Helping teachers to focus on learning and reflect on their teaching: What role does teaching context play?

In this study we examine the factors that lead educational programs to achieve their outcomes, in this case helping participants to improve their teaching through becoming more learning-centered and reflective practitioners. In comparing the results from programs with similar aims with evidence from our program we find teachers’ pedagogic environment to play a critical role in influencing transfer of program knowledge into participants’ teaching. A synthesis of results from our and other programs suggests that engaging participants in action research can be an effective way to help participants to overcome barriers in their pedagogic context. Systematic support of participants through coaching appears as another element important for participants’ success. These tools can help to enhance both participants’ thinking about teaching and their daily pedagogic practice.     

The development of memory for location: what role do spatial prototypes play?

Two experiments investigated the role of spatial prototypes in estimates of location. In Experiment 1 (N = 144), children and adults learned the locations of 20 objects in an open, square box designed to look like a model house. In two conditions, opaque lines or walls divided the house into four regions, and in the other condition, no boundaries were present. Following learning, the dots marking the locations were removed, and participants attempted to replace the objects. Children and adults overestimated distances between target locations in different regions. Contrary to Huttenlocher, Hedges, and Duncan's hierarchical theory of spatial memory, none of the groups displaced the objects toward the region centers. In Experiment 2 (N = 96), boundaries were removed during testing to determine whether children and adults were more likely to displace objects toward region centers when uncertainty about location increased. Again, all age groups overestimated distances between target objects in different regions. In addition, adults and 11-year-olds in the most salient boundary condition displaced objects toward the region centers. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding how children and adults estimate location.     

Type of child care and children’s development at 54 months

The types of non-maternal child care received by more than 1000 U.S. children were examined from birth to 54 months and related to family selection factors and to child outcomes. Individual children tended to experience a variety of different types of care and not to fit into clear patterns of either stable care types or progressive patterns of movement from less structured to more highly structured care settings. Across the entire sample, however, hours in center care were higher in the preschool period than earlier, whereas hours in relative care remained stable and hours in child care homes decreased. Mothers who were single, those with more education and less traditional beliefs about child rearing, and families with higher incomes and fewer children in the household were more likely to use more hours of center care than other families; single mothers and those with fewer children also used more hours of care in child care homes. Minority families, those with low incomes, and mothers with less education and fewer children used more hours of relative care. With family selection factors and quality of child care controlled, only hours in center care across the time period from 3 to 54 months were related to child outcomes. Children who experienced more center care were reported by caregivers at 54 months to have somewhat higher externalizing behavior problem scores than other children, although these scores were not in the clinical or at-risk range. Center care hours were also related to cognitive and language outcomes, with more hours in infancy associated with lower preacademic test scores and more hours in the toddler period with higher language scores.     

What does effectiveness mean?: A qualitative assessment of two child protection systems

BackgroundChild Protective Services (CPS) systems have not historically conducted system effectiveness research. More information is needed about the long-term outcomes of children and families served by the systems.ObjectiveTo investigate how workers within CPS systems in Colorado and the Netherlands measure and perceive the effectiveness of their CPS system.Participants and settingCPS administrators and workers in Colorado and the Netherlands from August 2015 through May 2016. At both sites, interviewees included front line employees with deep knowledge of daily mechanics and processes, as well as experts and thought leaders who possessed historical memory and perspective about their site’s CPS system.MethodsIn-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 77 participants. In Colorado (n = 36), 8 participants were state experts and 28 held county-level roles. In the Netherlands (n = 41), 17 participants were national experts and 24 worked at Veilig Thuis agencies.ResultsParticipants in both sites reported that they did not know if their system had empirical evidence to support its effectiveness, and had difficulty identifying how they would measure the effectiveness of their system.ConclusionsBoth systems lack the ability to collect data on the quality of their services and the longitudinal outcomes for the children and families they serve. Measures of good outcomes must be developed. Without longitudinal outcome data, CPS systems cannot assess the effectiveness of their practice. CPS systems might partner with the healthcare system, where the infrastructure and culture are already in place to look at quality and longitudinal outcomes.     

