Teacher Stress Predicts Child Executive Function: Moderation by School Poverty

Research Findings: Recent research has explored relations between classroom quality and child executive function (EF), but little is known about how teachers’ well-being, including stress, relates to child EF—a crucial component of self-regulation. We hypothesized that teacher stress is negatively or curvilinearly related to child EF and classroom quality may be one mechanism explaining this relation. Furthermore, as working with young, low-income children may be particularly stressful, we tested the extent to which the relation between teacher stress and child EF varies by school-level poverty. Two-level hierarchical linear models using a sample of 171 kindergarten children and 33 teachers revealed a marginally significant linear relation between teacher stress and child EF (spring) controlling for baseline child EF (fall); there was no evidence for mediation by classroom quality. School-level poverty moderated the relation between teacher stress and child EF: Children attending low-poverty schools demonstrated smaller gains in EF when their teachers reported higher stress levels. However, in high-poverty schools high levels of teacher stress were not a risk factor for child EF. Practice or Policy: These novel findings are a first step to understanding how teachers’ well-being relates to child EF across schools and have implications for supporting teachers.     

Assistant Teachers in Head Start Classrooms: Comparing to and Working With Lead Teachers

Research Findings: The purpose of the present study is to examine the degree to which assistant and lead teachers work together in Head Start classrooms in 3 domains: emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Pairs of lead and assistant teachers from 14 Head Start classrooms were simultaneously observed for 1 morning to examine the quality of teachers’ interactions with students in these 3 domains. First we examined the mean levels of the 3 domains and how they differed among teachers. Overall, results indicated moderate levels of emotional support and classroom organization and low levels of instructional support. In comparing lead and assistant teachers, we found that lead teachers offered significantly higher levels of instructional support than assistant teachers. Next we examined how the quality of lead and assistant teachers’ interactions were related over time. Concurrent correlations were nonsignificant. Lagged correlations suggested that lead and assistant teachers’ interactions with students were related over time. Practice or Policy: Assistant teachers offered comparable levels of emotional support and classroom organization but did not offer the same levels of instructional support. This suggests that assistant teachers are able to help provide a nurturing environment and help with structuring activities despite having lower entry-level qualification requirements. This study supports the notion that assistant teachers as well as lead teachers should be included in quality improvement efforts.     

Assessing the Concerns and Professional Development Requirements of Beginning Teachers in their First Term of Teaching

Beginning teachers in Queensland Catholic primary schools were surveyed before, during and after their first term of full‐time teaching practice in order to identify predominant concerns and professional‐development needs. Anticipatory concerns about personal adequacy dissipated quickly after teaching began, allowing concerns over student‐learning needs and class control to emerge. By the end of the first term, teachers were beginning to feel more confident and relaxed in their role. Most had maintained a preference for discovery/inquiry methods of teaching although issues such as students’ classroom behaviour, the availability of teaching resources and time pressures were beginning to exert an influence on their choice of teaching styles. The results are interpreted in the context of beginning teacher induction programmes, and recommendations are made regarding areas in which beginning teachers need particular assistance during their first teaching term.     

Long‐term Effects of a Staff Development Programme on Effective Instruction and Classroom Management for Teachers in Multigrade Classes

This study describes the long‐term effects of a staff development programme based on selected findings from teaching effectiveness research in schools with multigrade or mixed‐age classes. The short‐term effects of this programme were examined in two studies directed at schools with multigrade classes. The first improvement study was conducted in the school year 1986/87; the second improvement study was conducted in 1989/90. In the latter study, the effects of coaching in addition to participation in the staff development programme were also evaluated. In the school year 1992/93, a retention or follow‐up study was conducted. A quasi‐experimental, treatment‐control group design was used to test the long‐term effects of the programme ‘Dealing with multigrade classes’ and the effects of coaching. Based on pre‐ and post‐training classroom observations, the follow‐up study revealed a significant treatment effect for the time‐on‐task levels of the pupils in the multigrade classes and for the instructional and classroom management skills of the teachers. No significant differences were found between the coached and uncoached teachers and between the teachers who followed the programme either 2 or 5 years ago. No significant differences were found between the post‐test and the retention test. This suggests that the training results were quite stable. No indication of further growth in the executive control of the selected instructional and classroom management skills was found. No significant differences in achievement were found between the pupils in classes with trained teachers and the pupils in classes with untrained teachers.     

