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Descriptors:
Public Libraries; Foreign Countries; Reference Services; Electronic Mail; Computer Mediated Communication; Library Research; User Needs (Information); Questioning Techniques; Content Analysis; Investigations; Classification; Cluster Grouping; Information Seeking; Problem Sets; Qualitative Research

Abstract:
In Japan, only a few public libraries provide e-mail reference services. To help public libraries start e-mail reference services, the authors investigated reference questions received by libraries via e-mail and traditional face-to-face services. The authors found that research questions are more frequently observed among e-mail questions and questions about the local area are slightly more frequently observed. Librarians who are planning to start e-mail reference services should be aware of these tendencies. (Contains 10 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Preschool Children; Family Characteristics; Poverty; Disadvantaged; Disabilities; Poverty Programs; Disability Identification; Longitudinal Studies; Social Indicators; Cluster Grouping; Incidence; Social Services; Accessibility (for Disabled); Special Education; Participant Characteristics; Interviews; Caregiver Attitudes; Parent Attitudes; Child Welfare; Welfare Recipients; Statistical Surveys

Abstract:
This study examined the prevalence of indicators of disability or potential disability among preschool-aged children enrolled in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Longitudinal Follow-Up. Three categories of indicators were established: received Part B services, developmental risk, and biological risk. The majority of participating children (62%) were classified into at least one category. Children living in poverty from birth through preschool and of minority status were among those most likely to be classified; these children were likely to have received a variety of services. The majority of children who received Part C services (79.8%) received Part B services as preschoolers, but 33% of the children with a developmental risk identified before age 3 continued to have a developmental risk during preschool yet did not receive specialized services. Results highlight the importance of understanding the relations among child and family characteristics and service receipt to inform policy and practice. (Contains 4 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Teaching Methods; Professional Development; Control Groups; Emergent Literacy; Coaching (Performance); Performance Based Assessment; Instructional Effectiveness; Instructional Improvement; Skill Development; Teaching Skills; Early Childhood Education; Change Strategies; Educational Change; Classroom Environment; Cluster Grouping; Check Lists; Classroom Observation Techniques; Pretests Posttests; Educational Quality; Matched Groups; Feedback (Response)

Abstract:
Coaching has garnered support as a professional development approach that helps teachers use research-based instruction to teach emergent literacy skills to young children. However, approaches to coaching vary widely, as do the backgrounds and training of the teachers included in different studies. This study investigated the influence of skill-focused coaching on certified teachers' use of three clusters of instructional skills. Discussion of visually represented observation data provided the primary framework for coaching. After coaching, teachers in the intervention group used significantly more of the skills in two of three clusters of instructional skills than did those in the control group. Group differences also were found on the language and literacy sections of a general measure of the classroom literacy environment, indicating that targeted skill coaching may have more general effects on classroom quality. Results are discussed from the perspectives of professional development and research on coaching. (Contains 3 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Educational Environment; Profiles; Goal Orientation; Student Attitudes; Adult Students; Achievement Need; Longitudinal Studies; Attitude Change; Aptitude Treatment Interaction; Foreign Countries; Military Schools; Cluster Grouping; Factor Analysis; Questionnaires

Abstract:
This study focused on the stability and change in students' achievement goal orientations and whether the students' perceptions of the learning environment vary as a function of their achievement goal orientations. Participants were 169 students of the Finnish National Defense University. The students' goal orientations and their evaluations of the learning environment were assessed twice, approximately four months apart. Four groups of students were identified based on their achievement goal orientation profiles, and 60% of the participants displayed identical profiles in both measurements. Students with different goal orientation profiles differed in their evaluations of the quality of pedagogical materials, effort and attainment, and participation. Students oriented towards an increase of competence and mastery or towards normative performance and success were most positive in their evaluations. Students oriented towards avoidance of effort or display of incompetence gave less positive ratings. The relation between motivation and perceptions of learning environment is discussed. (Contains 7 tables, 1 figure, and 1 note.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Preservice Teacher Education; Teacher Education Programs; Constructivism (Learning); Methods Courses; Preservice Teachers; Inquiry; Beliefs; Attitude Change; Student Teacher Attitudes; Learning Activities; Cluster Grouping; Aptitude Treatment Interaction; Teacher Characteristics; Cognitive Structures; Instructional Effectiveness; Teaching Styles; Secondary School Curriculum

