A comparison of teachers vs. parents as instructors of a personal safety program for preschoolers.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of parents and teachers as instructors of a personal safety program. Sixty-one low-income preschool children were pretested and participated in either a homebased program, a school-based program, or a control program. Children were posttested on knowledge and skill gains. No significant differences were found between groups of children taught by teachers or parents, and children in both of these groups demonstrated greater knowledge about sexual abuse and higher levels of personal safety skills compared with controls. Knowledge and skill gains were maintained at the two-month follow-up. No program-related increases in negative behaviors were reported by teachers, nor were the treatment children perceived by their parents as more fearful subsequent to participation. These results suggest that parents are as effective as teachers at teaching skills in personal safety to preschool-age children, and that the programs can be implemented safely and effectively both at home and at school.     

The comparative effects of teacher-demonstration and self-paced instruction on concept acquisition and problem-solving skills of college level chemistry students

A comparison is made of the relative effectiveness of teacher-demonstration and self-paced modes of teaching concepts and problem-solving skills in chemistry. Sixty students were randomized into two treatment groups. A self-paced instructional package was used by subjects in the self-paced group. Subjects in the second group were taught by a teacher who used the same self-paced package. Results of the analyses of variance performed showed that the selfpaced mode of instruction was significantly more effective for teaching concepts and problem-solving skills. An attitude test was given at the end of the third unit. Results of the test showed that most students preferred the self-paced instruction to the teacher-demonstration method.     

Sexual abuse prevention education for young children: A comparison of teachers and parents as instructors

The purpose of this study was to compare teachers and parents as instructors of a personal safety program. One hundred seventy-two Head Start preschoolers were randomly assigned to a personal safety program taught by their teachers, parents, both teachers and parents, or to a general safety control program. Following program participation, children taught the personal safety program by their teachers, parents, or both, demonstrated greater knowledge about sexual abuse and higher levels of personal safety skills compared with those in the control group. Gains in knowledge and skills were maintained at the 5-month follow up. Children taught by their parents showed greater improvements in recognizing inappropriate-touch requests and in their personal safety skills compared with children taught by their teachers, and children who received the program both at home and school were better able to recognize appropriate-touch requests and to demonstrate higher levels of personal safety skills compared with children taught only at school. The emotional costs associated with participating in the program were minimal, and both parents and children rated the program positively. The advantages of home-based instruction for young children are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.     

The Preschool Instructional Context and Child–Teacher Relationships

Research Findings: The purpose of this article is to examine how dimensions of the preschool instructional context predict child–teacher relationship quality. A total of 118 low-income, predominantly Latino/a children and their teachers participated in this study. Children were observed in their 1st preschool classroom. Measures of instructional context included the classroom instructional climate and teacher instructional strategies with individual children. Measures of child–teacher relationships included both observed and teacher-perceived child–teacher relationship quality. Our findings suggest that aspects of classroom instructional context do influence child–teacher relationships. Children are more likely to have secure, positive relationships with teachers who are more skilled at setting up appropriate classroom environments and giving children high-quality feedback to stretch their emerging knowledge and skills. Practice or Policy: These data provide preliminary support for the notion that high-quality early education can and should develop children's academic skills in a context that is deeply rooted in positive and supportive social interactions.     

Career education needs of students with exceptionalities: one state's case

A survey of 1,826 special education teachers and administrators from North Carolina was conducted to determine (a) the extent to which career education skills are actually being taught to children and youth with handicaps, and (b) the extent to which they need to be taught. Findings include: (a) teachers tended to perceive their schools' programs in career education at a higher level than did the administrators, yet teachers felt a greater need for additional instructional emphasis than did the administrators; (b) females' perceptions of their personal impact on students remain far behind those of males; and (c) neither inservice workshops nor college courses were the predominant way in which teachers acquired knowledge about career education.     

Preparing Preservice Teachers to Work with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children: A Service Learning Experience

This study investigated the influence of professional development on 20 preschool teachers' use of instructional conversations in classrooms for 2- to 5-year-old children. Instructional conversation is a small group discussion that builds on children's prior knowledge to assess and assist conceptual understanding. Over a 3-year period, the educators participated in professional development designed to increase their use of the strategy in their classrooms. Each teacher was video-recorded six times annually while teaching. Two coders rated the video recordings, and the data were analyzed using a longitudinal multilevel model. Results indicated that regardless of their prior teaching experience, all of the teachers increased their use of instructional conversation throughout their participation in the professional development program. These increases were along the same trajectory for all teachers, suggesting that the professional development was effective for both new and veteran teachers. Results suggest that those who taught older children tended to use instructional conversation to a greater degree, indicating that the strategy may be easier to implement with older preschoolers.     

