Teacher attributions for children's attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder behaviors predict experiences with children and with classroom behavioral management in a summer program practicum

Elementary school teachers often implement classroom behavioral management systems to address student misbehavior. Common problems targeted by these systems are the inattentive, hyperactive, and impulsive behaviors characteristic of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study examined teachers' attributions for why children display ADHD behaviors, and how such attributions affect their experiences with children in the context of interventions to manage these behaviors. Participants were 32 preservice teachers undertaking a practicum in a summer program for 137 children (Grades 1–3), some of whom had ADHD. Teachers were trained to implement classroom‐wide behavioral management. Teachers' attributions for children's ADHD behaviors were assessed using a vignette measure, before teachers had met their students or begun training on intervention techniques. When controlling for attributions regarding oppositional behavior, teachers' initial attributions for ADHD behaviors as less internal/controllable predicted children reporting more positive relationships with that teacher during the summer program. Teachers' initial attributions for ADHD behaviors as less stable predicted teachers' greater satisfaction with the intervention techniques during the summer program and their greater attunement to children's social networks. Cognitions about the causes of children's ADHD behaviors held by preservice teachers may relate to their subsequent experiences with children in the context of implementing classroom behavioral management.     

Affective predictors of preservice science teaching behavior

The study investigated affective changes in elementary preservice teachers during a formative period and related these changes to the development of specific classroom science teaching behaviors. Thirty preservice teachers were randomly selected from a population involved in a field oriented methods course program. Analysis of pre and post affective measures and concurrent measures of perception and performance of teaching behaviors during this formative period found significant developmental relationships. The results suggest the effective use of instruments measuring certain affective changes during a formative period and moderate to strong predictive effects of the development and perception of classroom teaching behaviors. The affective changes which demonstrated relationship with teaching behavior included specific aspects of interests and attitudes toward teaching science and children learning science. No relationship was found with preservice attitudes toward nature.     

藏族大学生社会支持与问题行为的关系

目的:探讨藏族大学生社会支持与问题行为的关系。方法:采用社会支持评定量表和青少年行为问卷,对西藏地区三所高校的460名藏族大学生进行问卷调查。结果:(1)藏族大学生客观支持与退缩、神经质、考试焦虑和问题行为总分存在显著负相关,主观支持与攻击行为、退缩、神经质、考试焦虑和问题行为总分存在显著负相关,支持利用度与问题行为各维度和问题行为总分不存在相关。(2)回归分析发现,藏族大学生主观支持可以预测攻击行为、退缩、神经质和考试焦虑,客观支持与支持利用度均无法预测问题行为,社会支持的三个维度对问题行为的学业适应不良、违纪都没有显著影响。结论:社会支持是影响藏族大学生问题行为的重要因素之一。     

基于三方演化博弈的政府购买继续教育培训服务的研究

继续教育培训的发展,能够规避"人口红利"~①窗口关闭带来的不利影响,培养大量建设人才,促进社会人力资本"由量到质"的转变。继续教育作为培养和发展人才的重要途径,同时也作为建立与完善终身教育的重要途径,在我国的教育体系中被重新的定位和认识。文章通过构建地方政府、社会组织~②(继续教育培训提供机构)和教育服务受众三方的演化博弈,分析三者之间的策略选择和行为的影响因素以及均衡稳定状态。结果表明,任何一方行为的演化都与另两方博弈主体策略选择有关,降低地方政府和继续教育培训提供机构的合作成本,增加双方的合作收益,降低教育服务受众的参与成本,增加其收益,是推进继续教育发展的关键。     

Predicting First Graders’ Social Competence from Their Preschool Classroom Interpersonal Context

Research Findings: This study investigates contributions of the preschool classroom interpersonal environment to students’ social competence in 1st grade. Participants were 862 ethnically/racially diverse children who attended public preschool classrooms serving low-income families. Systematic observations of 60 classrooms occurred across the preschool year and quantified teacher and student behaviors. Preschool and 1st-grade teachers provided reports of children’s social behavior. First-grade teachers also assessed children’s problem behaviors. Multilevel analyses indicated that at the end of 1st grade, students who experienced preschool settings with teachers who displayed more approving behavior, less disapproving behavior, and more positive emotional tone showed significant gains in positive social behavior and lower rates of problem behavior, even after students’ social skills at preschool entry were controlled. Greater gains in positive social behavior and fewer problem behaviors in 1st grade were also predicted by immersion in preschool classrooms that had more positive and cooperative interactions among peers. Practice or Policy: Universal preschool is a policy under consideration nationally and locally, with social competence often listed as an important goal. This study indicates that even in the absence of a particular social-emotional curriculum, preschool teachers’ behaviors and interactions among their students may have lasting implications for children’s social development.     

