Parental Perceptions of the Use of Internal Sources of Information About Children's Development

This exploratory study examined parental perceptions of the information sources parents use when wanting or needing information about their three-year-old child's motor, social, and cognitive development. Specifically, this study compared parental perceptions of the use of internal information sources (i.e., parents' own intuitions about development, religious beliefs/teachings, and childhood experiences) to perceptions of the use of external information sources (i.e., books, magazines, counselors, etc.). Further, this study examined differences in parental perceptions of use of internal information sources by parent and child gender, and by developmental domain (i.e., information about a child's motor, social, and cognitive development). Sixty mothers and 60 fathers of a three-year-old child completed an information use structured interview. Findings revealed that almost half of the parents reported referring to their own intuitions, religious beliefs/teachings, and/or childhood experiences as sources of information about their child's development. Parents perceived the internal information sources as being used significantly more frequently and as significantly more useful for information about their child's social development than for information about their child's motor and cognitive development.     

Stratified at seven: in‐class ability grouping and the relative age effect

There is an established body of evidence indicating that a pupil's relative age within their school year cohort is associated with academic attainment throughout compulsory education. In England, autumn‐born pupils consistently attain at higher levels than summer‐born pupils. Analysis here investigates a possible channel of this relative age effect: ability grouping in early primary school. Relatively younger children tend more often to be placed in the lowest in‐class ability groups, and relatively older children in the highest group. In addition, teacher perceptions of pupils' ability and attainment are associated with the child's birth month: older children are more likely to be judged above average by their teachers. Using 2008 data for 5481 English seven‐year‐old pupils and their teachers from the Millennium Cohort Study, this research uses linear regression modelling to explore whether birth month gradation in teacher perceptions of pupils is more pronounced when pupils are in‐class ability grouped than when they are not. It finds an amplification of the already disproportionate tendency of teachers to judge autumn‐born children as more able when grouping takes place. The autumn–summer difference in teacher judgements is significantly more pronounced among in‐class ability grouped pupils than among non‐grouped pupils. Given evidence that teacher perceptions and expectations can influence children's trajectories, this supports the hypothesis that in‐class ability grouping in early primary school may be instrumental in creating the relative age effect.     

The influence of children's gender and age on children's use of digital media at home

This study is the first to systematically investigate the influence of child gender and age, on parents’ perceptions of UK children's digital media use at home. It provides an in‐depth exploration of how children's age and gender influence the balance between children's use of digital and non‐digital media at home. The data draw on 709 parents’ responses to an open‐ended question asked in the context of a national survey investigating the digital reading habits of children, conducted in 2015. Parents’ responses were analysed using content and thematic analysis, which yielded eight main categories, collapsed into three major themes: control, child's healthy development and diversity of experiences. Quantitative analyses evidenced that more parents of boys were concerned about the health implications of their children's digital media use and this was a concern especially for parents of the youngest (0–2‐year‐old) children. More parents of 6–8‐year olds cited the appeal of technology as the main reason for the perceived imbalance in their children's engagement with digital media. The study provides a more secure understanding of the factors that influence parental perceptions of their children's digital media use at home, which has implications for policy‐makers, digital designers and early years professionals.     

Children's Prosocial and Antisocial Behaviour,as Perceived by Children,Parents and Teachers

Within the context of a widespread concern with children's antisocial behaviour, especially bullying, the development of ‘whole‐school’ policies on bullying, and also recent national guidelines which emphasise the importance of fostering children's prosocial behaviours, this research examines the extent to which children, parents and teachers exhibit within‐ and between‐group consensus, both in their perceptions and relative judgements of different forms of child prosocial and antisocial behaviours, and in their responses to such behaviours. Less consensus was found in judgements of prosodal than of antisocial behaviours, both within and between groups, and significant between‐group differences are discussed in the context of the teaching of social behaviour.     

Story Links: working with parents of pupils at risk of exclusion

This paper presents the results of the evaluation of the 20‐month Story Links project delivered by the University of Chichester in collaboration with the Centre for Therapeutic Storywriting and funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). Story Links is a ten‐week intervention that involves pupils at risk of exclusion and with poor literacy, along with teachers and parents, in co‐creating stories that address the pupils' emotional and behavioural issues. These stories are then used to develop the pupils' reading skills. The theoretical background draws on Bowlby's concept of attachment and research that highlights the relationship between parental involvement and academic achievement. Analysis of the co‐created stories showed a high correlation between the story metaphor and the child's presenting of emotional issues as identified by the parents and professionals. The findings also showed a significant increase in parental involvement in their child's learning and improvement in both pupils' behaviour and pupils' attitudes to learning.     

