Establishing a Center to Support Faculty Research

This article describes the establishment in fall 2002 of a School of Education Research Center designed to support faculty in increasing productivity and quality in research. Details are provided about center goals, services, staffing, space, resources, and logistics during the first year of operation. In addition, data are shared about faculty usage of the Center, the level of faculty satisfaction with center services in the first year, and initial increases in faculty productivity. The article concludes with plans for continued data collection to monitor the impact of the Center, a discussion of lessons learned at this point in the Center's development, and possibilities for the evolution of the Center. All authors are at the University of Colorado, Denver. Laura Goodwin, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, is Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs and continues to serve as a Faculty Research Associate. Elizabeth Kozleski, Ed.D., University of Northern Colorado, is the Associate Dean for Research in the School of Education. Lynn Rhodes, Ed.D., Indiana University, is the Dean of the School of Education. Rodney Muth, Ph.D., Claremont Graduate School, is a professor of Administrative Leadership and Policy Studies in the school and chaired the Research Center Advisory Board. Kim Kennedy White, M.A., University of Oregon, was the original School of Education Research Center Coordinator and was responsible for collecting most of the data included in this study.     

Recognition of facial emotions among maltreated children with high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to examine processing of facial emotions in a sample of maltreated children showing high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Maltreatment during childhood has been associated independently with both atypical processing of emotion and the development of PTSD. However, research has provided little evidence indicating how high rates of PTSD might relate to maltreated children's processing of emotions. METHOD: Participants' reaction time and labeling of emotions were measured using a morphed facial emotion identification task. Participants included a diverse sample of maltreated children with and without PTSD and controls ranging in age from 8 to 15 years. Maltreated children had been removed from their homes and placed in state custody following experiences of maltreatment. Diagnoses of PTSD and other disorders were determined through combination of parent, child, and teacher reports. RESULTS: Maltreated children displayed faster reaction times than controls when labeling emotional facial expressions, and this result was most pronounced for fearful faces. Relative to children who were not maltreated, maltreated children both with and without PTSD showed enhanced response times when identifying fearful faces. There was no group difference in labeling of emotions when identifying different facial emotions. CONCLUSIONS: Maltreated children show heightened ability to identify fearful faces, evidenced by faster reaction times relative to controls. This association between maltreatment and atypical processing of emotion is independent of PTSD diagnosis.     

Latent Profiles of Reading and Language and Their Association With Standardized Reading Outcomes in Kindergarten Through Tenth Grade

The objective of this study was to determine the latent profiles of reading and language skills that characterized 7,752 students in kindergarten through tenth grade and to relate the profiles to norm-referenced reading outcomes. Reading and language skills were assessed with a computer-adaptive assessment administered in the middle of the year and reading outcome measures were administered at the end of the year. Three measures of reading comprehension were administered in third through tenth grades to create a latent variable. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted on the reading and language measures and related to reading outcomes in multiple regression analyses. Within-grade multiple regressions were subjected to a linear step-up correction to guard against false-discovery rate. LPA results revealed five to six profiles in the elementary grades and three in the secondary grades that were strongly related to standardized reading outcomes, with average absolute between-profile effect sizes ranging from 1.10 to 2.53. The profiles in the secondary grades followed a high, medium, and low pattern. Profiles in the elementary grades revealed more heterogeneity, suggestive of strategies for differentiating instruction.     

A review of ‘psychology and the study of education: critical perspectives on developing theories’

This review examines Psychology and the Study of Education: Critical Perspectives on Developing Theories, a collection of academic articles edited by Cathal Ó Siochrú. The collection comprehensively considers wide-ranging topics pertinent to the psychology of education, with a target audience of educators and students wishing to learn more about psychology. The review evaluates the collection as an integrated work of entries and analyses each component chapter; recognising the success of the collection with respect to its aim of challenging readers to critically reflect upon and consider the value of psychology in both understanding and influencing education. The book transcends the common formula of academic article collections in this area by being presented in a somewhat conversational manner, making it both interesting and accessible. The book is recommended for anyone interested in the psychology of education and for anyone who values the advancement of learning and teaching.     

Classifications of college students’ protean and boundaryless orientation to work

Increasingly, individuals navigate their own careers in self-directed (protean) and boundaryless contexts. These concepts have been applied to adult employees but have seen limited application with young adults. Therefore, 205 college students were assessed on the Protean and Boundaryless Career Attitudes scales (Briscoe, Hall, and DeMuth, 2006); i.e., self-directed career management, values-driven, boundaryless mindset, and organizational mobility preferences. Scale items were reworded to focus on college experience. Cluster analysis organized respondents into five distinct protean-boundaryless career types. Three types were similar to those hypothesized for adults, while two types were unique to our sample.     

Optimal Design for Two-Level Random Assignment and Regression Discontinuity Studies

An important concern when planning research studies is to obtain maximum precision of an estimate of a treatment effect given a budget constraint. When research designs have a multilevel or hierarchical structure changes in sample size at different levels of the design will impact precision differently. Furthermore, there will typically be differential costs of enrolling additional units at different levels of the hierarchy. The optimal design problem in multilevel research studies involves determining the optimal sample size at each level of the design given specified design parameters and a specified marginal cost of recruitment at each level. The current work extends existing results by considering optimal design for (a) unbalanced random assignment designs and (b) regression discontinuity designs.     

The Experience and Expression of Homesickness in Preadolescent and Adolescent Boys

This study is the first prospective longitudinal and clinical investigation of homesickness in children. The moods of 329 boys ages 8–16 were assessed on a daily basis during either a 2- or 4-week period of separation from primary caregivers. Results supported 4 hypotheses: (1) homesickness was prevalent and varied in intensity. 83% of the boys reported some homesickness on at least 1 day during their stay, and 5.8% experienced severe depression and anxiety; (2) homesickness was experienced as a combination of depression and anxiety, particularly the former; (3) younger boys were at greater risk for homesickness than older boys; and (4) homesickness presented most often as internalizing behavior and was sometimes detectable to observers who knew the boys. 63% of the boys who self-reported moderate or high levels of homesickness were judged by observers to be homesick. Inconsistent with popular notions, the most homesick boys became progressively more homesick over the course of their separation, experiencing a significant drop in homesickness just before reuniting with parents. The phenomenology of homesickness is discussed, as are issues of simultaneous depression and anxiety in children.