Spelling Remediation: a systematic long‐term approach to teaching spelling to an aphasic boy

TJ, a 10‐years, 7‐months‐old spelling‐disabled boy suffering from aphasia, was exposed to a spelling remediation programme introduced in the autumn term of Grade 4 and concluded in the spring term of Grade 6. A systematic strategy instructional approach was used to teach the boy 65 phonetically irregular words. The remedial spelling programme was successful in developing appropriate spelling strategies which were applied to the processing of these words and maintained at follow‐up at 2 months. Generalisation of programme effects was shown on standardised spelling tests administered during training. However, the programme did not seem to be very successful in lessening the disparity between the boy's spelling performance and average spelling performance for his grade. It was concluded that spelling‐disabled students suffering from neurological impairment probably need more cumulative training than other spelling‐disabled students. The potential role of a verbally orientated strategy approach in spelling remediation was also discussed in relation to a visually orientated approach.     

Stress and Job Satisfaction: a study of English primary school teachers

Using a self‐report questionnaire, a picture of the sources of stress and job satisfaction amongst a sample of 267 teachers, drawn from primary schools in the North and Eastern regions of England, is established. Teachers scored the frequency and intensity of 18 items on a stress scale. A principal components analysis was carried out and three factors were identified: professional concerns, pupil behaviour and attitude and professional tasks. The strongest correlations were found between professional concerns and occupational stress. Biographical factors were examined and significant differences were found between men and women, and teachers of different ages and length of teaching experience. Men reported more stress than women on professional tasks and pupil behaviour and attitude. Women scored higher than men on professional concerns. Just over one‐third of teachers were satisfied with their job. When specific facets of job satisfaction were examined, teachers were most satisfied with their professional performance and least satisfied with teaching resources. Stress and job satisfaction were found to be negatively correlated. High reports of occupational stress were related to low levels of job satisfaction. Attention is drawn to the likely significance of including a frequency as well as intensity measure when considering the experience of stress and to the complex nature of job satisfaction.     

Short Reports

Government legislation over two decades has brought about major changes in the management and governance of schools. School governing bodies have been awarded far more power and influence than ever before and are now required to make important decisions affecting the quality of education provision for the nation's children. With an estimated 60,000 governors assuming their responsibilities for the very first time, questions about their preparedness for such a substantial task are bound to be asked. The significance of training for governors has increased as the extent of governing body responsibilities has expanded. Whereas the importance of training was recognized by the 1986 Education Act which gave the local education authority a statutory duty to provide the training it thinks necessary for governors to carry out their duties effectively, it remains optional. This small‐scale research project set out to investigate the induction needs of governors newly appointed to a local authority's schools. The project, undertaken in the autumn term 1996 and spring term 1997, made use of two different but complementary research tools. The first was a questionnaire survey of 314 new governors which attracted a response rate of just over 65 per cent. In addition, follow‐up telephone interviews were conducted with a small sample in order to gather extended responses to those given in the questionnaires. The research concluded that the new governors surveyed: ? had received little or no formal training for their role as school governors

? identified as their future training needs the following topics: roles and responsibilities of governors; local management of schools (LMS); and recruitment and selection procedures

? identified the need for a comprehensive programme of induction made up of a combination of centrally run and school‐based courses, briefings, information and guidance materials, videos, helplines and updates.

     

Depressive Symptoms in Third‐Grade Teachers: Relations to Classroom Quality and Student Achievement

This study investigated associations among third‐grade teachers' (N = 27) symptoms of depression, quality of the classroom‐learning environment (CLE), and students' (N = 523, M_age = 8.6 years) math and literacy performance. teachers' depressive symptoms in the winter negatively predicted students' spring mathematics achievement. This depended on students' fall mathematics scores; students who began the year with weaker math skills and were in classrooms where teachers reported more depressive symptoms achieved smaller gains than did peers whose teachers reported fewer symptoms. teachers' depressive symptoms were negatively associated with quality of CLE, and quality of CLE mediated the association between depressive symptoms and student achievement. The findings point to the importance of teachers' mental health, with implications for policy and practice.     

Discrimination‐Related Stress Effects on the Development of Internalizing Symptoms Among Latino Adolescents

This three‐wave longitudinal study of 173 Latino adolescents (M = 16.16 years, SD = 0.65) is designed to understand the role of discrimination‐related stress in mental health trajectories during middle to late adolescence with attention to differences due to immigration status. The results of the growth curve analysis showed that anxious‐depressed, withdrawn‐depressed, and somatic complaints significantly decreased over time. Furthermore, although discrimination‐related stress was found to be significantly related to the trajectories of three types of mental health symptoms, the results revealed that immigration status moderated these relations such that discrimination‐related stress was significantly related to these outcomes for Latino youth whose parents were born in the United States, while this relation was not significant for Latino children of immigrants.     