Images of the family: on interviewing young children about their social concepts

The empirical study explores children's perceptions of the family and family membership. 300 four‐, six‐ and eight‐year‐old children were interviewed with a semi‐structured ‘Family Concept Interview’. Interview strategies and research findings are presented and discussed. Establishing field entry rituals and determining appropriate modes and levels of discourse are important factors for creating an interview situation in which children are continuously attentive and motivated. Findings indicate that children do have a generalised and complex image of the family. The majority construct relatively large families with two or more children; over half the children include grandparents (father and mother)’, but one‐parent‐households are also accepted as ‘a family’, regardless of the child's own family situation. ‘Common residence’ is an important but not a necessary criterion for family membership. The findings show significant age differences concerning some aspects of children's family concepts.     

I blame the mother: educating parents and the gendered nature of parenting orders

There has been an increasing focus from policymakers, academics and journalists on parents as the source of their child's anti-social behaviour both in and outside of the formal school setting. One intervention proffered is the parenting order. The language of parenting orders and parenting interventions obscures a distinct truth, that parenting orders are really mothering orders. This paper draws on findings generated during interviews with 26 parents attending a parenting education programme in a city in the north of England. This paper explores the gendered nature of parental education, in that the overwhelming majority of parents ordered by the courts to attend parenting classes are women. The paper explores mothers' experiences of receiving coercive parenting education, examines the reasons why mothers were given parenting orders and explores the nature of these mothers' relationships with their child's school.     

Validity of the children's orientation to book reading rating scale

The present study investigates the validity of a 4‐point rating scale used to measure the level of preschool children's orientation to literacy during shared book reading. Validity was explored by (a) comparing the children's level of literacy orientation as measured with the Children's Orientation to Book Reading Rating Scale (COB) with a teacher's rating of a child's level of attention and effortful control on the Children's Behaviour Questionnaire (CBQ), and (b) computing the predictive validity of a child's COB rating with overall levels of emergent literacy at the end of the preschool school year. This study involved 46 preschool children from low‐income backgrounds; children's literacy orientation was rated during a group teacher‐led book reading. Children's ratings of literacy orientation during shared book reading using the global 4‐point COB scale were significantly correlated with teacher ratings of a child's attention and effortful control as measured on the CBQ. Hierarchical regression results indicated children's literacy orientation significantly predicted children's end‐of‐year alphabet knowledge and overall emergent reading skills above and beyond the variance contributed by children's language skills and family income. The validity of a global rating for indexing children's level of literacy orientation was supported. Educational implications and recommendations for the COB as a component of early literacy assessment are discussed.     

Cultivating Sentimental Dispositions Through Aristotelian Habituation

The beliefs both that sentimental education is a vital part of moral education and that habituation is a vital part of sentimental education can be counted as being at the ‘hard core’ of the Aristotelian tradition of moral thought and action. On the basis of an explanation of the defining characteristics of Aristotelian habituation, this paper explores how and why habituation may be an effective way of cultivating the sentimental dispositions that are constitutive of the moral virtues. Taking Aristotle's explicit remarks on ethismos as a starting point, we present habituation as essentially involving (i) acting as virtue requires, (ii) both frequently and consistently, and (iii) under the supervision of a virtuous tutor. If the focus is on the first two characteristics, habituation seems to be a proper method for acquiring skills or inculcating habits, rather than an effective way of cultivating virtuous sentimental dispositions. It will be argued, however, that even if only the first two characteristics are taken into account, habituation may be an efficacious means of moderating, reducing or restricting the child's affective dispositions where these are somehow excessive. But contrary to Aristotle's view, the effectiveness of processes of habituation that are directed at strengthening, deepening or broadening the child's sentimental dispositions where these are somehow deficient seems to be a function of the third characteristic, especially of the affective responses of the virtuous tutor to the child's behaviour. At the end of the paper, this predominantly non‐cognitive account of the workings of Aristotelian habituation will be compared with Nancy Sherman's primarily cognitive view.     

‘School doesn't feel as much of a partnership’: parents' perceptions of their children's transition from nursery school to Reception class

This small‐scale study explores a group of English parents' perceptions of their relationships with their child's nursery school and, after the transition to Reception class, their primary school. It references current research and literature on the issues of transition and the role of parents in their children's education. Findings from semi‐structured interviews with parents, and with the children's key workers, were analysed for emergent themes. Parents felt very positively about their relationship with their child's nursery, and that they were fully involved in, and informed about, their child's learning. However, the transition to school heralded a change in their relationships. Most parents felt that they had a more distant and less reciprocal relationship with their child's teacher than they had had with their key worker at nursery. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research.     

