Contextually-relevant validation of peer play constructs with African American head start children: Penn interactive peer play scale

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the construct and concurrent validity of a modified version of the Penn Interactive Peer Play Scale (PIPPS), a teacher-rating instrument of interactive play behaviors of preschool children. PIPPS were collected on 523 urban African American Head Start children. The PIPPS scales were confirmed, supporting the following constructs of peer play: Play Interaction, Play Disruption, and Play Disconnection. The 32-item PIPPS represented a significant improvement over the 36-item version. Scale validity was established using conceptually related indicators of social competence including teacher report, peer report, and direct play observation data. Children who evidenced high interactive play ratings received high social skill ratings from teachers, and were well liked by peers and engaged during play sessions. Children who were disruptive in play received ratings of low self-control and were more likely to be engaged in solitary play. Disconnection in play was associated with low acceptability by peers and lack of involvement in play sessions. Practical use of the PIPPS and further study of developmentally appropriate social competencies for African American Head Start children are discussed.     

A multivariate examination of parent involvement and the social and academic competencies of urban kindergarten children

The primary objective of this study was to obtain a multidimensional picture of parent involvement in kindergarten. Participants in this study were 307 low‐income, ethnic minority children and their primary caregivers in a large, urban school district in the Northeast. Results revealed that kindergarten parent involvement dimensions (i.e., from the Parent Involvement in Children's Education Scale; Fantuzzo, Tighe, McWayne, Davis, & Childs, 2002) were congruent with those established with preschool (Head Start) parents. Multivariate relationships were found between kindergarten parent involvement dimensions and children's social and academic competencies. Parents who actively promote learning in the home, have direct and regular contact with school, and experience fewer barriers to involvement have children who demonstrate positive engagement with their peers, adults, and learning. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 363–377, 2004.     

An investigation into the role that school-based interactive science centres may play in the education of primary-aged children

The recent development of interactive science centres throughout Britain has provided schools with a potential resource to help provide the science curriculum. This paper explores the role that a schoolbased 'mini-museum', designed to mimic an interactive science centre, may play in young children's science education. The research investigates children's interactions with exhibits and each other in such a 'centre', and suggests that although children did appear to make some gains in their learning of scientific knowledge and scientific skills and processes, the largest gains were made in the development of positive attitudes towards science. This positive attitude towards science provides the classroom teacher with opportunities to build upon the children's new-found enthusiasm and to ensure that they make lasting gains from their interactive experience.     

The head start teaching center: An evaluation of an experiential,collaborative training model for head start teachers and parent volunteers

Forty-eight Head Start teachers and 48 parent volunteers from 24 classrooms were randomly assigned to either the Collaborative Training (CT) or Workshop Training (WT) approach. CT teachers and parents were involved conjointly in experiential training which included receiving guided practice and feedback from exemplary peers. WT consisted of a series of workshops conducted by outside trainers for separate groups of parents and teachers. Training methods were compared with respect to (a) teacher and parent reports of their level of involvement in training and satisfaction with the training experience, (b) teacher and parent reports of parent classroom activity, and (c) observation of adult-child classroom interactions. CT teachers and parents reported significantly greater levels of active involvement in and satisfaction with the training, as well as significantly greater levels of parent classroom activity than WT participants. With respect to adult-child classroom interactions, CT teachers demonstrated significantly more positive initiations and praise than WT teachers. Parent reports of their perceived role in the classroom as well as parent levels of initiation with children did not differ between training groups. Implications of these findings for further research were discussed.     

Unique and protective contributions of parenting and classroom processes to the adjustment of African American children living in single-parent families

The unique contributions that parenting processes (high levels of monitoring with a supportive, involved mother-child relationship) and classroom processes (high levels of organization, rule clarity, and student involvement) make to children's self-regulation and adjustment were examined with a sample of 277 single-parent African American families. A multi-informant design involving mothers, teachers, and 7- to 15-year-old children was used. Structural equation modeling indicated that parenting and classroom processes contributed uniquely to children's adjustment through the children's development of self-regulation. Additional analyses suggested that classroom processes can serve a protective-stabilizing function when parenting processes are compromised, and vice versa. Further research is needed to examine processes in both family and school contexts that promote child competence and resilience.     

Blurring the lines of play and work to create blended classroom learning experiences

Researchers exploring children’s perceptions of play in a prekindergarten and a K/1 classroom found a new category of classroom activities that combined elements of play and work. These blended learning activities were characterized by blurred lines between play and work, shared control of classroom activities, and spontaneity present in the learning experiences.     

Contributions of protective and risk factors to literacy and socioemotional competency in former head start children attending kindergarten

We empirically evaluated the associations of hypothesized protective and risk factors with assessments of social, literacy, and cognitive competence in a sample of Head Start graduates attending kindergarten in rural Georgia. The sample included 117 former Head Start children and their primary caregivers, who were assessed during the fall of the children's kindergarten year. The participating families—59% African American, 39% white, and 1 % Latin American—lived in four rural counties in northeast Georgia. Data were obtained from caregivers, teachers, and children, using a multimethod, multi-informant research design. Caregivers provided information about developmental goals, family processes, and their own psychological functioning; and the children and their kindergarten teachers provided socioemotional, literacy, and cognitive-competence information. The results support the hypothesized relations between the child-competence measures and protective factors, especially caregiver self-esteem, endorsement of independence-promoting developmental goals, co-caregiver support and communication, and engaged, responsive, and cognitively challenging caregiver-child interactions. The results also support the hypothesis that caregiver distress and conflicted family relationships are associated with negative developmental outcomes for former Head Start children attending kindergarten.     

