Can instructional and emotional support in the first-grade classroom make a difference for children at risk of school failure?

This study examined ways in which children's risk of school failure may be moderated by support from teachers. Participants were 910 children in a national prospective study. Children were identified as at risk at ages 5-6 years on the basis of demographic characteristics and the display of multiple functional (behavioral, attention, academic, social) problems reported by their kindergarten teachers. By the end of first grade, at-risk students placed in first-grade classrooms offering strong instructional and emotional support had achievement scores and student-teacher relationships commensurate with their low-risk peers; at-risk students placed in less supportive classrooms had lower achievement and more conflict with teachers. These findings have implications for understanding the role that classroom experience may play in pathways to positive adaptation.     

Reliability and Preliminary Use of a Rubric to Assess Pre-Kindergarten Teachers’ Video Uses

The presence and use of new technologies in early childhood settings are rapidly increasing. One technology tool used in early childhood settings is monthly DVD classroom newsletters, yet there is a lack of assessments to support pre-kindergarten teachers’ uses of such DVD newsletter technology—in general and in specific. The present study helps to fill this gap by developing and testing a revised rubric to evaluate the quality of monthly DVD classroom newsletters. Results indicate that the revised Monthly DVD Classroom Newsletter-Rubric exhibited good overall reliability. We suggest that the use of a rubric to assess pre-kindergarten teacher-created monthly DVD classroom newsletters supports teachers’ decision making about technology uses and professional development.     

Project- versus lecture-based courses: Assessing the role of course structure on perceived utility,anxiety, academic performance,and satisfaction in the undergraduate research methods course

Previous research suggests that undergraduate research methods students doubt the utility of course content and experience math and research anxiety. Research also suggests involving students in hands-on, applied research activities, although empirical data on the scope and nature of these activities are lacking. This study compared academic performance, research methods anxiety, perceived utility of research methods, and course satisfaction across students in a large lecture-based course and a smaller project-based course. Results show minimal differences in student outcomes between the courses. Limitations are discussed, as is the ideal scope of project-based learning in the undergraduate mass media research methods course.     

The Role of Consultancy in Curriculum and Organization Development Innovation in Education

In this article research on teaching and learning is reviewed from a cross-cultural perspective. A meta-analysis indicates that across a number of very different cultures higher quality learning strategies, at both school and university level, are associated with higher student self-esteem and an internal locus of control. Such strategies tend to be encouraged in classrooms where students feel involved, the teachers are supportive, the workload is fair, and the assessment system reflects broader notions of learning beyond examination marks. In-depth research on Chinese students questions the validity of a number of basic Western notions of educational psychology regarding the nature of motivation and the role of memorisation. Other research suggests that the Western teacher education emphasis on getting students on task and coping with behavioural problems may not be as relevant in the Chinese context. Chinese educators tend to see both creativity and understanding as slow processes requiring much effort, repetition, and attention rather than relatively rapid, insightful processes. Such views are grounded in hundreds of years of Chinese philosophical thought. Any attempts to reform education by importing ideas from one culture to another must consider the overall contexts of the societies involved.     

Value Conflicts in the Management of Innovation: supporting information technology innovation in initial teacher training in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

This paper is concerned with the process of innovation at both the institutional and personal‐professional levels. The focus is on the practical and moral dilemmas of managing innovation in the context of coercive policies imposed from outside. Innovation is defined as any activity or practice which involves human beings in changes to established routines. It is always embedded in a unique, multi‐level context. Qualitative methods are used to examine the case of five institutions in the UK working within a funded project to introduce more effective use of information technology in initial teacher education. The aim of the paper is to use the case to generate theories which, although they cannot be generalised to other contexts, can inform the thinking of those responsible for the management of innovation in other institutions.     

Teaching the teacher: exploring STEM graduate students’ nature of science conceptions in a teaching methods course

ABSTRACT

Graduate students regularly teach undergraduate STEM courses and can positively impact students’ understanding of science. Yet little research examines graduate students’ knowledge about nature of science (NOS) or instructional strategies for teaching graduate students about NOS. This exploratory study sought to understand how a 1-credit Teaching in Higher Education course that utilised an explicit, reflective, and mixed-context approach to NOS instruction impacted STEM graduate students’ NOS conceptions and teaching intentions. Participants included 13 graduate students. Data sources included the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS-Form C) questionnaire administered pre- and post-instruction, semi-structured interviews with a subset of participants, and a NOS-related course project. Prior to instruction participants held many alternative NOS conceptions. Post-instruction, participants’ NOS conceptions improved substantially, particularly in their understandings of theories and laws and the tentative nature of scientific knowledge. All 12 participants planning to teach NOS intended to use explicit instructional approaches. A majority of participants also integrated novel ideas to their intended NOS instruction. These results suggest that a teaching methods course for graduate students with embedded NOS instruction can address alternative NOS conceptions and facilitate intended use of effective NOS instruction. Future research understanding graduate students' NOS understandings and actual NOS instruction is warranted.     

Using a Standardized Task to Assess the Quality of Teacher–Child Dyadic Interactions in Preschool

Research Findings: This study explored the quality of teacher-child interactions within the context of a newly developed standardized task, Teacher-Child Structured Play Task (TC-SPT). A sample of 146 teachers and 345 children participated. Children who displayed the highest disruptive behaviors within each classroom were selected to participate. Teacher-child dyads (n=345) participated in a play session that included free play and clean-up tasks. We adapted two coding schemes to assess the quality of both teachers’ and children’s interactive behaviors during these two tasks. The coding schemes exhibited internal and inter-rater reliability. Significant associations with classroom-level teacher-child interactions and children’s observed classroom engagement provide support for the measure’s validity. Differences in teacher and child-interactive behaviors across the two tasks (free play versus clean-up) suggest that task features may affect the quality of teacher-child interactive behaviors. Practice and Policy: Examining the interactions of different teacher-child dyads within the same standardized context will allow researchers to better understand the child and teacher factors that contribute to the quality of those interactions. Thus, use of this task in future field-based research may help to assess the impact of early interventions and professional development efforts that target improvement in the quality of teacher-child interactions.