Happy Talk Research Articles

Evaluating a targeted selective speech, language, and communication intervention at scale – Protocol for the Happy Talk cluster randomised controlled trial.

Background In areas of social disadvantage up to 40–50% of children enter preschool with speech and language skills significantly poorer than would be expected for their age. The Happy Talk trial tests if a community embedded, targeted selective speech and language programme that simultaneously engages with parents and early childhood educators, (1) improves language outcomes in children aged between 2 years 10 months and 6 years and (2) is cost effective for the health care system. Method The Happy Talk trial is a large scale cluster randomised trial of a 12-week manualised intervention delivered in pre/school settings serving socially disadvantaged communities, in Ireland. Seventy-two clusters will receive the intervention (12 participants per cluster). Parents and pre/school staff engage in group training and coaching in the form of 12 1-hour sessions for parents and four staff workshops, over the course of the pre/school year. Training/coaching includes core interaction skills (modelling, expanding, balancing questions and comments), early literacy and phonological awareness. Blinded assessments pre- and immediately post-intervention and at 6 months follow up, will measure the primary outcomes of children’s receptive and expressive language and functional impact, and secondary outcomes of quality of life. Parental responsiveness and educator-child interactions will also be evaluated. Discussion This robust study evaluates a public health approach to the delivery of speech language and communication intervention in the ‘real world’ in the community, which focuses on prevention and equity of access. Pilot work indicates that the programme is feasible, acceptable to parents and staff, cost effective, and suitable for implementation at scale. The trial includes a process evaluation, a well-developed economic evaluation and the outcomes are directly relevant to children, families and educators. This work has the potential to improve the long-term outcomes and life chances of people living in social disadvantage. Trial registration clinicaltrials.gov NCT06460090 Trial Management There is a formal governance structure to oversee the conduct and running of the trial, consisting of a trial management group and a steering committee. More details on the composition, roles and responsibilities of each committee can be found in the supplemental material.

Happy Talk: Is Common Diversity Rhetoric Effective Diversity Rhetoric?

Happy Talk: Is Common Diversity Rhetoric Effective Diversity Rhetoric?

What do the narratives tell us? Exploring the implementation of the Athena SWAN Ireland Charter.

Due to the systemic inequalities enduring in career progression pathways in the Irish higher education sector, the Athena SWAN Ireland Charter (ASIC), a gender equality accreditation program, is being implemented. Using a theoretical approach, blending insights from feminist institutionalism with literature on the role of narratives in policy implementation, this article reveals the complex nature of subjective engagement with policy implementation processes. This article discusses an empirical study of Athena SWAN Ireland Charter implementation across three purposively chosen Irish universities, interviewing 26 key institutional actors tasked with implementing the ASIC locally. Narrative themes emerging as dominant from the data include a lack of operational knowledge, desire for a nationally contextualized program, ambiguity, championing, "happy talk," and identifying points of resistance. Literature on the role of narrative accounts highlighting a diversity of perceptions in policy and program implementation is strengthened by this study's findings. A feminist institutionalist lens highlight the gendered nature of the operationalization of the Charter work and the vague and detached "happy talk" engaged predominantly by senior men leaders. Findings from this empirical study highlight the importance of exploring the narrative accounts of key actors in order to gain a holistic understanding of the nuanced implementation process, beyond the normative assumptions inherent in the Charter implementation.

“Saved” by Interaction, Living by Race: The Diversity Demeanor in an Organizational Space

Sociologists have written surprisingly little about the role of social interactions in facilitating the success of racial diversity initiatives in contemporary organizations. The push for racial inclusion across multiple institutions illustrates that racial diversity is a widespread cultural mythology. However, social interactions are living component of cultural ideals, and successful interracial interactions are necessary to pull off diversity. In this article, I use ethnographic data gathered from parishioners of an interracial religious organization to look beyond “happy talk” and toward the tangible effort that is required to accomplish racial diversity on the ground. Specifically, I advance the concept of the diversity demeanor: racialized interaction rituals that smooth social interactions in interracial settings. Using the contributions of symbolic interactionism to examine race as a social relationship mediated through formal organizations offers a number of advantages. It reveals how the burden of making diversity happen falls on the shoulders of racial minorities who must “save” interactions and develop White actors’ understandings when they “mess up.” By developing the concept of the diversity demeanor, I bring attention to how macrolevel systems of stratification manifest within microlevel practices in the meso space of a religious organization.