新征程 新“赶考”——以西柏坡精神引领石家庄市跨越赶超的伟大征程

回望历史,中国共产党领导中国人民成功完成了两次"赶考":制度更替与体制转换。当前,"十二五"规划明确提出的科学发展则是一次事关我国经济社会健康发展和全民福祉的新"赶考"。在这条新的"赶考"路上,西柏坡精神无疑仍是激励我们不懈奋斗、夺取胜利的强大精神动力。石家庄作为西柏坡精神的发源地,更需将西柏坡精神内化为省会特有的城市精神,在转型升级、跨越赶超的"赶考"路上再谱华章。     

对影响广西城市体育中考因素的调研分析

在运用文献资料法、问卷调查法、数理统计法等多种调研方法,对广西几个主要城市体育中考情况分析的基础上,发现影响城市体育中考的因素较多,其中决策部门的重视程度与评分标准的设定分析占据重要位置。由此而知,加强学校决策部门对体育中考的重视、完善体育中考评分标准是当前加强与完善体育中考工作的重要举措。     

A theoretical framework for training monolingual school psychologists to work with multilingual/multicultural children: An exploration of the major competencies

With the continued increase of children from diverse backgrounds entering the United States school systems, it is imperative that school psychologists gain a working knowledge of how to best serve these children. This article suggests the major competencies for training school psychologists in working with culturally and linguistically diverse students. The suggestions offered were gathered from both practitioners in the field, published data, literature reviews, and personal observations. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Evaluating the quality of peer and self evaluations as measures of student contributions to group projects

ABSTRACT

Educators in higher education commonly use peer and self evaluations to help assess student performance on group projects. Although these evaluations provide multiple benefits, many educators are wary of using them due to concerns about their quality. This study addresses three questions debated in the literature regarding the quality of these assessments. How much do students differentiate among peer contributions through their ratings? How reliable are peer ratings? How much agreement exists between peer and self ratings? Although these questions have been addressed to varying degrees in past work, their answers have been far from settled. While many studies focus on just one of the questions, this study’s data make it possible to address all three questions for the same group of students as well as examine each question by student performance level. The evaluations assessed in this study were completed by a large number of students under conditions associated with obtaining more valid and reliable ratings. Overall, the results provide support for using peer and self evaluations to help assess student contributions to group projects. Peer ratings were largely reliable as group members generally agreed on the scores given to their peers. In addition, most students differentiated among group member contributions through their ratings. Students also tended to rate themselves higher than their peers rated them. This study has implications for how peer and self evaluations can be most effectively used by educators to measure student performance in group work.     

An analysis of factors related to the attitudes of regular classroom teachers toward mainstreaming mildly handicapped children

A model of factors was developed in order to examine variables that might be associated with the attitudes of regular classroom teachers toward mainstreaming mildly handicapped children. Using multiple linear regression analyses, the following variables were found to be significant predictors of a positive attitude toward mainstreaming: team-teaching, years of teaching experience (negative correlation), course in diagnosing learning and behavior problems, availability of resource teacher, previous special education teaching experience, number of courses taken in special education, number of students in classroom (25–27), and inservice program experience related to exceptional children. An examination of these predictors suggests that they may be used to select those regular educators who are likely candidates for implementing mainstreaming programs and that school systems can inhance their mainstreaming efforts by arranging the integration settings to conform with these predictors of positive attitude.     

A professional development model to facilitate teacher adoption of interactive,immersive digital games for classroom learning

The benefits of using digital games in the curriculum are well documented in literature. Most teachers who use digital games use short-form drill-and-practice learning games rather than the kinds of games most students would choose to play in their free time. The use of more interactive, immersive digital games (IDGs) in classrooms tends to be sporadic, dependent upon the enthusiasm and ingenuity of individual teachers. Previous studies have indicated that many teachers have concerns about using digital games in classrooms and have difficulties knowing how to best use digital games. This qualitative study presents a professional development model for teachers that was inductively derived through analysing in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 13 educators who have used digital games in the classroom. Implementing this model can help teachers develop attitudes and skills necessary to meaningfully use interactive, IDGs in their classrooms. Evidence suggests that a mentor should have a strong understanding of how to use digital games effectively in classrooms, work with small cohorts of teachers to collegially plan the use of digital games within a unit of class work, trial the unit of work with a small number of enthusiastic teachers, and then implement it with the remaining teachers. This approach is based on interviews with educators who have successfully mentored teachers in their schools to use interactive, IDGs in their classrooms. These educators encountered little resistance from their teaching colleagues. Their approach further supported teachers who were open to the possibilities of using digital games in their classrooms.     

An investigation on the effects of using interactive digital video in a physics classroom on student learning and attitudes

Interactive digital video provides students with control of computer visualization techniques and allows them to collect, analyze, and model two-dimensional motion data. Activities that use these techniques were developed for students to investigate the concept of frames of reference in various real-life situations. This investigation examines the effect on student learning and attitudes of using these materials in an introductory college physics course. The study measured students' computer attitudes and found improvement in students' feelings of comfort in using computers after completion of the activities. We found students' prior computer experience did not influence their perceptions of the activities. The majority of participants perceived discussion and the computer visualization techniques as being very effective in helping them learn, Students' understanding of the physics concepts were assessed and the participants' scores were compared with nonparticipants' scores. Although analysis of variance statistical procedures revealed no significant differences between the two groups, the results of this study indicate that sophisticated instructional video software can be perceived as easy to use and effective by students who are novices and experts in using computers. Thus, interactive digital video tools and activities have the potential to provide physics teachers with the latest technology to bring the active process of learning physics to their classroom. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 467–489, 1997.