Abstract:
Research in science education suggests that teachers' beliefs are linked to the use of inquiry-based instruction; teachers holding a constructivist belief are more likely to engage in student-centered activities in the classroom. However, there is currently little research on the ways in which teachers' beliefs change over time, and in particular, the relationship between instructional activities in teacher education programs and their impact on teachers' beliefs. We examined shifts in secondary preservice teachers' belief orientations as they progressed through a science methods course. We found that overall many of the preservice teachers progressed in their orientation beliefs from a teacher-centered orientation to more student-centered orientation. We characterized four trajectories of change or clusters that describe how preservice teachers' beliefs changed over the course of the semester (15 weeks). We also describe the different ways in which preservice teachers reacted to specific instructional activities, and how those activities influenced their belief orientation. In particular, we found that preservice teachers in a cluster that exhibited a particular trajectory (progression or regression toward/away from student-centered belief orientation) reacted differently to some activities compared to preservice teachers in some other clusters. We discuss these shifts as reflecting changes in priorities of beliefs within belief systems. We argue that teacher educators need to think carefully about the interplay of these beliefs when designing activities so that they can respond (i.e., to a reversal in beliefs) during the course rather than waiting until the end. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Higher Education; Student Costs; Graduation Rate; Cluster Grouping; Recognition (Achievement); Reputation; Institutional Characteristics; Institutional Research; Enrollment Rate; College Faculty; Budgets; Comparative Analysis; Intercollegiate Cooperation; Benchmarking

Abstract:
When colleges look to compare themselves with others, they are not much different from high-school students chasing popularity: Everyone wants to be friends with the Ivy League, but the Ivy League is really picky about whom it hangs out with. Each year colleges submit "comparison groups" to the U.S. Department of Education to get feedback on how their institution stacks up in terms of finances, enrollment, and other measures tabulated in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. The groups sometimes represent a college's actual peers but more often reveal their aspirations. "The Chronicle" analyzed the relationships of nearly 1,600 four-year colleges that make up those groups to map out the power players in higher education. The typical college selected a comparison group of 16 colleges with a higher average SAT score and graduation rate than its own, lower acceptance rate, and larger endowment, budget, and enrollment. The eight Ivy League colleges among them chose only 12 institutions outside their own number as peers. Institutional-research officers acknowledge that their institutions' comparison groups often include desired peers that are not true peers. Colleges want to receive data reports on enrollments, graduation rates, student costs, faculty, and budgets for institutions they aspire to be more like. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Semantics; Alzheimers Disease; Diseases; Patients; Scores; Semiotics; Cognitive Processes; Neurological Impairments; Computation; Cluster Grouping; Correlation; Language Fluency; Word Recognition

