White Religious Educators Resisting White Fragility: Lessons From Mystics

Abstract

Decades of work in dismantling racism have not yielded the kind of results for which religious educators have hoped. One primary reason has been what scholars term “white fragility,” a symptom of the structural racism which confers systemic privilege upon White people. Lessons learned from Christian mystics point to powerful ways to confront and resist the siren call of such formation and instead to make resisting racism an integral part of Christian identity for White people.     

Transition to School: Developmental Trajectories and School Experiences

Because of the premium now placed on a formal education as well as the changing demographics of American society, school failure is now more costly than ever. Given that academic difficulties experienced by children are traceable to problems in underachievement that begin during the first years of early schooling, a thorough understanding of the transition-to-school process is needed. We suggest two principal assumptions in examining this transition-to-kindergarten period. First, multiple risk factors associated with certain child, family, and child care characteristics are expected to predict early school experience, both in and out of the classroom, and, thereby, social and academic success and failure in the early school years. Secondly, it is expected that day-to-day experiences in the classroom and on the playground will exacerbate or mitigate risk, resulting in some children performing better than would otherwise be expected and others functioning worse than anticipated. Thus, a critically important problem involves the identification of child, family, child care, and schooling factors and processes which account for risk being realized or not realized with regard to subsequent academic and school performance.     

Transition to School: Developmental Trajectories and School Experiences

Because of the premium now placed on a formal education as well as the changing demographics of American society, school failure is now more costly than ever. Given that academic difficulties experienced by children are traceable to problems in underachievement that begin during the first years of early schooling, a thorough understanding of the transition-to-school process is needed. We suggest two principal assumptions in examining this transition-to-kindergarten period. First, multiple risk factors associated with certain child, family, and child care characteristics are expected to predict early school experience, both in and out of the classroom, and, thereby, social and academic success and failure in the early school years. Secondly, it is expected that day-to-day experiences in the classroom and on the playground will exacerbate or mitigate risk, resulting in some children performing better than would otherwise be expected and others functioning worse than anticipated. Thus, a critically important problem involves the identification of child, family, child care, and schooling factors and processes which account for risk being realized or not realized with regard to subsequent academic and school performance.     

青少年英语学习策略的发展轨迹

采用英语学习策略问卷对685名青少年进行问卷调查,考察英语学习策略的发展规律,为制定英语教育政策提供参考依据。结果发现,不同年龄青少年英语学习策略总分及六个因子分均存在显著差异,随年龄的增长呈"W"型轨迹发展,策略总分及六个因子的发展轨迹存在一定差异。     

Systematically Improving Lessons in Teacher Education: What's Good for Prospective Teachers is Good for Teacher Educators

Researchers have advocated building a knowledge base for teacher education based on practitioner knowledge. In this article, the authors, two teacher educators, present knowledge gained from their systematic study of two lessons to help prospective teachers learn to study teaching. They offer a detailed look at the lessons' successes and shortcomings as well as potential revisions. They also reflect on their use of a model for systematically studying lessons, sharing details about their learning during this process. This article attempts to provide a visible, tangible product for other teacher educators interested in helping prospective teachers examine evidence of student learning.     

Trajectories of Physical Discipline: Early Childhood Antecedents and Developmental Outcomes

This study examined childhood antecedents and developmental outcomes associated with trajectories of mild and harsh parental physical discipline. Interview, questionnaire, and observational data were available from 499 children followed from ages 5 to 16 and from 258 children in an independent sample followed from ages 5 to 15. Analyses indicated distinct physical discipline trajectory groups that varied in frequency of physical discipline and rate of change. In both samples, family ecological disadvantage differentiated the trajectory groups; in the first sample, early child externalizing also differentiated the groups. Controlling for early childhood externalizing, the minimal/ceasing trajectory groups were associated with the lowest levels of subsequent adolescent antisocial behavior in both samples and with parent–adolescent positive relationship quality in the second sample.     

Fostering an Adolescent-Centered Community Responsive to Student Needs: Lessons Learned and Suggestions for Middle Level Educators

Young adolescents have unique basic and developmental needs. Middle level educators are best able to reach and teach young adolescents when they understand students’ needs and when the school environment, including its organizational structures and teacher practices, are responsive to these needs. Findings from a recently conducted qualitative case study indicate that middle level organizational structures, coupled with active, hands-on teacher practices, helped educators promote an adolescent-centered community where students felt cared for and perceived learning as both fun and educational. We highlight lessons learned from the study, including the importance of being responsive to student needs and promoting an adolescent-centered community. We then suggest ways middle level educators can foster such responsive communities in their own schools through maximizing the use of organizational structures and implementing active, hands-on teacher practices.     