The sociology of white America: A teaching and learning guide

The sociology of white America: A teaching and learning guide

One of the Good Ones: Rhetorical Maneuvers of Whiteness

Drawing on the literature on white habitus, colorblindness, diversity ideology, and happy talk, I argue that rhetorical maneuvers are key aspects of white habitus that allow whites to construct a non-racist self by drawing on colorblind discourses. To explore how white habitus influences interview dynamics when the respondent and interviewer are of a different race, I conducted 48 interviews with whites from rural and urban areas of the Greater Buffalo Area. Specifically, I examine the relationship between white habitus, a non-racist presentation of self, and rhetorical maneuvers that whites deploy when talking about race and immigration. I also introduce two new frames of colorblindness: differentiation and civility. The civility frame conflates friendliness and civility with anti-racism and is used as evidence that everything is fine. The differentiation frame attempts to draw distinctions between themselves (“non-racist white people”) and other whites (“bad apples”).

Economic evaluation of the Happy Talk pilot effectiveness trial: A targeted selective speech, language and communication intervention for children from areas of social disadvantage

Purpose: This study presents a cost-effectiveness analysis of a targeted selective pre-school intervention programme, “Happy Talk”, which focuses on language development, by simultaneously enhancing parental interaction and the pre-school environment. Method: Happy Talk (delivered to 77 children) is an add on intervention, and is compared to usual care, adopting a healthcare perspective. Cost-effectiveness analyses were carried out using the Pre-school Language Scale 5- Total (PLS-5) for baseline analysis and the Child Health Utility Instrument (CHU9D) in a secondary analysis. Result: Baseline cost-effectiveness analysis showed Happy Talk was more effective (6.3 point change in total PLS-5 standard score – effect size 0.463SD and more expensive (€82.06) than usual care (cost-effectiveness ratio is €13.02 per unit change). Employing a proxy to estimate monetary net benefit, the benefits outweigh the costs, showing that it is cost-effective. However, results do not persist when health-related quality of life outcome measures are considered. Conclusion: Findings suggest a targeted selective public health approach, could be considered value for money to reduce the societal burden of children with low levels of speech, language and communication. However, measurement of longer term outcomes and a larger trial are required, to definitively inform policy changes.

English-Speaking Adults' Labeling of Child- and Adult-Directed Speech Across Languages and Its Relationship to Perception of Affect.

Child-directed speech, as a specialized form of speech directed toward young children, has been found across numerous languages around the world and has been suggested as a universal feature of human experience. However, variation in its implementation and the extent to which it is culturally supported has called its universality into question. Child-directed speech has also been posited to be associated with expression of positive affect or “happy talk.” Here, we examined Canadian English-speaking adults' ability to discriminate child-directed from adult-directed speech samples from two dissimilar language/cultural communities; an urban Farsi-speaking population, and a rural, horticulturalist Tseltal Mayan speaking community. We also examined the relationship between participants' addressee classification and ratings of positive affect. Naive raters could successfully classify CDS in Farsi, but only trained raters were successful with the Tseltal Mayan sample. Associations with some affective ratings were found for the Farsi samples, but not reliably for happy speech. These findings point to a complex relationship between perception of affect and CDS, and context-specific effects on the ability to classify CDS across languages.

Happy Talk: Is Common Diversity Rhetoric Effective Diversity Rhetoric?

Despite increased emphasis on diversity, diversity initiatives often evoke negative employee reactions, which undermine their effectiveness. We investigate leaders’ diversity rhetoric—defined as how leaders talk about diversity—as a tool for increasing employees’ diversity support. We identify three diversity rhetoric types: value-in-diversity (diversity creates value), challenge-in-diversity (diversity creates challenges), and contingent diversity (diversity creates value if the challenges are overcome). Drawing from theory on communication norms, we predict value rhetoric is most common. Drawing from theory on persuasion and goal setting, we predict contingent rhetoric is most effective. An archival study of company websites reveals value rhetoric is most common, but contingent rhetoric has the strongest positive effect on diversity rankings (Study 1). A survey of employees of an agriculture company reveals leaders use value rhetoric most often, but contingent rhetoric has the strongest positive effect on employees’ behavioral diversity support (Study 2). Finally, an experiment reveals diversity rhetoric has causal effects and perceived goal difficulty explains why contingent rhetoric is most effective (Study 3). Collectively, these studies uncover a descriptive-prescriptive paradox—the most common diversity rhetoric is not the most effective—and suggest leaders can increase diversity support by changing the way they talk about diversity.