Abstract:
The objective of our study is to introduce a fully automated, computational linguistic technique to quantify semantic relations between words generated on a standard semantic verbal fluency test and to determine its cognitive and clinical correlates. Cognitive differences between patients with Alzheimer's disease and mild cognitive impairment are evident in their performance on the semantic verbal fluency test. In addition to the semantic verbal fluency test score, several other performance characteristics sensitive to disease status and predictive of future cognitive decline have been defined in terms of words generated from semantically related categories (clustering) and shifting between categories (switching). However, the traditional assessment of clustering and switching has been performed manually in a qualitative fashion resulting in subjective scoring with limited reproducibility and scalability. Our approach uses word definitions and hierarchical relations between the words in WordNet[R], a large electronic lexical database, to quantify the degree of semantic similarity and relatedness between words. We investigated the novel semantic fluency indices of mean cumulative similarity and relatedness between all pairs of words regardless of their order, and mean sequential similarity and relatedness between pairs of adjacent words in a sample of patients with clinically diagnosed probable (n=55) or possible (n=27) Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment (n=31). The semantic fluency indices differed significantly between the diagnostic groups, and were strongly associated with neuropsychological tests of executive function, as well as the rate of global cognitive decline. Our results suggest that word meanings and relations between words shared across individuals and computationally modeled via WordNet and large text corpora provide the necessary context to account for the variability in language-based behavior and relate it to cognitive dysfunction observed in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
Academically Gifted; Action Research; Mathematics Achievement; Academic Achievement; Cluster Grouping; Ability Identification; Educational Practices; Comparative Analysis; Case Studies; General Education; Student Characteristics; Gender Differences; Racial Differences; English (Second Language); Urban Schools

Abstract:
An increasing number of schools are implementing gifted cluster grouping models as a cost-effective way to provide gifted services. This study is an example of comparative action research in the form of a quantitative case study that focused on mathematic achievement for nongifted students in a district that incorporated a schoolwide cluster grouping model. Although previous research found that gifted students performed better in the cluster setting, this study sought to determine the effects of the cluster model on nongifted students. Findings from this research indicate that general education students in the gifted cluster classes and those not in the gifted clusters experienced similar levels of academic growth in mathematics. Data disaggregated according to grade level, gender, ethnicity, and English language learner status showed that students achieved at similar rates in mathematics in gifted cluster classrooms and those classrooms without the gifted cluster groups. (Contains 7 tables and 1 note.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Factor Analysis; Adolescents; Web Sites; Electronic Publishing; Web 2.0 Technologies; Content Analysis; Multivariate Analysis; Literary Genres; Performance Factors; Language Styles; Cluster Grouping; Cohort Analysis

Abstract:
Emerging web applications and networking systems such as blogs have become popular, and they offer unique opportunities and environments for learners, especially for adolescent learners. This study attempts to explore the writing styles and genres used by adolescents in their blogs by employing content, factor, and cluster analyses. Factor analysis was used to identify the factors that influence the genres of adolescents' blogs, and cluster analysis was used to divide the adolescents' blogs into the topic balanced group and the expression of feelings group. The findings revealed that the two groups of adolescents showed a difference in blog background, genres, and use of Internet language variables. Additionally, female adolescent bloggers tended to post more articles than male bloggers. Furthermore, the number of posted articles between female and male adolescents varied in some genres. (Contains 11 tables and 1 figure.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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Descriptors:
School Effectiveness; Program Effectiveness; Educational Attainment; Vocational Education; Educational Indicators; Achievement Gains; Instructional Effectiveness; Performance Factors; Ethnicity; Disadvantaged Environment; Prior Learning; Training Methods; Training Objectives; Cluster Grouping; Foreign Countries; Educational Quality; Accountability; Predictor Variables; Institutional Characteristics; Teacher Characteristics; Low Achievement; High Achievement; Comparative Analysis; Achievement Rating

Abstract:
This study investigates the possibilities of estimating value added as a performance indicator in senior secondary vocational education. Value added is interesting in this context because it is considered as a reliable tool for comparing the effectiveness of educational institutions. Although value added indicators have been developed since the 1980s for both primary and secondary educations, the research on school effectiveness has largely neglected vocational education because of its complexity. For estimating value added in this study, data concerning almost 90,000 students in Dutch senior secondary vocational education are used. Factors such as ethnicity, living in problematic neighbourhoods and students' prior educational attainment appear to be significant predictors of student outcomes. The results indicate considerable differences in the effectiveness among clusters of training programmes, whereas there are hardly any differences between the educational institutions. Of the total variance among the student outcomes, 14% is related to the training programme clusters. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract

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