马克思主义现代化理论中国化的根本问题

马克思主义现代化理论中国化的根本问题体现为三个方面,即建设现代化领导权威过程中形成的政治战略选择问题、市民化改革过程中社会结构转型与和谐发展的社会战略选择问题以及基于人的本质及其多重表现样态为基础的人学战略选择问题。     

More than Manners: Conflict Resolution in Primary Level Classrooms

A diverse sample of kindergarten and 1st grade students participated in a social-emotional literacy and problem solving program. Students and their teachers participated in seven one-hour training sessions which included concrete activities designed to increase affective vocabulary and social problem-solving. Effective communication strategies such as I-messages and paraphrasing were also introduced and practiced. Pretest data and responses to the activities revealed that students could easily articulate inappropriate and disrespectful behaviors prior to training; however they were unable to articulate behaviors that would be helpful in resolving conflict. Although students had been extensively exposed to manners curricula which emphasized respectful behavior, the posttest results indicate that the social-emotional problem solving curricula offers a distinct set of skills which enable students to constructively manage conflict, manifested through statistically significant decreases in verbal and physical aggression. Teacher and staff posttest surveys corroborated the student findings.     

Taking a step towards understanding interactions between teacher efficacy in behavior management and the social learning environment: a two-level multilevel analysis

Behavior management in the classroom is well known for being a challenge and a source of stress for preservice and experienced teachers alike. This means it may not only impact teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, but teachers’ efficacy perceived by their students too, engendering effects on the social learning environment and vice-versa. This article aims at taking a step towards a better understanding of which aspects of the social learning environment preservice teachers and their students take into account when positioning themselves on behavior management efficacy. It then goes onto exploring how students’ perception of teacher efficacy in behavior management varies across classes and how it interacts with the social learning environment through a two-level model analysis. Results showed that the social learning environment’s dimensions are associated with the perception of teacher efficacy by students. On one hand, students perceive that efficacy in behavior management is linked to the social learning environment and therefore expect that an efficient teacher in this area will be able to create a healthy relationship with appropriate rules and class organization. On the other, when it comes to preservice teachers, findings seem to show the importance of the training program and how it supports self-efficacy beliefs throughout first teaching experiences as results go in the direction of confirming that these beliefs stabilize fairly early on, because unlike the students, the preservice teachers seem to take other aspects than the learning environment into account while evaluating their self-efficacy regarding behavior management. Finally, this research adds yet another element to the observation that effective behavior management within the classroom requires a positive relationship between teachers and their students. In addition, the way rules and organization are taken into account by students demonstrates the need for a proactive approach in which teachers’ expectations are clear.

     

The effects of response cost and species-typical behaviors on a daily time–place learning task

Two theories that have been hypothesized to mediate acquisition in daily time–place learning (TPL) tasks were investigated in a free operant daily TPL task: the response cost hypothesis and the species-typical behavior hypothesis. One lever at the end of one of the choice arms of a T-maze provided food in the morning, and 6 h later, a lever in the other choice arm provided food. Four groups were used to assess the effect of two possible sources of response cost: physical effort of the task and costs associated with foraging ecology. One group was used to assess the effect of explicitly allowing for species-typical behaviors. If only first arm choice data were considered, there was little evidence of learning. However, both first press and percentage of presses on the correct lever prior to the first reinforcement revealed evidence of TPL in most rats tested. Unexpectedly, the high response cost groups for both of the proposed sources did not perform better than the low response cost groups. The groups that allowed animals to display species-typical behaviors performed the worst. Skip session probe trials confirmed that the majority of the rats that acquired the task were using a circadian timing strategy. The results from the present study suggest that learning in free operant daily TPL tasks might not be dependent on response cost.     