Happy Talk: A pilot effectiveness study of a targeted-selective speech-language and communication intervention for children from areas of social disadvantage.

Despite the public health implications of language difficulties associated with social disadvantage, there is a dearth of effectiveness studies investigating the effects of targeted speech and language programmes in this area. To determine the effects of a targeted selective community-based child language intervention programme (Happy Talk), which simultaneously engaged with parents and early childhood educators, in the Republic of Ireland. A mixed methods methodology was applied with quantitative outcome and qualitative process data collected. Effectiveness was examined using a quasi-experimental single blind study design comparing Happy Talk with 'usual care' across four preschools. Qualitative process data were also gathered to examine the acceptability and feasibility of the Happy Talk approach in practice, and to identify factors to improve the probability of successful wider implementation. Child language (PLS-5) and quality-of-life measures were administered pre- and immediately post- the 11-week intervention. Responsiveness was assessed as the parental outcome, and the oral language environment of preschools was measured using the Communication Supporting Classroom Observation Tool (CSCOT). Retrospective acceptability was analysed with reference to the theoretical framework of acceptability (v 2). Pre-/post-expressive and composite language scores were collected for 58 children, and receptive scores for 54 children. Multiple linear regression revealed significant intervention effects for comprehension and total language with large and moderate effect sizes, respectively (0.60 and 0.46 SD). No significant effect was shown for parental responsiveness. No effects were found for the preschool environment or children's quality of life. Preschool staff deemed the programme to be an acceptable method of enhancing children's speech and language skills and rated the intervention positively. The Happy Talk pilot effectiveness trial shows that comprehension can be improved (with a large effect) in preschool children from areas of social disadvantage, following an 11-week intervention, in which parents and preschool staff are simultaneously engaged. The ecological validity of the programme, as well as feasibility and acceptability to staff, make it a suitable programme to be delivered at scale. What is already known on the subject Up to 50% of children from socially disadvantaged areas enter preschool with speech and language difficulties. The majority of intervention studies are (1) researcher led; (2) efficacy trials carried out in ideal conditions; and (3) focus on working with parents or early childhood educators rather than engaging with both groups simultaneously. Many studies omit child language outcomes, and those that include them tend to show relatively modest effects for expressive language and negligible effects for receptive language. What this paper adds to existing knowledge This pilot study shows that the Happy Talk programme, which is embedded in the community and which simultaneously engages with parents and early childhood educators, is highly effective in improving children's receptive language skills. These findings are particularly important in the context of (1) the study taking place in real world conditions; and (2) the programme being designed and refined by speech and language therapy services, rather than one which is researcher led. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Implementing an 11-week targeted selective community-based language intervention can result in a large positive effect on receptive language for children from areas of social disadvantage. The study findings highlight the importance of embedding intervention programmes in the community and of simultaneously engaging with parents and preschool staff.

Re-imagining Diversity: Towards an Anthropology for Disruption in UK Higher Education

From Athena Swan accreditations to Access and Widening Participation agendas, diversity training and renewed pedagogic approaches to inclusive learning, the higher education landscape is now awash with the language of ‘diversity’ as policy and practice. The institutionalisation of ‘diversity’ is a welcome method of inclusion, yet it is often reproduced as ‘happy talk’ (Bell and Hartmann 2007) that pacifies the call for meaningful structural and institutional change, silencing and even reinforcing the inequality it seeks remedy (i.e. Ahmed, 2012; Alexander, 2005; Archer, Hutchings & Ross 2003; Kirton, Greene & Dean 2007; Mohanty, 2003; Puwar, 2004). Taking these paradoxical dimensions of diversity as ethnographic and conceptual points of departure, this special issue seeks to unravel some of the everyday experiences, practices and policies encoded in diversity ‘speak’ and ‘diversity work’ (Ahmed 2012) across anthropology departments in the UK. By giving credence to accounts of the daily graft of ‘diversity work’, together with embodied and lived experiences of what ‘being diverse’ entails on the ground, we strive to productively mobilise decentred ‘situated knowledges’ (Haraway, 1988) in order to displace the continued centrality of white / elite / heteronormative / ableist reference points at the heart of much higher education institutional diversity strategies and inclusion agendas (cf. also Puwar, 2004). For us, the term ‘re-imagining’ is a call for positive political transformation in which we hope the difficult, uncomfortable - but hopefully - fruitful questions and critiques posed by papers in this special issue galvanise a space for diverse-led action. It is thus against this backdrop that we try to re-imagine diversity in a new light: to bear witness to those who live its effects and thereby reveal the potential to democratically and holistically re-structure anthropology from the ground up.

