The purpose of this study is to contribute to efforts to improve methods for gathering and analyzing data from classroom observations in early literacy. The methodological approach addresses current problems of reliability and validity of classroom observations by taking into account differences in teachers’ uses of instructional actions (e.g., modeling) in specific skill areas (e.g., fluency, ...

Life sciences faculty agree that developing scientific literacy is an integral part of undergraduate education and report that they teach these skills. However, few measures of scientific literacy are available to assess students' proficiency in using scientific literacy skills to solve scenarios in and beyond the undergraduate biology classroom. In this paper, we describe the development, vali...

We report on a project that demonstrates how fieldtrips can be structured and delivered in novel ways, and how they can extend the range of curricula that can be addressed – in this case to literacy. After describing a fieldtrip to support creative writing, which employed UbiComp technologies, we focus on how outcome and process were affected, and how working with a mobile device was perceived ...

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable tool for measuring the quality of the language and literacy environment in home-based settings. Based on a convergence of research on the ecological and psychological factors associated with early literacy development, the Child/Home Environmental Language and Literacy Observation (CHELLO) was developed to gauge the quality of curren...

PURPOSE Despite strong investment in raising literacy achievement for all children, significant inequalities in literacy outcomes continue to exist among some of the world's most advanced economies. This study investigated the influence of a short, intensive period of phonological awareness (PA) instruction implemented by classroom teachers on raising the literacy achievement of children with a...

This article reports on the implementation and impact of two blended models of teacher professional learning that promote innovative classroom practice and improved literacy and numeracy in six school districts in Ontario, Canada. The Advanced Broadband Enabled Learning Program (ABEL), situated at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, transforms how teachers learn and teach through a str...

Studies have shown that introducing additional information without context leads to worse decision-making. Informed leadership is the purposeful integration of information into decision management. This paper reframes information literacy as decision management using elements of evidencebased management. It highlights strategies such as decision awareness, process creation, and decision practic...

All teaching and learning in the school classroom involves a range of modes including speech, writing, gesture, gaze, body-posture, movement, and so on—in other words teaching and learning are multimodal. This is as true of school English, where common-sense would have it that teaching and learning are fully realised in language, as it is of school Science where the role of action is firmly est...

Mark Warschauer's Laptops and Literacy: Learning in the Wireless Classroom has eight chapters that build upon one another to show how the incorporation of technology, specifically laptops, could work to increase literacy rates. Warschauer looks at ten schools in Maine and California to show how laptops help improve literacy in the classroom. He wrote his book based on the action research he con...

This article explores the role of weblogs in promoting literacy in classroom settings. Literacy remains paramount in learning, not only for language development, but also as the foundation of all academic disciplines including science and mathematics. Storytelling ignites literacy and remains an important part of life from childhood through adulthood. Weblogs resemble personal journals or diari...