One complicated extended family: the influence of alphabetic knowledge and vocabulary on phonemic awareness

This research evaluated possible sources of individual differences in early explicit, smaller segment phonological awareness. In particular, the unique contributions of oral vocabulary and alphabetic knowledge to phonemic awareness acquisition were examined across the first year of school. A total of 57 participants were tested in kindergarten (mean age 5 years, 8 months) and again 1 year later midway through Grade 1. Results revealed that oral vocabulary and alphabetic knowledge were correlated with concurrent larger segment phonological awareness and phonemic blending in kindergarten whereas oral vocabulary was the only measure that predicted unique variance in phonemic awareness into Grade 1. Further, this pattern of results was most pronounced for analytic (segmenting), as opposed to synthetic (blending), phonemic awareness. These results highlight the importance of different component processes to explicit, smaller segment awareness depending upon the developmental period under study and also accentuate the need to separate analytic from synthetic phonemic awareness in literacy research.     

Effective Partnerships in School Reform: Lessons Learned From the Midwest Child-Parent Center Expansion

The Midwest Expansion of the Child-Parent Center Education Program (MCPC) is a pre-K to 3rd grade intervention program aimed at improving economically disadvantaged children's school success by enhancing continuity in instruction and increasing parental involvement. Opened in Chicago in the 1960s, this school reform model has undergone significant changes and is currently being expanded in five demographically heterogeneous school districts in Illinois and Minnesota. This article describes the collaborative process that has contributed to effective implementation of the expansion project within at-risk communities. Three themes of collaboration are emphasized: (a) improving the quality of data, (b) establishing and maintaining implementation fidelity, and (c) using research to inform practice. We discuss lessons learned from our partnerships with a number of collaborators including those involved with implementing the pre-K program, researching and evaluating the project, and providing professional development to teachers. Consideration is given to advancing the field of implementation science by successfully initiating and enhancing exemplary partnerships in comprehensive school reforms through effective research design.     

Daily fluctuations in young children’s persistence

Children's behavior changes from day to day, but the factors that contribute to its variability are understudied. We developed a novel repeated measures paradigm to study children's persistence by capitalizing on a task that children complete every day: toothbrushing (N = 81; 48% female; 36–47 months; 80% white, 14% Multiracial, 10% Hispanic, 2% Asian, 1% Black; 1195 observations collected between January 2019 and March 2020). Children brushed longer on days when their parents used more praise (d = .23) and less instruction (d = −.22). Sensitivity to mood, sleep, and parent stress varied across children, suggesting that identifying the factors that shape an individual child's persistence could lead to personalized interventions.     

Prospective elementary teachers’ responses to unanticipated incorrect solutions to problem-solving tasks

Eliciting and responding to student thinking are high-leverage practices that have powerful implications for student learning. However, they are difficult to enact effectively, particularly for novices, and more research is needed to understand how teacher education can support teachers in developing these skills. This study examined ways prospective elementary teachers (PSTs) responded to unanticipated incorrect student solutions to high-demand problem-solving tasks and how their responses changed over a 6-week field experience embedded in a practiced-based mathematics methods course. Data were collected in 6 weekly cycles of planning (written plans), enactment (video of problem-solving sessions with students), and reflection (written reflections on video). Problem-solving task implementations were analyzed using cognitive demand and math-talk frameworks. Of the three collaborating PST groups, two groups improved at responding to unanticipated incorrect solutions, but these two groups also developed a tendency to shut down anticipated solutions. The third group showed no patterns in their responses to unanticipated incorrect solutions, but did maintain the cognitive demand when responding to anticipated solutions. I present a case of one group of collaborating PSTs who made improvements in responding to unanticipated incorrect solutions in terms of the pedagogical moves they employed, cognitive demand associated with their responses, and how their responses changed over time. Implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Validating the Hornik & Woolf approach to choosing media campaign themes: Do promising beliefs predict behavior change in a longitudinal study?

Hornik and Woolf (1999) proposed using cross-sectional survey data to prioritize beliefs to address with communication campaign messages. The empirical component of the approach combines evidence of (1) association of beliefs with intentions and (2) current level of beliefs to calculate a “percentage to gain” as the potential promise of a belief. However, the method relies on cross-sectional data; its conclusions are open to challenge. Here, a panel study assesses whether the calculated promise of a belief actually predicts future behavior change. A nationally representative sample of 3,204 U.S. youth and young adults were interviewed twice, six months apart. Sixteen beliefs about the benefits and costs of smoking cigarettes are compared with regard to their percentage to gain (calculated from cross-sectional data) and their ability to account for subsequent cigarette use. A belief’s cross-sectional percentage to gain is substantially associated with its ability to predict subsequent behavior change (r = .53, p < .05).     

Are You A Leader? How We Learned to Stop Asking

Smith College initiated an ePortfolio pilot project to guide students in documenting key learning experiences and in linking those experiences to Smith's institutional mission of “developing leaders for society's challenges” (Smith College, 2011 Smith College. 2011. Mission of Smith College. Retrieved from http://www.smith.edu/about_mission.php. [Google Scholar]). Twenty-one college students volunteered to participate in the pilot, based on the integrative knowledge portfolio process and informed by research in the fields of narrative psychology, integrative learning theory and ePortfolio theory. This article discusses the process of guiding students in integrative learning through the development of ePortfolios and through a curriculum, which engaged them in understanding and articulating their own learning, as well as in connecting it to the college mission.     

Graduate teaching assistants’ perceptions of teaching competencies required for work in undergraduate science labs

ABSTRACT

Many post-secondary institutions provide training and resources to help GTAs fulfil their teaching roles. However, few programmes focus specifically on the teaching competencies required by GTAs who work with undergraduate students in laboratory settings where learning tends to be more active and inquiry based than in classroom settings. From a review of 8 GTA manuals, we identified 20 competencies and then surveyed faculty and lab coordinators (FIS) and GTAs from a Faculty of Science at a comprehensive Canadian university to identify which of those competencies are required of GTAs who work in undergraduate science labs. GTAs and FIS did not significantly differ in the competencies they view as required for GTAs to work effectively in undergraduate labs. But, when comparing the responses of GTAs and FIS to TA manuals, ‘Clearly and effectively communicates ideas and information with students’ was the only competency for which there was agreement on the level of requirement. We also examined GTAs’ self-efficacy for each of the identified competencies and found no overall relationship between self-efficacy and demographic characteristics, including experience and training. Our results can be used to inform the design of training programmes specifically for GTAs who work in undergraduate science labs, for example, programmes should provide strategies for GTAs to obtain feedback which they can use to enhance their teaching skills. The goal of this study is to improve undergraduate lab instruction in faculties of science and to enhance the teaching experience of GTAs by better preparing them for their role.