Museum education and sustainable development: A public pedagogy

The question of how sustainability can be incorporated into all areas of society encourages museums to rethink their approaches to society and education. In this article, we argue that museums have the potential to become key public pedagogies for sustainable development and thereby play a crucial role in encouraging participation in sustainability issues. Due to the complexity of sustainability issues, and the potential disturbances of and difficult experiences resulting from exhibitions displaying them, we suggest that a theoretical framing for the teaching and learning of sustainability issues in museums is necessary. Thus, we argue that in relation to exhibitions displaying sustainability issues, museum education would benefit from a didactical framework in which the relation between teaching, learning, content and situation is taken into account. We also argue that a theoretical framework explaining the relation between exhibition, visitor and educational situation could inform pedagogical discussions about how to incorporate sustainability education into museums. Therefore, we suggest a transactional conceptualization of museum pedagogy for sustainability museum education based on John Dewey’s educational and aesthetic philosophy and Louise Rosenblatt’s theory of reading and writing as a potential approach to the teaching and learning of sustainability issues in museum education.

STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARD THE USE OF WATTPAD IN READING COMPREHENSION

This study attempts to seek what components of reading are affected by reading Wattpad and how the students' attitudes towards the use of Wattpad for reading. This research used a descriptive qualitative method. This research is also supported by the theory of reading attitude proposed by McKenna, et.al. The data for this study were collected from two sources, namely a close-ended questionnaire to 20 English Literature students of Universitas Sumatera Utara and supported by interview with 5 out of 20 selected respondents. The results of this study indicate two main things, namely: (1) Vocabulary is the component of reading that is most affected. As many as 40% of respondents chose vocabulary as the most affected reading component, 35% of respondents chose comprehension ability, 15% of respondents chose reading fluency and 10% of respondents chose phonemic awareness. (2) It was found that 10 respondents were judged to show a positive attitude towards the use of Wattpad, 6 respondents showed a neutral attitude and 4 respondents showed a negative attitude towards the use of Wattpad.

Interlocution on the Imperative of Understanding: Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics and Cheng’s Onto-Hermeneutics

The essay imagines a dialogic interlocution that features the points of convergence and divergence between Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics and Chung-ying Cheng’s onto-hermeneutics, taking note of the fact the latter is an ongoing response to and revision of the former, to the extent it seeks to construct a theory of reading that takes into account both the phenomenological and ontological dimensions of interpretation and understanding. The essay furthers identifies Cheng’s theory as a Eurotropic construct that sensitively represents the Chinese philosophical worldview while strategically employing appropriate western analytical apparatuses.

What Makes a Good Graded Reader: Engaging with Graded Readers in the Context of Extensive Reading in L2

<p>It is widely accepted in the ESOL field that Extensive Reading is good for ESOL learners and there are many studies purporting to show that this is true. As a result, the publication of Graded Readers in English today is a major commercial concern, although David Hill (2008, p. 189), former director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading, in his most recent study of Graded Readers, comments that they are being produced 'in a hostile climate where extensive reading is little valued, practised or tested.' However, anecdotal evidence from teachers and researchers claims that learners do not read anywhere near the recommended one Graded Reader a week prescribed by Nation and Wang (1999, p. 355) to provide the necessary amount of comprehensible input for increasing vocabulary. If these claims and Hill's comments are true, there may be a mismatch between the kind of reading material produced for learners of English and the nature and teaching of the texts currently recommended by teachers and librarians. Such a situation would not only be a huge waste in terms of resources; it could also lead to the alienation of generations of English learners from a potentially valuable means of improving and enjoying language learning. My study investigates this discrepancy by looking at the perceptions of the main stakeholders in Graded Readers, namely the publishers, the judges and academics, the teachers and the learners, to see how they differ and why. As each population is different, the methodologies used in the study are various, making for an approach described as 'bricolage' (Lincoln & Guba, 2000a, p. 164). At the heart of the study are five case studies of learners, set against the backdrop of data gathered from all the stakeholders. As the results indicate that the purpose of the reading appears to govern the perceptions of the individual learner, I found Louise Rosenblatt's (Rosenblatt, 1978) Transactional Theory of Reading Response was an appropriate framework within which to interpret the data.</p>

What Makes a Good Graded Reader: Engaging with Graded Readers in the Context of Extensive Reading in L2

