Scaffolding understanding of tables and graphs

The literacy demands of tables and graphs are different from those of prose texts such as narrative. This paper draws from part of a qualitative case study which sought to investigate strategies that scaffold and enhance the teaching and learning of varied representations in text. As indicated in the paper, the method focused on the teaching and learning of tables and graphs with use of Freebody and Luke's (1990) four resources model from literacy education.

Walking and talking with living texts: Breathing life against static standardisation

Current educational reform, policy and public discourse emphasise standardisation of testing, curricula and professional practice, yet the landscape of literacy practices today is fluid, interactive, multimodal, ever-changing, adaptive and collaborative. How then can English and literacy educators negotiate these conflicting terrains? The nature of today’s literacy practices is reflected in a concept of living texts which refers to experienced events and encounters that offer meaning-making that is fluid, interactive and changing. Literacy learning possibilities with living texts are described and discussed by the authors who independently investigated the place of living texts across two distinctly different learning contexts: a young people’s community arts project and a co-taught multiliteracies project in a high school. In the community arts project, young people created living texts as guided walks of urban spaces that adapt and change to varying audiences. In the multiliteracies project, two parents and a teacher created interactive spaces through co-teaching and cogenerative dialoguing. These spaces generate living texts that yield a purposefully connected curriculum rich in community-relevant and culturally significant texts. These two studies are shared with a view of bringing living texts into literacy education to loosen rigidity in standardisation.

El Aprendizaje Informado

Welcome to Informed Learning. If you have opened this book, it is probably because you are interested in how people learn. It may also be because you are interested in how learners interact with their information environment and would like to help them do so in ways that help them learn better. What should we teach and how, so that our students will use information successfully, creatively and responsibly in their journey as lifelong learners? Informed learning provides a unique perspective on helping students become successful learners in our rapidly evolving information environments. It presents a new framework for informed learning, that will enable teachers, librarians, researchers and teacher-researchers to work together as they continue to respond to the need to help students use information to learn. Do you want to help your students engage with the information practices of their discipline or chosen profession? Are you looking for ideas to invigorate and refresh your curriculum? Are you looking for ways to help your students write better essays or search the internet more successfully? Are you looking for strategies to enhance your research supervision? Are you trying to discover how information literacy and information literacy education can contribute to academic curriculum? Informed Learning can help you. Informed learning is using information, creatively and reflectively, in order to learn. It is learning that draws on the different ways in which we use information in academic, professional and community life; and it is learning that draws on emerging understanding of our varied experiences of using information to learn. Indeed, we cannot learn without using information. It is problemetising the interdependence between information use and learning that is the foundation of this book. Most of the time we take for granted that aspect of learning which we call information use. What might happen to the learning experience if we attend to it? Informed Learning examines research into the experience of using information to learn in academic, workplace and community contexts, that can be used to inform learning and learning design at many levels. It draws on contemporary higher education teaching and learning theory to suggest ways forward for a learning agenda that values the need for engaging with the wider world of information. In doing so, it offers a new and unified framework for implementing curriculum that recognises the importance of successful, creative and reflective information use as a strategy for learning as well as a learning outcome; and proposes a research agenda that will continue to inform learning. Informed Learning reconceptualises information literacy as being about engaging in information practices in order to learn; engaging with the different ways of using information to learn. Based on the author’s work in developing the seven faces of information literacy, it proposes the need for teaching and learning to 1) bring about new ways of experiencing and using information, and 2) engage students with those information practices relevant to their discipline or profession. This book is written for a diverse audience of educators from many disciplines, curriculum designers, researchers, and administrators. While this book both establishes a new approach to learning design and an associated research agenda, it is also intended to be practical. I have sought to ground the ideas in practice through: • using Steve and Jane as academics from different disciplines on a journey; experiencing the implementation of informed learning; • using examples from the literature and personal experience; • using reflective questions towards the end of each chapter. In this book you will find many examples of how people experience information use as they go about learning in different contexts. The research reported here shows that as people go about learning they interact with information in different ways. They may be learning about a content area in a formal context, they may be engaged in informal learning as they go about their everyday work, or they may be learning through doing original research. The emphasis on experience and ways of seeing comes from the work of researchers into student learning such as Ference Marton, Paul Ramsden, Shirley Booth, Michael Prosser, Keith Trigwell and others who have shown that, if we are to help students learn, we must first be aware of how they experience those aspects of the world about which they are learning. Different ways of reading this book The first three chapters of this book establish the broad theoretical framework for informed learning; and the remaining chapters consider the out workings of this in a range of contexts. If you want to browse the general directions of this book, read the narratives at the start of each chapter. If you want to see how the book might influence your practice, read the narratives and the reflective questions at the end of each chapter. If you want to help your students become informed learners in their discipline or profession, focus on chapters one, two, three and five. If you are looking for help with students engaged in information practices such as internet searching or essay writing, focus on chapters one, three and four. If you are interested in informed learning in the community or workplace, focus on chapters one, two, three and six. If you want to help your research students become informed learners, focus on chapters one, two, three, seven and eight. If you are working with colleagues to promote information literacy education and are looking for ideas, read chapter nine. If you are interested in researching informed learning read chapter ten

