Learning citizenship: Campus‐based initiatives for developing student change agents

The phrase “social movement” typically conjures up images of pickets, massive crowds, and noisy demonstrations. An emerging approach to campus‐based change, used in Fraternal Futures and other projects, is tapping into the small, the local, and the personally relevant.     

Core competencies and high leverage practices of the beginning teacher: a synthesis of the literature

Teacher competency frameworks comprise a number of competencies that enable a teacher to develop effective teaching practices. However, their conception, value, use and recognition vary widely. Equally, assessment and measurement of such competencies differ across contexts. More recently, a body of research has emerged which focuses the lens of teacher preparation on the inclusion of high leverage practices. The focus of this study is to report a synthesis of the literature pertaining to the ‘core competencies’ and ‘high leverage practices’ selected for inclusion in teacher preparation. A systematic review of the literature was conducted in order to synthesis available evidence. Results are presented in two sections; competency-based approaches; and high leverage practice approaches in teacher preparation. Findings are discussed from the perspective of epistemological and methodological questions emerging from the research and the implications for teacher preparation.     

The device in the room: Technology’s role in third grade literacy instruction

Abstract

This yearlong study explores how digital technologies are used during literacy instruction in the critical year of third grade. We analyzed technology use in 16 classrooms across six geographically and socioeconomically diverse schools. We examined the multiple layers of technology’s influences on teachers’ instructional decision-making and on students’ engagement. Applying Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy alongside the SAMR model, expectations for student technology use varied across settings and resulted in mixed levels of student engagement. Although technology has the potential to transform teaching and learning, it is most often used as a substitution for traditional instructional tools and to support students’ remembering and understanding rather than more complex tasks. Analysis suggests technology tools are not being strategically employed to support the development of 21st century learning skills.     

Using conjoint analysis to examine bias in referral to a behavior intervention program

Research in the United States suggests that teachers view Black students' misbehavior as more likely to reoccur, but such research has not disentangled the effect of race from related factors. We used conjoint analysis to experimentally test the effect of multiple student characteristics on the chances of being referred for a behavior intervention program. Although preservice teacher participants were not more likely to refer Black students, they were more likely to refer students who had lower grades, lived in poverty, lived with a single mother, and had been retained. We interpret these results and highlight directions for future research and practice.     

Social Information Processing,Moral Reasoning,and Emotion Attributions: Relations With Adolescents’ Reactive and Proactive Aggression

Connections between adolescents’ social information processing (SIP), moral reasoning, and emotion attributions and their reactive and proactive aggressive tendencies were assessed. One hundred mostly African American and Latino 13‐ to 18‐year‐olds from a low‐socioeconomic‐status (SES) urban community and their high school teachers participated. Reactive aggression was uniquely related to expected ease in enacting aggression, lower verbal abilities, and hostile attributional biases, and most of these connections were mediated by adolescents’ attention problems. In contrast, proactive aggression was uniquely related to higher verbal abilities and expectations of more positive emotional and material outcomes resulting from aggression. Discussion focused on the utility of assessing both moral and SIP‐related cognitions, and on the potential influence of low‐SES, high‐risk environments on these findings.     

Classroom instructional quality,exposure to mathematics instruction and mathematics achievement in fifth grade

This study examined the quality of teacher–child interactions and exposure to mathematics instruction as predictors of 5th grade student’s mathematics achievement. The sample was a subset of the children involved in the NICHD–SECC longitudinal study (N = 657). Results indicate that, even after controlling for student demographic characteristics, more exposure to mathematics instruction was related to increased fifth grade mathematics achievement for both calculations and applied problems assessments, but there was no main effect for improved instructional quality. Findings also indicate that, in classrooms where lower instructional quality was observed, greater exposure to mathematics instruction predicted improved mathematics achievement. Findings are discussed in terms of differing aspects of mathematics instruction and the possible compensatory role of exposure to instruction in classrooms of lower quality.     

PUSH(ing) Limits: Using Fiction in the Classroom for Human Behavior and the Social Environment

The use of fiction and autobiography in social science course work has been shown to enhance students' learning experience. Using the novel PUSH, by Sapphire, we designed a curriculum supplement for the social work course, human behavior and the social environment (HBSE) that encourages students to integrate course content in an innovative way and enables them to apply the material to life-like situations. The HBSE supplement allows students to explore poignant and problematic issues that push them past intrapersonal and interpersonal limits. Classes are infused with energy and the critical consciousness of the students. Final projects are a systematic case study of a chosen character (or characters) in the book and are a testament to student critical thinking and creativity. Methods, assignments, and student experiences in an introductory BSW course are described.