Sequence of child care type and child development: What role does peer exposure play?

Child care arrangements change as children age; in general, hours in home-based child care decrease as hours in center-based settings increase. This sequence of child care type may correspond with children's developmental needs; the small peer groups and low child–adult ratios typical of home-based care may allow for more individual child–adult time for infants and toddlers, whereas the social stimulation found in center-based care during the preschool years may prepare children for kindergarten. This study examined associations between school readiness and the timing of child care type among children in NICHD's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1349). Findings suggest that children who experience home-based care during the infant–toddler period and center care during the preschool period display the improved cognitive outcomes, but not the increased behavioral problems, generally associated with sustained center care attendance. Continuous home-based care was associated with higher social status at school entry partially through smaller peer groups during the preschool period. These patterns did not differ by child or family characteristics. Implications for policy and research are discussed.     

Preparing teachers for inclusion in Mexico: how effective is this process?

Inclusive education is the most advanced form of recognition of the right to education. Mexico has made important legal and administrative changes to foster inclusion since the end of the twentieth century. This research assesses the impact of the Mexican pre-service teacher curriculum on 813 pre-service teachers’ sentiments, attitudes and concerns towards inclusion and their perceived self-efficacy to educate students with disabilities. It employs two internationally validated questionnaires: The Sentiments, Attitudes and Concerns about Inclusive Education Revised Scale and the Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices scale. Comparisons made across area of training, time in the programme, policy knowledge, interaction with people with disabilities and experience show that special education pre-service teachers in the last years of the programme have the most positive perspectives, while preschool teachers have the least positive ones.     

More than a work support?: Issues around integrating child development goals into the child care subsidy system

Over the past decade, policymakers have become increasingly concerned about the development of low-income children, as well as about helping low-income parents work. Yet, all too often, child development and parental work goals are seen as separate. As a result, key parental work support services that affect children (such as child care subsidies) have not had a sustained focus on supporting the development of the children that they serve—even though subsidies are now estimated to serve more than 2 million low-income children. This article describes current approaches to child care subsidies, and identifies a number of the issues and opportunities facing those who want to integrate a stronger child development focus into the subsidy system. It concludes with a discussion of important questions that policymakers, practitioners, and researchers can explore if they want to help the subsidy system achieve a better balance between supporting parental work and supporting child development.     

Involvement with child protective services: Is this a useful question in population-based surveys?

Direct questions on child maltreatment in population-based surveys are often limited by ethical and methodological issues. This restricts the ability of researchers to examine an important aspect of early adversity and its relationship to health and behavior. An alternative to excluding issues of maltreatment entirely in population-based surveys is to include questions on child and family involvement with child protective services (CPS). A school-based adolescent survey that included a question on child and family involvement with CPS yielded results that were generally consistent with other studies relating child maltreatment to health and behavioral outcomes such as psychological distress symptoms, delinquency, aspects of bullying, and health service utilization. Such findings suggest that questions on involvement with CPS may be a reasonable proxy for child maltreatment. Despite the lack of information on the reason for involvement or specific categories of maltreatment, CPS involvement questions highlight the shared familial experience that surrounds CPS involvement and serves as a general reflection of an adverse experience that can be utilized by researchers interested in early experiences.     

Determining the subject balance in higher education: how should this be done?

It is the U.K. Government's policy to achieve the right number and balance of graduates in the 1990s. According to the Government, this will require more attention being paid to the needs of the economy when decisions concerning the allocation of resources between subject areas are being made. In particular, the Government believes that higher education should be more vocationally-oriented and aims to influence the subject balance in this direction. The purpose of this paper is to examine the possibility of constructing a set of indicators for deciding which subjects have produced the most marketable and the most satisfied graduates. Two sets of indicators are constructed. The first is based on labour market indicators such as the earnings and unemployment rates of graduates. The second set of indicators is based upon information about the value which the graduates themselves place upon their degree qualifications. When these two sets of indicators were combined, substantial differences were found in the relative worth of graduates in different subjects (for male and female graduates separately). Graduates in some subjects achieved far higher scores than graduates in other subjects on either one or both sets of indicators.The author is grateful to the ESRC for supporting the research reported in this paper, which is part of a larger project on the construction and evaluation of performance indicators in higher education.     

Adding two school age children: Does it change quality in family child care?

