Children’s Developing Ability to Resolve Disagreements by Integrating Perspectives

Children live in a world where disagreement is commonplace. Although disagreement can sometimes be explained by differences in people’s reliability, disagreement may also indicate that the referent elicits multiple perspectives. The present studies (total N = 129, 5- to 12-year-old ethnically diverse U.S. children, 42% girls) examined children’s ability to resolve disagreement among two individuals by identifying referents that integrated the perspectives, and considered the extent to which any age-related change could be explained by epistemological understanding (i.e., acknowledging that two perspectives can be right). Children’s age was positively correlated with their ability to integrate perspectives, and children performed at above-chance levels by approximately 10 years of age. Age differences in integrating perspectives were partially accounted for by epistemological understanding.     

From Page to Stage: Locating the Spirit of Branar’s Adaptation of Oliver Jeffers’ How to Catch a Star

Children's Literature in Education - Oliver Jeffers’ best-selling picturebook How to Catch a Star (2004) has been the subject of several recent theatre adaptations for children. This...     

Negotiating status hierarchies in middle school inquiry science: implications for marginal non-participation

Instructional Science - While previous classroom studies of status hierarchies tell us who has low status and how to increase those learners’ participation in small group contexts via...     

PowerPoint slide provision and student performance: the moderating roles of self-efficacy and gender

Research on the pedagogical value of providing students with PowerPoint (PPT) slide handouts has produced mixed results. One reason for the inconsistent findings may be that most studies in this stream of research have neglected to examine individual differences. In the current study, we aimed to advance research on the pedagogical value of providing students with access to PPT slide handouts by examining whether self-efficacy and gender influence the effect of PPT slide provision on academic performance. We found no evidence to suggest that the provision of slide handouts has broad, unconditional pedagogical value. Instead, we found that both self-efficacy and gender moderated the extent to which the availability of the handouts enhanced or hindered students’ performance. As predicted, both students high on self-efficacy and males performed significantly better when they were provided with handouts. Conversely, students low on self-efficacy performed significantly worse when the handouts were provided. Female students also trended toward lower performance when the handouts were provided. Additionally, we found that students who were provided with PPT handouts perceived their instructor as more effective, and that this relation was mediated by students’ feeling of preparation. Finally, students also considered the provision of PPT handouts more valuable to their learning and course performance than one-to-one interactions with the professor. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Portfolios, Accountability, and an Interpretive Approach to Validity

How can the results of classroom-based portfolio assessment be communicated outside the classroom? How might a portfolio-based assessment system be designed and implemented? How can we evaluate the merits of portfolio-based assessments?     

Brief Research Report: The Message Behind Teacher Emotions

Abstract

We hypothesized that students use the message behind teacher emotions to interpret the cause of their failure and to form competence beliefs; hence, in failure situations teacher anger could be beneficial. In Experiment 1, participants made judgments about another student’s failure in the face of teacher pity versus anger. Lack of ability attributions were made and low competence was perceived, when pity was interpreted as the teacher attributed the failure to lack of ability. Lack of effort attributions were made when anger was interpreted as the teacher attributed the failure to lack of effort. Experiment 2 replicated and extended these findings by examining students responses to their own failure. Findings imply that expressing anger is less detrimental than many teachers suppose.     

A Qualitative Exploration of Romantic Partners’ Motives for and Content of Communication with Friends Following Negative Relational Events

The purpose of this study was to explore young adults’ motives for and content of extradyadic interactions with friends following a negative relational event in a romantic relationship. Focus group discussions with young adults revealed the following partner motives: improving affect, managing uncertainty, obtaining clarity, and entertainment. In turn, friends were motivated by issues of honesty, friendship quality, and a desire to protect or comfort their friend. Both partners and friends discussed the use of a variety of negative, neutral, and positive message content. Results provide an exploratory look at extradyadic interactions that may have important implications for relationship functioning.