Teacher librarians’ understandings of inquiry learning

This paper presents a study investigating teacher librarians’ understandings of inquiry learning. Teacher librarians have traditionally been involved in information literacy education. For some teacher librarians, this has involved collaborating with the classroom teacher on inquiry learning units of work. For others, it has involved offering a parallel library curriculum. The findings of this study are based on semi-structured interviews with nine teacher librarians in Queensland schools. The study revealed that teacher librarians saw inquiry learning in two ways as (a) student-centred investigation and (b) teaching a process.

Learning Chinese as a Heritage Language: An Australian Perspective

Summary: This book explores the fascinating topic of heritage language learning, looking in particular at Chinese Australians' learning of Chinese. The author studies the investment, challenges and benefits of heritage language learning across varied contexts including school, work, home and in the community. The book investigates how Chinese Australians navigate and negotiate their Chineseness and how resources are used to support their learning. The book is based on a mixed methods study which uses Bourdieu's sociological theory, and offers implications for sociologists of language and education, Chinese heritage language learners and teachers, as well as language and cultural policy makers. Review: This book is a compelling account of the habitus of Chineseness in a world of mobility. It offers up a plethora of insights into the implication of heritage language learning in the constitution of Chinese identity; it makes available a sophisticated mixed methods approach for using the thinking tools of Pierre Bourdieu; it adds to these tools a nuanced cultural dimension. Karen Dooley, Queensland University of Technology, Australia In our increasingly trans-migratory world, language can be central to cultural identity. Dr Mu’s research breaks new ground by adapting Bourdieu’s insights to examine how cultural identity (‘Chinese-ness’) is linguistically learned and practiced in Australia. His remarkable book will interest educators and researchers grappling with how language pertains to identity. Tom Strong, University of Calgary, Canada A thought-provoking, highly engaging work that has deftly shown how Bourdieusian framework can be applied in the research field of literacy education and Heritage Language learning. A must-read for those interested in overseas Chinese communities and Heritage Language learning across various immigrant communities in general! Liang Du, Beijing Normal University, China

Designing rich information experiences to shape learning outcomes

Students in higher education typically learn to use information as part of their course of study, which is intended to support ongoing academic, personal and professional growth. Informing the development of effective information literacy education, this research uses a phenomenographic approach to investigate the experiences of a teacher and students engaged in lessons focused on exploring language and gender topics by tracing and analyzing their evolution through scholarly discourse. The findings suggest that the way learners use information influences content-focused learning outcomes, and reveal how teachers may enact lessons that enable students to learn to use information in ways that foster a specific understanding of the topic they are investigating.

Educating to secure the national interest

In this paper I examine how one political actor–former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd–proposes to use education for the purpose of securing national productivity and foreign policy. I work with Foucault’s suggestion that the apparatus of security is the essential technical instrument of governmentality and that the production of milieu, made up of human, spatial, temporal and cultural objects, and the government of risk are key strategies in the bio-politicisation of security. The discourse analysis also draws on Bacchi to problematise statements that (a) represent both the nation and regional neighbours as governable milieu within the ambit of a whole of government approach, and (b) locate literacy and education as both risk and solution in a security apparatus. My examination of the emergence of literacy and education as security technologies, takes account of the discursive effects of Rudd’s representation of the spaces and scale of national, geopolitical and global policy problems. I argue that in these examples of policy texts, education is used as a discursive tool to secure education workers and youth as subjects of economic interest and sovereign rule.

Governing literacies: Securing literate subjects

This review of literacy research explores ways in which literacy has come to be understood as a problem about human populations. I describe connections between literacy education and the biopolitical government of population, especially the relationship between liberal forms of government and the administration of human freedom. The review takes into account ways in which literacy is implicated in the cultivation of civil society by attending to the interests, as well as to the conduct, of human subjects. I draw on research available in English from across the globe, which provides an overview of how literacy has been rethought and conceptualised through ethnographic, historical and classroom based studies. I discuss claims made for literacy, the way that human populations have been made visible in relation to their literacy practices and the social contexts of their use. The review informs research of representations of literacy as a tool for securing national interests.

