical appropriateness of the intervention approach and the importance of relationship building (whakawhanaungatanga) to successful interventions. Nine children participated in the study. These children (aged between 5 and 8 years) were recruited from two Kura Kaupapa Māori settings in differing urban areas in New Zealand. The children entered the study on a rolling basis in groups of three. The first three participants to enter the study were recruited from the one classroom on the basis of their demonstrating specific language impairment (SLI). The second group of three participants attended a different classroom and these participants were recruited into the study as a result of identified delayed reading development (RD). The third group of three participants from a third classroom was selected as the participants exhibited typical spoken and written language development (TD). The intervention technique utilized in this study adopted a structured approach to teaching the meaning of pre selected vocabulary items that were embedded in class story books. Three different books were selected and each book was read by the teacher to the whole class three times during a one week period. The target vocabulary was highlighted each time it occurred in the story through the following techniques: an adult definition was given for the word, an antonym or synonym was given, and the meaning was acted out by the teacher or the picture detailing the meaning of the word in the book was highlighted. A single subject research design using pre-intervention, intervention and post intervention assessment probes for the target vocabulary items was employed to examine the effectiveness of the intervention in teaching the children the targeted vocabulary. Teacher interviews were also carried out to assess the appropriateness of the intervention in relation to the philosophy of the Kura Kaupapa and its pedagogical appropriateness and cultural responsiveness. The results suggested that the children in all three groups (SLI, RD and TD) made moderate gains in the acquisition of the target vocabulary supporting the hypothesis that targeting vocabulary in story book retelling at a whole class level will lead to acquisition of the vocabulary by the participants' exposed to the intervention. However, using a Two Standard Deviation method to evaluate the significance of each participant's change, the gains made for the RD and SLI participants were not significant. The TD participants did demonstrate a significant difference in the number of words correct. The teachers of the participants involved in the study reported positively on the effectiveness and appropriateness of the intervention for inclusion within the Kura Kaupapa and classroom programme. In particular, teachers' reported that as the intervention included each child in the class (as opposed to a withdrawal intervention model) the intervention was more appropriate for the philosophy of the Kura Kaupapa. The teachers' also reported the effectiveness of the intervention for the development of collaboration and relationship building between the teacher and researcher (a speech-language therapist. The data showed that the intervention investigated in this study was culturally responsive and pedagogically appropriate. It could be included as a component of the class programme as it was responsive to the philosophy of the Kura Kaupapa. The participants' did make moderate gains in the acquisition of the vocabulary (although not at a level to be considered significant for children with delayed development). Further research is necessary to explore the effectiveness of what may potentially be a useful intervention to enhance vocabulary development for children in Kura Kaupapa.

Previous research has shown how home and parental characteristics support or hinder the development of children’s self-regulation in the family context. There have only been limited attempts to understand these mechanisms in early childhood education settings. This study used the NICHD Study of Early Child Care (when participating children were 36-months old) to examine the relations among various aspects of the early childhood education setting, the interactions in the setting, and children’s self-regulation in center-based and home-based settings. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model proposing the deconstruction of early childhood education quality into structural (i.e., environmental and caregiver characteristics) and process quality components (i.e., positive and negative interactions) and to examine these as predictors of three-years old children’s self-regulation abilities. A meditational model was tested in which positive and negative interactions in the classroom mediated the relations between the structural characteristics and self-regulation. There were three important findings. First, although there were no consistent patterns of associations between structural features and self-regulation across the two types of care, there were more significant relationships in home-based care compared to center-based care. These findings showed that the home-based caregiver characteristics were more closely tied to the processes in the classroom than those characteristics of caregivers in center care. Second, both positive and negative caregiving were associated with children’s compliance, which suggested that compliance may have been influenced differently by process quality compared to other self-regulation measures, such as self-control and emotion-, behavior-, and attention-regulation. It may be that high rates of compliance may be markers of highly restrictive caregiving rather than the result of good quality caregiving. Third, there were very few significant relationships between process quality measures and children’s self-regulation measures, which suggested that commonly used process quality measures may not be capturing the processes that are most important for the development of self-regulation. / text

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the United States. The prevalence of CVD will increase in conjunction with the rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes and decrease in physical activity, due to the adverse effects of adiposity and atherosclerosis associated with these syndromes. Excellent inpatient, outpatient, and community-based program s are available to educate and direct healthy behavioral changes, yet the number of programs available is not sufficient for the volume of patients, nor widely distributed in all areas (particularly rural areas). There is a lack of comprehensive education programs for adults directed toward decreasing CVD with an emphasis on food portioning skills; cooking skills; low-fat cooking techniques; increasing fruits , vegetables, and dairy products in the diet; and increasing exercise. The Cooperative Extension Healthy Beat education program and curriculum was developed and evaluated to improve the cardiovascular health of Utah residents. This curriculum focused on improving nutrition knowledge, food portioning skill, food preparation/cooking skills, regular exercise, lipid panel, anthropometric indices, and blood pressure. The program was distributed in CD format to 59 extension agents; identical CDs were used by instructors of live sessions for 43 participants in Sanpete, Washington, and Beaver counties. The CDs were also used by the instructor of a third group, consisting of 16 nutrition education assistants from the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program, who were also taught in a live session setting. The evaluation was done through measurement of nutrition knowledge, cooking skills, lipid panel biochemical indices, weight loss, blood pressure, and waist and hip circumferences. This study demonstrated that on completion of the heart healthy curriculum, those with CVD or those at risk for CVD appropriately altered their risk factors for a myocardial infarction (decrease in one or more of the following: serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, body mass index, and waist and hip circumferences).

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