Mindfulness‐based SEL programming to increase preservice teachers’ mindfulness and emotional competence

Eighty‐seven preservice teachers, some of whom had preschool teaching experience, were randomly assigned to an intervention that included training in breathing awareness meditation infused with social‐emotional learning (n = 43) or a control group that received training in (n = 44) in breathing awareness meditation only. Both groups showed an increase in mindfulness from pre‐ to posttest. However, as expected, dimensions of emotional competence improved more significantly for preservice teachers in the intervention group. Increases were also greater for participants with teaching experience. Both groups also increased in the belief that classroom misbehavior would result in negative cognitive and social costs to children, but a larger increase was observed for the intervention group. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed.     

Blending Effective Behavior Management and Literacy Strategies for Preschoolers Exhibiting Negative Behavior

Sometimes students will exhibit various aggressive behaviors in the preschool classroom. Early childhood educators need to have behavior management strategies to manage the students’ negative behaviors within the classroom setting. This article will provide a rationale for embedding literacy instruction within behavior management strategies to assist preschool age students with negative behaviors. Three widely used classroom management strategies will be explained: group contingencies, anger management, and individualized behavior plans with differential reinforcement of other behaviors. Each strategy will have developmentally appropriate literacy skills infused into it. In conclusion, a suggestion will be given to early childhood educators on how to implement these blended management techniques.     

Resource location and structural properties of the nestbox as determinants of nest-site selection in the golden hamster

Nest-site selection, an ecologically relevant behavior, was studied in the golden hamster in a model environment where the animals could choose between nestboxes differing in distance from resource or in structural features (size and illumination). Experiment 1 showed that hamsters can decrease foraging costs by setting their nests in the nestbox nearest to the food and/or nestmaterial sources, and that hoarding costs, as distinct from simple procurement costs, are taken into account in the choice process. Preferences for darker and larger nestboxes were obtained in Experiment 2. Experiment 3 revealed an internally coherent hierarchical pattern in preferences, with illumination being more important than size and resource distance, and size more important than resource distance. The results suggest that nest-site selection and foraging behaviors are parts of an integrated causal system.     

A longitudinal study of children’s social behaviors and their causal relationship to reading growth

This paper aims at investigating the causal effects of social behaviors on subsequent reading growth in elementary school, using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten (ECLS-K) data. The sample was 8,869 subjects who provided longitudinal measures of reading IRT scores from kindergarten (1998–1999) to fifth grades (2003–2004) in the United States. To examine the causal relationship, propensity score methods were used to match higher and lower groups in four social behavior domains such as Approaches to learning, Interpersonal skills, Internalizing problem behavior and Externalizing problem behavior. Results showed that the matched sample achieved sufficient pretreatment balance between the two groups. To examine the effects of social behaviors on the reading growth, multilevel growth model (MGM) was employed. Comparisons of the matched samples showed that children in the high groups of pro-social behavior or in the low groups of problem behavior at kindergarten entrance started with higher reading skills and developed reading achievement faster than those who were not. This study suggests that children’s early social behavior is crucial in reading development. Practical implication and direction of future research are also discussed.     

Strategies for counterresistance: Toward sociotransformative constructivism and learning to teach science for diversity and for understanding

This article reports on two types of resistance by preservice science teachers: resistance to ideological change and resistance to pedagogical change. The former has to do with the feelings of disbelief, defensiveness, guilt, and shame that Anglo-European preservice teachers experience when they are asked to confront racism and other oppressive social norms in class discussions. Resistance to pedagogical change has to do with the roles that preservice teachers feel they need to play to manage conflicting messages about what they are expected to do from their cooperating teachers (cover the curriculum and maintain class control) and from their university supervisors (implement student-centered, constructivist class activities), and about what they desire to do as emerging teachers. Although these two forms of resistance are closely linked, in the literature they are extensively reported separately. This study suggests a sociotransformative constructivist orientation as a vehicle to link multicultural education and social constructivist theoretical frameworks. By using this orientation, specific pedagogical strategies for counterresistance were found effective in helping preservice teachers learn to teach for diversity and understanding. These strategies for counterresistance were primarily drawn from the qualitative analysis of a yearlong project with secondary science preservice teachers. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 35: 589–622, 1998.     