Community-based performances of harmonious diversity: Happy talk and utopian performativity in Playback Theatre

In this article, we examine a Playback Theatre performance in which audience members perform their appreciation for living in a diverse community, engaging with the performativity of happy talk surrounding diversity. Happy talk is largely considered to support the status quo of White supremacy, letting those who benefit from dominant systems of power off the hook. However, in this event it appeared to operate instead as a utopian performative. The racially and ethnically diverse storytellers in the workshop narrate positive stories about the diversity in their community, and they do so for a reason. This article looks at the hope animating the event.

‘So, he is practically a Korean?’: Power relations and re-articulation of the Korean Self in the TV show Non-Summit

Korean national identity is defined by nationalist sentiment and a mono-ethnic self-image. Having turned into a migrant-receiving country, Korea is slowly transforming into a multicultural society. The contemporary popularity of television shows with migrant representation reflects this change. The question arises how migrants get depicted in these popular broadcasting shows and what this portrayal of non-Koreans reveals about re-articulations of the Korean Self. As a response to these questions, a critical discourse analysis of Episodes 1 and 103 of the show Non-Summit (Bijeongsang hoedam 2014–17) is conducted. Corresponding to Koller’s (2011) combined discourse-historical and socio-cognitive approach, macro-, meso- and micro-level are analysed separately. Overall, Non-Summit reproduces Korean discourse on multiculturalism as ‘happy talk’, as the avoidance of in-depth consideration of inequality, the reproduction of ‘western’ norms and the normativity of Koreanness. This results from predominantly selecting Caucasians and constructing them as ‘para-Koreans’ who can then be readily consumed. These practices enable the Korean Self to position itself as analogous to western, modern norms. This positioning mirrors the influence of ‘nouveau-riche nationalism’ and the Korean ‘will to greatness’. The show further consolidates existing societal norms in Korea (Kang 2017: 14) on four different levels of power relations between Korean producers/writers and migrant population in Korea, non-Korean cast and migrant population in Korea, Korean producers/writers/hosts and non-Korean cast, and Korean viewers and non-Korean cast, and hierarchizes modern and traditional values. Thereby, Non-Summit reproduces the South Korean struggle to reconstruct a homogenous national identity in the face of a rising ethnic diversity within the country.

Threatening Places or Diverse Spaces: Divergent Constructions of Florida Puerto Ricans across Twitter and Newspaper Articles

This study examines constructions of Puerto Ricans across two different media forms: newspaper articles and Twitter. We use Poinciana, Florida, a Central Florida Puerto Rican enclave, as a means to examine these constructions. Because of the high concentration of Puerto Rican residents and unprecedented migration to the area, Poinciana is an ideal community to examine media constructions of a migrant group. Utilizing constructivist grounded theory, we analyze all published newspaper articles (1995–2016) and public Twitter posts (2009–2016) about Puerto Ricans in the region (N = 174). We find newspaper articles construct mostly benign views of Puerto Ricans, reflecting “Happy Talk” diversity discourse, while Twitter constructions present more negative portrayals, generally relating to population size, and often reflecting a racist ideology reminiscent of the Latino Threat Narrative. We conclude by detailing the significance of divergent constructions across media forms during a period of heightened migration, and how the type of media consumed by Puerto Ricans in this community known as “Little Puerto Rico” is likely to influence their perceived level of societal acceptance.

Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies by Joel Stone

Book Reviews 149 A small group, including Hale, managed to launch an open life-raft stored on the wheelhouse roof. As his companions on the raft succumbed to the cold, Hale survived until unexpected rescue by a Coast Guard helicopter. Particular strengths of Torn in Two are Schumacher’s riveting portrayal of the violence of the sinking and slow death of the few men who initially reached safety on the raft, and the contentious investigation and inevitable litigation. Schumacher is a gifted writer with some very fine work to his credit, particularly an extensive study of Allen Ginsberg culminating in a comprehensive biography as well as editing a wide-ranging collection of his poems and letters. Torn in Two does a masterful job of closely focusing on the human element of the overall disaster, something we often ignore. In the end, the Morrell is just a pile of steel on the bottom of Lake Huron. It is the story of her crew and their survivors we all need to remember. Thank you, Michael, for writing this remarkable book. Frederick Stonehouse Northern Michigan University Joel Stone, ed. Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2017. Pp. 328. Bibliography. Illustrations. Index. Cloth: $39.99. Detroit 1967: Origins, Impacts, Legacies is a compelling read for anyone seeking to understand Detroit’s torrid history of race relations, and what led to the police raid on an after-hours “blind pig” on July 23, 1967. The subject is organized around thirty-one accounts by authors familiar with the metro region, who provide history, critiques and personal recollections about the development of a city grounded in a racial atmosphere that should not have made the disturbance a surprise to anyone. What comes across throughout these mostly brief but intense vignettes is a city perched for an ultimate black-white clash that more than anything resulted from systemic and cumulative misgovernance, and institutional neglect. Posed throughout the readings are three questions. Was ’67 a riot, rebellion or revolution? Were persons having taken to the streets vile looters or proponents of legitimate grievances? And were they all blacks? Consensus on the questions is inconclusive, whether the authors are conservative, moderate or militant, including those who were victims of the melee or were first-hand observers. Each essay is a progression to the next as Detroit’s contentious racial history unfolds. And apparently, as noted early in the text, city leaders 150 The Michigan Historical Review continued to avoid grappling with Detroit’s racial problem as part of a nationwide pattern. Thus, 1967 was a major disturbance preceded by smaller racial clashes in the city in addition to the other significant encounters of 1863 and 1943. Roy Finkenbine notes this in his discussion of the Underground Railroad, stating that “at least six fugitive-slave riots occurred in Detroit before the Civil War” (p. 24). The essays are detail-driven, and the picture is the growing trail of events that made that fateful Sunday morning a predictable event, although the story of everyday African American life could at times slacken the hellish racial experience. De Witt Dykes points to the strides African Americans made in business and professional endeavors in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His account and others note alternatively that race relations were not always antagonistic. Yet, even as these round out the bigger picture of life in Detroit, palpable racial discrimination tended to erase the happy talk of African American success stories as the years advanced. The almost doom-haunted narrative becomes stronger post 1945, and by the early 1960s, despite the goodtimes propaganda of Detroit Mayor Jerome Cavanaugh, the pattern of intense housing segregation, jobs discrimination, and discrepancies in the quality of education between whites and blacks were irrevocably in place. Probably most important during these years was the deteriorating white police-black community relationship. Several authors mention this, but Melba Joyce Boyd gives it particular attention as a boiling-point circumstance central to the times. In essence, hardened social patterns between the races were inevitable. Moreover, because the media could be a catalyst in shaping how residents viewed these tensions, Tim Kiska takes aim at the media when ’67 occurred. The infamous...

Happy Talk: Mode of Administration Effects on Subjective Well-Being

There is increasing interest in subjective well-being (SWB) both in academic and policy circles. As a result, considerable research efforts are now being directed at the validity and reliability of SWB measures. This study examines how SWB reports differ by survey mode. Using data from the April 2011 to March 2012 Annual Population Survey in the UK we find that individuals consistently report higher SWB over the phone compared to face-to-face interviews. We also show that the determinants of SWB differ significantly by mode, with life circumstances tending to matter more in face-to-face interviews. These results have substantial implications for research and policy purposes.