Parent involvement in early intervention: what role does setting play?

This study compared levels of parent involvement in early intervention services for children under three which were delivered in community settings (children’s homes and child care programs) and specialized settings (early intervention centers and provider offices) in the USA. Respondents reported the highest levels of parental involvement in the home. However, level of involvement in the home was not significantly higher than the provider’s office for parent attendance, quality and content of parent-provider communication, and effective instruction; level of provider communication and instruction to parents was not significantly higher in the home than in the early intervention center. Early intervention services in the child care setting were associated with the lowest levels of parent involvement. With the exception of child care, these results suggest that specialized and natural settings are associated with similar levels of parent involvement.     

Teacher–child and child–child interactions in inclusive preschool settings: do adults inhibit peer interactions?

We conducted real-time analyses of the videotaped free play of 24, 3–4-year-olds, half of whom had disabilities, in four University-sponsored, inclusive, child-centered preschool classrooms. There were 7–10, 20-minute observations for each child. Despite significant differences related to child condition in the frequencies of interactions with peers and one-on-one with adults, the same pattern obtained for both groups: Across observations, the proportions of time that each child spent interacting with peers and with adults were negatively correlated for 21 of the 24 children. Analyses of event-sequences revealed that adults were more likely than expected by chance to initiate interactions with a child when s/he was alone and less likely to do so when s/he was interacting with a peer. Within-child patterns of choices also indicated that, after an adult had initiated an interaction with them, the children were less likely to initiate an interaction with a peer and more likely than expected to initiate another interaction with an adult. Additional, exploratory analyses yielded results consistent with the view that some kinds of exchanges with adults may interfere with peer interactions. Implications both for theory and for planning curricula are discussed.     

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.     

Neuropsychological treatment of dyslexia: does type of treatment matter?

In this study, 123 children with a diagnosis of developmental dyslexia were assigned to different treatment groups, either variations of Bakker's intervention program based on the balance model or a control, a specific reading training group. Thorough cognitive and neuropsychological assessment allowed determination of the subtype of dyslexia according to the balance model and the neuropsychological profile with respect to reading and spelling abilities, verbal memory, and phonemic awareness. Characteristics of hemisphere-specific stimulation were systematically manipulated in an effort to shed light on the bases and mechanisms of reading improvement. It was shown that the effects of treatment vary according to type of dyslexia and that the different intervention programs have differential effects on reading-related neuropsychological functions. Since opposite effects can be produced by the same type of treatment in different dyslexia subtypes, the results of the study suggest that accurate classification of subtype on the base of reading and reading-related variables is advantageous for an optimal planning of the therapy.     

What does the teacher do?: Constructivist pedagogies and prospective teachers’ beliefs about the role of a teacher

The constructivist pedagogies that are increasingly part of teacher education course work and expectations emerge from an intellectual world where knowledge is seen as created rather than received, mediated by discourse rather than transferred by teacher talk, explored and transformed rather than remembered as a uniform set of positivistic ideas. Increasingly, teacher educators ask new teachers to learn how to elicit and then use students’ existing ideas as a basis for helping them construct new, more reasoned, more accurate or more disciplined understandings. While the role a teacher plays in developing or shaping students’ thinking via constructivist pedagogies is obvious to teacher educators who advocate such strategies, the case of Taylor, a prospective English teacher, suggests that the role a teacher plays when using these strategies may not be at all clear to prospective teachers. Rather than understanding constructivist pedagogies as techniques for thinking with learners, for teaching them, Tayor saw these strategies as ends in themselves. Faced with models of constructivist pedagogies, Taylor concluded that the teacher's role ends when she has activated learners, invited them to talk, successfully engaged their participation. This article describes how she reached this conclusion and explores the ways in which constructivist pedagogies can lead prospective teachers to project a thin vision of their role as a teacher.     

Are there long-term effects of early child care?