One hundred randomly selected family child care homes were observed prior to their intention to enroll two additional school age children. The average environmental rating score (FDCERS) was 3.81, indicating minimal quality. Custodial rather than developmentally appropriate activities were predominant. Six months after the first visit, only 28 providers had enrolled additional school age children; 10 more providers had enrolled additional children sporadically over the previous 6 months but did not have the additional children currently enrolled. The 28 providers with enrolled children were revisited. Providers were similar in environmental quality scores before and after adding the two additional school age children but were rated as less sensitive on the post-enrollment visit than on the pre-enrollment visit. Provider and children's activities were similar on the two visits.     

Adult outcomes of sustained high-quality early child care and education: Do they vary by family income?

Experimental research demonstrates sustained high-quality early care and education (ECE) can mitigate the consequences of poverty into adulthood. However, the long-term effects of community-based ECE are less known. Using the 1991 NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 994; 49.7% female; 73.6% White, 10.6% African American, 5.6% Latino, 10.2% Other), results show that ECE was associated with reduced disparities between low- and higher-income children's educational attainment and wages at age 26. Disparities in college graduation were reduced the more months that low-income children spent in ECE (d = .19). For wages, disparities were reduced when children from low-income families attended sustained high-quality ECE (d = .19). Findings suggest that community-based ECE is linked to meaningful educational and life outcomes, and sustained high-quality ECE is particularly important for children from lower-income backgrounds.     

Primary care pediatricians’ experience,comfort and competence in the evaluation and management of child maltreatment: Do we need child abuse experts?

ObjectiveWe assessed the self-reported experience, comfort and competence of primary care pediatricians in evaluating and managing child maltreatment (CM), in rendering opinions regarding the likelihood of CM, and in providing court testimony. We examined pediatricians’ need for expert consultation when evaluating possible maltreatment.MethodsA questionnaire was mailed to 520 randomly selected AAP members. Pediatricians were asked how frequently they evaluated and reported children for suspected maltreatment, and whether child abuse pediatricians were available to and used by them. Pediatricians were asked to rate their knowledge, comfort and competence in the management of CM. Demographic information was also gathered. Pediatricians’ experience with CM, their comfort, self-reported competence, and need for expert assistance is described. Logistic regression was used to assess factors that predicted pediatricians’ sense of competence while controlling for covariates found to be significant in bivariate analyses.ResultsOne hundred forty-seven questionnaires were eligible for analysis. The majority of respondents had little experience evaluating and reporting suspected CM, and was interested in having expert consultation. While pediatricians often felt competent in conducting medical exams for suspected maltreatment, they felt less competent in rendering a definitive opinion, and did not generally feel competent to testify in court. Sense of competence was particularly low for sexual abuse. Increased practice experience and more courses in CM led to increased sense of competence in some areas.ConclusionsPediatricians acknowledged many limitations to providing care to maltreated children, and expressed interest in subspecialist input.Practice implicationsThese findings add additional support to the American Board of Pediatrics’ decision to create a Child Abuse Pediatrics subspecialty. The findings also indicate a need to ensure funding for fellowship training programs in this field.     

“Can you tell me more about this?”: Agentic written feedback,teacher expectations,and student learning

Teachers are not only tasked with communicating facts, figures, and skills to their students, but they are also responsible for equipping students to be self-sufficient learners who believe in their own capacity to learn and improve. In this paper, we propose that written feedback that offers students agency (what we call ‘agentic feedback’) can be a way for teachers to build more independent and self-efficacious learners, and to instill in students the trust that their teacher believes in them. In the first study, we develop a novel qualitative coding scheme to measure the degree of agency offered in teachers’ written feedback (N = 136) and produce a coherent ‘agentic feedback’ variable. In the second study, we find that middle and high school students (N = 1,260) are sensitive to the amount of agency provided in teachers’ feedback: they perceive that agentic feedback affords more choice and requires more effort for revision, encourages greater learning and improvement on writing, and that teachers who offer more agentic feedback have higher expectations. We discuss implications for future research and application in classrooms.     

Exploring the impact of domestic abuse on the mother role: how can educational psychologists contribute to this area?

