From Page to Stage: Locating the Spirit of Branar’s Adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ How to Catch a Star

Children's Literature in Education - Oliver Jeffers’ best-selling picturebook How to Catch a Star (2004) has been the subject of several recent theatre adaptations for children. This...     

Heterogeneity in the Effects of College Course Placement

Traditionally colleges have relied on standalone non-credit-bearing developmental education (DE) to support students academically and ensure readiness for college-level courses. As emerging evidence has raised concerns about the effectiveness of DE courses, colleges and states have been experimenting with approaches that place students into credit-bearing coursework more quickly. To better understand which types of students might be most likely to benefit from being placed into college-level math coursework, this study examines heterogeneity in the causal effects of placement into college-level courses using a regression discontinuity design and administrative data from the state of Texas. We focus on student characteristics that are related to academic preparation or might signal a student’s likelihood of success or need for additional support and might therefore be factors considered for placement into college-level courses under “holistic advising” or “multiple measures” initiatives. We find heterogeneity in outcomes for many of the measures we examined. Students who declared an academic major designation, had bachelor’s degree aspirations, tested below college readiness on multiple subjects, were designated as Limited English Proficiency (LEP), and/or were economically disadvantaged status were more likely to benefit from placement into college-level math. Part-time enrollment or being over the age of 21 were associated with reduced benefits from placement into college-level math. We do not find any heterogeneity in outcomes for our high school achievement measure, three or more years of math taken in high school.

     

The Role of Emotion Regulation in the Social Problems of Boys With Developmental Delays

Parents and teachers reported that 6- to 8-year-old boys with developmental delays were less able to regulate their emotions than nondelayed boys matched on chronological age. Compared to nondelayed boys, boys with developmental delays had more social problems, which persisted and increased over a 3-year period. Children's ability to regulate their emotions explained significant variance in their social problems after controlling for their developmental status. In addition, emotion regulation partially mediated the relationship between children's developmental status and their social problems. These results suggest that emotion regulation plays a significant role in the social problems of boys with developmental delays. Furthermore, increasing the emotional competence of these children may facilitate their peer relationships and, ultimately, their school adjustment.     

Science curriculum development in New Zealand a historical account

Summary Science education in New Zealand continues to have a strong research base and now development work has begun that is modelled on a view of how people learn and which is supported by the curriculum development of the wider Ministerial Review.     

African–American Mentoring Program (AAMP): addressing the cracks in the graduate education pipeline

In this conceptual article, we focus on mentoring as a strategy to mend the cracks in the education pipeline for African American graduate students. Our article highlights the African American Mentoring Program (AAMP) model and examines the unique methods it uses to support the retention and graduation of African American graduate students from a university and their transition to the workforce. AAMP operates from a Transitional Cultural Framework and strives to bridge the gap between the students’ culture and the culture of the university. AAMP’s uniqueness is harnessed in its deep roots in culture, history, collectivism, and inter-generational sharing of knowledge. We end with implications and recommendations for universities and future research.     

At-risk readers developing expertise in register switching: evidence from cohesion analysis

Register refers to the variety of language that is appropriate for a particular situational context. This study examines young children’s development of register switching expertise as they become independent readers. Participants were 17 first graders identified by their classroom teachers as at-risk readers and admitted into an early literacy intervention program called Reading Recovery. At both the beginning and end of Reading Recovery, each child was asked to share a story about a personally relevant topic in a face-to-face, conversational context and then dictate that same oral tale as an autonomous/written text intended for a reader audience. The 68 texts (34 oral and 34 written) were analysed for their use of register-appropriate cohesive linguistic choices. It was found that as these at-risk children grew from emergent to independent, strategic readers, they were concurrently developing skills in constructing written register texts by recontextualising the cohesion language patterns in their oral register texts. It is suggested that developing expertise in register switching may compose part of the process of learning to read and write. This finding is discussed in the light of relevant literacy and educational research.     

Construct validity of the learning behavior scale with an independent sample of students

In this study, the factor structure of the Learning Behavior Scale (LBS; McDermott, Green, Francis, & Stott, 1999) was examined in an independent sample of 257 elementary school students. The LBS is a 29‐item, four‐factor scale on which teachers rate students' positive and negative learning behaviors. The results indicated that the internal consistency of the total LBS scores and the scores on two subscales (Competence Motivation and Attitude Toward Learning) were high enough for individual decision making, whereas the reliability estimates of scores on the Attention/Persistence and Strategy/Flexibility subscales were appropriate only for research or screening purposes. Factor analyses extracted factors similar to three of the factors on the LBS (Competence Motivation, Attitude Toward Learning, and Strategy/Flexibility), and suggested that the fourth factor (Attention/Persistence) may benefit from additional study. In general, the results indicate that the LBS may be a useful tool for examining students' learning behaviors. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Effects of a Teacher‐Designed and Teacher‐Led Numerical Board Game Intervention: A Randomized Controlled Study with 4‐ to 6‐Year‐Olds

The purpose of the current pilot study was to examine the effects of a teacher‐designed and teacher‐led numerical board game intervention. Fifty‐four 4‐ to 6‐year‐olds were randomly assigned to either the number board game intervention or an active control group. Relative to the control group, children who received the number game intervention demonstrated significant improvements on a numeral identification task. This finding is significant in so far as numeral identification skills play a critical role in more advanced numerical and mathematical reasoning. There was no evidence of training‐related improvements on any of the other tasks. In addition to the intervention effects, the present study provides an example of a successful teacher‐researcher collaboration, providing new insights into the making of bidirectional relations between research and practice.