Early childhood practicum students' professional growth in the USA: areas of confidence and concern

This research examines specific areas of confidence and concern as expressed by 40 American undergraduate early childhood students on a practicum (supervised field-based internships); if their beliefs changed over the course of their practicum, and if prior teaching experience had an impact on their confidence levels. Areas of confidence and concern were determined through questionnaires, reflections and interviews at three points in time during the semester. Findings indicate that students were more confident when arranging the physical environment and least confident in managing children's behaviour. Significant changes in understanding and interaction with children, planning and implementing activities and overall confidence were observed over time periods. Experienced students initially showed and maintained higher confidence levels than inexperienced students who were much less confident at the start of the practicum, but improved significantly. Interestingly, by the end of the semester, this latter group was as confident as more experienced students. Here the factors that affected confidence, the factors that boosted student confidence at different time periods and differences in confidence among students based on prior experience are discussed.     

The use of touch devices for enhancing academic achievement: A meta‐analysis

Touch devices such as tablets and smartphones are widely adopted in educational settings and have many desirable features. However, research supporting the use of touch devices to improve academic achievement is emergent and has not been evaluated through a meta‐analysis. We conducted a meta‐analysis of 65 group and single case design research studies, published 2010–2018, to evaluate the effects of touch device implementation on academic achievement. The overall mean effect sizes were moderate for group design and single case design studies. Participant, intervention, and study attributes were also evaluated to describe the research and how these attributes may moderate the results. Overall, results suggest that touch devices may be an effective tool for enhancing academic achievement. The need to conduct additional, rigorous research on the use of touch devices as well as implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Teaching children with autism through task variation in physical education.

The purpose of the study was to determine whether the technique of task variation (with maintenance tasks interspersed) (TV) is more effective in the acquisition of gross motor skills for students with autism than a constant task (CT) condition in a physical education setting. Subjects were 12 male students with autism, ages 11 to 15 years. The study included pretest-posttest administration of the I CAN assessment of Gross Motor Skills to assess skills such as overhand throw, kick, and vertical jump. After a 6-week treatment period, the TV condition was significantly more effective than the CT condition, at the .05 level.     

Construction and validation of a communication based emotional support scale

A review of the emotional support and social support literature indicates a paucity of instruments which directly measure the phenomena of interest. While many have utilized assessments of “strong” or “weak” links between relational partners, they have not examined the communication modalities specifically. They have also tended to view emotional support as a unilateral product of a source or receiver rather than a product of communicative interactions. In order to examine support more carefully, a unidimensional instrument was developed to measure the communication of emotional support in relationships. As tests of convergent validity, it was suggested that perceptions of emotional support will be positively correlated to perceptions of relational solidarity and relational quality. The final instrument consisted of 13 communication based items with high reliability and evidence of internal, face, and convergent validity.     

Media and Media Related

Ronald Gottesman and Harry Geduld (eds.) Guidebook to Film: An Eleven-in-One Reference (New York: Holt, Rinehart &; Winston, 1972 – ,$6.95/3.95)

C. Edward Wall (ed.) Multi Media Reviews Index: 1970 (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Pierian Press, 1971 – $19.50)

Dorothy I. Weil's (ed.) The American Film Institute's Guide to College Film Courses 1971-72 (Chicago: American Library Association, 1972 – $3.50, paper)

Raymond Fielding's The Technique of Special Effects Cinematography (New York: Hastings House, 1972 – $18.50)     

Effects of Differing Prepuberty Exercise Programs on the Emotionality of Male Albino Rats

Abstract

The problem under investigation in this study was to determine if differing programs of prepuberty exercise had any effect upon the emotionality of male albino rats at puberty. The subjects were 48 male albino rats of the Sprague-Dawley strain who were subjected to a 35-day training program under conditions of sedentary existence, voluntary exercise, or forced exercise. At the end of the experimental period the animals were tested in an open field marked into 49 consecutively numbered 7 1/2-in. squares.

Emotionality in the open field was determined by two methods: (a) the total number of squares traversed by an animal in 5 min., and (b) the total number of squares traversed by an animal toward the center of the field. The relationship between exploratory behavior and emotionality is considered to be an inverse one, that is, the more exploratory the behavior, the less emotionality the animal exhibits.

The results indicated that the animals which had been subjected to the forced exercise regimen traversed significantly more squares under both testing conditions and therefore evidenced more exploratory behavior and therefore less emotionality than the animals in the voluntary exercise and sedentary groups. There were no significant differences on either measure of exploratory behavior between the voluntary exercise and sedentary groups.     

A multi-method approach to studying the relationship between character strengths and vocational interests in adolescents

The relationship between character strengths and vocational interests was tested. In an online study, 197 thirteen to eighteen year-olds completed a questionnaire measuring character strengths and a multi-method measure for interests (questionnaire, nonverbal test, and objective personality tests). The main findings were that intellectual strengths yielded primarily relations with investigative and artistic interests. Social interests demonstrated relations with strengths of transcendence and other-directed strengths and enterprising interests with leadership strengths. The implications of the findings for practice are highlighted.