Willingness to pay for cataract surgery in rural Southern China.

PURPOSE: To study willingness to pay for cataract surgery, and its associations, in Southern China. DESIGN: Cross-sectional willingness-to-pay interview incorporating elements of the open-ended and bidding formats. PARTICIPANTS: Three-hundred thirty-nine persons presenting for cataract screening in Yangjiang, China, with presenting visual acuity (VA) < or = 6/60 in either eye due to cataract. METHODS: Subjects underwent measurement of their VA and a willingness-to-pay interview. Age, gender, literacy, education, and annual income also were recorded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Maximum amount that the subjects would be willing to pay for cataract surgery. RESULTS: Among 325 (95.9%) subjects completing the interview, 169 (52.0%) were 70 years or older, 213 (65.5%) were women, and 217 (66.8%) had an annual income of <5000 renminbi (5000 = US 625 dollars). Eighty percent (n = 257) of participants were willing to pay something for surgery (mean, 442+/-444 renminbi [US 55 dollars+/-55]). In regression models, older subjects were willing to pay less (8 renminbi [US 1 dollar] per year of age; P = 0.01). Blind subjects were significantly more likely (odds ratio, 5.7; 95% confidence interval, 1.7-19.3) to pay anything for surgery, but would pay on average 255 renminbi (US 32 dollars) less (P = 0.004). Persons at the highest annual income level (>10,000 renminbi [US 1250 dollars]) would pay 50 dollars more for surgery than those at the lowest level (<5000 renminbi) (P = 0.0003). The current cost of surgery in this program is 500 renminbi (US 63 dollars). CONCLUSIONS: Sustainable programs will need to attract younger, more well-to-do persons with better vision, while still providing access to the neediest patients.

Effets des apprentissages de la langue écrite effectués par la typologie textuelle dans l’apprentissage multilingue (le coréen, l’anglais et le français) chez l’apprenant coréen

On s’accorde aujourd’hui sur la nécessité de la dimension textuelle dans l’enseignement de la langue écrite. L’objectif de notre recherche est de mettre à l’essai une démarche pédagogique visant à enseigner la compréhension/expression écrite en prenant appui sur la typologie textuelle et en adoptant une approche stratégique. Compte tenu que les Coréens apprennent le français comme deuxième langue étrangère après l’apprentissage de l’anglais, nous menons notre recherche dans un contexte d’apprentissage multilingue (le coréen, le français et l’anglais). Nous effectuons notre recherche à Montréal. Nous sélectionnons vingt- et-un apprenants coréens âgés de 14 à 15 ans en passant des entrevues sur les caractéristiques de leurs expériences scolaires et leurs apprentissages des langues. Ils possèdent tous un bagage éducatif solide en anglais mais leurs niveaux de français sont variés (i.e. sept sujets débutants, sept intermédiaires et sept avancés). Notre recherche se base sur trois expérimentations. Dans la première, nous nous intéressons notamment au rôle de la typologie textuelle auprès des débutants, dont les caractéristiques sont représentatives des apprenants coréens qui sont grammaticalement et lexicalement faibles en français. Nous mobilisons les connaissances textuelles par le biais des textes en anglais puis nous mesurons si les participants peuvent les utiliser dans les textes en français. Nous vérifions cette utilisation en comparant les résultats de la perception du fonctionnement de l’écrit en français avant et après la mobilisation des connaissances textuelles. Les donnés empiriques révèlent que les apprenants coréens qui n’ont pas encore maîtrisé les compétences de base réussissent à percevoir le fonctionnement de l’écrit en français grâce à leurs connaissances textuelles préalablement mobilisées en anglais.Dans notre deuxième expérimentation, nous examinons l’effet de l’enseignement de la typologie textuelle sur la lecture stratégique dans l’apprentissage multilingue. Nous offrons le cours de lecture stratégique avec un texte en français et examinons l’effet de cette pratique. En comparant les résultats de la compréhension avant et après le cours, nous vérifions que le cours de lecture stratégique est efficace non seulement sur la perception du fonctionnement de l’écrit, mais également sur l’apprentissage de la grammaire et du vocabulaire. Nous vérifions également l’influence translinguistique du français vers l’anglais. Dans la troisième expérimentation, nous examinons l’effet de l’enseignement de la typologie textuelle sur le processus de production écrite en français. Nous recueillons les productions des participants avant et après le cours de l’écriture. Nous les analysons avec les mêmes grilles de codage concernant la forme typologique et le sens culturel. Nous observons que les scripteurs qui ont l’occasion de mobiliser explicitement leurs connaissances textuelles peuvent obtenir des performances plus élevées concernant la forme typologique ainsi que le sens culturel après le processus de production. Nous en concluons que la didactique effectuée à partir de la typologie textuelle a toute sa pertinence dans l’apprentissage multilingue et que l’approche stratégique peut stimuler la mise en place de la typologie textuelle pour appréhender la langue écrite au niveau textuel tant en lecture qu’en écriture.

