Communication Patterns of African American Girls and Boys from Low-Income, Urban Backgrounds

This study investigated gender effects on the conversational strategies used among 106 African American children ( mean age = 7 years) from urban, low-income family backgrounds. Same- and mixed-gender pairs of children from the same grade level in an inner-city school were provided with toy bear puppets and asked to play together for 5 min. Conversations were coded using Leaper's Psychosocial Processes Coding Scheme, which classifies communication acts as either collaborative, controlling, informing, obliging, or withdrawing. Girls and boys were more similar than different. However, gender-related variations were found. Boys were more likely than girls to use controlling acts and domineering exchanges in same-gender pairs but not in mixed-gender pairs. Girls were more likely than boys to use a combination of collaborative and informing acts. For partner gender effects we found that controlling acts and domineering exchanges were less likely — whereas informing acts were more likely — to take place when children were matched with a girl than when they were matched with a boy. Findings replicate many of the gender effects on communication style reported in a prior study (Leaper, 1991) that used a similar procedure and coding strategy with a sample of middle-income children from mostly European American backgrounds.     

Narrowing the gap between research and practice in sight word reading instruction

This paper describes a program designed to bridge the gap between educational research and practice. Researchers disseminated findings and gathered additional field data on teaching sight words to learning disabled children, while practitioners were given the opportunity to apply these findings in their own teaching. Learning disabilities teachers (N = 37) were divided into three experimental groups and given training and materials for a one-week teaching procedure to be used with children in their classes. Instructional packets differed in the number of sight words presented at one time (5 + 5 vs. 10) and the use of reduced response competition. Results showed that overall posttest performance did not differ among the groups; however, children taught using reduced response competition required fewer trials to reach criterion on each word. Questionnaire results indicated that teachers benefited from the program. Future attempts such as this should be made to combine research and teacher-training efforts.     

School support and teacher motivation to implement project-based learning

The present study investigated how school support was related to teachers' motivation and willingness to persist in project-based learning. The participants were 182 Hong Kong teachers who completed a questionnaire about their school's support and their motivation to implement project-based learning. The results of structural equation modeling indicated that when teachers perceived their schools as being stronger in collegiality and more supportive of teacher competence and autonomy, they had higher motivation in project-based learning and stronger willingness to persist in this educational innovation. Perceived school support predicted teachers' attitude for future persistence both directly and indirectly through its influence on teacher motivation. The results suggest that social-contextual factors are important for teacher motivation in the implementation of educational innovations.     

Investigating teachers' ‘take-up’ of reflective practice from an In-service professional development teacher education programme in South Africa

One of the key phases in ‘the action research cycle’ is reflection (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988; McNiff, 1988). The extension of teachers' reflective capabilities is one of the stated goals of the University of the Witwatersrand's teacher education programmes. In this article aspects of the findings of a 3-year research project, which investigated teachers' ‘take-up’ from a mixed-mode, inservice professional development programme initiated by the university in 1996 are discussed. The research team has described the overall project as ‘a practice-based case study of cases’. Data sources included classroom observations, videotapes of some of the lessons observed, interviews with teachers, written teacher narratives and questionnaires, and samples of learners' work- all obtained from working with the same sample of primary and secondary school teachers of English, Mathematics and Science for each of the 3 years of the project. The authors engage with what counts as ‘evidence’ of the reflective practices of teachers and consider what factors might enable or constrain the development of reflective capability by teachers working in underresourced, multi-lingual contexts. They reflect on their practices as teacher educators and outline some changes to the programme that could assist teachers to become more reflective practitioners in their classrooms and schools.     

A Field-Based Testing Protocol for Assessing Gross Motor Skills in Preschool Children: The CHAMPS Motor Skills Protocol (CMSP)

The purpose of the study was to develop a valid and reliable tool for use in assessing motor skills in preschool children in field based settings. The development of the CHAMPS (Children's Activity and Movement in Preschool Study) Motor Skills Protocol (CMSP) included evidence of its reliability and validity for use in field-based environments as part of large epidemiological studies. Following pilot work, 297 children (3-5 years old) from 22 preschools were tested using the final version of the CMSP and the TGMD-2. Reliability of the CMSP and interobserver reliability were determined using intraclass correlation procedures (ICC; ANOVA). Concurrent validity was assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients to compare the CMSP to the original Test of Gross Motor Development (2(nd) Edition) (TGMD-2). Results indicated that test reliability, interobserver reliability and validity coefficients were all high, generally above R/r = 0.90. Significant age differences were found. Outcomes indicate that the CMSP is an appropriate tool for assessing motor development of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children in field-based settings that are consistent with large-scale trials.