What's trust got to do with it? The ‘washback effect’ of engagement in the 2020 calculated grades process on teachers' trust and future senior cycle reform in Ireland

In Ireland, the high-stakes Leaving Certificate Examination at the end of upper secondary education was abruptly cancelled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Instead, calculated grades were introduced, necessitating for the first time the involvement of secondary school teachers in the assessment of their own students for certification. This article reports on analysis of responses to an online survey with 713 respondents conducted in the autumn of 2020, focusing on teacher experiences of engagement in the process of calculated grades in their schools and how this might inform perceptions of their future roles as assessors. Among the key findings to emerge from re-analyses of these data are inter alia that, for some teachers, (1) negotiation of student grades with colleagues—particularly those at grade boundaries—caused them to question the professional judgements of peers; (2) release by the Department of Education and Skills of student ranks, in addition to grades, constituted a breach of trust because it ran contrary to what they understood had been agreed initially; and (3) living and working in small towns or rural communities in Ireland left them very vulnerable to disgruntled students and their families—resulting in the perception that trust in their professional judgements had been undermined. Hence, the conclusion that the success of Senior Cycle reform efforts is contingent on both rebuilding teachers' trust over time while also working, in the immediate term, with teachers interested in exploring further their roles in school-based assessment for certification purposes.     

MEDICAL EDUCATION IN GERIATRICS: THE LASTING IMPACT OF THE AGING GAME

In an effort to sensitize medical students to the problems of the frail elderly, a simulation experience known as the Aging Game is a required portion of the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course for medical students at Duke University. The immediate positive effect of the Aging Game has been documented (Journal of the American Medical Association, 262, 1507‐1509), but its long‐term impact has not been established. To obtain follow‐up, a brief 10‐item questionnaire was mailed to all medical students. Both objective and subjective data were collected to ascertain the impact of the Aging Game over time (class years two through four), and objective responses were analyzed by the Mantel‐Haenszel chi‐square test of general association. The lasting effect of the intervention was confirmed over the 2‐year follow‐up period. The experiential nature of the intervention and the resultant increase in empathy for the frail elder explain the success of the Aging Game.     

Early career challenges in secondary school music teaching

The article reports an Economic and Social Research Council‐funded study of the early career experiences of secondary school music teachers in England, set within a wider national picture of decreasing age‐related pupil engagement with school music, career perceptions of music teaching, variable patterns of teacher recruitment and possible mismatches between the musical biographies of young people and intending music teachers. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a short‐term longitudinal survey (first questionnaire: n = 74, second questionnaire: n = 29), supplemented by case studies (n = 6) and open‐ended, written questions (n = 20). Analyses suggest that only a half of the newly qualified participants chose to teach full‐time in a mainstream, state‐funded school music classroom. Of these, the majority were faced with a range of early career challenges stemming from curricular, extra‐curricular and non‐curricular school expectations. These included the need to balance their existing musical performer identity with that of being a new teacher.     

High‐Risk Drinking in College Athletes and Nonathletes Across the Academic Year

This study compared heavy drinking and alcohol‐related consequences between freshman student‐athletes (n = 137) and nonathletes (n = 318). Differences in high‐risk drinking between the fall and spring terms were also examined. Results indicated that student‐athletes reported heavier drinking and higher levels of alcohol‐related consequences than did nonathletes. In addition, student‐athletes reported the highest levels of drinking and alcohol‐related consequences in the spring term. Implications for college counseling prevention programming are discussed.     

Promoting school libraries and schools library services: problems and partnerships

Literuture Matters was a two‐year, national programme in England designed to promote partnerships between schools library services and initial teacher training institutions. Its aim was to raise awareness of the role of the schools library service in promoting children's books and reading for pleasure. There were positive effects, in the short term, on student teachers, teacher educators and library staff. Potentially sustainable partnerships were developed, but structures and funding are needed to ensure a long term impact over new teachers' careers.     

