This book examines which factors lead to success in foreign language learning at an early age in instructional settings. The studies investigate learners aged between three and ten, their parents and ...teachers, and focus on the development of speaking and reading skills and how attitudes and motivation impact on the teaching and learning process.
Ewaluacja jest warunkiem sine qua non każdego procesu dydaktycznego. Dostarcza ona informacji zwrotnej o skuteczności nauczania oraz uczenia się i umożliwia wprowadzenie ewentualnych modyfikacji. ...Ewaluacji często dokonujemy w sposób retrospektywny, badając, czy określone cele kształcenia zostały osiągnięte. Podlegają jej również stosowane narzędzia pomiaru, wykorzystywane techniki i materiały, a nawet zachowanie egzaminatora/nauczyciela w sytuacji egzaminacyjnej lub w klasie, np. w trakcie poprawiania błędów. Wszystkie te elementy wpływają na ostateczny kształt kursu językowego, a w konsekwencji na osiągnięcia ucznia. Artykuły zebrane w niniejszym tomie dotyczą szeroko pojmowanej ewaluacji elementów procesu nauczania, odwołując się do anglosaskiego rozróżnienia terminów ewaluacja (ang. evaluation) i ocenianie (ang. assessment), w którym to termin pierwszy jest pojęciem szerszym i zawiera również ocenę postępów ucznia.
This theoretical article presents a case for a new approach to the teaching of word recognition in English as a foreign language to young learners in Polish early years education, arguing that there ...is a need for greater attention to explicit instruction in alphabetic principles, selected phonics and decoding skills. Research in first language (L1) English and foreign language (L2) development of word recognition skills is outlined. Differences between the orthographies of Polish and English are highlighted. Approaches used in L1 early reading instruction are contrasted with those commonly applied in L2 settings. The need for more explicit instruction is rationalized on the basis of a brief description of impressions from 20 hours of classroom observation. The second part of the paper presents some principles for the design of materials to introduce alphabetic principles of English and elements of phonics to support word recognition, with examples. The ability to recognize words rapidly and with ease is a key skill, which, unless mastered early, could potentially have a negative impact on the whole of a child’s language education.
Artykuł omawia założenia i metodologię badań, przeprowadzonych na reprezentatywnej próbie w szkołach gimnazjalnych w Polsce, których celem było opisanie postaw i poglądów na temat uczenia się i ...nauczania języków obcych w szkołach. Niezbędne do przeprowadzenia analizy dane zostały zebrane za pomocą kwestionariusza, w którym około 4000 respondentów wyraziło swoje opinie, dotyczące 60 zagadnień, w pięciostopniowej skali Likerta. Niniejszy artykuł prezentuje wybrane wyniki badań.
This paper reports on some of the data from a large-scale study Teaching and Learning Foreign Language in lower secondary school, which began in the school year 2011-12 and traces selected groups of ...learners through the three years of Key Stage 3 (gimnazjum), ending in school year 2013-14. The study was conceived and is managed by the Foreign Language Section of the Educational Research Institute (ERI) in Warsaw with European funding. (see Acknowledgement). In this article the focus is on data obtained from interviews conducted with learners from class one of 120 lower secondary schools, where the students were asked to describe and give opinions about learning English in their school and to imagine an ideal lesson. The learners are the reason that lessons in school take place, but their views are rarely consulted. This study attempts to redress the balance.
A 12-week-old domestic cat presented at a local veterinary clinic with hypocalcemia and skeletal abnormalities suggestive of rickets. Osteomalacia (rickets) is a disease caused by impaired bone ...mineralization leading to an increased prevalence of fractures and deformity. Described in a variety of species, rickets is most commonly caused by vitamin D or calcium deficiencies owing to both environmental and or genetic abnormalities. Vitamin D-dependent rickets type 1A (VDDR-1A) is a result of the enzymatic pathway defect caused by mutations in the 25-hydroxyvitamin D3-1-alpha-hydroxylase gene cytochrome P27 B1 (CYP27B1). Calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D3, regulates calcium homeostasis, which requires sufficient dietary calcium availability and correct hormonal function for proper bone growth and maintenance. Patient calcitriol concentrations were low while calcidiol levels were normal suggestive of VDDR-1A. The entire DNA coding sequencing of CYP27B1 was evaluated. The affected cat was wild type for previously identified VDDR-1A causative mutations. However, six novel mutations were identified, one of which was a nonsense mutation at G637T in exon 4. The exon 4 G637T nonsense mutation results in a premature protein truncation, changing a glutamic acid to a stop codon, E213X, likely causing the clinical presentation of rickets. The previously documented genetic mutation resulting in feline VDDR-1A rickets, as well as the case presented in this research, result from novel exon 4 CYP27B1 mutations, thus exon 4 should be the initial focus of future sequencing efforts.
Findings from “Learning and teaching foreign languages in lower secondary school”, (BUNJO 2012): Implications for the education of teachers of English.This paper takes data from the first part of a ...longitudinal study, “Learn-ing and Teaching Foreign Languages in lower secondary school”, con-ducted by the Educational Research Institute in Warsaw. The sample is large scale and representative at the level of school, which allows us to generalise to the general population with some degree of confidence. From the data several areas appear to give cause for concern. The first is organisation of work in class, where pair and group work were found to be rare. The focus of lessons would currently appear to more often em-phasize grammar, vocabulary or receptive skills than productive skills. What is tested does not always seem to reflect what is taught, which suggests that assessment practices may not be fully informed. Motivating learners and engaging them in the lesson is also reported as a cause of dissatisfaction. Teachers were found to hold mixed views regarding the importance of independent learning, which suggests more emphasis needs to be placed on the understanding of learner autonomy. This pa-per discusses each of these areas in turn, with illustrations from the data, and makes suggestions for how teacher education could be enhanced.