The Need for Worlds Beyond

26 A & Q The Need for Worlds Beyond Eleanor Ty What is exciting about the approach of Verge and recent work on globalization is the premise of a worldview that is no longer based on divisions between first and third, developed and developing, or North and South, but one where the economic, cultural, and ecological globalization of the last thirty years has forced us to rethink origins, master–slave, and colonizer–colonized dichotomies. Asia has gone “global,” and the decentered approach of Verge offers a good paradigm for thinking about the world today. The G7 superpowers used to be made up of mainly Western countries, but the G-20, countries with major economies that account for 80 percent of world trade and two-thirds of the world population, now include five Asian countries: Japan, China, India, South Korea, and Indonesia. The Internet and the increasing digitization of materials contribute to the shift in power and influence between knowledge and cultural producers and consumers. Web 2.0 Internet-based services, which enabled social networking sites, communication tools, and the growing ubiquity of mobile devices, have also been factors in the way culture and information have been shared and distributed. In other words, center and periphery are moving closer together. If I could go back and relive my undergraduate and/or graduate education , I would have made a more concentrated effort of keeping up the study of the Asian languages that I grew up with in my childhood years. In my case, the languages were Chinese (Mandarin and Hokkien) and Filipino (Tagalog). Growing up as a Chinese Filipino in Manila in the 1960s and early 1970s, we studied English, geography, history, music, and math and English in the morning; had an hour of Filipino language and literature; and then studied arithmetic, Chinese literature, geography , history, letter writing, singing, and ethics in Mandarin in the afternoon from first grade on. The idea that we were being asked to learn three languages and speak a different dialect (Hokkien) at home didn’t seem to faze us. All the students at St. Stephen’s were cultural polyglots who not only learned to negotiate linguistic codes but also to acquire cultural competence in three ethnic communities. I remember learning to sing and do the hand motions for the song “Happy Talk,” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, in our “English” music class, and then later learning to perform a Chinese traditional folk dance to the Taiwanese song “A Li Shan” (阿 里 山). Most of the students, of course, had never been outside the country, so these places existed simply in A & Q 27 our imagination. In our Pilipino class, we studied the legend of the narra tree. The particular triangular relationship between these cultures stems from a history of colonialization, immigration, and settlement in the Philippines of which I was only vaguely aware. We were living examples of “global Asians” before the term global became fashionable. It was only with my family’s immigration to North America (Canada) that I became increasingly more Anglo-centric and Westernized. Instead of continuing my study of Chinese and Filipino, I studied French and German at high school and university. This end to the study of Asian languages was also an end to the study of the histories, philosophies, and cultures of Asia, which I very much regret. Although I was happy to have specialized in English literature, and to have studied Canadian and British history, I believe that a more in-depth knowledge of Asian cultures and histories , facilitated by the study of one or two Asian languages, would make me better equipped to engage in global conversations today. One work that has remained useful for my thinking about local and global identities is Susan Stanford Friedman’s “‘Beyond’ Gender: The New Geography of Identity and the Future of Feminist Criticism,” which was published in her book Mappings in 1998. Though Friedman’s chapter begins with feminist figurations of identity from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s, she argues that what is needed is to go “beyond” gender to other spatial and geographical concepts of identity. Friedman believes that we should focus on geography and location instead of categories of male...

Effects of Cooperative Group Work Activities on Pre-school Children’s Pattern Recognition Skills

