Low‐Income Ethnically Diverse Children's Engagement as a Predictor of School Readiness Above Preschool Classroom Quality

This study examined whether children's observed individual engagement with teachers, peers, and tasks related to their school readiness after controlling for observed preschool classroom quality and children's baseline skills. The sample included 211 predominately low‐income, racially/ethnically diverse 4‐year‐old children in 49 preschool classrooms in one medium‐sized U.S. city. Results indicated that children's positive engagement with (a) teachers related to improved literacy skills; (b) peers related to improved language and self‐regulatory skills; and (c) tasks related to closer relationships with teachers. Children's negative engagement was associated with lower language, literacy, and self‐regulatory skills, and more conflict and closeness with teachers. Effect sizes were small to medium in magnitude, and some expected relations between positive engagement and school readiness were not found.     

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.     

Maternal Support of Children's Early Numerical Concept Learning Predicts Preschool and First‐Grade Math Achievement

The primary goal in this study was to examine maternal support of numerical concepts at 36 months as predictors of math achievement at 4½ and 6‐7 years. Observational measures of mother–child interactions (n = 140) were used to examine type of support for numerical concepts. Maternal support that involved labeling the quantities of sets of objects was predictive of later child math achievement. This association was significant for preschool (d = .45) and first‐grade math (d = .49), controlling for other forms of numerical support (identifying numerals, one‐to‐one counting) as well as potential confounding factors. The importance of maternal support of labeling set sizes at 36 months is discussed as a precursor to children's eventual understanding of the cardinal principle.     

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.     

Writing in Mathematics: An Alternative Form of Communication for Academically Low‐Achieving Students

Abstract. Classroom communication figures prominently in current math reform efforts. In this study, we analyze how one teacher used writing to support communication in a seventh‐grade, low‐track mathematics class. For one school year, we studied four low‐achieving students in the class. Students wrote in journals on a weekly basis. Using classroom observations and interviews with the teacher, we developed profiles of the four students, capturing their participation in class discussions. The profiles highlighted an important similarity among the four students: marginal participation in both small‐group and whole‐class discussions. However, our analysis of the students' journals identified multiple instances where the students were able to explain their mathematical reasoning, revealing their conceptual understanding, ability to explain, and skill at representing a problem. In this respect, journals potentially facilitate another important form of classroom communication. The promise of writing is that it offers an alternative to the visions of classroom communication that are strictly oral in nature.     

From Scribbles to Scrabble: Preschool Children's Developing Knowledge of Written Language

The purpose of this study was to concurrently examine the development of written language across different writing tasks and to investigate how writing features develop in preschool children. Emergent written language knowledge of 372 preschoolers was assessed using numerous writing tasks. The findings from this study indicate that children demonstrate knowledge about writing before beginning school and receiving formal instruction. There was clear evidence to support the claim that universal writing features develop before language-specific features. Children as young as 3 years possess knowledge regarding universal and language-specific writing features. Preschoolers appear to progress along a continuum from scribbling to conventional spelling. Although this progression is sequential, children’s writing proficiency is task dependent. Implications of these findings on writing development are discussed.     

A Developmental Analysis of Caregiving Modalities Across Infancy in 38 Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

Caregiving is requisite to wholesome child development from the beginning of life. A cross‐sectional microgenetic analysis of six caregiving practices across the child's 1st year (0–12 months) in 42,539 families from nationally representative samples in 38 low‐ and middle‐income countries is reported. Rates of caregiving varied tremendously within and across countries. However, caregiving practices followed one of two developmental trajectories: (a) greater proportions of caregivers read, told stories, and named, counted, and drew with each additional month of infant age, and (b) proportions of caregivers who played, sang songs, and took their infants outside increased each month from birth but reached an asymptote at 4–5 months. Rates and growth functions of caregiving have implications for infant care and development.     

