Measuring environmental education program impacts and learning in the field: Using an action research cycle to develop a tool for use with young students

Despite the increasing importance of, and interest in, documenting the impact of environmental education programs on students' learning for sustainability, few tools are currently available to measure young students' environmental learning across all the dimensions of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours. This paper reports on the development of such a tool, using an iterative action research process with 134 students, aged six to eleven, attending programs at an Environmental Education Centre in Queensland. The resulting instrument, the Environmental Learning Outcomes Survey (ELOS) incorporates observations of students' engagement in learning processes as well as measuring learning outcomes, and allows both of these aspects to be linked to particular components of the environmental education program. Test data using the instrument are reported to illustrate its potential usefulness. It is envisaged that the refined instrument will enable researchers to measure student environmental learning in the field, investigate environmental education program impacts and identify aspects of programs that are most effective in facilitating student learning. [Author abstract]

Social and behavioural determinants of early childhood caries

Background: To investigate the association between selected social and behavioural (infant feeding and preventive dental practices) variables and the presence of early childhood caries in preschool children within the north Brisbane region. Methods: A cross sectional sample of 2515 children aged four to five years were examined in a preschool setting using prevalence (percentage with caries) and severity (dmft) indices. A self-administered questionnaire obtained information regarding selected social and behavioural variables. The data were modelled using multiple logistic regression analysis at the 5 per cent level of significance. Results: The final explanatory model for caries presence in four to five year old children included the variables breast feeding from three to six months of age (OR=0.7, CI=0.5, 1.0), sleeping with the bottle (OR=1.9, CI=1.5, 2.4), sipping from the bottle (OR=1.6, CI=1.2, 2.0), ethnicity other than Caucasian (OR=1.9, CI=1.4, 2.5), annual family income $20,000-$35,000 (OR = 1.7, CI=1.3, 2.3) and annual family income less than $20,000 (OR=2.1, CI=1.5, 2.8). Conclusion: A statistical model for early childhood caries in preschool children within the north Brisbane region has been constructed using selected social and behavioural determinants. Epidemiological data can be used for improved public oral health service planning and resource allocation within the region.

Talking to children: The within-classroom nature of everyday adult language in the early childhood educational environment

Group-size effects, as changes in the adult language when speaking to individual or multiple children in two- and three-year-olds' Australian childcare centre classrooms were investigated. The language addressed to children by 21 staff members was coded for social (e.g., non-verbal, inferential and pragmatic), and linguistic (e.g., morphological, lexical, syntactic and referential) features. In the two-year-olds' classrooms, minimal differences were found between the language used in dyads (addressed to a single child) and polyads (addressed to more than one child). More extensive group-size effects, particularly in syntactic complexity, were found in the three-year-olds' classrooms. Explanations for the constancy of the adult language input in the younger classrooms, and the changes noted in the older rooms will be discussed in terms of plurality (i.e., more than one listener), methodology, and group-size effects that may be specific to the early childhood educational setting.

Promoting Learning for Sustainability: Principals' Perceptions of the Role of Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres

Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres provide programs that are designed to address a range of environmental education aims, and contribute broadly to student learning for sustainability. This paper examines the roles such Centres can play, and how they might contribute to the Australian Government’s initiative in relation to sustainable schools. Interviews with the principals of 23 such Centres in Queensland revealed three roles or models under which they operate: the destination model; the expert/advisor model; and the partnership model. Principals’ understandings of these roles are discussed and the factors that support or hinder their implementation are identified. It is concluded that while the provision of programs in the environment is still a vital role of outdoor and environmental education centres, these can also be seen as a point of entry to long-term partnerships with whole school communities.

Review of Beginning Reading: A balanced approach to teaching literacy during the first three years at school by Yola Centre

Beginning Reading: A Balanced Approach to Literacy Instruction during the First Three Years at School by Yola Center is intended for those involved in teaching and supporting literacy practices in regular classrooms and addresses literacy practices for learners with disabilities and those experiencing difficulties in literacy learning.

I-Spi: innovative shared practical ideas: a support guide for literacy and numeracy in the early years of schooling, for home tutor/supervisors in distance education

Innovative Shared Practical Ideas (I-Spi) is a guide to help you and your children learn together. It is designed to affirm, support and strengthen your role as home tutor/supervisors in your daily learning sessions with your children. In this guide particular emphasis is given to the value of talk, formal and informal early literacy and numeracy practices (including ideas from distance school lessons, from home tutor/supervisors, research, and beyond), assessment of these practices together with informal assessment ideas for gauging your children’s literacy and numeracy progress, and stepping in and building on strategies

Need for systematic synthetic phonics teaching within the early reading curriculum

Both the New Zealand Ministry of Education's Literacy Experts Group and the Australian National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy have recently acknowledged the centrality of systematic instruction in synthetic phonics to early reading instruction, but this conclusion remains contentious in some circles. This paper briefly summarises empirical research in basic psychology and evidence-based evaluation studies supporting the inclusion of systematic synthetic phonics instruction within the early reading curriculum, allowing practising psychologists to develop an informed opinion on this issue.