Supervisee Incompatibility and Its Influence on Triadic Supervision: An Examination of Doctoral Student Supervisors' Perspectives

A qualitative study was conducted to explore supervisors' experiences of supervisee incompatibility in triadic supervision. In‐depth interviews were completed with 9 doctoral student supervisors in a counselor education program, and a whole‐text analysis generated 3 categories. Supervisee incompatibility took a wide variety of forms and negatively affected the content of supervision, including its progress and productivity. It also negatively influenced the process of supervision, including the feedback and support offered by either the supervisor or the supervisees and the general atmosphere of supervision meetings. Implications of the findings for counseling supervision and for further research are also addressed.     

Navigating the Gifted Bubble: Black Adults Reflecting on Their Transition Experiences in NYC Gifted Programs

Through the reflections of 17 Black adults who attended gifted schools in New York City, this qualitative study investigated how they transitioned into and through gifted programs as students. Findings suggest four themes: (a) Many students were referred to gifted programs during their elementary school experience either by their teachers or by their parents; (b) participants expressed having an easy transition into gifted programs in elementary because their schools and gifted programs were racially diverse and provided a welcoming school environment; (c) during middle and high school, participants noted difficulty transitioning through school as gifted students, due to being one of few Black students in their gifted programs, as well as having to attend schools outside of their neighborhood; and (d) despite this, through supportive relationships and community partnerships, they were able to find the space to survive (and thrive) in their programs. Recommendations are provided for educators to support gifted Black students.     

Optimal strictly positive real controllers using direct optimization

In this paper, we consider the H₂-optimal control problem subject to the constraint that the resulting controller be strictly positive real. A direct numerical optimization approach is adopted in conjunction with a controller parametrization that is linear in the unknown parameters. The SPR constraint is easily expressed at each frequency in the form of a linear inequality. The method is applied to a numerical example from the literature and good results are achieved. In particular, the proposed method is particularly adept at determining low order controllers.     

Promoting the development of preschool children’s emergent literacy skills: a randomized evaluation of a literacy-focused curriculum and two professional development models

To date, there have been few causally interpretable evaluations of the impacts of preschool curricula on the skills of children at-risk for academic difficulties, and even fewer studies have demonstrated statistically significant or educationally meaningful effects. In this cluster-randomized study, we evaluated the impacts of a literacy-focused preschool curriculum and two types of professional development on the emergent literacy skills of preschool children at-risk for educational difficulties. Forty-eight preschools were randomly assigned to a business-as-usual control, a literacy-focused curriculum with workshop-only professional development, or a literacy-focused curriculum with workshop plus in-class mentoring professional development conditions. An ethnically diverse group of 739 preschool children was assessed on language and literacy outcomes. Results revealed significant and moderate effects for the curriculum and small, mostly nonsignificant, effects of professional development across child outcomes and classroom measures.     

Productive friction: How conflict in student teaching creates opportunities for learning at the boundary

Student teaching is contested ground for teacher candidates’ learning. Struggling to implement practises when expectations of university and schools are inconsistent, they experience conflicts between these two worlds. In this article, we conceptualise student teaching as a space where conflicts can be generative for candidates’ learning. We use the idea of productive friction—dissonance experienced by teacher candidates when two or more social worlds conflict that leads to more sophisticated practise—to consider student teaching as a potential boundary space that benefits from diverse perspectives. Drawing on ethnographic data, we contrast the cases of four candidates’ productive and unproductive friction during student teaching. Furthermore, we discuss the qualities of student teaching that can promote productive friction for learning.     

The Development of Scientific Thinking in Elementary School: A Comprehensive Inventory

The development of scientific thinking was assessed in 1,581 second, third, and fourth graders (8‐, 9‐, 10‐year‐olds) based on a conceptual model that posits developmental progression from naïve to more advanced conceptions. Using a 66‐item scale, five components of scientific thinking were addressed, including experimental design, data interpretation, and understanding the nature of science. Unidimensional and multidimensional item response theory analyses supported the instrument's reliability and validity and suggested that the multiple components of scientific thinking form a unitary construct, independent of verbal or reasoning skills. A partial credit model gave evidence for a hierarchical developmental progression. Across each grade transition, advanced conceptions increased while naïve conceptions decreased. Independent effects of intelligence, schooling, and parental education on scientific thinking are discussed.     

Educational attainment in South Africa: a view from the census 1865–2011

Population censuses record considerable volumes of personal information, which when aggregated and tabulated provide significant insights into national societies. South African censuses have recorded levels of educational attainment since their inception in the mid-nineteenth century, initially measuring literacy and later the level of education completed. The statistics demonstrate deep long-term inequalities within South African society and the changing emphases placed upon them by governments of widely varying viewpoints. Temporal changes have been of constant concern, with the comparison of the results of one census with another to assess the effectiveness of government programmes. However, it has been the differences based on race or population group that have attracted most attention and remain the most contentious in the post-apartheid era. The census collects comprehensive statistical information independent of other sources and so provides a highly valuable and reliable record for a wide variety of investigations.