Associations Between Child Disabilities and Caregiver Discipline and Violence in Low‐ and Middle‐Income Countries

Using nationally representative samples of 45,964 two‐ to nine‐year‐old children and their primary caregivers in 17 developing countries, this study examined the relations between children's cognitive, language, sensory, and motor disabilities and caregivers' use of discipline and violence. Primary caregivers reported on their child's disabilities and whether they or anyone in their household had used nonviolent discipline, psychological aggression, and physical violence toward the target child and believed that using corporal punishment is necessary. Logistic regression analyses supported the hypothesis that children with disabilities are treated more harshly than children without disabilities. The findings suggest that policies and interventions are needed to work toward the United Nations' goals of ensuring that children with disabilities are protected from abuse and violence.     

Role Models and the Psychological Characteristics That Buffer Low‐Socioeconomic‐Status Youth From Cardiovascular Risk

Little is understood about why some youth from low‐socioeconomic‐status (SES) environments exhibit good health despite adversity. This study tested whether role models and “shift‐and‐persist” approaches (reframing stressors more benignly while persisting with future optimism) protect low‐SES youth from cardiovascular risk. A total of 163 youth, ages 13–16, completed role model interviews and shift‐and‐persist measures while cholesterol and inflammatory markers, interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), and C‐reactive protein were assessed. Low‐SES youth with supportive role models had lower IL‐6. Low‐SES youth high in shift‐and‐persist also had lower IL‐6. Shift‐and‐persist partially mediated the interaction of SES and role models on IL‐6. Benefits were not found among high‐SES youth. Identifying psychological buffers in low‐SES youth has implications for health disparities.     

From External Regulation to Self-Regulation: Early Parenting Precursors of Young Children's Executive Functioning

In keeping with proposals emphasizing the role of early experience in infant brain development, this study investigated the prospective links between quality of parent–infant interactions and subsequent child executive functioning (EF), including working memory, impulse control, and set shifting. Maternal sensitivity, mind-mindedness and autonomy support were assessed when children were 12 to 15 months old ( N  =   80). Child EF was assessed at 18 and 26 months. All three parenting dimensions were found to relate to child EF. Autonomy support was the strongest predictor of EF at each age, independent of general cognitive ability and maternal education. These findings add to previous results on child stress-response systems in suggesting that parent–child relationships may play an important role in children's developing self-regulatory capacities.     

Relations Among Cultural Learning Beliefs,Self‐Regulated Learning,and Academic Achievement for Low‐Income Chinese American Adolescents

This mixed‐methods study of urban low‐income, English‐proficient Chinese American, second‐generation 15‐year‐olds (conducted in 2004; N = 32) examined the relation among the virtue model of learning communicated by parents and adolescents’ learning beliefs, self‐regulated learning (SRL) behaviors, and academic achievement. Analysis of in‐depth individual interviews revealed that for these adolescents, perceptions of family educational socialization predicted students’ endorsement of their culture's virtue‐oriented learning beliefs and that adolescents’ endorsement of these learning beliefs predicted their academic achievement. Importantly, adolescents’ reported that use of SRL strategies mediated the relationship between their endorsement of virtue‐oriented learning beliefs and their academic achievement. Findings are discussed in the context of further research linking cultural learning beliefs, SRL, and children's academic achievement.     

Young Children's Exposure to Mathematics: The Child Care Context

Four preschool teachers from two preschool settings were observed to explore the contribution of child care experiences on the development of young children's understanding of mathematics. Teachers were also interviewed regarding their attitudes and beliefs about the importance of early education, children's understanding of mathematics prior to formal schooling, and their role in facilitating mathematical knowledge. Although the programs and teachers differed in terms of program orientation, teaching style, student participation, and interactions with students, the programs did not differ in terms of the amount or content of mathematics presented to children. During the classroom observations that were conducted, very little mathematics was presented in any of the classrooms either directly or indirectly to students. In contrast, teachers said that they believed that mathematics was important and that they engaged in mathematical discussions in their classroom interactions. Discussion of the lack of math presented in the classroom and the discrepancy of teachers' beliefs and teaching behaviors are discussed.     