Sounds of intent,phase 2: gauging the music development of children with complex needs

This article reports the latest phase of research in the Sounds of intent project, which is seeking, as a long‐term goal, to map musical development in children and young people with severe, or profound and multiple learning difficulties (SLD or PMLD). Previous exploratory work had resulted in a framework of six putative music‐developmental stages set across three domains of musical engagement: reactivity, proactivity and interactivity. This was intended as a first step in enabling teachers and therapists to gauge their pupils’ levels of musical development. The research described in this paper indicates that a moderately fine‐grained observation schedule (involving three sub‐levels per Sounds of intent developmental stage) may be sufficient to show longitudinal change in the observed musical engagement of pupils with PMLD, three groups of whom participated in a specially designed programme of musical activities over a six‐month period. However, mapping the individual’s levels of attainment onto their chronological ages indicates that, generally speaking, musical progress is likely to be made in tiny increments – notionally equivalent to around one Sounds of intent level during a child’s entire time in compulsory education (4–16 in the UK). This suggests that an even finer‐grained observation scheme may be of value to practitioners seeking to chart change in the longer term. It is proposed that this should be the subject of further research, and should comprise two components: level and frequency of engagement.     

Spelling Remediation: a single case study

An 11 year‐old spelling retarded boy was exposed to two different remediation programmes over 21 weeks. The first phase of the study was devoted to practice on a machine which allows two attempts at spelling a given word before presenting its correct spelling on a visual display panel. In the second phase, a rule‐based approach was introduced to teach those words which the child had failed to learn in Phase I. By the end of Phase I, the child had mastered over half the stimulus words and most of these were retained at follow‐up. However, progress was slow, and no generalisation occurred to matched untaught words. The rule‐based approach was effective in the immediate short term, but only half the stimulus words learnt were retained at follow‐up and no generalisation took place to untaught words. The design of the study did not allow for comparison of the relative efficacy of the two approaches. It was concluded that remedial instruction needs to span a much longer time period if it is to result in significant long‐term improvement in spelling skills.     

Changing Teacher–Child Dyadic Interactions to Improve Preschool Children's Externalizing Behaviors

A randomized controlled trial was used to examine the impact of an attachment‐based, teacher–child, dyadic intervention (Banking Time) to improve children's externalizing behavior. Participants included 183 teachers and 470 preschool children (3–4 years of age). Classrooms were randomly assigned to Banking Time, child time, or business as usual (BAU). Sparse evidence was found for main effects on child behavior. Teachers in Banking Time demonstrated lower negativity and fewer positive interactions with children compared to BAU teachers at post assessment. The impacts of Banking Time and child time on reductions of parent‐ and teacher‐reported externalizing behavior were greater when teachers evidenced higher‐quality, classroom‐level, teacher–child interactions at baseline. An opposite moderating effect was found for children's positive engagement with teachers.     

On the duty of not taking offence

Abstract:

In the context of the well‐known fact that the higher stages of Kohlberg's sequence are less well‐established than the lower, an exploratory investigation was carried out in a New Zealand teachers’ college into the development of principled thinking in young adults and its association with various real‐life experiences. It was found that there was no significant increase in principled thinking over time, and that there were no significant correlations between principled thinking and such experiences as marriage, living away from home; vacation work, and church activity.     

Anxious Solitude and Self‐Compassion and Self‐Criticism Trajectories in Early Adolescence: Attachment Security as a Moderator

Youths’ attachment representations with their parents were tested as moderators of the relation between peer‐reported anxious solitude and self‐compassion and self‐criticism trajectories from fifth to seventh grades. Participants were 213 youth, 57% girls, M = 10.65 years of age. Growth curves revealed that attachment representations with both parents moderated the relation between AS and self‐processes such that AS youth with (a) dual secure attachments demonstrated the most adaptive self‐processes, (b) one secure attachment demonstrated intermediately adaptive self‐processes, and (c) dual insecure attachments demonstrated the least adaptive self‐processes over time. AS youth with dual insecure attachments are of most concern because they demonstrated elevated and increasing self‐criticism over time, given evidence for relations between self‐criticism and internalizing psychopathology.     

Is Self‐Esteem a Cause or Consequence of Social Support? A 4‐Year Longitudinal Study

Considerable research has been devoted to examining the relations between self‐esteem and social support. However, the exact nature and direction of these relations are not well understood. Measures of self‐esteem, and social support quantity and quality were administered to 961 adolescents across five yearly time points (M_age = 13.41 years). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to test between a self‐esteem antecedent model (self‐esteem precedes changes in social support), self‐esteem consequence model (social support precedes change in self‐esteem), and a reciprocal influence model. Self‐esteem reliably predicted increasing levels of social support quality and network size across time. In contrast, the consequence model was not supported. The implications of this for helping adolescents to develop higher quality social support structures are discussed.