Examining the Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Student Motivation

Parent involvement has a sound research base attesting to the many potential benefits it can offer in education. However, student motivation as an academic outcome of parental involvement has only recently been investigated. The purpose of this article is to show how parent involvement is related to students motivation. Studies of students from the elementary school to high school show a beneficial relationship between parental involvement and the following motivational constructs: school engagement, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, perceived competence, perceived control, self-regulation, mastery goal orientation, and motivation to read. From the synthesis of the parent involvement and motivation literature, we offer potential explanations for their relationship. Directions for areas of continued research are also presented.     

The effect of text genre on parent use of joint book reading strategies to promote phonological awareness

This study compared the rates of different types of joint book reading behaviors of parents of preschool children with and without language impairments using two different text genres. Participants included 72 preschool children between the ages of 51 and 70 months. Fifty-five children were typically developing and 17 were diagnosed with language impairments. Parent–child dyads were videotaped during periods of joint book reading using two different types of text (one alphabet-rhyming and one narrative). Results indicated parents rarely used reading behaviors known to enhance their preschoolers’ phonological awareness. However, when used, there was a significant difference between the two types of texts. The alphabet book elicited a higher rate of phonological awareness and print concept behaviors, while the narrative book resulted in parents using more content behaviors. In addition, the parents of typically developing children used more phonological awareness behaviors than the parents of children with language impairments.     

Exploring youth engagement in agricultural development: the case of farmers’ children in the Philippines as rice crop manager infomediaries

Purpose: This paper explores the intersections between community development and youth development in an initiative that mobilized farmers’ children as Rice Crop Manager (RCM) infomediaries (information mediators). RCM is an ICT-enabled nutrient management application.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The study engaged 30 farmers’ children in high school level from the provinces of Pangasinan, Isabela, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, Bukidnon, and Davao del Norte from November 2016 to October 2017. They interacted with the research team (the authors) and the RCM-SMS platform that sends text messages regarding fertilizer recommendations. A staff member from the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) also called the students for some follow-up questions. The research team conducted three rounds of interviews with the students concerning the messages and calls that they received and what they did with the information.

Findings: This study finds that farmers’ children can perform infomediary roles quite effectively. Academically excellent children and those involved in farm work performed best.

Practical Implications: The study provides guidance on similar initiatives tapping young people in agricultural development.

Theoretical Implications: This paper finds that while Community Youth Development (CYD) Theory provides a powerful lens in understanding community and youth development intersections, some identified outcomes may overlap and may not be very easy to observe. Hence, the identified outcomes may be revisited for clarity and to make them more all-encompassing.

Originality/Value: The paper documents actual parent-child interaction when the latter is mobilized to serve as an infomediary to access nutrient management-related information on rice.     

Reading and spelling acquisition in two different teaching methods: A test of the independence hypothesis

The development of word reading and word spelling was examined in French speaking children initially instructed either by a phonic or a whole-word method. Second, fourth and sixth graders were administered to reading and spelling tests in which grapho-phonological regularity, frequency, length and lexicality were manipulated. The results showed that in both curricula, reading and spelling acquisition can be characterized by a parallel increase in the use of sub-lexical correspondences and in the reliance on word-specific information. Contrary to a simple view of lexical development according to which the use of analytical knowledge and the use of word-specific knowledge correspond to two different cognitive processes that develop independently from each other, whole-word children did not appear to rely more on whole-word knowledge. On the contrary, and paradoxically, grade 2 whole-word children tended to use analytical correspondences to a greater extent than their peers. In later development, reading matched phonic and whole-word groups did not differ from each other. It is argued that the results support the hypothesis that the acquisition of sub-lexical correspondences constitutes a necessary step in the acquisition of reading and spelling. We conclude that the analytic comparison of different curricula provides a naturalistic tool for the study of the dynamics of development.     

New mathematics programmes at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University,Prague

The Bologna Declaration inspired changes in university education in the Czech Republic. In this paper we discuss the impact of these changes on the education of engineers at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University, Prague.     