A cross-lag analysis of longitudinal associations between preschool teachers’ instructional support identification skills and observed behavior

The present study examined the pattern of association(s) over time between (a) knowledge of and observational skills in identifying teacher–child interactions, and (b) observed behavior in the domain of instructional interaction for 405 preschool teachers enrolled in a professional development study. Teacher's knowledge/observational skills and observed instructional support behaviors with children were assessed in the fall and spring over a two-year period. During this time, the teachers were also randomized into a college course focused on interactions, then re-randomized into a coaching intervention, also focused on instructional interaction. Cross-lagged analyses suggest that prior observed behavior was the stronger predictor of change in both knowledge/observation skills and in later observed behavior, and that both the course and the coaching interventions contributed to improvements in teachers observed instructional support behavior. Mediational analyses of the course effects indicated longer-term impact on observed instructional behavior were through immediate impacts on those same behaviors, whereas long-term impacts on knowledge were through immediate impacts on both observed instructional behavior and knowledge. The results have implications for the design, delivery, and focus of professional development for early childhood educators.     

An Experimental Validation of a Preschool Emergent Literacy Curriculum

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a preschool emergent literacy enrichment curriculum. Participants were 126 Head Start children, their teachers, and their parents. Matched centers were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: experimental literacy, experimental math, or control. Teachers in both experimental groups implemented either literacy or math instruction in small groups on a daily basis, and parents and children completed supplementary learning activities at home. The control classroom implemented the ongoing Head Start curriculum. Children in the literacy condition showed the largest gains in phonemic awareness and emergent writing skills; they also made greater gains on emergent reading than did children in the math condition. There were no group differences on expressive vocabulary. Results are discussed in terms of curriculum design and practical issues involved in supporting preschools in the implementation of research-based instructional programs.     

An Experimental Validation of a Preschool Emergent Literacy Curriculum

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a preschool emergent literacy enrichment curriculum. Participants were 126 Head Start children, their teachers, and their parents. Matched centers were assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: experimental literacy, experimental math, or control. Teachers in both experimental groups implemented either literacy or math instruction in small groups on a daily basis, and parents and children completed supplementary learning activities at home. The control classroom implemented the ongoing Head Start curriculum. Children in the literacy condition showed the largest gains in phonemic awareness and emergent writing skills; they also made greater gains on emergent reading than did children in the math condition. There were no group differences on expressive vocabulary. Results are discussed in terms of curriculum design and practical issues involved in supporting preschools in the implementation of research-based instructional programs.     

Promoting Student–Teacher Interactions: Exploring a Peer Coaching Model for Teachers in a Preschool Setting

Peer coaching provides an attractive alternative to traditional professional development for promoting classroom quality in a sustainable, cost-effective manner by creating a collaborative teaching community. This exploratory study describes the development and evaluation of the Colleague Observation And CoacHing (COACH) program, a peer coaching program designed to increase teachers’ effectiveness in enhancing classroom quality in a preschool Head Start setting. The COACH program consists of a training workshop on coaching skills and student-teacher interactions, six peer coaching sessions, and three center meetings. Pre-post observations of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System of twelve classrooms assigned to peer coaching were compared to twelve control classrooms at baseline and following the intervention. Findings provide preliminary support that the peer coaching program is perceived as acceptable and feasible by the participating preschool teachers and that it may strengthen student–teacher interactions. Further program refinement and evaluation with larger samples is needed to enhance student–teacher interactions and, ultimately, children’s adaptive development.     

The effectiveness of a highly explicit, teacher-directed strategy instruction routine: changing the writing performance of students with learning disabilities

This study examined the effectiveness of a highly explicit, teacher-directed instructional routine used to teach three planning strategies for writing to fourth and fifth graders with learning disabilities. In comparison to peers who received process writing instruction, children who were taught the three planning strategies-goal setting, brainstorming, and organizing-spent more time planning stories in advance of writing and produced stories that were qualitatively better. One month after the end of instruction, students who had been taught the strategies not only maintained their advantage in story quality but also produced longer stories than those produced by their peers who were taught process writing. However, the highly explicit, teacher-directed strategy instructional routine used in this study did not promote transfer to an uninstructed genre, persuasive essay writing. These findings are discussed in terms of their relevance to effective writing instruction practices for students with learning disabilities.     

