Classroom Effects of a Hybrid Universal and Indicated Prevention Program for Preschool Children: A Comparative Analysis Based on Social and Emotional Competence Screening

Research Findings: The current study's main aim was to implement a multifocused, community-based intervention for preventing conduct problems in preschool children. Our assumption was that the same intervention program could be delivered concomitantly as a universal prevention program for all children as well as an indicated prevention program for high-risk children selected after screening for social and emotional competencies development. We used a quasi-experimental design with a between-subjects variable (intervention vs. comparison) and a within-subjects variable (preintervention, postintervention, and 3-month follow-up). The efficacy of the intervention was assessed for high-risk children targeted by the indicated intervention as well as for moderate- and low-risk children, who received the universal intervention. Practice or Policy: First, our results demonstrate the capacity of classroom-based interventions, without added pull-out sessions, to generate significant changes in high-risk children's competencies as well as externalizing and internalizing problems. Second, similar results were found for the moderate-risk, but not the low-risk, group, and these data suggest that marginally at-risk children are the most likely to benefit from participating in universal interventions. And third, comparing data from social and emotional competence risk groups indicates that underdeveloped emotional competencies might have a prolonged negative effect on children's social skills, which increases as a function of higher risk status.     

Mentoring Undergraduate Researchers: An Exploratory Study of Students’ and Professors’ Perceptions

Mentoring is believed to be one of the most influential factors in US efforts to encourage college‐aged students to seek careers in science, yet the role that mentoring plays in this process has not been elucidated. The researchers were interested in understanding whether the long‐held beliefs about the importance of mentoring would be revealed as what actually occurs in an undergraduate research program. They describe students’ perceptions of the mentoring process and students’ beliefs about how it impacted their experiences as undergraduate researchers and their development as scientists. Also described are professors’ perceptions of their roles and effectiveness as mentors in students’ development as scientists. A multi‐case narrative analysis was conducted of two groups, undergraduate science scholars (n=5) and mentoring professors (n=5), who were each interviewed on two occasions at the beginning and end of the first year of a funded research program. As this grounded research study shows, students and professors described student gains as increased technical expertise and communication skills. Professors suggested that they were available to students on a regular and frequent basis. However, students’ experiences suggested a contradiction. They were often mentored by postgraduates, technical assistants, and other students; their meetings with mentoring professors were infrequent and at times distant. With respect to mentoring, this finding highlights the differences between beliefs and the reality of what was delivered. Professors discussed the challenges associated with mentoring including the recruitment of and difficulty of working with students whose first language was not English and concerns about the quality of instruction from graduate students.     

Advertising Practitioner Perceptions of HDTV Advertising: A Diffusion of Innovations Perspective

Abstract

A nationwide online survey of advertising agency executives was conducted to investigate attitudes toward high-definition television (HDTV) diffusion. The survey was completed by 70 practitioners. The majority of respondents (85.9%) had viewed HDTV, but only 18.6% owned an HDTV set. Among non-owners of HDTV sets, 50% said they would not be acquiring 1 for at least 24 months. More than one half of the respondents believed that HDTV would not become the norm for 5 or more years. Respondents recognized the benefits of HDTV, but were not yet comfortable recommending HD advertising to clients. Factors inhibiting greater support of HDTV advertising include perceptions of insufficient HDTV programming, low HDTV diffusion among viewers, and greater cost of producing HD ads. Agency executives feel under-informed about HDTV, and would like to learn more about it. Industry groups interested in promoting greater acceptance of HDTV among advertising practitioners need to educate executives about the actual rate of HDTV diffusion to convince them that the medium is capable of attaining critical mass.     

Children's expectations for television entertainment vs. television news events

Young children's limited ability to recognize and defend against commercial messages has led to numerous concerns about advertising that targets child‐viewers. Industry self‐regulation of child‐oriented advertising content is one response to those concerns. With the demise of the National Association of Broadcasters Code in 1982, guidelines maintained by the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the National Council of Better Business Bureaus comprise the only industry‐wide self‐regulation. This study evaluates the extent of compliance with the CARU standards across a sample of over 10,000 ads directed to children. The results indicate a high overall rate of adherence to the guidelines. Two problem areas emerged which accounted for most of the violations observed: ads that featured premium offers, and ads for recorded telephone message services. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the child audience.     