School achievement in foreign languages is often reported in mean scores, or on normalized scales, where schools are compared with each other and against a national average. This has led to the ...common belief that rural lower secondary schools in Poland are ‘worse’ than schools in larger centres of population. This paper sets out to demonstrate that such a view is erroneous as it fails to take into consideration the context, either at the level of the school as a whole, or at the level of individual learners. Based on data obtained from the first two years of a large scale longitudinal research project, “Teaching and Learning Foreign languages” (BUNJO 2012, 2013), this case study describes the context of one lower secondary school in a village in the east of Poland and profiles four teenage learners (aged 13-14) who attend this school and their achievement in English over the period of one year.
Background:
Neonatal nurse practitioners have become the frontline staff exposed to a myriad of ethical issues that arise in the day-to-day environment of the neonatal intensive care unit. However, ...ethics competency at the time of graduation and after years of practice has not been described.
Research aim:
To examine the ethics knowledge base of neonatal nurse practitioners as this knowledge relates to decision making in the neonatal intensive care unit and to determine whether this knowledge is reflected in attitudes toward ethical dilemmas in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Research design:
This was a prospective cohort study that examined decision making at the threshold of viability, life-sustaining therapies for sick neonates, and a ranking of the five most impactful ethical issues.
Participants and research context:
All 47 neonatal nurse practitioners who had an active license in the State of Mississippi were contacted via e-mail. Surveys were completed online using Survey Monkey software.
Ethical considerations:
The study was approved by the University of Mississippi Medical Center Institutional Review Board (IRB; #2015-0189).
Findings:
Of the neonatal nurse practitioners who completed the survey, 87.5% stated that their religious practices affected their ethical decision making and 76% felt that decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment for a neonate should not involve consultation with the hospital’s legal team or risk management. Only 11% indicated that the consent process involved patient understanding of possible procedures. Participating in the continuation or escalation of care for infants at the threshold of viability was the top ethical issue encountered by neonatal nurse practitioners.
Discussion:
Our findings reflect deficiencies in the neonatal nurse practitioner knowledge base concerning ethical decision making, informed consent/permission, and the continuation/escalation of care.
Conclusion:
In addition to continuing education highlighting ethics concepts, exploring the influence of religion in making decisions and knowing the most prominent dilemmas faced by neonatal nurse practitioners in the neonatal intensive care unit may lead to insights into potential solutions.
This book provides a holistic overview of what leads to success in foreign language learning at an early age and deepens our understanding of early foreign language learning. The studies use an array ...of methodological approaches to research learners aged between three and ten, as well as their parents and teachers, in instructional, minimal-input settings. They describe various ways of organising and promoting very early foreign language learning, both through language policy and innovative pedagogy, and focus on ways of providing input for second language acquisition, which include oral classroom discourse strategies, as well as learner development of literacy skills. Special attention is given to the necessity to develop critical reading skills, the ability to handle multimodal texts, and attitudes, motivations and behaviours and how these may impact on the teaching and learning process. Chapters emphasise that ultimate outcomes depend on extra linguistic environmental factors, such as parental involvement and teacher competences. These include establishing control in the classroom, as well as using appropriate strategies for Negotiation of Meaning, and helping learners build positive self-concept. This book will be of interest to all professionals involved in the teaching of foreign languages to young learners, as well as to researchers, teacher educators and students working in this area. Following an introduction by Joanna Rokita-Jaskow and Melanie Ellis, this book is organized into the following chapters: (1) Policy and Practice in Early Foreign Language Learning: The Case of Poland (Joanna Rokita-Jaskow and Malgorzata Pamula-Behrens); (2) Integrating and Emulating: Early English Initiatives in Portugal (Sandie Mourão); (3) From Research on Child L2 Acquisition of English to Classroom Practice (Teresa Fleta); (4) Spotting the Differences between Child-Child and Child-Adult Interactions: Evidence from Spanish EFL Learners at Low Levels of Proficiency (Amparo Lázaro-Ibarrola and Raúl Azplicueta-Martinez); (5) The Role of Teacher Language in a Young Learner Classroom (Malgorzata Szulc-Kurpaska); (6) Young EFL Learners and Their Reading Awareness: A Case Study with Twins (Renata Šamo); (7) Effective Learning Interventions in Young Children: The Impact of Critical Reading Strategies (Yolanda Ruiz de Zarobe and Maria Victoria Zenotz); (8) Extensive Reading in Primary EFL: Can Story Apps Do the Trick? (Annika Kolb and Sonja Brunsmeier); (9) Parental Perceptions of Bilingual Primary Schools in Poland: The (Added) Value of English (Barbara Loranc-Paszylk); (10) Parental Involvement in Very Early FL Education (Joanna Rokita-Jaskow); (11) Investigating the Self-Concept of Children with Special Educational Needs in the Context of Foreign Language Learning (Werona Król-Gierat); and (12) Power Relationships in an Early Foreign Language Classroom (Ewa Guz and Malgorzata Tetiurka).
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