Confirmatory factor analyses comparing parental involvement frameworks with secondary students

Given the lack of research on measurement models used to operationalize parental involvement with secondary students, the goal of this research is to examine the measurement properties of the three‐domain conceptualization of parental involvement including school‐based involvement, home‐based involvement, and academic socialization, compared to a more nuanced six domain conceptualization school‐based (1) school/parent communication, (2) attending school activities, home‐based (3) home activities, (4) homework help, academic socialization, (5) parent–child communication about education, and (6) parental aspirations for child's education. When comparing the fit among the models, the six‐factor model had best fit indices and indicated varied correlations among the subdomains. The six‐factor model allowed for more nuanced variations among the subdomains that may be helpful when assessing parental involvement with high school students.     

Supposer et postuler pour produire des connaissances scientifiques: une évidence ou une conquête théorique? Une étude des points de vue d'étudiants

Résumé De manière générale, l'évidence sensorielle et, plus particulièrement, visuelle constitue pour les étudiants le principal fondement du savoir scientifique: nul besoin de supposer pour connaître, tout est donné ou presque. Du point de vue de l'enseignement des sciences, cette croyance à saveur réaliste est particulièrement critique, notamment parce qu'elle conduit à penser que les concepts, lois et théories scientifiques procèdent d'un monde de matérialités plutôt que d'un monde de modèles et de relations. Au cours d'une recherche effectuée auprès d'un groupe-classe de 35 étudiants durant douze semaines, nous avons pu observer que, pour la majorité des étudiants, la compréhension du caractère construit et consensuel du savoir scientifique était facilitée par le développement d'une métaréflexion sur leurs propres productions de connaissance et les inévitables postulats et suppositions qui les fondent. Nous avons également pu observer qu'il découle de cette activité réflexive un modèle de science qui se distingue des modèles initialement tenus par les étudiants, par le pouvoir créateur et, surtout, le pouvoir de théoriser qu'il comporte: postuler, supposer, jauger collectivement de la plausibilité des résultats plutôt qu'en appeler à une instance occulte, voilà quelques-unes des conquêtes théoriques qu'ils ont effectuées et sur lesquelles nous allons nous attarder.

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Sensorial, and more specifically, visual evidence is generally regarded by students as the basis for scientific knowledge: no need to postulate to understand, all is almost or practically given. From a science-teaching standpoint, this rather realistic approach is critical and leads to the belief that scientific concepts, laws, and theories stem from a world of materiality rather than from a world of models and relationships. During a 12-week study a group of 35 college students, we observed that for the majority of them, the development of metareflection on how they produce knowledge, with the inevitable and inherent postulates and conjecture, facilitated their understanding of the constructed and consensual character of scientific knowledge. We also observed that this reflexive activity facilitated the development of a new approach to science that differed from those models previously used by the students in its creative potential and, more importantly, in the power of its theoretics: to postulate, suppose, and collectively estimate the plausibility of results rather than calling up occult instances. These and other theoretical achievements will be discussed in this paper.

     

The Role of Sex Hormone Replacement Therapy on Self-Perceived Competence in Adolescents with Delayed Puberty

The objective of the present study was to determine the role of sex steroids in the development of self-perceived competence during adolescence. The Harter Self-Perception Scale was administered to 56 adolescents with delayed puberty who were receiving depo-testosterone (males) or conjugated estrogens (females) administered in 3-month blocks alternating with placebo. Treatment was given at three dose levels approximating early, middle, and late pubertal replacement levels. Hormone treatments had a significant positive effect for both males and females in one subscale domain--perceived job competence. Significant positive hormone effects were also obtained for perceptions of romantic appeal and close friendship in females and perception of athletic abilities in males. It can be inferred from the results of this study that the hormonal changes associated with sexual maturation have targeted influences on specific domains of self-perceived competence and that there are clear gender differences.     

Food Fights: Cookbook Rhetorics,Monolithic Constructions of Womanhood,and Field Narratives in Technical Communication

Field narratives that (re)classify technical genres as liberating for women risk supporting the notion that feminism is a completed project in technical communication scholarship. This article suggests that technical communicators reexamine the impact of past approaches to critical engagement at the intersections of gender studies and technical communication; cookbooks provide a material example. The authors illustrate how a feminist approach to cookbooks as technical/cultural artifacts can productively revise field narratives in technical communication.