Aprender a Ler o Mundo : adaptação do método de Paulo Freire na alfabetização de crianças

Ao visitar escolas como supervisora pedagógica, a investigadora notou que as aulas de recuperação em alfabetização eram uma continuidade das aulas regulares e, numa tentativa para procurar soluções para alfabetizar as crianças analfabetas, planificou uma investigação-acção fundamentada na pedagogia crítica de Freire, em que ela actuou como professora. Numa escola de 218 alunos, a investigadora escolheu 12, oficialmente situados em classes avançadas mas, na realidade, analfabetos, e convidou-os para uma turma especial onde, durante 48 horas e duas vezes por semana, quatro horas de cada vez, ela tentou ensiná-los a ler e escrever. As actividades foram precedidas de intenso diálogo entre os estudantes e a investigadora-professora, por reconhecer a importância fundamental da oralidade na prática da alfabetização. Mas aquela participação oral permitiu também conhecer os temas da vida real dos estudantes e as “palavras geradoras” correspondentes, de modo a fazer aumentar a sua consciência crítica, como propõe Freire.

‘As intermitências da Morte’ : debate acerca do direito à literatura lusófona no processo de alfabetização de jovens e adultos

O artigo discute o direito à literatura lusófona – Saramago, como exemplo - na formação de professores e na alfabetização de jovens e adultos por meio de pesquisa-formação na cidade de São Paulo.

Educação escolar indígena : uma análise da educação intercultural do povo Xukuru do Ororubá

Esta pesquisa procurou compreender a Educação Escolar Indígena (EEI), a partir da estadualização do ensino no Estado de Pernambuco, mais especificamente, do povo Xukuru do Ororubá, que tem suas terras nos municípios de Pesqueira e Porção, na região agreste de Pernambuco, bem como analisar interculturalidade dentro da cultura e costume desse povo. Os locais das entrevistas aconteceram nas terras do povo Xukuru, na Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Campus Caruaru), e no Recife, na Secretaria de Educação do Estado de Pernambuco. A pesquisa foi conduzida através de entrevistas com oito professores indígenas, Xukuru do Ororubá e com dois professores indigenistas, em eventos culturais do povo Xukuru, em intervalos de aulas na Universidade e nas reuniões do Conselho Educacional Escolar Indígena (CEEIN) do Estado de Pernambuco. Os resultados da pesquisa mostram que: quanto à estadualização do ensino, há um grau de satisfação por ter ocorrido a mudança de responsabilidade da esfera municipal para a estadual. Relativo à Interculturalidade, há uma desenvoltura categórica desses povos em respeitar a cultura do outro, sem que para isso seja desmerecida a sua. Não só o povo Xukuru, mas também os outros povos indígenas de Pernambuco tem se relacionado muito bem entres os mesmos como também com os demais estudantes não indígena na Universidade.

Invisible and visible language planning: ideological factors in the family language policy of Chinese immigrant families in Quebec

This ethnographic inquiry examines how family languages policies are planned and developed in ten Chinese immigrant families in Quebec, Canada, with regard to their children’s language and literacy education in three languages, Chinese, English, and French. The focus is on how multilingualism is perceived and valued, and how these three languages are linked to particular linguistic markets. The parental ideology that underpins the family language policy, the invisible language planning, is the central focus of analysis. The results suggest that family language policies are strongly influenced by socio-political and economical factors. In addition, the study confirms that the parents’ educational background, their immigration experiences and their cultural disposition, in this case pervaded by Confucian thinking, contribute significantly to parental expectations and aspirations and thus to the family language policies.

Reading the world through words: cultural themes in heritage Chinese language textbooks

This paper explores the social and cultural knowledge embedded in the textbooks for language and literacy education in a Chinese heritage language school, the Zhonguo School, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It examines how Chinese language arts textbooks introduce the child reader to cultural knowledge considered legitimate and valued in China as well as in Chinese diasporan communities. Furthermore, it looks at the construction of cultural knowledge in Chinese language textbooks in relation to the mainstream ideology to which immigrant children are exposed in and out of mainstream school classrooms. It looks at how the power relationship between legitimate cultural knowledge in majority and minority contexts is established and to what extent it affects language minority students' literacy practices in mainstream school and heritage language school contexts. Data sources are the Chinese textbooks used from kindergarten to Grade 5 in a Chinese heritage language school.