Prenatal Yoga and Childbirth Education: A Response to Tracy Posner's Birth Story

In this letter to the editor, the author responds to a birth story published in a previous issue of The Journal of Perinatal Education and discusses the relationship between practicing prenatal yoga and childbirth education.     

Predicting academic achievement by class‐level emotions and perceived homeroom teachers’ emotional support

Using a multilevel approach, this study examined the role of classroom emotional climate on students' academic achievement. Positive and negative emotions and homeroom teachers' support were used to assess the classroom emotional climate on the individual and class levels. To our knowledge, no study to date has investigated these specific aspects of the classroom emotional climate in relation to students' GPA. Data were collected from 73 classrooms in grades 7‐12 (N = 1,641, students; 53% female) across three schools in Israel. Findings revealed that aggregated levels of both positive affect and perceived homeroom teacher support were positively tied to GPA and that aggregated levels of negative affect were negatively tied to GPA. The final model included gender, teacher support, individual and class emotions and explained 14% of within‐class GPA. A central implication of this study is the relevance of having an emotionally supportive homeroom teacher for students' academic achievement.     

Examining the Relationship Between Comparative and Self-Focused Academic Data Visualizations in At-Risk College Students' Academic Motivation

This qualitative study focuses on capturing students' understanding two visualizations often utilized by learning analytics-based educational technologies: bar graphs, and line graphs. It is framed by Achievement Goal Theory—a prominent theory of students' academic motivation—and utilizes interviews (n = 60) to investigate how students at risk of college failure interpret visualizations of their potential academic achievement. Findings suggest that visualizations only containing information about students themselves (i.e., self-focused affordances) evoked statements centered on mastering material. Visualizations containing information about students and a class average (i.e., comparative information), on the other hand, evoked responses that disheartened students and/or made them feel accountable to do better. Findings from this study suggest the following guidelines for designing visualizations for learning analytics-based educational technologies: (1) Never assume that more information is better; (2) anticipate and mitigate against potential misinterpretations—or harmful alternative interpretations—of visualizations; and (3) always suggest a way for students to improve. These guidelines help mitigate against potential unintended consequences to motivation introduced by visualizations used in learning analytics-based educational technologies. (Keywords: motivation, visualizations, learning analytics, Achievement Goal Theory, college students, educational technologies)     

Learning Analytics: at the Nexus of Big Data,Digital Innovation,and Social Justice in Education

We are still designing educational experiences for the average student, and have room to improve. Learning analytics provides a way forward. This commentary describes how learning analytics-based applications are well positioned to meaningfully personalize the learning experience in diverse ways. In so doing, learning analytics has the potential to contribute to more equitable and socially just educational outcomes for students who might otherwise be seen through the lens of the average student. Utilizing big data, good design, and the input of the stakeholders, learning analytics techniques aim to develop applications for the sole purpose of reducing the classroom size to 1. Over time, these digital innovations will enable us to do away with a model of education that teaches toward the non-existent average student, replacing it with one that is more socially just—one that addresses the individual needs of every student.     

Interaction and Collaboration Using an Intelligent Collaborative Learning Environment

The goal of this research is to design and prototype an intelligent collaborative learning environment. Within this environment, we study synchronous interaction among group members (students) working on a problem/project. Students use an Intelligent Collaborative Support System (ICSS) and a shared activity space: the Tulka Whiteboard. Two main interaction spaces have been implemented: a planning-communication space and a production space. Dialogue and negotiation are supported through the ICSS permitting exchange and evaluation of free-text communication messages that are initiated by students choosing sentence openers from a menu. Using the whiteboard, a virtual room is dedicated to a group of students who share documents, annotations on documents, drawing tools, and text tools. Each group is provided a dynamic assessment of their collaborative skills based on a communication skills model.     

Philosophy and the curriculum

This paper is reprinted from Israel Scheffler's Reason and Teaching (Bobbs-Merrill, 1973). It is the first of a number of classic paper which Science & Education will reprint in forthcoming volumes. These are being reprinted because their arguments still warrant attention and they are increasingly inaccessible to a good number of subscribers.     

Supporting Child Welfare and Parent Involvement in Preschool Programs

This article discusses the findings from a mixed-method study examining the relationship between social resources and levels of parent involvement in state-funded preschool programs in Illinois. Using survey data from the Illinois Birth to Five Evaluation (n = 843) and interviews with ten preschool administrators who completed the survey, the study found the number of social resources provided by a program was positively associated with levels of parent involvement. The correlation analysis (r = −0.22, p = .0001) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) F(2,708) = 23.19, p = .0001 findings both demonstrated positive relationships wherein high numbers of social resources were associated with higher levels of parent involvement in programs. Administrator interviews confirmed survey findings and suggested additional influences on parent involvement levels and use of social resources in programs. Implications for supporting child welfare and policy recommendations for early childhood programs are provided.