The power of student empowerment: Measuring classroom predictors and individual indicators

Despite spending more money per student than almost all developed nations, the United States lags behind in educational indicators with persistent disparities between privileged and marginalized students. Most approaches have ignored the role of power dynamics in predicting student performance. Building on the existing literature in school climate and empowering settings, this study explored the construct of student empowerment to identify both environmental factors that predict increased empowerment and outcomes associated with empowerment. A survey was administered to 381 students from five urban high schools. Results suggest that intrapersonal student empowerment is predicted by equitable power use by teachers, positive teacher–student relationships and a sense of community in the classroom. Highly empowered students reported better grades, fewer behavioral incidents, increased extracurricular participation and higher educational aspirations than students who were less empowered. Limitations are discussed alongside implications for educational practice and future research.     

Lessons Learned from Undergraduate Students in Designing a Science-Based Course in Bioethics

Columbia University offers two innovative undergraduate science-based bioethics courses for student majoring in biosciences and pre–health studies. The goals of these courses are to introduce future scientists and healthcare professionals to the ethical questions they will confront in their professional lives, thus enabling them to strategically address these bioethical dilemmas. These courses incorporate innovative pedagogical methods, case studies, and class discussions to stimulate the students to think creatively about bioethical issues emerging from new biotechnologies. At the end of each course, each student is required to submit a one-page strategy detailing how he or she would resolve a bioethical dilemma. Based on our experience in teaching these courses and on a qualitative analysis of the students’ reflections, we offer recommendations for creating an undergraduate science-based course in bioethics. General recommendations include: 1) integrating the science of emerging biotechnologies, their ethical ramifications, and contemporary bioethical theories into interactive class sessions; 2) structuring discussion-based classes to stimulate students to consider the impact of their moral intuitions when grappling with bioethical issues; and 3) using specific actual and futuristic case studies to highlight bioethical issues and to help develop creative problem-solving skills. Such a course sparks students’ interests in both science and ethics and helps them analyze bioethical challenges arising from emerging biotechnologies.     

Mother–child attachment and cognitive performance in middle childhood: An examination of mediating mechanisms

Although mother–child attachment has been shown to predict cognitive performance, there has been a lack of attention to the mediating mechanisms that explain these associations. In the present study, we investigated relations of early mother–child attachment and cognitive performance in middle childhood (the latter in terms of both academic performance and IQ), and potential mediating mechanisms. Mother–child attachment was assessed at 15, 24, and 36-months, and child grades and IQ were assessed at grades 3 and 4. Attachment patterns at 15 months and avoidant attachment at 36-months were not related to school performance or IQ in middle childhood. Children more securely attached at 24 or 36-months had better school performance and higher IQs in middle childhood, and parental quality of assistance, encouragement of academics, children's social relationships, and children's regulatory characteristics significantly mediated these relationships. Both insecure-ambivalent attachment and disorganized attachment predicted later cognitive performance, and these associations were primarily mediated by the quality of parental assistance and child cooperation. This study advances our understanding of how and why early mother–child attachment is related to children's cognitive performance during middle childhood.     

A comparison of workshop training versus intensive,experiential training for improving behavior support skills in early educators

Effective behavior support is an important component of high-quality and nurturing early childhood classroom settings. At present, there are few studies that investigate the best way to train and support teachers in these strategies. The present study compared two different training approaches: (1) a workshop that included a one-day classroom-based training that introduced effective preventative and behavior support strategies followed by school year behavioral consultation support; or (2) an intensive condition that included the one-day workshop plus four days of experiential learning and practice in a preschool classroom followed by school year behavioral consultation support. Eighty-eight teachers/aides were randomly assigned to one of the two training conditions, and training occurred in August before the commencement of the school year. Results indicated that on observations of effective behavioral management and instructional learning formats, teachers in the intensive condition were improved proximally, with effects waning over time. For measures of teacher use of praise, the intensive group maintained the improved rate throughout the school year relative to the workshop group. Rates of commands and observations of classroom productivity were not different between groups. Teachers were satisfied with both approaches to training.     

“I still go ask someone I enjoy talking to”: The use of digital and human sources by educational stage and context

How does educational stage affect the way people find information? In previous research using the Digital Visitors & Residents (V&R) framework for semi-structured interviews, context was a factor in how individuals behaved. This study of 145 online, open-ended surveys examines the impact that one's V&R educational stage has on the likelihood of attending to digital and human sources across four contexts. These contexts vary according to whether the search was professional or personal and successful or struggled. The impact of educational stage differs based on context. In some contexts, people at higher educational stages are more likely to attend to digital sources and less likely to attend to human sources. In other contexts, there is no statistically significant difference (p < 0.10) among educational stages. These findings provide support for previous V&R research, while also demonstrating that online surveys can be used to supplement and balance the data collected from semi-structured interviews.     

Profile analysis of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children,Second Edition,with African American and Caucasian preschool children

This study used profile analysis to investigate the interpretability of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition (KABC‐II), in terms of the Cattell‐Horn‐Carroll (CHC) theory among ethnically diverse preschool children. Forty‐nine African American and 49 Caucasian preschool children from a Midwestern city were included in the study and were matched for age, sex, and level of parental education. The profile analysis examining CHC broad abilities showed that the African American and Caucasian preschool children had similar patterns of highs and lows and performed at the same level with no significant difference between the two groups in their overall mean IQ. Profile analysis of the KABC‐II subtests found that although the African American and Caucasian groups performed overall at a similar level, they did not show the same pattern of highs and lows in subtest performance. Specifically, Caucasian preschoolers scored significantly higher than their African American counterparts on the Expressive Vocabulary subtest. Overall, the two groups displayed remarkably similar performance on the KABC‐II. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Purpose Among Youth From Low-Income Backgrounds: A Mixed Methods Investigation

Theoretical and empirical research lead to conflicting perspectives on whether youth from low-income backgrounds are likely to have access to lives of purpose. To explore this issue, this study used data collected during the 2016–2017 academic year from a sample of Southern California youth. Findings suggest (a) youth from low-income communities are as likely as youth from middle-income communities to report leading lives of purpose; (b) purpose among low-income youth is associated with many of the same indicators of positive development as it is among middle-income youth; and (c) youth from low-income backgrounds encounter personal hardships that, in the presence of familial support and other developmental assets, can inspire purpose. Implications for purpose-fostering interventions among low-income youth are discussed.     

Children Learn From Both Embodied and Passive Pretense: A Replication and Extension

Research suggests that children can learn new information via pretense. However, a fundamental problem with existing studies is that children are passive receivers of the pretense rather than active, engaged participants. This preregistered study replicates previous learning from pretense findings (Sutherland & Friedman, 2012, Child Development), in which children are passive observers of pretense, and extends to two additional conditions that require children to partially (with puppets) or fully (with costumes) embody a character. Children (N = 144, 24–79 months) learned equally well, and better than those in the control condition, from all three play scenarios. At a 2-week follow-up, learning was equally retained across embodiment conditions for older, but not younger, preschoolers. Future research should consider embodiment’s role for more complex material.