Developmental Trajectories of Maladaptive Perfectionism Among African American Adolescents

This study examined the developmental trajectories of maladaptive perfectionism over a 7‐year period among African American youth living in an urban setting (N = 547). In particular, the study attempted to determine whether two maladaptive aspects of perfectionism (socially prescribed and self‐critical) changed over time and could be distinguished by variables in 6th and 12th grades (M_age at study entry [first grade] was 6.22 years [SD = 0.34]). Four classes best described the developmental trajectories on both measures of maladaptive perfectionism: high, low, increasing, and decreasing. Sixth‐ and 12th‐grade correlates, including measures of internalizing symptoms, mostly confirmed the distinctiveness of these classes. Parallel process analyses suggested that the two processes are complementary, yet distinct. Implications regarding the prevention of maladaptive perfectionism are discussed.     

Community College Developmental Writing Programs Most Promising Practices: What the Research Tells Educators

ABSTRACT

Students at community colleges are being placed into developmental writing classes at significantly high rates, as high as 80% at some colleges. Many of these students are students of color, and the need to help them persist and succeed is of increasing importance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the most promising practices by community college developmental writing programs. This article presents a review of more than 245 publications from over 450 authors, synthesized down to 36 validated studies with the goal of informing scholars and practitioners of the current state of the field. Themes emerging from these studies and a conceptual model through which findings can be viewed are presented. The analysis, with a focus on the structural, curricular, andragogical, and relational domains, documents only validated studies about the most promising practices. This article supports, challenges, and recommends how to better serve students in the developmental writing context. This author hopes to change how colleges implement developmental writing practices so that practitioners will be given the best tools to help all students succeed.     

Attitudes Toward Teaching Prevention and Developmental Issues Among Turkish Counselor Educators

The goal of this study was to determine existing attitudes of Turkish counselor educators regarding the need to emphasize prevention and developmental issues in counselor education programs and to propose ways of incorporating these functions into the counseling area as necessary. Data were collected via questionnaire from 104 counselor educators who have been working at Turkish universities. Of the 50 professors, 23 instructors and 31 research assistants who responded, 36 had prior school counselor experience and 68 had not. The counselor educators reported they had given less attention to prevention and developmental issues in their courses than other issues, but indicated positive attitudes towards teaching preventive and developmental issues.     

Child Maltreatment and Children's Developmental Trajectories in Early to Middle Childhood

Associations between experiencing child maltreatment and adverse developmental outcomes are widely studied, yet conclusions regarding the extent to which effects are bidirectional, and whether they are likely causal, remain elusive. This study uses the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort of 4,898 children followed from birth through age 9. Hierarchical linear modeling and structural equation modeling are employed to estimate associations of maltreatment with cognitive and social‐emotional well‐being. Results suggest that effects of early childhood maltreatment emerge immediately, though developmental outcomes are also affected by newly occurring maltreatment over time. Additionally, findings indicate that children's early developmental scores predict their subsequent probability of experiencing maltreatment, though to a lesser extent than early maltreatment predicts subsequent developmental outcomes.     

Alternative Pathways to Chronic Depressive Symptoms in Young Adults: Gender Differences in Developmental Trajectories

Personality and intelligence associated with depressive symptoms in 23-year-olds were evaluated using prospective data from preschool through adolescence. Gender moderated the prospective relations between personality/intelligence and age-23 depressive symptoms. Young men with elevated age-23 General Behavior Inventory (GBI) scores manifested as early as in preschool allocentric behaviors: undersocialization and interpersonal antagonism. This pattern remained highly stable over the following 15 years. Prospective correlates of depressive symptoms in young women—not reliably identified until adolescence—were more likely than in young men to express autocentric concerns: oversocialization and introspective concern with self. These gender differences continued to persist but decreased in strength after puberty. Intellectual competence displayed significantly stronger negative correlations with age-23 GBI scores in males than in females. Findings were discussed in terms of gender differences in the development of chronic depressive symptoms, with special emphasis on equifinality in developmental pathways.     

