Preparing Reflective Community College Leaders in a Graduate Leadership Course

This study measured the knowledge construction and reflection that occurred in a doctoral course designed to introduce major leadership theories and encourage reflection as a community college leadership practice. At each session, students completed forms reporting new learning and insights they experienced, as well as responding to reflection catalysts. Three themes emerged from the data: reflection on previous internal perspectives about leadership, critical review of personal and theoretical constructs, and embracing relational leadership. By the end of the course, students acknowledged the value of collaborative learning, and demonstrated changed perspectives regarding leadership practices, together with increased habits of reflection. Implications for graduate-level instruction and further research are proposed, based on the conclusion that the New Learning process is valuable for certain types of classes, is beneficial for professional development, and conforms to principles of transformative learning among adults.     

Longitudinal literacy professional development in an urban elementary charter school

The authors describe a school-university professional development partnership in a high-needs urban elementary charter school. University and school partners collaborated to build instructional capacity to develop teachers’ understanding and implementation of effective literacy instruction. Design-based research revealed increased understanding and implementation of effective literacy practices among school leaders and teachers. Findings revealed the importance of administrative stability; coaching support; and a focused, school-wide instructional vision.     

Approximating Whiteness: Race,Class, and Empire in the Making of Modern Elite/White Subjects

This essay takes up the messy relationship between whiteness and eliteness at the site of elite schools under conditions of global racial capitalism and empire. Rubén Gaztambide‐Fernández and Leila Angod theorize this relationship by describing the slippery ways in which whiteness and eliteness co‐constitute each other and by tracing how the relationship between eliteness and whiteness is both historical and spatial. They argue that, in the twenty‐first century, the entanglement between eliteness and whiteness produces a particular affective configuration and that elite schooling has become the key mechanism for producing what they call the elite/white subject. Gaztambide‐Fernández and Angod trace the making of the elite/white subject through three processes: the unhinging from time/history; the unhinging from space/land; and the obfuscation of whiteness/eliteness through the production of a particular cosmopolitan affect. They do this by looking specifically at how non‐White subjects are invited into eliteness, always in a paradoxically precarious approximation in which whiteness, and therefore eliteness, can always be revoked. The ongoing collusion between the particular spatial and historical dimensions of the production of eliteness obfuscates the ways in which becoming elite always requires an approximation to whiteness and how both whiteness and eliteness must be constantly produced and secured.     

What Makes One Able? The formation of pupils' conceptions of academic ability Qu'est-ce que fait capable? La formation,chez les élèves,de concepts quant à la capacité scolaire Qué es lo que hace capable? La formación,en los alumnos,de conceptos sobre la capacidad escolar

By comparing the reasons given for the peer assessments of children at different grade levels, the study set out to examine how children acquire the criteria of the conception of ability represented by the school. A sample of pre-school children, pupils (ages 6-10) of the first, second, third, and fourth grade (N = 112), were presented two tasks. In the free classification task, the children were asked to group their classmates on the basis of similarity; in the team selection task, they were requested to name those classmates whom they would like to have on their team for different academic contests and as playmates. In both tasks, the children were asked to give reasons for their responses. The findings from the team selection task indicated that, by the fourth grade, children have acquired the elements of the school's conception of ability in a fairly clear form. They begin to use comparative criteria and the correctness and speed of performance in the assessment of theoretical skills in particular. In the free classification task, references to academic skills made a clear appearance only as late as the fourth grade, suggesting that the influence of the school extends to the domain of non-academic peer assessment as well. En comparant les justifications fournies par des élèves de différents degrés d'études qui ont essayé d'évaluer leurs camarades de classe, cette étude a voulu mettre au clair de quelle facon les enfants s'attribuent-ils des critères de la conception de la capacité représentée par l'école. Deux tâches ont été donnés aux élèves préscolaires ainsi qu'aux élèves de première, seconde, troisième et quatrième année scolaire (N = 112). Dans un premier exercice de libre classification, on a demandé aux enfants de grouper leurs camarades selon la ressemblance de ceux-ci; dans un deuxième exercice de sélection d'équipes, les enfants ont dû choisir ceux de leurs camarades qu'ils voudraient avoir dans leur équipe pour participer à des concours scolaires les plus divers et ceux qu'ils voudraient avoir comme compagnons de jeux. Dans ces deux tâches les enfants ont dû également justifier leurs choix. Les résultats de l'exercice de sélection d'équipes ont prouvé que, avant de commencer la quatrième année scolaire, les enfants se sont attribués clairement des éléments des conceptions quant à la capacité qui sont celles de l'école même. Les enfants commencent à employer des critères comparatifs, ainsi que la correction et la rapidité de l'acte, pour évaluer surtout des capacités théoriques. Dans l'exercice de libre classification, les allusions aux capacités scolaires ne se sont présentées de facon nette qu'au cours de la quatrième année scolaire. Ce résultat semble indiquer que l'influence de l'école s'étend aussi dans le domaine de l'évaluation non-scolaire de camarades. Comparando las justificaciones dadas por alumnos de diferentes niveles escolares que han tratado de evaluar sus compañeros de clase, este estudio ha querido aclarar de qué manera los niños adoptan criterios del concepto de capacidad representado por la escuela. Se dieron dos tareas a alumnos preescolares y a alumnos del primer, segundo, tercer y cuarto año escolar (N = 112). En un primer ejercicio de libre clasificación, los alumnos tuvieron que agrupar sus compañeros según la semejanza de éstos; en un segundo ejercicio de selección de equipos, los alumnos tuvieron que elegir aquellos de sus compañeros que querían tener en su equipo para participar en diversos concursos escolares y aquellos que querían tener como compañeros de juego. En ambos ejercicios los alumnos también tuvieron que justificar sus preferencias. Los resultados en cuanto al ejercicio de selección de equipos mostraron que, antes de comenzar el cuarto año escolar, los niños han adoptado claramente elementos de los conceptos de la escuela sobre la capacidad. Los alumnos empiezan a servirse de criterios comparativos, de la corrección y la rapidez del acto para evaluar sobre todo capacidades teóricas. En el ejercicio de libre clasificación, las alusiones a las capacidades escolares aparecieron con claridad sólo durante el cuarto año escolar. Este resultado parece indicar que la influencia de la escuela se extiende también al campo de la evaluación no-escolar de compañeros.     