Effects of early child care on children's functioning from 4(1/2) years through the end of 6th grade (M age=12.0 years) were examined in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n=1,364). The results indicated that although parenting was a stronger and more consistent predictor of children's development than early child-care experience, higher quality care predicted higher vocabulary scores and more exposure to center care predicted more teacher-reported externalizing problems. Discussion focuses on mechanisms responsible for these effects, the potential collective consequences of small child-care effects, and the importance of the ongoing follow-up at age 15.     

Motivational regulation strategies,academic self-concept,and cognitive learning strategies of university students: does academic self-concept play an interactive role?

The present study aimed to examine the specific relations between five motivational regulation strategies (i.e., interest enhancement, environmental control, self-consequating, performance self-talk, mastery self-talk), academic self-concept, and three cognitive learning strategies (i.e., organization, elaboration, rehearsal) of 415 university students. A total of n = 238 students were in the first year of their university program, while n = 178 students were in the mid-term of their university program. Results of correlation analysis revealed that all five motivational regulation strategies were positively related to the three cognitive learning strategies. In contrast, regression analysis showed that organization was only significantly linked to interest enhancement, self-consequating, and performance self-talk, while elaboration was only significantly linked to self-consequating, and rehearsal was only significantly linked to interest enhancement and performance self-talk. Academic self-concept proved to interact with interest enhancement in predicting elaboration. Furthermore, the measurement separability of the three constructs (i.e., motivational regulation strategies, academic self-concept, cognitive learning strategies) and measurement invariance across sample for the five motivational regulation strategies were also supported.

     

Parent–child co‐viewing of television and cognitive development of the Chinese child

This study examined the relationship between parent–child co‐viewing of television and the cognitive development of the child. Both survey and experiment methods were employed to determine the participants’ television viewing habits and their cognitive achievements after watching a pre‐recorded programme under different conditions. The participants were five‐year‐old pre‐schoolers from a childcare centre in Beijing, China. The findings show a positive relationship between parent–child co‐viewing of television and the cognitive performance of the child as far as a specific programme was concerned, but long‐term effects of parent–child co‐viewing on the general cognitive development of the child could not be established owing to the limitations of the study.

Cette étude a examiné le rapport entre la co‐vision de la télévision du parent et l’enfant et le développement cognitif de l’enfant. Des méthodes d’enquête et d’expérience ont été utilisées pour découvrir les habitudes des participants quand ils regardent la télévision et leurs accomplissements cognitifs après avoir regardé un programme pré‐enregistré dans des conditions différentes. Les participants étaient des élèves de cinq ans du cours préparatoire d’un centre d’assistance à l’enfance à Beijing, Chine. Les résultats montrent un rapport positif entre la co‐vision de la télévision duparent et l’enfant et la compétence cognitive de l’enfant en ce qui concerne un programme ­spécifique, mais les effets à long terme de la co‐vision de la télévision du parent et l’enfant sur le développement cognitif général de l’enfant n’ont pas été établi dû aux limitatios de l’étude.

Este estudio examinó la relación entre la co‐visión del padre y niño de la televisión y el desarrollo cognoscitivo del niño. Fueron empleados métodos de estudio y experimentales para descubrir los hábitos relacionados con mirar la televisión de los participantes y sus logros cognoscitivos después de mirar un programa previamente grabado bajo diversas condiciones. Los participantes eran pre‐escolares de cinco años de un centro de cuidado de niños en Beijing, China. Los resultados demuestran una relación positiva entre la co‐visión de la televisión por padre y niño y el funcionamiento cognoscitivo del niño por lo que concierne un programa específico, pero los efectos a largo plazo de la co‐visión del padre y niño en el desarrollo cognoscitivo general del niño no pudieron ser establecidos debido a las limitaciones del estudio.     

Risk factors in early child development: Is prenatal cocaine/poly-drug exposure a key variable?