Using Evidence‐Based Practices to Build Mathematics Competence Related to Conceptual,Procedural, and Declarative Knowledge

Abstract Mathematics continues to be one of the most difficult components of the school curriculum for students with learning disabilities (LD). The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, in conjunction with current educational legislation, challenges teachers to maintain high standards for student performance in mathematics. Fortunately, over the past two decades, researchers have identified and validated a number of instructional practices that help students with LD understand and use mathematics in meaningful ways. The purpose of this article is to discuss instructional guidelines and evidence‐based practices for building conceptual, procedural, and declarative knowledge within a comprehensive mathematics curriculum. The importance of balancing these three knowledge areas across mathematics content areas is noted.     

Developmental Differences in Memory During Early Childhood: Insights From Event‐Related Potentials

Age‐related differences in behavioral and electrophysiological indices of memory were examined in 3‐ to 6‐year‐old children (N = 76). Behaviorally, no differences were observed in children's ability to identify old items; however, 3‐year‐old children were less accurate in correctly rejecting new items, and 3‐ and 4‐year‐old children recalled fewer contextual details compared to 5‐ and 6‐year‐old children. Age‐related differences in electrophysiological measures (800–1,000 ms after stimulus onset) were observed both to items recalled with contextual details, which increased between 3 and 4 years, and items recalled without contextual details, which were greatest in 5‐year‐old children, even after adjusting for global age‐related differences. These findings, interpreted within a dual‐process framework, may suggest changes in both recollection and familiarity processes during early childhood.     

From e‐learning space to e‐learning place

In this paper, it is argued that e‐learning environments are currently more like ‘buildings’, ie, learning spaces, rather than ‘schools’, ie, places for learning. The concepts originated from architecture and urban design, where they are used both to distinguish static spaces from inhabited places, and more importantly, as design objectives. The transformation from space to place is supported and enabled by social interactions between the (learning) community members. We argue that this distinction between the concepts explains some of the problems with current e‐learning systems and propose issues to consider when designing new systems. By acknowledging the importance and characteristics of a place, designers and researchers can justify the need and support for social interactions in learning space, consequently enabling social community building in e‐learning environments, and most importantly, supporting the development of a user‐friendly and motivating e‐learning place.     

Gender‐Based Relationship Efficacy: Children's Self‐Perceptions in Intergroup Contexts

This research introduces a new construct, gender‐based relationship efficacy, which refers to beliefs about one's ability to relate to own‐ and other‐gender peers. Study 1 investigated 204 fourth graders (M age = 9.56) and confirmed that own‐gender and other‐gender relationship efficacy represent distinguishable aspects of preadolescents' social competency beliefs that are differentially related to outcomes with own‐ and other‐gender peers, including outcome expectancies and friendships with own‐ and other‐gender peers. Study 2 provided further evidence of the distinctiveness of relationship efficacy for own‐ and other‐gender peers among 403 seventh (M age = 12.48) and 453 eighth (M age = 13.50) graders and found gender and age differences. Developmental changes and implications for research on intergroup relationships are discussed.     

From Single to Married: Feminist Teachers’ Response to Family/Work Conflict in Early Twentieth‐Century New York City

In 1914, Henrietta Rodman, a high school English teacher and president of the newly formed Feminist Alliance in New York City, announced her group&s plan to develop a twelve‐story cooperative apartment house, based on the ideas of feminist philosopher Charlotte Perkins Gilman, that would meet the needs of professional working women like her, married with children. This research illustrates strategic activities teachers used in their attempts to reconceptualize wage‐earning as the legitimate province of women, regardless of their marital or maternal status, and highlights the Feminist Alliance&s contention that women&s lack of economic self‐determination lay at the root of female subordination.     

教师知识管理新趋向:从个人知识到团队知识

知识管理是当前教师研究的前沿课题。知识管理对教师专业成长具有重要作用,有助于教师的隐性知识上升为显性知识,能促进教师实践智慧的形成,能帮助教师克服“惯习”。目前教师知识管理的新趋势是从关注个人知识到重视团队知识。团队知识管理有多种方法,其中,生活史分享、教师博客叙事是重要而有效的方式。