<p>It is widely accepted in the ESOL field that Extensive Reading is good for ESOL learners and there are many studies purporting to show that this is true. As a result, the publication of Graded Readers in English today is a major commercial concern, although David Hill (2008, p. 189), former director of the Edinburgh Project on Extensive Reading, in his most recent study of Graded Readers, comments that they are being produced 'in a hostile climate where extensive reading is little valued, practised or tested.' However, anecdotal evidence from teachers and researchers claims that learners do not read anywhere near the recommended one Graded Reader a week prescribed by Nation and Wang (1999, p. 355) to provide the necessary amount of comprehensible input for increasing vocabulary. If these claims and Hill's comments are true, there may be a mismatch between the kind of reading material produced for learners of English and the nature and teaching of the texts currently recommended by teachers and librarians. Such a situation would not only be a huge waste in terms of resources; it could also lead to the alienation of generations of English learners from a potentially valuable means of improving and enjoying language learning. My study investigates this discrepancy by looking at the perceptions of the main stakeholders in Graded Readers, namely the publishers, the judges and academics, the teachers and the learners, to see how they differ and why. As each population is different, the methodologies used in the study are various, making for an approach described as 'bricolage' (Lincoln & Guba, 2000a, p. 164). At the heart of the study are five case studies of learners, set against the backdrop of data gathered from all the stakeholders. As the results indicate that the purpose of the reading appears to govern the perceptions of the individual learner, I found Louise Rosenblatt's (Rosenblatt, 1978) Transactional Theory of Reading Response was an appropriate framework within which to interpret the data.</p>

World scientific production on reading comprehension: biometric analysis of the period 2011-2020

The objective of the study is to characterize the world scientific production on reading comprehension in databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, Google Academic, PubMed, Microsoft Academic and Crosreff between the years 2011 to 2020. We worked with a universe made up of 6025 articles obtained. Bibliometric indicators were calculated through Publish or Perish v. 7.31, VOSwiever, pubreminer and the same analytical software from the chosen databases. The results indicate a total of 209952 citations, with an average of 20995; 39 and 12273 citations per year, citations per article and citations per author respectively. The study by Perfetti and Stafura, entitled Word Knowledge in a Theory of Reading Comprehension, stands out. The United States is the main producer of scientific evidence on reading comprehension and the type of scientific production that stands out the most are original articles. These results show that the production of scientific articles on reading comprehension is abundant and is experiencing growth that demonstrates the importance that world researchers give to this topic.

Challenges of English as a first additional language: Fourth grade reading teachers’ perspectives

The study reported on here was designed to investigate the challenges faced by teachers when teaching reading in Grade 4 English First Additional Language (EFAL) in East London, South Africa. This research study was framed by the socio-constructivist theory of reading. A case study design that corresponds with the constructivist paradigm was used to gather qualitative data. Semi-structured interviews and observations were conducted with 12 teachers who were purposively selected from 4 public schools (2 English teachers from each school and 1 natural sciences teacher) to establish the challenges that they encountered in their attempts to encourage Grade 4 EFAL learners to gain proficiency in English. Data presented were taken from a large scale on English reading problems. The data were analyzed using Critical Discourse Analysis and were arranged and coded into 5 themes. The major findings refer to the poor level of reading of Grade 4 EFAL learners, a decrease in teacher and learner motivation, overcrowded classrooms and inadequate training on reading strategies. Based on the findings of the study and an extensive literature review, the Comprehensive Model for teaching reading is recommended.

Teaching Literature/Studying Literature in Literary Pedagogy and Literary Theory

Literary studies, in its two sides: teaching literature and studying literature, have suffered from a split in the profession between literary pedagogy and literary theories. A survey of the experience of some famous scholars who have tackled this issue in their writings is conducted to pinpoint the neglect in the part of people specialized in literary studies of the practical side of their work. Two points of convergence between literary pedagogy and literary theory are discussed. The first one presented two cases in which literary pedagogy was highly influenced by the ideas of two major shifts in critical theory: the formalist tendency of New Criticism and the reader-oriented tendency of the reader response approach. The second one discussed the efforts of the American educationalist and theorist Louise Rosenblatt in providing a theory of reading literary works in the light of what takes place in literature classrooms. The conclusions derived from this discussion lead to recommendations concerning the importance of making teaching of literature one of the academic interests and student preparation in departments of literature.