Confidence Intervals for a Semiparametric Approach to Modeling Nonlinear Relations among Latent Variables

Compared to parametric models, nonparametric and semiparametric approaches to modeling nonlinearity between latent variables have the advantage of recovering global relationships of unknown functional form. Bauer (2005) Bauer, D. J. 2005. A semiparametric approach to modeling nonlinear relations among latent variables. Structural Equation Modeling, 12: 513–535. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] proposed an indirect application of finite mixtures of structural equation models where latent components are estimated in the service of more flexibly recovering characteristics of the latent aggregate regression function. This article develops and evaluates delta method and parametric bootstrap approaches for obtaining approximate confidence intervals for Bauer's semiparametric approach to modeling latent nonlinear functions. Coverage rates of these approximate point-wise confidence intervals or nonsimultaneous confidence bands are evaluated by Monte Carlo and recommendations for their use are suggested.     

NURTURING EARLY CHILDHOOD PROFESSIONALISM: THE RHODE ISLAND EARLY CHILDHOOD SUMMER INSTITUTE

This article describes the independent study project of a student who was a graduate assistant in a child development laboratory preschool when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast area. Through her experiences with “Project Katrina” she deepens her understanding of developmentally appropriate practices as she learns firsthand about the project approach and writing an article for publication in a professional journal.     

Quality in Kindergarten Classrooms: Observational Evidence for the Need to Increase Children's Learning Opportunities in Early Education Classrooms

Research Findings: Using observational data gathered in 730 kindergarten classrooms in 6 states, the present study focuses on the quality of children's learning opportunities in kindergarten classrooms. Findings show that overall, children experience moderate to low levels of quality in the areas of classroom organization and instructional support in kindergarten. Results are also presented in comparison to children's experiences in the pre-kindergarten year. These comparisons indicate that kindergarten children spend a greater proportion of the school day in language arts, math, and whole-group instruction and less time in centers than they do in pre-kindergarten. An examination of predictors of kindergarten classroom quality indicated that program characteristics (i.e., adult–child ratio, length of school day) and teacher psychological variables (i.e., beliefs and depressive symptoms) were stronger predictors of classroom quality than were teacher experience and educational background. Practice or Policy: Findings are discussed in terms of implications for children's academic and social development in kindergarten as well as for kindergarten teacher preparation and development.     

Context in Methods Course Learning: Lessons for partnership work

Teacher education programs are being encouraged to collaborate with K‐12 partners to develop and implement contextually rich field experiences that integrate methods course instruction with public school practices. As a result, we outline four models of integrating methods instruction and field experiences and raise the question “How does the classroom and school context of the field experience influence what prospective teachers learned in the methods courses?” This study examines the way two different cohorts of prospective elementary teachers who learned to teach in two different contexts define their own social studies pedagogical content knowledge. The students' espoused philosophies of education offer insight into how different models of integrated field experiences may impact on their beliefs about social studies teaching. Through this study we raise questions that should be considered in constructing methods courses linked to field experiences and suggest Bronfenbrenner's model as a tool for looking at these contextual influences.     

Reflection on their first five years of teaching: understanding staying and impact power

Teacher turnover in urban schools is occurring at a breakneck pace; thus, it is important for us to understand the characteristics of teachers who stay and succeed in these settings. In order to address this need, this study examines the preparation and induction experiences of teachers who completed a Transition to Teaching – a funded urban apprenticeship program. Three research questions guided the study: (1) How do participants describe the characteristics that influence their five-year retention? (2) How do participants describe their success as teachers? and (3) How do participants describe the professional support they received in their preparation program and during the subsequent four years after completing the program? Quantitative and qualitative data via interviews, focus group, and an examination of teachers’ district performance scores were utilized, as a means of understanding teachers’ staying and impact power. Staying power refers to the ability to endure or last within challenging contexts by possessing strength enough to persevere. Impact power refers to their ability to influence student learning. Four assertions describe the factors influencing developing teachers who stay and have impact as they teach in challenging urban schools, suggesting that these teachers possess a strong work ethic, seek specific resources to improve pedagogy, have the knowledge and skills necessary to differentiate instruction, and seek teacher leadership opportunities in their schools. This study suggests several implications for teacher educators, educational leaders, administrators, and researchers working with new teachers in urban schools or with populations that are predominantly children of color.     

An Integrated Human Information Behavior Research Framework for Information Studies

Human information behavior is emerging as an important component of information studies. As in many emerging research areas, one challenge is to identify important facets of human information behavior and understand how different methods can be best used to research these facets. This paper presents the framework of an approach to designing and synthesizing research studies in human information behavior. The framework emerges from previous research in human information behavior and incorporates Ranganathan's framework for knowledge organization. It proposes that research studies that investigate human information behavior should consider the following facets: personality, matter, energy, space, and time. Personality refers to actors, and in this framework includes participants and their social networks. Matter refers to the target of the action. It includes information and information resources, including services and technology that may provide access to information. Energy is the action itself, including the participants' tasks, processes, and goals. Space is the environment of the action, and includes physical space as well as organizational and sociopolitical contexts. Time is the nonspatial continuum in which actions and events occur; in the framework, time is considered an episode, interval, or eon. Facets that should be investigated and taken into account in a study help guide the selection of the research methods for the study. Furthermore, research results from multiple studies can be synthesized by understanding the relationships among the facets investigated in the different studies.     

Teacher‐Pupil Relationships in Adult Literacy Tuition

This paper attempts to trace the dynamic processes involved in the establishment and maintenance of teacher‐pupil relationships and to explore some of the frameworks to be found at the level of face‐to‐face interaction. The article draws upon a qualitative study of one‐to‐one adult literacy tuition (Braund, 1981), which utilises the perspectives, experiences and definitions of grass‐roots participants to provide illumination and insight into an essentially ‘closed’ world. To these everyday interpretations, concepts from social phenomenology and symbolic interactionism are applied. The study reveals the stage by stage evolution of tutor‐student relationships during which individual interpretations and definitions of the situation are combined through negotiation to form a tailor‐made working concensus within each dyad. It goes on to show how the seeds of change contained within each relationship cause it to be in a state of constant evolution leading ultimately to its metamorphosis or termination. This emerging pattern, or relationship ‘career’, provides a framework to an apparently unstructured situation and it is the analysis of this process which forms the basis of the paper.     

A comparison of Dabrowski's overexcitabilities by gender for American and Korean high school gifted students

The differences between US (Ohio) gifted and talented high school students and South Korean gifted and talented high school students on the Overexcitabilities Questionnaire II (OEQ II) were investigated. The OEQ II was administered to 227 Ohio identified gifted and talented high school students (M = 88, F = 139) and to 341 high school students from four specialized high schools (one for science, one for foreign language, and two for the arts) in Seoul, Korea (M = 117; F = 224). Multiple analysis of variance by gender and country revealed that Korean males and females scored higher in psychomotor OE and that US males and females scored higher in imaginational OE. No differences were found in intellectual OE, emotional OE, or sensual OE.