Taking an evaluative stance to decision-making about professional development options in early childhood education and care

This article builds on our ongoing work in conceptualising an ‘evaluative stance’ framework to assist in understanding how leaders in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) make decisions about the selection of professional development options for themselves and their staff. It introduces the notion that evaluative mindsets can be considered in terms of attitudes towards decision-making that are based on personal epistemologies. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, it explores the mindsets of six experienced leaders in two long-established ECEC organisations in Australia with respect to their decision-making about professional development. The article concludes with a consideration of the potential utility of the framework and the coding template used in this exploratory study.     

Is Cass's Model of Homosexual Identity Formation Relevant to Today's Society?

Cass's Homosexual Identity Formation Model (1979) is one of the most well-known and well-referenced models of identity development for gay males and lesbians. This article provides a review of Cass's six steps of the model, as well as research support for and critiques of the model. As the model was developed more than 30 years ago, the applicability of the model for today's youth is explored and implications for practitioners are discussed.     

‘Technological me’: young children’s use of technology across their home and school contexts

Research into children’s learning with digital technologies is represented by a growing body of literature examining the relationship between home–school technological practices. A focus of this work is on the notion of a ‘digital-disconnect’ between home and school. This argument suggests that children are such native users of technologies they struggle to connect with commonly used technologies in school. This paper examines how the ‘digital-disconnect’ is experienced in children’s lives. Drawing on a data set investigating the digital experiences of 12 children aged 2–12 years, we consider the experiences of one family attending the same school. Three siblings aged 5–12 years recorded their home and school technology use for one week. The findings suggested some difference in use across both settings, but also similarities associated with information retrieval, rote learning and entertainment. We use Bulfin and North’s and Dyson’s ideas about the permeability of social boundaries to explain why technology use might be more similar than disconnected in each context. We consider the extent to which each setting influences the other as the basis for moving away from binary conceptualisations of the digital-disconnect informed by generational assumptions about children and technologies.     

Lessons from professional identity development literature: A qualitative content analysis

The development of a professional identity as a counselor is the result of training, practice, and integration into a community of professional counselors and is defined as the synthesis of personal and professional behaviors, values, ethics, and worldview. The research on this topic has been plentiful, but this systemic and systematic review of the research literature provides a comprehensive overview of this important concept for counselor training and supervision.     

Parental perceptions of adverse educational outcomes among children diagnosed and treated for ADHD: A call for improved school/provider collaboration

An Erratum has been published for this article in Psychology in the Schools 42(2) 2005, 227 [ ]. This research utilized parent report to examine the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), related treatment, and associated educational outcomes among elementary school children in southeastern Virginia. In a representative sample of elementary school children, 17% had been diagnosed with ADHD. The majority of diagnosed children had been medicated for ADHD (84%). More than one third of students taking medication had received no other interventions for ADHD. Over half of the diagnosed students received behavioral therapy and almost half received a combination of medical and behavioral interventions. Children diagnosed with ADHD were 3 to 7 times ( p values < 0.001) more likely than other children to receive special education, be expelled or suspended, and repeat a grade. Based on parental opinion, children diagnosed with ADHD are at high risk for school failure. Results are discussed in terms of distinctions between clinical efficacy/effectiveness and schoolwide and public health interventions implemented in the study region. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Family and classroom correlates of head start children's developmental outcomes

Program quality is an important theme for Head Start. Even staunch supporters of Head Start are concerned that too few Head Start classes are of the quality that is needed to best promote children's growth and development. This study examined relationships between classroom quality and child outcomes among 145 Head Start children from poor quality to more stimulating home environments. Results indicated that children in higher quality Head Start classrooms performed better on measures of achievement and preacademic skills, regardless of the quality of their home environment. Children from better home environments seemed to benefit more from classroom quality in the area of problem solving and reasoning than did children from less stimulating homes. Teacher characteristics such as education, experience, and attitudes were not associated with classroom quality in this group of 32 Head Start classrooms. On the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale, no classroom received a rating of inadequate, but only 9% met or exceeded the score that would be considered developmentally appropriate.