Formatively assessing prospective teachers’ skills in leading mathematics discussions

Educational Studies in Mathematics - Mathematics discussions are important for helping students to develop conceptual understanding and to learn disciplinary norms and practices. In recent years,...     

The Grieving Process in Children: Strategies for Understanding, Educating, and Reconciling Children's Perceptions of Death

Just like adults, children of all ages need time and understanding in order to process the concept of death and dying. This process is much different for children than it is for adults. There are 4 components relative to children's understanding of death: (a) the irreversibility factor, (b) finality, (c) inevitability, and (d) causality. These 4 components relate directly to the developmental level of the child at the time the death occurs. Knowing how children's concept of death is constructed provides parents and caregivers important information and helps them respond more sensitively to what children might feel and experience. This article provides an overview of how children understand death, concrete strategies for talking to children about death, and suggestions for teachers about how to help children through grief and mourning.     

Neurological models of cognitive processing

A framework is proposed from which to evaluate contemporary neurological models of cognitive processing. Selected models are classified as unidimensional, bidimensional, or tridimensional according to the neuraxes that they address. The empirical research that supports each model is considered in terms of anatomical, physiological, and behavioral levels of analysis. Applied implications of the models for learning and individual differences are identified as they relate to psychoeducational assessment and intervention. Finally, differences and similarities among the selected models are synthesized.     

Differential Ability Scales – Second Edition (neuro)psychological predictors of math performance for typical children and Children with Math Disabilities

Concerns about the ability‐achievement discrepancy method for specific learning disability (SLD) determination led to alternative research‐based methods, such as failure to respond to intervention. Neither of these regulatory methods address the statutory SLD definition, which explicitly includes a deficit in basic psychological processes. Examining neuropsychological processing differences among typical children and children with math SLD, commonality analyses revealed that Differential Ability Scales – Second Edition (DAS‐II) predictors accounted for more achievement variance in typical children (46% to 58%) than in children with math SLD (33% to 50%), with substantial loss of predictive validity when General Conceptual Ability was used instead of subcomponent scores. Results suggest that differences in typical predictor‐outcome relationships may provide a foundation for developing specific cognitive and academic interventions for children with math SLD. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of negative priming in preschoolers' flexible rule use on the dimensional change card sort task

Four experiments examined the development of negative priming (NP) in 3-5-year-old children using as a measure of children's executive function (EF) the dimensional change card sort (DCCS) task. In the NP version of the DCCS, the values of the sorting dimension that is relevant during the preswitch phase are removed during the postswitch phase. The experiments showed that the NP effect observed in the DCCS decreased during the preschool years, and they clarified the circumstances in which NP occurs. Taken together, the findings suggest that the development of EF in early childhood consists in part in disinhibiting attention to information that has previously been suppressed.