Mothers' and Child-Care Providers' Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Responses to Children's Misbehavior

This study compared mothers' and caregivers' attributions for children's misconduct and their corresponding affective and behavioral responses. Forty mothers of 4-year-olds and 40 caregivers employed in childcare settings responded to a series of hypothetical incidents in which a 4-year-old child engaged in a norm violation such as aggression or failed to be altruistic. ANCOVA analyses indicated that mothers and caregivers differed in their causal attributions for children's misbehavior. Mothers and caregivers also differed in their affective and behavioral responses to children's failures to be altruistic, but not in their responses to children's norm violations. Regression analyses performed on the combined scores of mothers and caregivers found that attributions to the stability of the behavior predicted use of induction and a greater emphasis on responding to the misbehavior. A power assertive response was particularly likely if a respondent believed that a behavior was caused by stable personality factors. The documentation of linkage between causal attributions and socialization behavior has implications for parent training and early childhood education. Increasing parents' awareness of developmental processes and external factors that affect a child's behavior may result in a less punitive approach to discipline. Early childhood curricula that encourages examination of adult biases in analyzing children's behavior may assist caregivers to become more reflective and self-aware in interactions with young children.     

Physical activity experiences of young people in an area of disadvantage: ‘there's nothing there for big kids,like us’

Through an examination of the experiences of young people in one disadvantaged area, this paper adds to an emerging body of knowledge focused on what place physical activity occupies in the lives of young people in areas of disadvantage. A total of 40 young people (21 males, 19 females) participated in focus group interviews. The research question explored the forces which enable and constrain the participation of youths in physical activity and the interplay between such forces and how they experience and exercise agency. All focus group interviews were transcribed, coded and thematically analysed. The findings remind us that young people can be seen as positioned within multiple social relations conferred by specific social identities (such as child, friend, brother or sister) and each of these identities influences the ability of youth to exercise agency in choosing whether, where and when to participate in physical activity. Institutional structures also influenced the physical activity habits of young people in this study. It was interesting to note that staying out of trouble was one of the most discussed benefits of physical activity. Young people also recorded feelings of disempowerment through the belief that no significance was attributed to their words and shared thoughts. This sense of constrained agency presents a particular difficulty when we consider that it is only through accessing the voices of young people that those attempting to promote physical activity can ensure that the range of opportunities being created are matched to the preferences of youth.     

A primer of research on cognitive strategy instruction: The important issues and how to address them

Five types of strategy research are reviewed. (1) We argue it makes sense first to determine whether there is a need for strategy instruction. If there is, (2) development of a treatment with preliminary evaluations can follow, as can (3) formal evaluation of the resultant intervention in true experiments. As instructional need research, strategy development, and experimental evaluation proceed, two other types of research should be conducted. (4) It is important to study the acceptability of strategy interventions to educators and students. (5) Research on material modifications can provide information about how strategy benefits can be made available to students when strategy instruction is not effective or unlikely to occur. Very little strategy instruction has been evaluated in all five types of research covered here, making obvious the need for more systematic research on strategies. Observational, ethnographic, and experimental methods are required in order to address the many issues comprising comprehensive empirical analysis of any type of strategy instruction, with many recommendations made here about how to conduct informative studies.     

Changing their minds: the social dynamics of school leaders' learning

This paper questions whether a focus on individual development is appropriate when it comes to attempting to change professional practice. Based on a study of the conceptual development of candidates on the Scottish Qualification for Headship Programme (SQH), the paper examines evidence from detailed case studies of the learning of some of the students. These were constructed using the reflective commentaries written by the candidates at the end of each year and the outcomes of semi‐structured interviews to explore their experiences of the course and what they felt they had learned as a result. The evidence indicated that there was a complex dynamic involved in learning to change practice where the conceptual development of individuals was closely related to their experience of enacting new behaviours in the social setting of the workplace. The sense that candidates made of school leadership and management was shaped and embedded in their social experience. Change and development on their part was closely bound to the capacity and willingness to change on the part of others.     

Heat energy and temperature concepts of adolescents,adults, and experts: Implications for curricular improvements

We conducted two studies of beliefs about laboratory and everyday thermal phenomena. The first study identified concepts of heat energy and temperature held by adolescents, adults, and scientists. We found a classic separation of “school” and “everyday” knowledge in each population. We conducted clinical interviews with 37 middle school students, 9 adults, and 8 chemists and physicists to obtain their predictions and explanations of real-world phenomena. Many students believed that metals “conduct,” “absorb,” “trap,” or “hold” cold better than other materials and that aluminum foil would be better than wool or cotton as a wrapping material to keep cold objects cold. Respondents in each group held many intuitive ideas that were well established. Although scientists made more accurate predictions than students and gave theoretical definitions of terms, they too had difficulty explaining everyday phenomena. The second study investigated the impact of a middle school science curriculum designed to help students understand everyday thermal events. We found marked improvements in posttest scores and clinical interview responses as a result of instruction that built on students' intuitions.     

Using Power and Caring to Mediate White Male Privilege,Equality, and Equity in an Urban Elementary Classroom: Implications for Teacher Preparation

Although students from diverse backgrounds may have access to equal educational opportunity by occupying the same classroom space, they do not necessarily enjoy equal and fair access to the same quality of experience within that classroom. The inequalities and inequities are partially a result of privilege, an advantage afforded to individuals because of their similarity to the norms operating in the classroom. In this article, the ways in which the white male students in a diverse, urban fourth grade classroom exercise privilege are identified and the white teacher's approach to mediating white male privilege, equality, and equity is examined. The teacher's approach is evaluated in terms of fairness via the white male students' perceptions of the classroom environment, viewed in relation to power and caring and is discussed with respect to implications for teacher preparation.