Examining the Relationship Between Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) and Student Achievement Utilizing the Florida Value-Added Model

Utilizing a correlational research design, we sought to examine the relationship between the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) of in-service teachers and student achievement measured with each individual teacher's Value-Added Model (VAM) score. The TPACK survey results and a teacher's VAM score were also examined, separately, with respect to teacher attributes. Upon examination of VAM scores and teacher attributes, the subject area, the percentage of economically disadvantaged students at the teacher's school, and the grade level of the teacher were all significantly related to VAM scores. In addition, the TPACK survey results overall and its constructs were examined with teacher attributes. The significant relationships were gender, subject area, the number of certifications, highest degree held by the teacher, years teaching, and teaching in/out of area. The analysis showed no significant relationship between a teacher's VAM score and the TPACK survey overall or its individual constructs.     

Using Narrative Therapy to Assist College‐Age Latino Immigrants

Latinos represent a large percentage of the immigrant population currently entering the United States. These immigrants may face mental health issues related to their immigration and acculturation experiences, leading to a need for counseling. The authors introduce narrative therapy as an appropriate treatment modality for college‐age Latino students.     

Child adaptational development in contexts of interparental conflict over time

This multi-method study sought to identify parameters of developmental change and stability of child reaction patterns to interparental conflict in the context of family relations in a sample of 223 6-year-old children and their parents followed over the course of one year. Consistent with the sensitization hypothesis, interparental withdrawal and hostility each consistently and uniquely predicted child distress reactions to conflict even after analytically controlling for parental warmth. Associations were found across multiple domains of child responding (i.e., overt negative affect, subjective negative affect, internal representations) and both concurrent and prospective, autoregressive analyses. Results of the autoregressive path analyses indicated moderate stability in each of the domains of conflict reactivity over the 1-year longitudinal period.     

Determinants of sales and price at auction for three Australian Indigenous artists: to pool or not to pool?

Albert Namatjira (1902–1959), Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c1910–1996) and Rover (Julama) Thomas (c1926–1998) are three of Australia’s best-known Indigenous artists. Each is known for one style of painting—Namatjira for watercolor on paper, Kngwarreye for acrylic (synthetic polymer) on canvas and Thomas for natural earth pigments on canvas. We estimate a sample selectivity model using data from the Australian Art Sales Digest to study the determinants of sales and the hammer price of artworks offered at auction from these artists. The results show that pre-sale information on the artwork and auction effects are significant and that the three artists studied are very different from each other. Thus, data should not be pooled when estimating these models.     

Object Mastery Motivation in Pre-school Children with and without Disabilities

In this study the level of object mastery motivation between children with Down's syndrome and children without disabilities of matched mental age was investigated. Data were collected through structured observations of all the children playing with four different educational toys of increasing complexity. Four variables were examined: task pleasure, task persistence, success and off-task behaviour. A one-way ANOVA revealed both statistically significant and nonsignificant differences between groups. Participants from both groups displayed age-appropriate behaviour when playing with the toys. Those with disabilities interacted less than the comparison group with the effect-production and sensori-motor tasks (the easier tasks), whereas, with the more difficult problem-solving tasks, both groups persisted equally. It is suggested that successful attempts elicit persistence on less complex tasks, whereas on the more sophisticated ones this effect is obtained by the challenging nature of the task.     

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.     

Institutional research and decision making: A bibliographic essay

A review of literature dealing with the relationship between the institutional research function and the decision-making process in higher education reveals a wide range of opinion. At one extreme are those who believe that institutional researchers should be little more than purveyors of data for use by the executive decision makers. At the other extreme are the advocates of an active institutional research role in policy analysis and decision making. A recurring theme in the literature summarized here is the precarious nature of an institutional researcher's position in the unique organizational milieu of higher education. Most sources agree that an institutional research office must be perceived by all parties as completely neutral in order to maintain credibility with both faculty and administration.