Assessment in a Tight Time Frame: Using Readily Available Data to Evaluate Your Collection

The William S. Carlson Library of The University of Toledo is experiencing a major renovation project. Its first floor is being transformed into a state-of-the-art information commons. In order to provide the space necessary for this transformation, several collections, specifically the reference and circulating, needed to be moved and shifted in a timely manner. This paper highlights how readily available data were used to evaluate the volumes in the reference collection and the circulating collection in order to maximize the space for the renovation projects.     

How to Address “I've Already Written My Paper,Now I Just Need to Find Some Sources”: Teaching Personal Voice through Library Instruction

Teaching students how to employ their personal voice has always presented a unique challenge to composition instructors. Although teaching students how to engage in scholarly dialogue lies at the heart of every composition program, many students remain unsure, intimidated, and even skeptical of this mode of communication. As a result, research papers often take the form of unsupported monologues in which citations are merely ornamental, lengthy summaries, or numerous information resources are cited without one voice serving as an arbitrator. Library instructors face the same dilemma as composition instructors do when teaching students how to apply information to their research. Beyond teaching students how to identify an information need and to effectively and efficiently access and critically evaluate information, library instructors must teach students how information and personal voice are incorporated into research. In doing so, library instruction corrects the common misunderstanding that research equates to integrating resources into a prewritten paper, that any opinionated resource is acceptable to use, that the research process is similar to writing book reports, and that mediation between scholarly voices is unnecessary. By learning about personal voice in library instructional sessions, students begin to develop their own scholarly identity, understand the conversation of scholarship, and realize the function that their personal voice serves, as well as the strength and integrity that the research process lends to it.     

Perceptions of the Authenticity of Reality Programs and Their Relationships to Audience Involvement,Enjoyment, and Perceived Learning

This survey study investigated whether viewer perceptions of reality programs' authenticity were associated with involvement, enjoyment, and perceived learning. Four dimensions of perceived authenticity were identified: cast eccentricity, representativeness, candidness, and producer manipulation. Perceptions that the cast was not eccentric, that they were representative of people the respondents could meet, that they were behaving candidly, and that the producers were manipulating the show were associated with cognitive involvement. Cast representativeness was also positively associated with social involvement. Each form of involvement was associated with enjoyment. Perceptions of the cast members' representativeness, candidness, and lack of eccentricity were associated with perceived learning.     

Scenario-Based e-Learning: Evidence-Based Guidelines for Online Workforce Learning by Ruth Colvin Clark

This qualitative interpretive case study used Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice (CoP) framework to analyze how the electronic learning community (eLC) process at an established state virtual high school operated like a community of practice. Components of the eLC process were analyzed according to elements of the CoP framework, which provided a theoretical lens through which to analyze data gathered through interviews, observations, and document collection. Findings revealed several areas of alignment between the eLC process and the CoP framework, particularly with Wenger’s notion of practice within a CoP as a duality between participation and reification.     

Year-long teacher professional development on fifth grade student science outcomes

ABSTRACT

We first examined the effects of a year-long professional development (PD) programme for elementary science teachers on fifth grade student performance on state-mandated science achievement tests of students from a treatment and a comparison group of teachers in the 2009–2010 academic year. Then, we investigated the longer-term impacts by comparing the 2010–2011 student test results of the teachers one year after receiving treatment in 2009–2010 with the students of teachers who received treatment during 2010–2011. Test scores were analysed using a propensity score matching method to examine the relationship between the PD and student achievement. Results showed that even though the treatment teachers were out of the classroom 20% of the school year to attend the PD, there was no difference between their students’ science achievement scores and those of the comparison teachers who were in the classroom every day. This is an important finding because many principals and parents are reluctant to provide teachers with release time for PD. We also determined that students of teachers one year after participating in the PD significantly (p?<?0.001) with a medium effect size (η²?=?.088) outperformed students of teachers who had just completed the programme. This suggests that it takes time for teachers to implement new teaching strategies and that to observe the impact of an intervention programme, it may be important to expand the timeframe of the programme evaluation.     

Qualifying resistance: Some comments on methodological dilemmas

This essay raises questions about the category of "resistance" in educational research and the methodological dilemmas posed by its interpretation. It suggests that psychoanalytic theory provides a way of thinking about resistance that might be helpful for thinking about the gap between the narration of experience and the interpretation of experience. The essay provides a brief overview of conceptualizations of resistance in educational research, discusses the notion of the psychoanalytic dialogue and the qualities of resistance it offers, and brings a psychoanalytic understanding of resistance to bear on a research story that, at first glance, does not appear to qualify as a story of resistance. Finally, the essay explores the implications of these interpretive strategies for critical education research.