Convergence of views: Self‐perceptions of African American and White kindergartners

As the second in a series of studies concerning the development of kindergartners' self‐perceptions, this study examined the effects of the kindergarten experience on self‐perceptions of African American and White students as they progressed through their kindergarten year. Using a countywide sample of 209 children in 31 classrooms, the study incorporated in vivo observations of teachers' verbal behavior and self‐perception data from the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children. Results indicate that the kindergarten experience had an equalizing effect on the self‐perceptions of African American and White children, although self‐perceptions of cognitive competence were initially lower for African American children than for their White counterparts. Teachers' verbal interactions with children were not affected by the child's race, at least when different achievement levels were taken into account. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Perceptions of Parents of Handicapped Children About School and Parent‐Teacher Partnership

This study examined the perceptions of parents of exceptional students concerning their child's problems and the educational services provided; the nature and extent of their involvement in school; levels of satisfaction; needs and recommendations. Three hundred and twenty‐five parents of five categories of exceptional students responded to a 30‐item questionnaire; findings revealed that while parents tended to have an accurate perception of both their child's problems and the services provided, they perceived themselves as having low levels of involvement in school, including IEP meetings. Nevertheless, the majority were very satisfied with the child's education. Information and training needs were identified, together with parent recommendations. Some significant differences by type of exceptionality were found. The article concludes with discussion of training needs for both parents and educators.     

Unresponsiveness in Children with Severe Disabilities: Potential Effects on Parent‐Child Interactions

This paper examines the potential effects on parent‐child interactions when children, because of severe mental and physical impairments, are unable to exhibit most social responses. A model is proposed to explain why a child is perceived to be responsive or unresponsive by parents and caregivers; the former applies only if the child's behaviour is recognized and valued by the observer. It is also proposed that: (a) perceived unresponsiveness may be more critical than the disability per se;(b) intense interactions early in the disabled child's development, commonly described by observers as controlling, intrusive behaviour, may be due to high levels of caregiver motivation and extinction burst effects; and (c) reductions in the amount of some caregiver‐child interactions may be the outcome of previously unrewarded interaction attempts and decreased expectancy levels.     

Behaviour and misbehaviour of Latino children in a time of zero tolerance: mothers' views

Thirty‐eight Latin American mothers with young children tell of their perceptions of school discipline and comportment issues and talk of their children's encounters with ‘zero tolerance’ legislation, and related rules for conduct, implemented by the local school boards. The purpose of this exploratory study is to understand: (a) parents' views of and concern about disciplinary practices at school; (b) parents' ideas about the connection between home and school discipline; and (c) parents' understanding of the officially prescribed consequences of behaviour identified as non‐tolerable. Implications of the findings are discussed with regard to professional practice.     

Education for Critical Thinking: Can it be non‐indoctrinative?

An ideal of education is to ensure that our children develop into autonomous critical thinkers. The ‘indoctrination objection’, however, calls into question whether education, aimed at cultivating autonomous critical thinkers, is possible. The core of the concern is that since the young child lacks even modest capacities for assessing reasons, the constituent components of critical thinking have to be indoctrinated if there is to be any hope of the child's attaining the ideal. Our primary objective is to defuse this objection. We argue, first, that even if the indoctrination objection can be dealt with at the level of beliefs by an account that distinguishes between beliefs instilled in the child at the non‐rational stage that are indoctrinative and those that are non‐indoctrinative, there can be non‐autonomous ‘proto critical thinkers’ who lack autonomy with respect to the requisite motivational components. We then ask what must be added to the account to ensure that proto critical thinkers develop into autonomous ones. We suggest that motivational elements, even if instilled at a stage at which the child has insufficiently developed cognitive capacities, can be ‘truly the child's own’ only relationally: the autonomous motivational elements are ones with respect to which the future child is self‐governing.     

Stressful life experiences of children: The correspondence between professional judgments of teachers‐in‐training and children's perceptions

The extant studies reveal a considerable mismatch between students' and teachers' perceptions of student stress. The present study compared the judgments of teachers‐in‐training (N = 109) with the responses of first‐ and sixth‐grade children (n = 56 and 93, respectively). The following questions are addressed: (a) Do teachers' judgments of the stressfulness of children's experiences correspond with those of the children themselves? (b) Do teachers' perceptions differ according to general developmental status (first grade level versus sixth grade level)? (c) Does the amount of teaching experience have a significant influence on ratings? Results revealed that teachers' judgments corresponded more closely with the children's ratings at the first grade level than at the sixth grade level. However, teachers' perceptions did differ according to grade level for the majority of life events. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the ratings of the experienced and inexperienced teachers at either grade level. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 44: 807–821, 2007.     