Patterns are structures based on the principle of arranging objects, figures, or numbers in a specific order. Patterns can be repeating groups of three growing-narrowing or relationship-based (Smith, 2001, p. 80). In a repeating pattern, a basic unit is continuously repeated (Olkun & Ucar, 2007); for example, ssszsssz. In a growing-narrowing pattern, there is a regular increase or decrease; for instance, ©, ©©, ©©©. In a relationship-based pattern, some operations are followed in a group. In such patterns, there is an order between the numbers such as 1, 3, 7, 15, ..., which is a pattern based on a calculation whereby the previous number is doubled and then 1 is added.Revealing the order of a series is aform of mathematical modeling, and identifying the rules of a pattern is an important characteristic of mathematical thinking (Sovchik, 1989; Worth, 1990). Most studies have supported the idea that including pattern recognition in an early mathematics teaching/leaming curriculum contributes to mathematical modeling, mathematical screening, and the abstraction of mathematical knowledge (Mulligan & Mitchelmore 2009; Papic & Mulligan 2005, 2007; Papic, Mulligan, & Bobis 2009). Papic and Mulligan (2005) pointed out that the mathematical patterns students encounter at school vary from numerical series to bi-dimensional and tridimensional object series, algebraic generalizations and geometrical theorems, and therefore, patterns lie at the heart of school mathematics.Finding the rule in a pattern or knowing the principles for the formulation of the pattern requires the ability to recognize the similarities and differences through analysis. According to Worth (1990, p. 53), all these abilities are related to problem solving as searching for a pattern is a problem solving strategy. Tarim and Artut (2010) found that when children were exposed to pattern-related activities early, their problem solving skills developed accordingly. Therefore, it is important to provide children with active learning environments such as cooperative learning to support the development of pattern recognition skills and to reinforce peer-interaction..Cooperative learning is a method in which small groups work together with the aim of maximizing their own and each others learning in the pursuit of a common objective (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). When children interact, they are exposed to different relationships such as giving and receiving help, expressing their point of view, learning about others' perspectives, looking for new ways to clarify differences, solving problems, and formulating renewed understanding and knowledge (Gillies, 2003). In other words, cooperative learning necessitates mutual group help, the sharing of materials, discussion on a topic, production of a common product, and the fulfillment of the tasks necessary to achieve the group aim (Johnson & Johnson, 1994, p. 96). The main tenet of cooperative group work is that students work together and are responsible for each other's learning (Slavin, 1990). This method has been used in different fields and at various educational levels. At pre-school, however, its application has been limited (Avcioglu, 2003; Artut, 2009; Ramani, 2005; Tarim, 2009; Tarim & Artut, 2005). One of the reasons for the limited number of studies addressing the pre-school period are the difficulties encountered during the implementation phase. In line with this, Curran (1998, pp. 3-5) pointed out that three social skills are required for cooperative learning implementation to be successful; active listening, happy talk, and the participation of each child; as these provide a comfortable and positive environment in which the children can work together and share their own opinions.Research has shown that cooperative group work activities positively affect children's addition-subtraction skills (Tarim & Artut, 2005), problem solving skills (Tarim, 2009), and mathematical skills (Artut, 2009). …

Reply to Stan Becker, “Has the World Really Survived the Population Bomb? (Commentary on “How the World Survived the Population Bomb: Lessons from 50 Years of Extraordinary Demographic History”)”

My 2011 PAA presidential address (Lam 2011), the focus of Stan Becker’s comment, presented an optimistic perspective on how the world fared during the last 50 years of demographic history. An online commenter of a related op-ed column I wrote for the Los Angeles Times called me “Professor Happy Talk.” In my opinion, this optimistic view is entirely warranted. Although the last 50 years saw what was by far the fastest population growth the world has ever seen, it seems quite certain that this period also saw the largest improvements in the human condition of any 50 years in history. This remarkable achievement should surely make us optimistic about our ability to address the many complex challenges we will face in the next 50 years. Although I am optimistic about the future of humanity, I am not as optimistic as Julian Simon’s statement that “every trend in material welfare has been improving—and promises to do so, indefinitely” (Simon 1996). That position ignores serious setbacks, such as a decrease in life expectancy in some African countries resulting from HIV/AIDS as well as many kinds of environmental degradation that are effectively losses in wealth. In my address, I discussed some areas in which the record of the last 50 years is less positive, including disappointing progress in reducing poverty in Africa and environmental problems, such as global warming. I concede, however, that these topics received only limited discussion. I deliberately focused on the positive because I believe that the positive trends dominate the negative and because the positive trends are often overlooked. I’m pleased that Becker has continued the discussion and given more attention to some of these important areas in which we face real challenges. Becker notes areas in which the world does not look as rosy as the world I described in my address. Among these are depletion of aquifers, depletion of oil, global warming, and species loss. One possible response to these points is to counter with a list of additional indicators that suggest the world has been improving. Becker could respond with more indicators that have showed deterioration. We could continue this “half empty or half full” debate through many issues of Demography. The reality, of course, is that some things are getting better and some things are getting worse. I think the good far outweighs the bad. Rather than adding more items to my “half full” list, I will focus on some “big picture” questions raised in Becker’s comment.

From dragon to goose: has the Chinese dragon lost its fire?

The state of the world economy is something of a moving feast. Each week, news from the USA, Europe and now China registers a new development, with a growing appreciation of the interconnectedness of the world economy. ‘Understandings’ are often confounded with ‘happy talk’ (what used to be called ‘ideology’) where economic and political actors attempt to manipulate their market standing, agency rating etc., for their own parochial interests. France and England’s recent struggles to ‘dodge the bullet’ of a rating’s agency downgrade are a case in point. Happy talk about China is the latest shoe to drop. The West is beginning to realise that the Chinese Dragon is sicker than we realised.