In order to explore the possible confounding effects of age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status on developmental outcomes of prenatal cocaine exposure, two matched samples of preschoolers (20 children with cocaine/polydrug in utero exposure and 20 children with no prenatal drug exposure) were compared on the Stanford-Binet: 4th ed. (S-B: 4th ed.), Social Skills Rating System, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale—Survey Form, Preschool Language Scale: 3rd ed. (PLS: 3rd ed.), and the Child Behavior Checklist. None of the 40 children had attended or were currently enrolled in preschool programs. Both groups had scores approximately one standard deviation below the expected mean in social skills, auditory comprehension, and expressive language. Likewise, externalizing behavior difficulties were approximately one standard deviation above the mean for both groups. Results suggest in utero drug exposure had no independent impact on cognitive, social, language, and behavioral developmental outcomes when the confounding variables of age, ethnicity, gender, and SES were controlled. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Parenting and children’s adjustment problems: the mediating role of self-esteem and peer relations

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of parental and personal characteristics on children’s internalizing/externalizing problems. Further, this study aimed to examine personal characteristics (self-esteem, peer relations) as mediators in the relation between parenting and internalizing/externalizing problems. In order to address these questions, this study used a cross-sectional design. The sample included 588 pre-adolescents and adolescents (10–14 years old) and their mothers. Children completed the My Memories of Upbringing Questionnaire, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (child report), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Friendship Quality Questionnaire, and the Harter’s Self Perception Profile (Social acceptance subscale), while mothers completed The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (parent report). Results support a model for the influence of both direct and indirect effects on children’s internalizing/externalizing problems.     

What role do students’ enjoyment and perception of ability play in social disparities in subject choices at university?

Prior research has shown that students from less educated families are less likely to study both science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects and arts and humanities subjects. This article used a large representative sample of university students in England to explore the relationship between students’ enjoyment, perception of ability and socio-economic disparities in subject choices. Although these attitudes differed by students’ parents’ education level, and were associated with subject choices, disparities in choices persisted when accounting for these differences. Students with less educated parents were less likely to choose arts and humanities and more likely to study social sciences, law and business, over STEM, even when their enjoyment and perception of ability in subjects were similar. Students whose parents had higher levels of education were more likely to choose STEM over arts and humanities as their enjoyment of STEM increased, suggesting different underlying processes informing student choices by social background.     

Subtypes, severity, and structural stability of peer victimization: what does latent class analysis say?

This study uses latent class analysis (LCA) to empirically identify victimization groups during middle school. Approximately 2,000 urban, public middle school students (mean age in sixth grade = 11.57) reported on their peer victimization during the Fall and Spring semesters of their sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Independent LCA analyses at each semester yielded 3 victim classes based on victimization degree rather than type (e.g., physical vs. relational). The most victimized class always represented the smallest proportion of the sample, decreasing from 20% in sixth grade to 6% by the end of eighth grade. This victimized class also always reported feeling less safe at school concurrently and more depressed than others 1 semester later, illustrating the validity of the LCA approach.     

“What do you do in child care?” children’s perceptions of high and low quality classrooms

Children’s perceptions of their child care experiences in classrooms that varied in quality were explored in this study. One hundred twenty-two children were observed and interviewed about their likes and dislikes in 4 high and 4 low quality classrooms. Children verbalized an accurate understanding of procedures, events, and activities, but their responses differed by classroom quality. Children in low quality centers listed activities as rigidly sequenced events, whereas children in high quality centers highlighted notable events and numerous choices. Play was the favorite activity of all children in all classrooms. Mean behaviors, circle time, and nap time were primary dislikes that did not vary with classroom quality. Children in both types of environments offered many more positive than negative perspectives, revealing an optimistic outlook that transcended the quality of the setting. Results are discussed with regard to the contributions of children’s understandings to the complex issues of child care quality.     

Reflections on “peer acceptance and social play of gifted kindergarten children”

In this article, we review methods of writing assessment, focusing specifically on a method designed for special education: curriculum-based measurement. At the elementary and middle school levels, valid and reliable indicators of performance have been identified. At the high school level, research is sparse and has not yet supported the validity and reliability of the measures. More research is needed on the development of measures at the high school level, on the technical adequacy of the measures as growth indicators, and on the effects of implementation of the measures as they relate to teacher instruction and student performance.