Mothers' sensitivity to the competencies of their preschoolers on a concept-learning task

This study investigated the instructional strategies mothers used when interacting with their child on a concept-learning task and the effect of this interaction on subsequent independent child performance. Also investigated was whether mothers' behaviors and perceptions differed depending on the child's age, task difficulty, or the child's needs for assistance. Sixty 3- and 5-year-old children participated in a three-phase sequence of tasks that required the matching of opposite concepts. The pretest and posttest phases were identical for all children, but during the second phase half the children completed the tasks with their mothers and half continued to work independently. During each phase, children received both an easy and a difficult version of the task. Children who interacted with their mothers matched more concepts correctly on the posttest and gave more correct explanations for their matches than children who worked independently. Mothers of 3-year-olds provided more assistance than mothers of 5-year-olds, and mothers provided higher levels of assistance on the difficult task than on the easy task. Most mothers were sensitive to their child's needs in that the instructional strategies they adopted throughout the interaction were appropriately modified in response to their child's successes and failures. There was some evidence that individual differences in maternal sensitivity were related to variations in children's independent performance. Mothers' perceptions of the task, of their child's needs for assistance, and of their own role in the interaction were related to their overt behaviors. Intervention programs aimed at fostering parents' skills in interacting with their children should emphasize the importance of scaffolded instruction tuned to the child's capabilities.     

Role‐Taking Ability and Altruistic Behaviour in Elementary School Children

Abstract

Twenty‐four second‐ and third‐grade children were given two cognitively‐based role‐taking tests developed by Flavell et al. (1968). The children's social behaviour was observed over a two‐month period. It was coded according to a scheme introduced by the anthropologists Whiting and Whiting (1975) which produces composite scores of egoism and altruism. Teachers rated the children's social behaviour and role‐taking ability. IQ scores were obtained from school records. Tests of the reliability and validity of the measures of role‐taking and altruism were positive. Role‐taking ability was positively correlated with naturally‐occurring altruistic behaviour and teacher's ratings of altruism. IQ was positively correlated with role‐taking ability, and tended to be positively correlated with altruism. The correlation between role‐taking and altruism was marginally significant with IQ partialled out. The results were consistent with the conclusion that role‐taking ability increases the disposition to behave altruistically in third‐grade children.     

Evaluation of an innovative hands‐on anatomy‐centered ultrasound curriculum to supplement graduate gross anatomy education

Ultrasound (US) can enhance anatomy education, yet is incorporated into few non‐medical anatomy programs. This study is the first to evaluate the impact of US training in gross anatomy for non‐medical students in the United States. All 32 master's students enrolled in gross anatomy with the anatomy‐centered ultrasound (ACUS) curriculum were recruited. Mean Likert ratings on pre‐ and post‐course surveys (100% response rates) were compared to evaluate the effectiveness of the ACUS curriculum in developing US confidence, and gauge its impact on views of US. Post‐course, students reported significantly higher (P < 0.001) mean confidence ratings in five US skills (pre‐course versus post‐course mean): obtaining scans (3.13 ±1.04 versus 4.03 ±0.78), optimizing images (2.78 ±1.07 versus 3.75 ±0.92), recognizing artifacts (2.94 ±0.95 versus 3.97 ±0.69), distinguishing tissue types (2.88 ±0.98 versus 4.09 ±0.69), and identifying structures (2.97 ±0.86 versus 4.03 ±0.59), demonstrating the success of the ACUS curriculum in students with limited prior experience. Views on the value of US to anatomy education and to students' future careers remained positive after the course. End‐of‐semester quiz performance (91% response rate) provided data on educational outcomes. The average score was 79%, with a 90% average on questions about distinguishing tissues/artifacts, demonstrating positive learning outcomes and retention. The anatomy‐centered ultrasound curriculum significantly increased confidence with and knowledge of US among non‐medical anatomy students with limited prior training. Non‐medical students greatly value the contributions that US makes to anatomy education and to their future careers. It is feasible to enhance anatomy education outside of medical training by incorporating US. Anat Sci Educ 10: 348–362. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

An evaluation of Learning Contracts within the context of partnership in school‐based training: implications for school based mentoring

This paper explores parents' expectations and perceptions of effective induction and formative partnership with their child's school during the transition to full‐time statutory education.

Based on fifty case study children from two schools of similar size and catchment area but with different induction practices, it looks at a range of issues including parents' perceptions of home visiting, pre‐entry visits to school and pre‐entry profiles, as well as parents' knowledge about school and their notions of partner ship.

The paper outlines the implications for schools' partnerships with parents, exploring: ways in which schools and parents can begin to understand one another; how schools can help parents to support their children's learning; and ways in which effective schools can create opportunities for parental involvement.