Shedding Light on Preservice Teachers' Domain-Specific Self-Efficacy

The purpose of this study was to investigate preservice teachers' efficacy beliefs across domains in a reading-specific methods course. Participants were preservice teachers in a state required reading methods course. During this course, preservice teachers were required to work with an elementary student in reading and write a case study linking theory to practice. At the beginning and end of the course, participants completed a battery of adapted, domain-specific versions of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale. Results showed that preservice teachers reported a significant increase in their sense of efficacy within each domain. However, efficacy beliefs differed with regard to domain.     

Validity of the Simultaneous Approach to the Development of Equivalent Achievement Tests in English and French

The evidence gathered in the present study supports the use of the simultaneous development of test items for different languages. The simultaneous approach used in the present study involved writing an item in one language (e.g., French) and, before moving to the development of a second item, translating the item into the second language (e.g., English) and checking to see that both language versions of the item mean the same. The evidence collected through the item development stage suggested that the simultaneous test development method allowed the influence and integration of information from item writers representing different language and cultural groups to affect test development directly. Certified English/French translators and interpreters and the French Immersion students confirmed that the test items in French and English had comparable meanings. The pairs of test forms had equal standard errors of measurement. The source of differential item functioning was not attributable to the adaptation process used to produce the two language forms, but to the lack of French language proficiency as well as other unknown sources. Lastly, the simultaneous approach used in the present study was somewhat more efficient than the forward translation procedure currently in use.     

HISTORY

Set aside time each week for reading of good books. The author puts himself in good books—not ephemeral talk in discussion of questions and in discussion groups, where often ignorance is multiplied. One hundred times zero is still zero.

“The Future of Public Education” by Myron Lieberman, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1960, pp. ix, 294. $5.00.

American Education: An Introduction, Revised Edition, by Emma Reinhardt, New York: Harper and Brothers, publishers, 1960. 458 pp. $5.00.

Education in the Perspectivofe History by Edward D. Myers (concluding chapter by Arnold J. Toynbee). New York: Harper &; Brothers, 1960. 388 plus xii pages. $6.00.

Effective School Health Education by Arthur L. Harnett and John H. Shaw. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. 1959. 421 pp. $4.75.

General Education, An Account and Appraisal, edited by Lewis B. Mayhew. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1960. 212 pp. $4.00.

Getting Down to Cases by Robert L. Brackenbury. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1959. 222 pp. $4.00.

Guiding Child Development in the Elementary School by Lorena Stretch. Minneapolis: Educational Test Bureau, 1959. 493 pp. $5.40.

Learning to Work in Groups by Matthew B. Miles. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University. 1959. 285 pp. $5.00.

Liberal Education in the Professions by Earl J. McGrath. A Publication of the Institute of Higher Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1959. vi + 63 pp. $1.50.

“The Search for America,” edited by Huston Smith. Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1959, pp. ix, 179. $2.95.     

Attributions of Blame and Credibility in a Hypothetical Child Sexual Abuse Case: Roles of victim disability,victim resistance and respondent gender

This study examines the effects victim disability (physical vs. intellectual vs. none), victim resistance (physical vs. verbal vs. none) and respondent gender (male vs. female) have on attributions of blame and credibility in a hypothetical case of child sexual abuse. Three hundred and thirty‐five respondents read a fictional police statement regarding the sexual assault of a 12‐year‐old girl by a 23‐year‐old man before completing 28 attribution items. Principal axis factoring revealed six reliable factors. Subsequent multivariate analysis of covariance—controlling for respondents’ general attitude towards disability—revealed that males deemed the victim more culpable for her own abuse than did females. Further, perpetrators were deemed more culpable when the victim physically (vs. verbally) resisted. Finally, a significant three‐way interaction suggests victim resistance influences attributions of perpetrator blame given a victim’s disability status, at least amongst male observers. Implications and proposals for future research are discussed.     

Factor structure,reliability and validity of the Parental Support for Learning Scale: Adolescent Short Form (PSLS-AS)

Parental involvement in children’s learning has been found to influence academic success. However, very few tools exist for measuring parental involvement, particularly ones that target adolescents’ self-report. The present study assessed the factor structure, reliability and convergent validity of a new scale to assess adolescents’ perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ educational involvement: the Parental Support for Learning Scale: Adolescent Short Form (PSLS-AS). The PSLS-AS, as well as a questionnaire measuring the risk of high school drop-out, was administered to a sample of 825 youth (aged 13–14 years). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure representing parental involvement: Controlling Involvement and Autonomy Supportive Involvement. Adolescents’ perceptions of their parents’ involvement correlated with a risk of high school drop-out. Implications and future directions for further validation of the PSLS-AS are discussed.     

Noncontingent use of alum in the reduction of rumination

In the years following the passage of PL 94–142, increasing numbers of severely and profoundly handicapped children have been educated in public school classrooms. One of the many troublesome behaviors sometimes found among members of this population is rumination, a habit in which the child vomits repeatedly and may reingest the vomitus. The behavior is a potential health hazard. It also tends to make the child repulsive to teachers and other caregivers. Treatments developed for management of this behavior in residential facilities have tended to require time-consuming contingent aversive treatment of the rumination. The present study adventitiously identified a stimulus that is effective in reducing rates of rumination when used contingently and also when used noncontingently. Theoretical implications for the understanding of rumination are considered.