A comparison of two reading interventions for children with reading disabilities

This study compared the effectiveness of two reading interventions in a public school setting. Forty-five second-grade children with reading disabilities were randomly assigned to a 6-week phonological awareness, word analogy, or math-training program. The two reading interventions differed from each other in (a) the unit of word analysis (phoneme versus onset-rime), (b) the approach to intervention (contextualized versus decontextualized), and (c) the primary domain of reading instruction (oral versus written language). Results indicate that children in both reading programs achieved significant gains in beginning reading skills, learning the specific skills taught in their respective programs, and applying what they had learned to uninstructed material on several transfer-of-learning measures, in comparison to children in the control group. For children in both reading intervention groups, the most significant mediator of growth in oral reading fluency was a child's initial level of word identification skill. Implications of these findings are that systematic, high quality reading intervention can occur in a small group, public school setting and that there are several different paths to the remediation of children with reading disabilities.     

Breaking with tradition: An investigation of an alternative instructional sequence designed to improve prospective teachers’ noticing skills

This experimental study aims to investigate the effect of an alternative instructional sequence designed to improve prospective teachers’ noticing skills. The participants consisted of two groups of prospective teachers (N = 28). To assess their noticing skills, the participants were asked to note critical events in the classroom and to provide detailed explanations about why they found these worth noting. The results indicate that the participants in experimental group showed higher levels of noticing skills compared to those in control group. The study presents a discussion of the success of the instructional approach in improving the noticing skills of future mathematics teachers.     

Effects of psycholinguistic instruction on spelling performance

Two studies were conducted in which phonology‐based instructional strategies designed for improving spelling skills of elementary school children were compared against instruction strategies that relied only on visual exposure of words. The first study involved a total of 93 children. Of these, 46 were instructed by drawing their attention to the psycholinguistic nature of their spelling errors. The remaining 47 children in the comparison group were shown the correct version of all the words. In study II 15 children were placed in a treatment group and were taught phoneme awareness, and 15 children were placed in a comparison group and were exposed to printed words only. In both studies, posttests showed that children taught through psycholinguistic and phoneme awareness methods significantly outperformed the visual training groups. Further, these gains were retained after a period of 2 weeks. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The effect of levels of cooperation within physical science laboratory groups on physical science achievement

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the levels of group cooperation on students' achievement during a series of physical science laboratory activities. Six intact seventh-grade physical science classes taught by two teachers, with each teacher instructing three classes, were selected from two middle schools. For each teacher, one of the classes was taught with a traditional approach (no cooperative goal structure). The other two classes were assigned to a cooperative goal structure (role assignment and nonrole assignment). For the role assignment class, each student was assigned a specific role, but students in both traditional and nonrole assignment classes were not assigned roles. The Classroom Observation Instrument in Science Laboratory Activity (COISLA), which includes investigative skills (i.e., managing, manipulating, observing, reading, writing, and reporting); social skills (i.e., discussing, encouraging) and nonlearning behaviors (i.e., waiting, off-task), was used to measure the levels of group cooperation. The grades on lab reports and lab quizzes of students who were taught by the same teacher were compared to assess the effects of the different learning conditions. No significant differences on the students' final achievement were found with respect to the three instructional approaches followed by each teacher. The teacher effect was more significant than either instructional approach on managing, manipulating, observing, reading, and writing behaviors. No significant teacher effect was found for the other behaviors. Only one treatment effect was significant, writing behavior. Overall, the teacher effect was more influential than instructional approach on students' behaviors. In teacher A's classes, reading behavior predicted 21% of students' achievement. However, no significant correlations existed between the 10 collaborative behaviors and students' achievement in teacher B's classes.     

