Designing research to inform sustainability and scalability of digital technology innovations

Educational technology research and development - Considerably more research needs to be done to understand how successful technological innovations and change processes are sustained and scaled to...     

Faithfully following,adapting, or rejecting mandated curriculum: teachers’ curricular enactments in elementary writing instruction

The qualitative study shows how 20 teachers from 4 districts in the same state enacted mandated school-wide writing curricula. Analyses of the observations and interviews revealed that 4 teachers were faithfully following the district-adopted curriculum, 4 rejected it, and 12 teachers adapted the curriculum to meet their students’ needs. The teachers who followed the curriculum had positive views of it but were inexperienced or uncomfortable teaching writing and had less access to professional development (PD) than teachers in other groups. Most of the teachers who adapted the curriculum were experienced teachers and felt supported in making changes due to the quality of PD. The teachers who rejected the curriculum were unhappy with the existing curriculum and drew from a number of different resources; however, their writing instruction lacked coherence and an underlying philosophy of writing. The findings show that factors such as policies, PD, and personal factors including previous writing experiences and philosophies influenced teachers’ enactments. While previous studies have found that overarching policies including NCLB increase pressure on teachers resulting in a lack of autonomy, our findings explore the ways that teachers were able to navigate their school contexts.     

Parent involvement in early childhood: a comparison of English language learners and English first language families

This study evaluated parents’ communication, involvement and knowledge of their children’s abilities in reading and mathematics among parents who spoke English as a first language (EL1) and those who were English language learners (ELL). Forty‐two kindergarten‐aged children, their parents and their teachers participated in the study. Results indicated that EL1 parents communicated more frequently with the teacher than ELL parents. However, there were no language group differences in parents’ involvement in their children’s education (as rated by the teacher). For both groups of parents (EL1 and ELL), parents’ ratings of their children’s abilities in reading did not predict children’s reading scores. However, parents’ ratings of their children’s abilities in mathematics did predict their children’s mathematics scores. Further analyses indicated that this relationship was not mediated by parents’ communication or involvement. It is concluded that parents’ accurate knowledge of their children’s abilities in mathematics may be the result of their involvement at home and particularly for ELL parents, their greater understanding of and emphasis on mathematics learning.     

Serving,learning and mentoring through the Big Brothers Big Sisters Program

This study describes the collaborative partnership between a Big Brothers Big Sisters organization, an elementary school and the College of Education at a public university. The partnership utilized a mentoring system consisting of elementary students, college students, elementary teachers and university faculty. Benefits of the various stakeholders are discussed.     

Anatomical Sciences Education vol.2, issue 6, 2009 cover image

Veterinary students at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London learn about bovine abdominal anatomy using a virtual reality simulator, the Haptic Cow. A haptic device is positioned inside a fiberglass model of the rear‐half of a cow, allowing students to palpate virtual abdominal structures via a robotic arm. The Haptic Cow helps to address some of the practical and ethical issues around sourcing and using cadavers and live animals in teaching. Kinnison and her co‐authors discuss use of this simulator in anatomy classes in the current issue of ASE.     

Physical education's role in public health: steps forward and backward over 20 years and HOPE for the future

The 1991 paper, "Physical education's role in public health" described the importance of physical education in addressing public health problems. On its 20th anniversary, this article reviews accomplishments in improving the health impact of physical education and identifies areas lacking progress. Major accomplishments include development of evidence-based programs, documentation of health and academic benefits of physical education, and acceptance of physical education as a public health resource. Additional work is needed to evaluate the uptake of evidence-based programs, improve national surveillance of physical education quantity and quality, establish stronger policies supporting active physical education, and achieve wide acceptance of public health goals within the physical education field. These opportunities constitute an agenda for actualizing the promise of health-optimizing physical education before the next 20 year anniversary.     

Estimating the “Impact” of Out‐of‐Home Placement on Child Well‐Being: Approaching the Problem of Selection Bias

This study used data on 2,453 children aged 4–17 from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well‐Being and 5 analytic methods that adjust for selection factors to estimate the impact of out‐of‐home placement on children’s cognitive skills and behavior problems. Methods included ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and residualized change, simple change, difference‐in‐difference, and fixed effects models. Models were estimated using the full sample and a matched sample generated by propensity scoring. Although results from the unmatched OLS and residualized change models suggested that out‐of‐home placement is associated with increased child behavior problems, estimates from models that more rigorously adjust for selection bias indicated that placement has little effect on children’s cognitive skills or behavior problems.     

Deleterious effects of psychotherapy and counseling in the schools

Providing individual and group counseling has become an identified role for school psychologists working in the school setting. There is an extensive research base that highlights positive outcomes and supports the use of a variety of counseling methods when working with children and adolescents. However, there may exist a host of other outcomes, including deleterious effects, when counseling school‐age children and adolescents. This article looks to identify and summarize some of the possible deleterious effects in school‐based counseling across a variety of disorders and to make school psychologists cognizant of possible negative outcomes when designing and implementing treatment plans. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.