Perceptions of Preservice Early Educators: How Adults Support Preschoolers' Social Development

Studies show that for preschool-age children, social skills can have a profound effect on, and be a predictor of, future societal success and school achievement. Therefore, it is essential that young children develop appropriate social behaviors. To do this, preschoolers need support and guidance from the adults in their life: parents, family, and early educators. This study looks at the perceptions of preservice early educators in regards to their understanding of preschoolers' social and antisocial behaviors, their assumptions about what appropriate adult interventions might be, and their beliefs about the role they, as early educators, play in supporting young children's social development.     

The Social Competence of Children Born Prematurely: Effects of Medical Complications and Parent Behaviors

36-month-old, full-term children (n = 21) and low-birthweight (LBW) children of high (n = 25) and low (n = 23) medical risk status were observed in interactions with mothers in teaching and social context. Child compliance, self-directed behaviors, and problem behaviors were evaluated as well as associations among aspects of children's social competence, mothers' behaviors, and context factors. Degree of medical risk was associated with impairments in children's self-directed behavior and quality of response to maternal directives. Mothers of LBW children showed a smaller proportion of behaviors that provided choices compared to mothers of full-term children. Medical complications, children's cognitive status, and mothers' interactive behaviors were significantly associated with LBW children's social competence. Results of regression analyses suggested that mothers and LBW children influence each others' behavior in ways similar to mothers and full-term children in both teaching and social contexts.     

Social interaction and the use of analogy: An analysis of preservice teachers' talk during physics inquiry lessons

Analogies have been argued to be central in the process of establishing conceptual growth, making overt connections and carryover into an intended cognitive domain, and providing a generative venue for developing conceptual understanding inherent in constructivist learning. However, students' specific uses of analogies for constructing arguments are not well understood. Specifically, the results of preservice teachers' knowledge gains are not widely studied. Although we would hope that engaging preservice science teachers in exemplary lessons would assist them in using and generating analogies more expertly, it is not clear whether or how such curricula would affect their learning or teaching. This study presents an existence proof of how preservice science teachers used analogies embedded in their course materials Physics by Inquiry. This fine‐grained analysis of small group discourse revealed three distinct roles of analogies including the development of: (a) cognitive process skills, (b) scientific conceptual understanding, and (c) social contexts for problem solving. Results suggest that preservice teachers tend to overgeneralize the analogies inserted by curriculum materials, map irrelevant features of analogies into collaborative problem solving, and generate personal analogies, which counter scientific concept development. Although the authors agree with the importance of collaborative problem solving and the insertion of analogies for preservice teachers' conceptual development, we believe much more needs to be understood before teachers can be expected to construct and sustain effective learning environments that rely on using analogies expertly. Implications for teacher preparation are also discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 443–463, 2003     

Emotional Support Consistency and Teacher–Child Relationships Forecast Social Competence and Problem Behaviors in Prekindergarten and Kindergarten

Teachers' ratings of conflict and closeness as well as observed emotional support are known predictors of children's social functioning. Consistency in emotional support represents an emerging line of research. The goal of the present study is to understand whether the relation between the consistency of teachers' emotional support and children's behavior is mediated by teacher–child relationships. The role of gender is also considered. Using MPlus, the present study examines the indirect effect of emotional support consistency in prekindergarten on children's social competence and problem behaviors. Outcomes are extended to kindergarten to test the lasting association between the prekindergarten social environment and child behavior in the kindergarten year. Multigroup models examine gender differences. Research Findings: Observations of 694 prekindergarten classrooms revealed that teachers' emotional support consistency had an indirect effect on social competence and problem behavior through conflict in the teacher–child relationship in prekindergarten and kindergarten. The indirect effect on prekindergarten problem behaviors through conflict was stronger for boys. For closeness, all outcomes were significant with the exception of the indirect effect on problem behaviors in the kindergarten year. Practice or Policy: Consistency in prekindergarten teachers' emotional support has an indirect effect on children's behavior in prekindergarten and the following year in kindergarten through teacher–child relationships. Improving teachers' emotional support consistency may be 1 avenue for strengthening teacher–child relationships.