The Presidential Sound: From Orotund to Instructional Speech, 1892–1912

At the turn of the twentieth century, the sound of presidential address changed from an orotund style to an instructional style. The orotund style had featured the careful pronunciation of consonants, elongated vowels, trilled r's and repeated declamations. The instructional style, on the other hand, mimicked the conversational lectures of the professor. The shift from orotund to instructional was activated by the arrival of millions of foreign language–speaking immigrants, the increasing power of the working class, and concerns over the effects of sedentary employment on the men who had formerly dominated politics. These pressures culminated in a questioning of the manliness of the orotund style. Theodore Roosevelt, whose manliness had been questioned in the 1880s, responded by writing volumes about manliness and adopting the instructional style in his presidential oratory at the turn of the twentieth century.     

Precision teaching through Irish: effects on isolated sight word reading fluency and contextualised reading fluency

The current study examines the impact of a three-week precision teaching (PT) intervention programme through the Irish language on a group of primary school pupils’ Irish reading fluency. The study employed a mixed factorial experimental design. Thirty-six Irish primary school pupils who were learning Irish as a second language were recruited for this study. Participants were divided evenly into two groups: experimental and control (N?=?18). Participants completed tests of isolated sight word reading fluency and contextualised reading fluency before and after the PT intervention programme. The experimental group was exposed to the PT programme, which focused on isolated Irish vocabulary, while the control group experienced typical teaching of Irish. The results of a one-way multivariate analysis of variance and a series of dependent-samples t-tests revealed that in contrast to the control group, the experimental group exhibited a significant increase in both isolated sight word reading fluency and contextualised reading fluency following the intervention. This study emphasises the potential value of utilising PT to aid second language learning, not only for increasing isolated sight word reading fluency, but also for enhancing contextualised reading fluency.     

Reading Disabled Students’ Word Recognition Abilities: An Elementary and Secondary Perspective

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare three word recognition abilities of reading disabled students. One hundred and fifty (150) reading disabled pupils, 75 elementary and 75 high school, were randomly selected to participate in this study. Correlated t‐test procedures were used to process the data. The dependent variables were the students’ analytical, phonics, and context analysis word recognition abilities as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test, Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, and 12 cloze passages. Results indicated that elementary and secondary reading disabled pupils have significant differences in their ability to use the three different word recognition abilities investigated. Implications for minimum competency testing in reading were discussed.     

Ethnic Differences in Children's Intelligence Test Scores: Role of Economic Deprivation, Home Environment, and Maternal Characteristics

We examine differences in intelligence test scores of black and white 5-year-olds. The Infant Health and Development Program data set includes 483 low birthweight premature children who were assessed with the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence. These children had been followed from birth, with data on neighborhood and family poverty, family structure, family resources, maternal characteristics, and home environment collected over the first 5 years of life. Black children's IQ scores were 1 SD lower than those of white children. Adjustments for ethnic differences in poverty reduced the ethnic differential by 52%. Adjustments for maternal education and whether the head of household was female did not reduce the ethnic difference further. However, differences in home environment reduced the ethnic differential by an additional 28%. Adjustments for economic and social differences in the lives of black and white children all but eliminate differences in the IQ scores between these two groups.     

Wearable Technologies for Anxious Adolescents

Abstract

Nearly one in three adolescents in our country experience stress or anxiety to the extent that it negatively effects their ability to cope with daily life demands. However, educators are not well prepared to support students who have anxiety-related issues. One approach for supporting adolescents with anxiety-related issues involves the use of wearable technologies. These devices support self-regulation by providing real-time physiological marker information. Wearers can then become more mindful of their stress at that moment and implement positive stress or anxiety-reducing interventions. This article provides an overview of wearable technologies and related research and describes steps that support adolescents who have wearables for addressing their anxiety.     

VOICES IN EDUCATION: ACCOUNTABILITY IN TEACHER EDUCATION AND THE NATIONAL COUNCIL ON TEACHER QUALITY

Abstract

This article explains several reasons why multicultural preservice teacher education is important and suggests some ways it can be better accomplished. The authors make a strong case for teacher education programs to be more deliberate about preparing European Americans to teach ethnically diverse students of color. They argue that this explicit professional preparation is needed because of the increasing racial, cultural, and linguistic divide between teachers (predominately European American) and K–12 students (increasingly from ethnic groups of color). Two other factors underscore the need for more multicultural teacher education: the fear of diversity and the resistance to dealing with race and racism frequently expressed by students enrolled in teacher education programs. To overcome these problems and better prepare preservice teachers to work effectively with ethnically diverse students the authors suggest a two‐part program of professional development.     

The importance of school culture in supporting student mental health in secondary schools. Insights from a qualitative study

Schools have the potential to provide a place of education and sanctuary for children and young people of all backgrounds. The rise in mental health problems in children and young people in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in relation to growing inequities, means that identifying ways in which schools can help respond to this growing mental health crisis demands urgent attention. This paper reports on case studies carried out in two London comprehensive schools, exploring how aspects of school culture impact (both positively and negatively) on student mental health. Methods comprised in-depth interviews with school staff and parents, focus groups with students and documentary analysis of relevant materials. Fieldwork was conducted during spring 2021 as schools were returning to face-to-face learning following national periods of lockdown. Our study shows how schools might attempt to drive positive mental health outcomes through aspects of school culture and uses a system framework to explore complexities around cause and effect in this area. Key findings include the considerable differences in school mental health provision, challenges in the identification of student mental health needs and the importance of recognising how the mental health of teachers must be considered alongside that of students. Overall, we highlight particular dilemmas of the post-lockdown era that our findings indicate for the education sector, and suggest there may be value in reframing the apparent conflict between ‘attainment gaps’ and personal development, moving towards an educational approach with greater complementarity of these aims.     

The social construction of urban Fijian childhoods: literacy teaching, Waka readers and children’s lives

The article draws on the elements of poststructural theory to explore the mismatches and alignments in language and literacy teaching discourses in urban Fijian primary schools. More specifically, it compares the liberal progressivism of whole language and literacy pedagogies with the culturalism that informs a key reading resource in the teaching of literacy and language. The constitution of urban Fijian childhoods emerging from these two major discourses is then compared with several cohorts of urban Fijian children’s own accounts of their lives. Major discursive mismatches and alignments between these discourses and the children’s own expressed life ways are noted. Where alignments exist between sets of discourses, children’s language and literacy development are more likely facilitated. However, where mismatches occur, there are implications not only for children’s effective language and literacy learning but also for more equitable access to language and literacy pedagogies for all Fijian children.     

Early-Childhood Poverty and Adult Attainment, Behavior, and Health

This article assesses the consequences of poverty between a child's prenatal year and 5th birthday for several adult achievement, health, and behavior outcomes, measured as late as age 37. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (1,589) and controlling for economic conditions in middle childhood and adolescence, as well as demographic conditions at the time of the birth, findings indicate statistically significant and, in some cases, quantitatively large detrimental effects of early poverty on a number of attainment-related outcomes (adult earnings and work hours). Early-childhood poverty was not associated with such behavioral measures as out-of-wedlock childbearing and arrests. Most of the adult earnings effects appear to operate through early poverty's association with adult work hours.