Assessing School Readiness: Validity and Bias in Preschool and Kindergarten Teachers' Ratings

As a part of efforts to evaluate and monitor the increasing public investment in early childhood education, teachers are being asked to assess children's school readiness. In this study, preschool teachers and kindergarten teachers rated children's skills in three areas (kindergarten readiness, academic skills, and communication skills), and these ratings were compared with direct assessments of the children's skills. Ratings by both groups of teachers tended to be more highly related to basic skills, such as counting and number naming, than to abilities such as solving applied problems and using expressive and receptive vocabulary. Preschool teachers' ratings had a lower association with children's observed skills and abilities than kindergarten teachers' ratings. Ratings of children attending Head Start were systematically inflated, but this relationship was mediated to a significant extent by the teachers' levels of education. More educated teachers rated children in a manner consistent with the children's directly assessed skills. Implications of these findings for informing future efforts to assess school readiness by using teacher ratings are discussed.     

Teachers’ Attitudes Towards the Integration of Disabled Children into Regular Schools

Regular and resource teachers from New South Wales government and nongovernment schools were surveyed to elicit their attitudes towards the integration of individual disabled chldren, the support services currently provided and the skills considered essential for teachers of mainstreamed atypical students. Differences among sub‐groups of teachers and between teachers and principals who had completed the same questionnaire in a previous study were also examined. Results indicate that teachers’ attitudes to the integration of individual disabled children reflect lack of confidence both in their own instructional skills and in the quality of support personnel currently provided to them. They are positive about integrating only those children whose disabling characteristics are not likely to require extra instructional or management skills on the part of the teacher. However, teachers’ attitudes may be significantly modified by their pre‐service training and the nature of their subsequent professional experience. Examination of the skills needed by mainstreaming staff reveals that, while general competence is considered essential, neither regular nor resource teachers seem aware of the need for a structured approach to curriculum objectives. The finding that principals’ attitudes arc consistently more positive than those expressed by teachers suggests a somewhat unrealistic perception by the former of teachers’ current anxieties about integration. Implications of these findings for policy and practice are discussed.     

Review of comparative studies in the instruction of students with moderate and severe handicaps

Systematic instructional strategies that investigators have used with students who display moderate to severe handicaps were identified and defined. The investigations which directly compared two or more strategies were analyzed, and summary statements/recommendations about the relative effectiveness and efficiency of the strategies were made. Analyzing the effectiveness of the procedures involved determining which strategies successfully taught skills to subjects. The efficiency of the strategies was analyzed on measures which indicated the skills were taught in a productive and timely manner (i.e., trials to criterion, sessions to criterion, errors to criterion, direct instruction time). Recommendations for future research and practice include (a) conduct more studies comparing the effectiveness and efficiency of instructional strategies, (b) conduct investigations of the specific variables of single strategies to identify the most efficient use of each procedure, (c) expand the efficiency measures to assess whether students learn information not directly targeted for instruction, and (d) conduct research to determine which strategy is best to use with given types of students and skills.     

Increasing Access with Intensive Hybridized Course Formats in a Community College Setting

This study compared the effectiveness of courses taught in a five-week intensive hybrid format with courses taught in an 11-week traditional classroom format in order to explore options for expanding access to higher education in a community college setting. Course effectiveness was measured quantitatively with student academic performance indicators, such as grades, pass rates, pretest/posttest results, and student perceptions of academic rigor. The study is unique in that it investigated course effectiveness when intensive and hybrid instructional delivery methods were combined into one format. Additionally, the study compared matched pair courses with the same instructors and coursework who taught each course in both the five-week intensive hybrid format and the 11-week traditional format, which controlled for instructor influence on student learning. The historical rationale behind community colleges and contemporary initiatives to expand them have underscored the need to increase access by providing a range of options to higher education that meet the varying needs of students. The comparison found that the five-week hybrid course format was academically equivalent to the 11-week traditional format. The study indicates that course delivery combining hybrid and intensive instructional delivery can be academically effective and, therefore, has the potential to improve access in a community college setting.     

The group dynamics approach: A sociopsychological approach for testing the effect of discovery and expository teaching on the science achievement and attitude of young Egyptian students

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two instructional modes, discovery and expository, for teaching science knowledge, both application and recall, and science attitude to fifth-grade male and female Egyptian students. The population used for this study consisted of 276 fifth-grade students in two Egyptian schools. Twelve 45-min science classes meeting over a 21-day period made up the treatment period, with each of the two teachers instructing six of the 12 class periods for all eight subgroups of students. The results warrant the following conclusions: Fifth-grade Egyptian students taught by the discovery method scored higher in science achievement, both recall and application, than students taught by the expository method. Students taught by the discovery method scored higher in science attitude than students taught by the expository method. Female Egyptian students scored in science achievement and science attitude similar to males.