Domestic abuse has been shown to negatively affect a child’s social, emotional and behavioural development and a mother’s emotional well-being, parenting capacity and ability to respond to their child. Educational psychologists have a role to play in ameliorating these effects but their potential contribution has not always been fully realised. The study that is reported here employed Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) methodology to explore the impact of domestic abuse on women’s perceptions of their role and identity as a mother. The findings provide a basis for proposing how educational psychologists and other professionals can best support these families to identify a clearer and more consistent resilience trajectory.     

Service needs of adolescent parents in child welfare: Is an evidence-based,structured, in-home behavioral parent training protocol effective?

SafeCare is an evidence-based behavioral parent training intervention that has been successfully implemented in multiple state child welfare systems. A statewide implementation in Oklahoma established the effectiveness of SafeCare with a diverse group of parents, which included adolescent parents under 21 years of age, a particularly at-risk group. The current study examined whether SafeCare is also effective for this subsample of 294 adolescent parents with regard to child welfare recidivism, depression and child abuse potential, and attainment of service goals. Post-treatment adolescent parent ratings of program engagement and satisfaction were also examined. Among the subsample of adolescent parents, the SafeCare intervention did not result in significantly improved outcomes in terms of preventing recidivism or reduction in risk factors associated with child abuse and neglect as compared to child welfare services as usual. Further, no significant differences in program engagement and satisfaction between SafeCare and services as usual were detected. These findings shed light on the potential differences in program effectiveness between adolescent and adult parents, and the need for future research to rigorously evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral parenting programs with adolescent parents.     

Mapping inclusion of a child with autism in a mainstream kindergarten: how can we move towards more inclusive practices?

ABSTRACT

This study identify and reflect on barriers to inclusion that children with autism can meet in kindergarten. We use a single case study with participant- and video observation to map inclusion for a single 5-year-old boy with autism, in a mainstream kindergarten in Norway. Analysis identified three modes of inclusion; distance-keeping, maintaining proximity and interacting. The mapping procedure demonstrated that barriers to inclusion continue to operate. The extent of the child's participation seemed to relate to what he was doing and who he was with; overall, limited social inclusion amongst peers being achieved. Results indicated that predictable frameworks and teacher support increased participation. We discuss how participation for children with autism can be promoted. Our study points toward the need to extend current adaptations and support to children with autism within the educational settings, to enable a more inclusive practice.     

Conceptual change about outer space: how does informal training combined with formal teaching affect seventh graders’ understanding of gravitation?

Concepts relating to outer space are difficult to grasp because we lack direct experience of this environment. We analysed students’ understanding of gravitation on Earth and beyond by testing the effect of training on it. In a pretest (T1), 28 seventh graders answered a questionnaire about space concepts. They all then underwent the same formal teaching at school, but half of them also went on a trip to a space museum. Students then responded to the questionnaire again (T2). We found that the students in the museum-going group made significant progress between T1 and T2. Most of them correctly predicted at T2 (unlike T1) that dropped stones would fall in planetary contexts. Moreover, the misconception linking air and gravity had disappeared by T2. We conclude that combining formal teaching with a trip to a museum helped the children in the present study to develop a more accurate scientific understanding of concepts that cannot be directly experienced.     

What is “appropriate practice” at home and in child care?: Low-income mothers' views on preparing their children for school

In this qualitative, longitudinal study, multiple interviews were conducted over 3 years with 14 low-income single mothers (4 White, 6 Black, and 4 Latino). The women talked about socialization goals for their preschoolaged children as well as their views concerning the role of mother and the role of child care providers in attaining those goals. A central objective for all mothers was preparing their children to succeed in school. Most of the women expected their child's provider to engage in didactic lessons aimed at teaching basic literacy and numeracy skills. However, they all viewed other teacher-structured activities as important (e.g., art, music, cooking, field trips, and book reading). Most did not see play as being related to learning, although they acknowledged the emotional and physical benefits of play. These women's views of learning were not entirely congruent with the constructivist position of many early childhood educators, nor were they narrowly defined solely in terms of academic skills. They were receptive to information from child care professionals and other “experts” when these perspectives furthered their own goals for their children. Their views about preschool learning were linked to other cultural models of childrearing including respecting authority, contributing to one's family or community, and differentially allocating responsibility for teaching to parents or to teachers.     

A new age for child protection--General Comment 13: why it is important, how it was constructed, and what it intends?