Predicting First‐Grade Math Achievement from Developmental Number Sense Trajectories

Number sense development was tracked from the beginning of kindergarten through the middle of first grade, over six time points. Children (n= 277) were then assessed on general math achievement at the end of first grade. Number sense performance in kindergarten, as well as number sense growth, accounted for 66 percent of the variance in first‐grade math achievement. Background characteristics of income status, gender, age, and reading ability did not add explanatory variance over and above growth in number sense. Even at the beginning of kindergarten, number sense was highly correlated with end of first‐grade math achievement (r= 0.70). Clarifying the observed slope effect, general growth mixture modeling showed that children who started kindergarten with low number sense but made moderate gains by the middle of kindergarten had higher first‐grade math achievement than children who started out with similarly low number sense with flat growth. The majority of children in the low/flat growth class were from low‐income families. The findings indicate that screening early number sense development is useful for identifying children who will face later math difficulties or disabilities.     

Project-Based Learning Communities in Developmental Education: A Case Study of Lessons Learned

This case study tracks the application of project-based learning (PBL) during four separate college terms at Portland Community College in Portland, Oregon. Each term follows a different learning community of first-term college students enrolled in a program of developmental education (DE), reading, writing, math, and college survival and success (CSS) courses. The study documents the journey from a pilot PBL model to the improved model used today, focuses on each term's PBL goal of increasing student success, and outlines how the PBL succeeded or failed based on student demonstration of their learning community's intended core outcomes. Whereas the initial two terms’ projects were unsuccessful, the framing of a new question and the addition of service learning in the next two terms’ projects made a significant improvement in student self-motivation and helped students achieve intended core outcomes by their own agency. Such active learning and self reliance increased students’ confidence as it challenged them to use their new course skills to create a project they were proud to present to a wide audience. This study then explores the challenges and benefits of integrating the two curricular frameworks, learning communities and PBL, within interdisciplinary courses that include service learning. Considering the already established literature on the success of learning communities and the continually growing literature on the implementation of PBL, this study ultimately demonstrates how to arrive at a project that invigorates a learning community of students, whether the learning community is in one course or spread throughout several interdisciplinary courses.     

Developmental Trajectories of Acculturation in Hispanic Adolescents: Associations With Family Functioning and Adolescent Risk Behavior

This study examined longitudinal acculturation patterns, and their associations with family functioning and adolescent risk behaviors, in Hispanic immigrant families. A sample of 266 Hispanic adolescents (M_age = 13.4) and their primary parents completed measures of acculturation, family functioning, and adolescent conduct problems, substance use, and sexual behavior at five timepoints. Mixture models yielded three trajectory classes apiece for adolescent and parent acculturation. Assimilated adolescents reported the poorest family functioning, but adolescent assimilation negatively predicted adolescent cigarette smoking, sexual activity, and unprotected sex indirectly through family functioning. Follow‐up analyses indicated that discrepancies between adolescent and parent family functioning reports predicted these adolescent outcomes. Results are discussed regarding acculturation trajectories, adolescent risk behavior, and the mediating role of family functioning.     

Juvenile Delinquency and Attention Deficit Disorder: Boys'' Developmental Trajectories from Age 3 to Age 15

This article describes a longitudinal analysis of the behavior of a birth cohort of 435 boys. 4 groups were defined at age 13 on the basis of both self-reported delinquent behavior and professional diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder: ADD + delinquent, ADD only, delinquent only, and nondisordered. Biennial correlates of delinquency (antisocial behavior problems, verbal intelligence, reading difficulty, and family adversity) were traced across childhood. The ADD + delinquent boys consistently fared the worst on the assessments of family adversity, verbal intelligence, and reading. Their antisocial behavior began before school age, escalated at school entry, and persisted into adolescence. The ADD-only boys had normal family, intelligence, and reading scores, and showed only mild antisocial behavior in middle childhood. The delinquent-only boys showed no early risk from family, low intelligence, or reading deficit, and remained relatively free of conduct problems until they initiated delinquency at age 13. Persistence of criminal offending beyond adolescence is predicted for the ADD + delinquent boys.     

Acoma Pottery: First-hand Experiences for Art Educators

An art education professor discovers the benefits of dissolving traditional (Western) classroom walls to allow for direct cultural experiences in Native Americana by non-Natives.