The co-existence of cultural and school science models in indigenous Mexican teachers: the mixing colors case

Cultural Studies of Science Education - This paper presents the development and structure of indigenous Nahua teachers’ ideas about mixing colors, as well their ideas about colors derived...     

Exploring the Relationship Between Knowledge and Power in the Spanish National Curriculum for Visual Arts

The main goal of this research is to raise some issues about what is considered school knowledge in the Spanish national curriculum, as well as to make explicit the curriculum discourses of the relationship between knowledge and power. This means that the observation, distribution and production of knowledge at schools implies and generates specific forms of power, understanding at the same time, power as a producer of social identity [Popkewitz, 1994]. The paper focuses on a case study at one school and explores the relationship between knowledge and power in the art education curriculum. This approach is founded on Foucault [1969], and the works of Ball [1993] and Popkewitz [1994], towards a sociology of curriculum studies or what is known as the New Sociology of Education.     

“Taking Good Care of Our Health”: Parent-Adolescent Perceptions of Boundary Management About Health Information

Family members’ communication about health has a significant impact on issues of obtaining social support, avoiding stigma, and seeking and receiving appropriate medical treatment and care. A Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theoretical perspective was used to analyze 85 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with parents and one of their adolescent children in 40 families. Findings reveal intergenerational motivations and strategies for managing individual and collective privacy boundaries around health information and the consequences of this management for individuals and families. Motivations include protecting personal privacy, preventing stress, and soliciting social support. Strategies for boundary management include humor and topic avoidance. Implications for future research in the areas of privacy management, health, and family relationships are discussed.     

The Influence of Students’ and Teachers’ Thinking Styles on Student Course Satisfaction and on Their Learning Process

The main purpose of this study was to examine the effect of teachers’ and students’ thinking styles on students’ satisfaction with the course followed and on their learning process. The sample was made up of 102 instructional psychology college students who responded to two administrations of the Thinking Style Inventory, one about their teacher and one about themselves, to a satisfaction scale referring to the instructional process, and finally to a scale designed to measure the time and effort they devoted to the learning process. Multivariate regression analyses were carried out. Results reveal that both teachers’ and students’ thinking styles are good predictors of students’ satisfaction and their involvement in the learning process.     

Writing processes in a shallow orthography

The aim of this study was to find out if the spelling models proposed to account for performance in languages with a deep orthography are applicable to a shallow orthography such as Spanish. For this reason, two experiments were carried out, one of lexical decision (in which subjects heard words and nonwords but only wrote down the nonwords) and the other a dictation in which the variables of grapheme frequency and lexical priming were manipulated. The results coincide with those found in the English language as in both experiments the two variables produced significant effects: the variable of grapheme frequency, which indicates the existence of a process of phonological spelling and the variable of lexical priming which indicates the existence of a lexical process.     

Out-of-school care and problem behavior trajectories among low-income adolescents: individual, family, and neighborhood characteristics as added risks

Using a developmental systems approach, this study considered longitudinal links between adolescents' out-of-school care experiences and behavioral trajectories within a random sample of 819 adolescents ages 10 to 14 years at Wave 1 from low-income, urban families. Multiple aspects of context were considered, including the location, supervision, and structure of adolescents' care arrangements, as well as parenting practices and perceived neighborhood environments. Regression models indicated that out-of-home care, whether supervised or unsupervised, showed modest longitudinal relations with heightened rates of delinquency, drug and alcohol use, and school problems. Out-of-home care was linked with particularly deleterious outcomes for adolescents with high earlier rates of behavior problems, low parental monitoring, and low perceived neighborhood collective efficacy.     

Does blended instruction enhance English language learning in developing countries? Evidence from Mexico

Despite steady investment in English language education made by developing countries over the past few decades, results continue to be constrained by lack of high-quality instructors and language learning resources. Thus, using technology in language instruction has increasingly been recognized as a potential approach for addressing these constraints. This study uses administrative data from a large public university in Mexico to examine the impact of a technology-enhanced blended program on students' English course grades and course completion rates. Specifically, we focus on a campus-wide policy change in all compulsory English language courses that replaces half of the traditional face-to-face class time with an interactive online learning environment developed by a leading technology-mediated English language learning and assessment provider. Our results suggest that, compared to traditional face-to-face instruction, blended learning had a significant, positive impact on students' course grades and course completion rates. In addition, the enrollment-teacher ratio increased after replacing half of the face-to-face instructional time with online learning, suggesting that blended learning environments hold promise for providing high-quality and cost-effective language instruction.     

The print exposure of teacher candidates in relation to their achievement and self-ratings of early reading experiences

Reading and Writing - This study examined the print exposure of teacher candidates (N?=?195) in relation to their GPAs, achievement in reading and writing on the SAT, and their...     

Language,high school leadership and the postsecondary outcomes of Hispanic students

This paper asks whether high school leadership activities play an important role in explaining the Hispanic college-completion gap. The analysis in this paper considers the role that English language fluency plays in a Hispanic student's leadership probability and in the student's future educational success. The main results in this paper are: first, after controlling for demographic and school characteristics, there are no major differences in high school leadership activities between Hispanics and non-Hispanics; second, high school leadership activities predict higher college attendance rates for all demographic groups; and third, high school leadership activities predict a higher probability of attaining a college degree among Hispanic students whose first language is not English. Importantly, this relationship is stronger among students whose first post-secondary institution is a 2-year college.     

Childhood abuse, chronic pain, and depression in the National Comorbidity Survey

OBJECTIVE: The current study examined the effects of childhood sexual and physical abuse on reports of pain in men and women (N=1,727). METHODS: Data from the National Comorbidity Survey, a nationally representative sample, were utilized. Childhood experiences of physical and sexual abuse were assessed, and pain reports in relation to current health problems were obtained. Regression and mediation analyses were used to examine the relationship between childhood abuse and current pain reports and to determine whether depression mediated this relationship. RESULTS: Individuals who experienced abuse reported more health problems compared to those participants without abuse histories. Among participants with a current health problem, those who experienced abuse reported more pain compared to those participants without abuse histories. Because childhood abuse is associated with depression and depression is associated with more reported pain, the influence of depression on the relationship between childhood abuse and adult pain reports was examined. After controlling for differences between the abused and non-abused participants on specific health problems, depression was not found to have mediated the relationship. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood abuse was associated with more reported pain. The higher rate of depression found among adults who experienced childhood abuse was not the primary factor for these increased pain reports. Rather, childhood abuse and depression independently contributed to pain reports. Treatment of both underlying problems (i.e., pain and depression) is recommended in addressing the needs of abused individuals with these comorbid disorders.