Children continue to be subjected to high levels of violence (i.e., physical, psychological and sexual maltreatment) throughout the world. International concern about violence against children has increased significantly during the last decade. A Study on Violence Against Children, encouraged by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, conducted under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary General and reported in 2006, has become a rallying call to improve child protection. Child protection practices and systems have been judged to be generally inadequate and, in some cases, destructive. It is widely recognized that business as usual—more of the same—will not do. A General Comment (guide to fulfilling obligations) for Article 19, the central conceptualization of child protection of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, has the potential to promote a worldwide reformulation of child protection priorities, policies, and practices by virtue of the infusion of a child rights approach. It can be a mechanism for framing and promoting the transformational change needed – for a genuine paradigm shift. Here, explication is given for the historical context, rationale, centrality of child rights, process of development, holistic nature, and primary elements of General Comment 13 (GC13): The child's right to freedom from all forms of violence. GC13 embodies and champions a child rights approach to child protection entailing strong support for proactive primary prevention, promotion of good child care, and a commitment to secure the rights and well-being of all children. A child rights-based, comprehensive coordinating framework is recommended for the implementation of GC13.     

“I don't know if she likes reading”: Are teachers perceived to be keen readers,and how is this determined?

The benefits of regular recreational reading for literacy development have been widely acknowledged, and as such, encouraging children to be life‐long readers is an educational imperative. Teachers who are models of keen recreational reading can play an important role in fostering a keen love of reading in children, so that they regularly engage in the practice. However, it is not known if all teachers have the time, inclination and awareness to actively model a love of reading in their classrooms. This article explores data from the 2016 Western Australian Study in Children's Book Reading to ascertain which teacher behaviours and attitudes children deem indicative of a love of reading. While many children did not know if their teachers liked reading or not, teachers who were perceived to be readers talked about books in the context of pleasure, were seen to read independently at school, and read aloud to the class with expression and emotional connection.     

‘Do you want me to translate this in English or in a better Mandinka language?’: Unequal literacy regimes and grassroots spelling practices in peri-urban Gambia

This paper presents a comparative ethnographic analysis of two versions of a grassroots text in Mandinka language, one written by a non-formally educated man, the other a respelling by a formally educated urbanite. The analysis points at a crucial difference in spelling practices and inequality in literacy regimes, i.e., between established orthographic English literacy and the more creative, heterographic and emergent local language literacy. It is shown how English orthography affects local ideologies of literacy as well as Mandinka spelling practices itself, in greater or lesser extent, depending on the educational history of the speller.     

¡No lucro! … from protest catch cry to presidential policy: is this the beginning of the end of the Chilean neoliberal model of education?

This paper surveys the delivery of school education in Chile over the last half-century. It focuses on evidence provided by recent academic studies on the impact of neoliberal education policies introduced by the military regime in the 1980s, and continued by successive democratic governments. It offers insights into recent popular critiques of the neoliberal model, as reported in the Chilean press, and reflected by significant popular support for student protest movements demanding the end of for-profit schools, and the revitalisation of the public school system – encapsulated in the protesters’ catch cry of ¡No lucro! It considers possible consequences of the adoption, as policy, of that catch cry, by the recently elected Bachelet government.     

“Pupils should have respect for you,although I have no idea how to achieve this?”: The ideals and experiences shaping a teacher’s professional identity

The aim of the study was to understand the development of professional identity of prospective teachers, their ideals and experiences during interactions with their surrounding learning environment, including university studies and pedagogical placement during their 5-year studies. We also aimed at understanding how students with different motivational pathways to teacher education may be supported to explore teaching as a possible career choice. The findings reported in this article emerged primarily from interviews with 13 student teachers at the end of their teacher education programme. Survey responses collected during earlier stages of the study were utilised to provide data about the student teachers’ professional development prior to the point of the interviews. The findings of the study point to various concerns and dilemmas, which in turn suggest that student teachers take different identity development routes. The study identified four possible “identity routes” to becoming a teacher. The implications of different identity routes on teacher education are discussed.     

‘The idea is nice… but not for me’: First-year students’ readiness for large-scale ‘flipped lectures’—what (de)motivates them?

Higher Education - The flipped classroom is proposed as an answer to challenges in higher education. However, studies that explore its influence on first-year student motivation are largely...