Becoming a Design Thinker: Assessing the Learning Process of Students in a Secondary Level Design Thinking Course

Design thinking is a collaborative problem solving and human‐centric approach that fosters innovation by elevating participants’ creative thinking abilities. Design thinking techniques and practices have been implemented into different curricula in secondary and post‐secondary education to address the need for new skills to be learned for the twenty‐first century. However, little work has been conducted to clarify how to evaluate the students’ design thinking skills gained in these courses. This study reports on a successful evaluation of an interaction design thinking curriculum in secondary level education. Several types of data sources, including participant observation, open‐ended questions and document analysis were employed to gather extensive data on students’ skills gained during the course. The results of the study inform design thinking researchers about how to evaluate design thinking skills of students in a secondary level design thinking course.     

Can we encourage girls’ mobility towards science-related careers? Disconfirming stereotype belief through expert influence

A study was conducted to explore expert influence as a possible way to encourage girls’ mobility towards math- and science-related careers. High school students were exposed to an expert source presenting “scientific evidence” that contrary to stereotype, girls are better than boys in all subject domains. Beliefs related to stereotype content, self-evaluations and intentions to engage in math- and science-related careers were assessed before and after exposure to influence. While most participants were influenced at the level of stereotype content, only girls who did not personally believe the stereotype prior to influence, and boys who did, increased their intentions to engage in math/science-related careers. Implications of the findings are discussed, with an emphasis on the possible ways to influence girls who firmly believe in the stereotype.     

Parents’ assessments of their children’s abilities

Conducted in the framework of the theory of social representations, the study was designed to examine the dimensions in terms of which parents assess their children’s abilities, the ways in which social positions — here, the parents’ education and gender and the child’s gender — organize these assessments, and the ways in which the assessments relate to the estimated school success of the child. The subjects were a nationwide sample of parents (N=938), who were asked to estimate their children’s school success and to assess these children’s abilities. A factor analysis showed the ability assessments to be multidimensional. The parents assessed girls’ cognitive and social abilities to be better than boys’. Academically educated parents drew a more categorical distinction than other parents between cognitive and other abilities, which suggests that they endorse a differential conception of intelligence. A clear congruity of content was observed between the estimations of school success and the assessments of abilities, indicating that different school subjects are associated with different abilities.     

Shared Picture Book Reading Interventions for Child Language Development: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Interventions that train parents to share picture books with children are seen as a strategy for supporting child language development. We conducted meta-analyses using robust variance estimation modeling on results from 19 RCTs (N_total = 2,594; M_childage = 1–6 years). Overall, book-sharing interventions had a small sized effect on both expressive language (d = 0.41) and receptive language (d = 0.26). They had a large effect on caregiver book-sharing competence (d = 1.01). The impact of the intervention on child language was moderated by intervention dosage, with lower dosage associated with a minimal impact. Child age and caregiver education level were unrelated to child outcome. This review and meta-analysis confirms the promise of book-sharing interventions for enhancing and accelerating child language development.