Benefits of the Comprehensive Child Development Program as a function of AFDC receipt and SES

The benefits for children at the Pittsburgh site of the federal Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) were examined as a function of family welfare status (Aid to Families with Dependent Children; AFDC) and SES. The CCDP was the largest attempt by the federal government to provide two-generation, case-managed, comprehensive services to low-income families. Participating families could set their own goals and choose services to achieve them, but relatively few services were directed specifically at children. Results showed that more Pittsburgh families in the CCDP treatment group (N = 120) left AFDC than in the control group (N = 120), consistent with results from a national evaluation of the CCDP. Children whose families were on AFDC regardless of treatment group had lower mental test scores, even after controlling for family SES, a result suggesting that AFDC receipt over and above income level was associated with poorer child mental performance. The CCDP was associated with higher children's mental scores plus improvements over time in achievement scores only for children in families who were not on AFDC, even after controlling for SES. Such parents were more likely to choose parenting and child goals and services, which in turn were associated with higher child mental scores. In contrast, parents who were on AFDC tended to choose adult-centered goals and services, which did not benefit children. Therefore, in contrast to the national evaluation, which found no benefits of the CCDP for children, these analyses showed that the CCDP did produce benefits for children whose parents were not on AFDC, who tended to choose parenting and child services.     

Predicting the outcomes of physical events: two-year-olds fail to reveal knowledge of solidity and support

Two-year-olds' (N = 153) knowledge of solidity was tested in four search tasks adapted from infant looking-time experiments. In Experiment 1, 2-year-olds failed to search in the correct location for a falling ball after a hidden shelf that blocked its trajectory had been inserted in the apparatus. Experiment 2 extended this finding by showing that 2-year-olds failed to take into account the effects of either removing or inserting a shelf in their search for a toy dropped behind a screen. Experiment 3 examined sensitivity to the constraint provided by a solid barrier on horizontal motion. In all three experiments, 2-year-old children searched initially at the location where they saw the object during familiarization. Experiment 4, using multiple test trials but no familiarization to a pretest location, also showed that 2-year-olds failed to take the presence or absence of a barrier into account when planning where to search for a toy they had seen dropped behind a screen. In all of these studies, 2-year-olds showed no evidence of representing solidity and support constraints on the trajectories of falling objects. Experiments 1 and 3 also included 2 1/2-year-olds (N = 31), who succeeded on these search tasks. The implications of the poor performance of 2-year-olds, in the face of success by very young infants on looking-time measures of sensitivity to similar constraints on object motion, are discussed.     

How pedagogical relations in early years settings are reconfigured by interactive touchscreens

While interactive touchscreens are currently entering into educational practice, little is known about what this means for learning in early childhood and, in particular, how touchscreens shape action and communication. In this paper, we examine the interactions of 2-year-olds and their teachers in a multilingual preschool in Sweden. We analyse the communicative environment between the children, teachers and shared touchscreens and books in the context of reading. A mixed-methods analysis was used, taking a concept of action that includes both verbal, non-verbal utterances and digital touch. The analysis shows a reconfiguration to the interactional dynamic where children perform comparable amounts of actions in sessions with the touchscreen and book reading but less talk during the touchscreen sessions. However, while talking less, children display other types of communicative actions. We analyse the changing interactional dynamic that follows, its implications to learning and early childhood pedagogical practice and how interaction can be reconceptualised as cycles of communication and action in which educational scaffolding unfolds.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Touchscreens are a significant part of children's lives and educational curricula.
• There is considerable uncertainty on how touchscreens can be incorporated into early childhood education.
• Little is known about how educational social interaction changes with touchscreens such as iPads.

What this paper adds

• A mixed methods multimodal analysis of the changing actions and dynamics of iPads as compared with bookreading.
• Children's patterns of communication change towards less talk and more bodily communication, while teachers’ actions remain somewhat similar.
• Touch actions change the dynamics of interaction, can alter the pedagogical situation and bring a reconceptualisation towards a cyclical and embodied view of interaction.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• New patterns of action may require a recalibration of educational practices.
• Teachers need to attend to new sets of touch actions that children use to communicate and act with as displays of knowledge.
• The use of touch screens should be seen as complementary to established practices of language and literacy training (such as book reading) rather than replacing them.

     

Re-thinking Assessment: Multimodality,literacy and computer-mediated learning

All teaching and learning in the school classroom involves a range of modes including speech, writing, gesture, gaze, body-posture, movement, and so on--in other words teaching and learning are multimodal. This is as true of school English, where common-sense would have it that teaching and learning are fully realised in language, as it is of school Science where the role of action is firmly established in the curriculum. While all teaching and learning is multimodal, the use of computers in the classroom serves to emphasise the multimodal character of pedagogy. Computer applications introduce new kinds of texts into the classroom and these demand different practices of students. In turn this suggests the need to re-think conceptions of literacy, learning and assessment--to move beyond the narrow definition of literacy apparent in recent government policy to a broader definition that realises the connections between literacy and social practices in a multimodal digital era. The questions raised by the move from a language-based curriculum to a multimodal curriculum are explored in this paper through an illustrative example of computer mediated learning in the school English classroom.     

Professional learning communities as drivers of educational change: The case of learning rounds

Many researchers claim that there is a compelling weight of evidence for the effectiveness of PLCs in promoting teachers’ learning and pupil achievement. However, others raise fundamental questions about their nature and purpose. Some of the uncertainties about the nature and purpose of PLCs relate to the ways in which the macro-context of neo-liberalism has shaped the practices of PLCs in particular ways. The fundamental questions raised about PLCs relate to the type of change they are intended to produce, the model of community they are based on and whether the right conditions and skills are in place for them to contribute to change. Some researchers argue that we need to pay more attention to shortcomings within existing PLCs and their internal dynamics. Others argue that little research focuses on the specific interactions of teachers inside PLCs. The research reported here goes ‘inside the teacher community’ of Learning Rounds to explore what the shortcomings of some examples of this model in practice add to what we know about how to assist PLCs to produce change in education.     

Medical models for teachers’ learning: asking for a second opinion

Recently there has been renewed interest in basing teachers’ professional learning on medically derived models. This interest has included clinical practice models and evidence-based teaching as well as the use of various forms of ‘Rounds’ which claim to derive from medical rounds. However, many arguing for these approaches may well not have a detailed knowledge of the actuality of professional learning in medicine but may be basing their ideas on idealised models drawn from popular conceptions. In addition, the model used by some calling for medically derived teacher learning is biomedicine, an area in which parallels with Education are difficult. This paper argues that mental health and public health provide a better analogue for Education than biomedicine. It considers some of the lessons that can be drawn from research on evidence-based practice in these areas. The paper concludes that a way forward is neither uncritically to assume the superiority of medical models of professional learning nor to rely only on empirical evidence from Education, but rather to enter into dialogue with colleagues in mental and public health about shared concerns and experiences in professional learning.     

A survey of state-level contacts for school psychology regarding retention/promotion practices: Are we evaluating the risks and benefits?

In 1987, state-level contacts were surveyed concerning retention/promotion policies and the role of the school psychologist in retention/promotion decisions within their states. The intent of the survey was to ascertain specific state policies, compile information concerning the number of students retained at specific grade levels, and compare the individual views of state-level contacts/consultants on the actual and ideal roles of the school psychologist. Results of the survey are presented and implications are discussed.