Children's Relationships with Peers: Differential Associations with Aspects of the Teacher-Child Relationship

Associations between children's social competence with peers and differential aspects of their teacher-child relationships were examined in a longitudinal sample of 48 4-year-old children enrolled in child care as infants. Toddler security with teacher was negatively associated with hostile aggression and positively with complex peer play and gregarious behaviors. Prosocial behaviors and withdrawing behaviors were associated with preschool security with teacher. Dependence on teachers as a preschooler was associated with social withdrawal and hostile aggression. Positive toddler teacher socialization was associated with higher perceived peer acceptance. Preschool teacher negative socialization was negatively associated with complex peer play, teacher ratings of hesitancy, friendly enactment, and accidental attribution and positively related to teacher ratings of difficulty.     

Staff student partnership in assessment: enhancing assessment literacy through democratic practices

In recent years, research and practice focused on staff and students working in partnership to co-design learning and teaching in higher education has increased. However, within staff–student partnerships a focus on assessment is relatively uncommon, with fewer examples evident in the literature. In this paper, we take the stance that all assessment can be oriented for learning, and that students’ learning is enhanced by improving their level of assessment literacy. A small study in a Scottish university was undertaken that involved a range of different adaptations to assessment and feedback, in which students were invited to become partners in assessment. We argue that a partnership approach, designed to democratise the assessment process, not only offered students greater agency in their own and their peers’ learning, but also helped students to enhance their assessment literacy. Although staff and students reported experiencing a sense of risk, there was immense compensation through increased motivation, and a sense of being part of an engaged learning community. Implications for partnership in assessment are discussed and explored further. We assert that adopting staff–student partnership in assessment and more democratic classroom practices can have a wide range of positive benefits.     

The existence and extent of spatial working memory ability in honeybees

Honeybees foraged from six locations, each of which was baited with sugar solution prior to each experimental trial. Under a variety of conditions, bees exhibited a small but reliable tendency to avoid revisits to locations that they had visited earlier during the experimental trial. These results replicate those of Brown and Demas (1994), who concluded that bees use working memory to discriminate previously visited locations from those not yet visited. The present experiments included procedures that allowed alternatives to this explanation to be more completely ruled out. The extent of spatial working memory performance exhibited by honeybees in these experiments appears to be limited by a process other than working memory capacity, perhaps the ability of bees to discriminate among several locations in close proximity to one another.     

Lifewide learning in the city: novel big data approaches to exploring learning with large-scale surveys,GPS, and social media

ABSTRACT

Despite UNESCO’s Learning Cities agenda, which argues for the mobilisation of resources to promote education across all sectors and environments, there is little evaluative research on Learning City engagement which is both naturalistic and empirically rigorous. The research on informal adult learning in urban contexts is particularly sparse. This paper provides a case study of informal learning and lifewide literacies amongst Glaswegian adults using three distinct approaches to data collection: a household survey capturing rich data on learning attitudes, behaviours, and literacies; GPS trails that track mobility around the city; and the capture of naturally occurring social media. The work operationalises Learning City indicators, and explores domains beyond education, some of which have not previously been considered in surveys of adult learning, for example, physical mobilities and transportation patterns. We use theoretical concepts of social identity and capital to situate inclusion within explanatory frameworks of marginalisation in less tangible domains of informal learning using multi-stranded data. A triangulated analysis of city-wide participation in lifewide learning reveals a demographic picture of groups marginalised from learning opportunities and practices. We conclude with a call for new approaches to exploring learning participation which offer novel methods to evidence informal learning and lifewide literacies.     

Engagement and kindness in digitally mediated learning with teachers

This paper explores the significance of designing online learning led by the principle of direct and meaningful participant engagement. It considers the notion of kindness as a crucial value contributing to pedagogy and the development of meaningful learning relationships. The paper challenges the ‘delivery’ approach to online learning, suggesting that the flexible and explicit design of engagement opportunities from a sociocultural perspective is a more meaningful and human approach to learning online. The paper clarifies the term Digitally Mediated Learning (DML) to establish connections to important pedagogic positions. The research approach is based around a qualitative professional reflective enquiry. It considers the experiences of learners on a Masters in Education online module and concludes that design, engagement nurturing, community cohesion and kindness can become crucial aspects of successful DML, if institutions learn to value the life projects of others more fully.     

The predictive validity of the Phelps Kindergarten Readiness Scale

This study assesses the predictive validity of the Phelps Kindergarten Readiness Scale (PKRS) for later academic achievement and explores the utility of a domain‐specific measure of kindergarten readiness. Kindergarten readiness scores were significantly correlated with both math and language arts achievement as measured by New York State fourth‐grade assessments for 148 students in a suburban, northeastern public school. In addition, each of the PKRS domains (Verbal, Perceptual, and Auditory) was correlated with later academic achievement. Two simultaneously calculated regression analyses showed that language arts skills were best predicted by the Verbal and Auditory domains of the PKRS and that math achievement was more complexly determined by all three readiness domains. Structural equation modeling using AMOS‐4 showed that the latent construct readiness, as measured by the PKRS domain scores, was positively and significantly related to the latent construct academic achievement. Finally, this relationship held when age, gender, and behavioral indices at the time of kindergarten screening were used as moderator variables. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 509–516, 2004.     

Managing Institutional Research Advancement: Implications from a University Faculty Time Allocation Study

While much is known about faculty time allocation, we know very little about how traditional managerial factors influence faculty time allocation behaviors. We know even less about the possible downsides associated with relying on these traditional managerial factors. Using survey data from the National Science Foundation/Department of Energy Survey of Academic Researchers, our study predicts faculty time allocations to grant writing as a function of pressure from administrative superiors. We then examine how pressure from administrative superiors influences faculty job satisfaction and the likelihood to pursue uninteresting research grants. Our findings indicate that faculty time spent pursuing grants increases in response to pressure from administrative superiors but that this same pressure is associated also associated with increases in pursuit of uninteresting research grants as well as decreases in work satisfaction. Our study contributes to better understanding of the merits and limitations of traditional, hierarchical approaches to managing university faculty behavior.     

Fathers and mothers at play with their 2- and 3-year-olds: contributions to language and cognitive development

Father-child and mother-child engagements were examined longitudinally in relation to children's language and cognitive development at 24 and 36 months. The study involved a racially/ethnically diverse sample of low-income, resident fathers (and their partners) from the National Early Head Start evaluation study (n=290). Father-child and mother-child engagements were videotaped for 10 min at home during semistructured free play, and children's language and cognitive status were assessed at both ages. Fathers' and mothers' supportive parenting independently predicted children's outcomes after covarying significant demographic factors. Moreover, fathers' education and income were uniquely associated with child measures, and fathers' education consistently predicted the quality of mother-child engagements. Findings suggest direct and indirect effects of fathering on child development.     

Six Leadership Models for Professional Development in Science and Mathematics

Journal of Science Teacher Education -