A virtual internship to prepare high school students for civic and political action

Educational technology research and development - We explored the impact of participating in a Virtual Internship (VI) computer-supported collaborative learning simulation, on high school...     

University and College Counselors as Athletic Team Consultants: Using a Structural Family Therapy Model

Increasingly, university and college counselors are sought out by their institution's sports coaches for assistance in achieving team goals. Traditional sport psychology models that have the individual athlete as their primary focus are insufficient frameworks for team‐level consultations. The authors believe that systemic approaches may provide an effective alternative. In this article, the authors offer and illustrate S. Minuchin's (1974) Structural Family Therapy as a heuristic model for conceptualizing and intervening with athletic teams.     

Questioning reform in the standards movement: professional development and implementation of common core across the rural South

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted in an effort to create a consistent set of standards across schools, districts, and states in order to ensure equality of educational opportunities for all students in the country. Educational reform through standardization implies that across thousands of miles and millions of students, individual classroom teachers are able to create equitable instruction based on policy and curriculum mandates. For such reform efforts to be successful, standards must be implemented with fidelity, thoroughness, and strong support from stakeholders. The present study examines the role of teacher preparation for CCSS implementation, notably in rural and economically depressed districts in the American South. Teachers were surveyed about their CCSS professional development experiences and needs, CCSS instructional and assessment practices, and perceptions of student learning related to new standards. The analysis reveals that teachers do not feel fully prepared to teach according to CCSS, and highlights areas of professional development where districts failed to support effective teacher implementation. Findings from this study illustrate inequitable professional development for teachers and provide implications for professional development types, content, and quality that teachers perceive as essential for CCSS success.     

The state of evidence for social and emotional learning: A contemporary meta-analysis of universal school-based SEL interventions

This article provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of the current evidence for universal school-based (USB) social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions for students in kindergarten through 12th grade available from 2008 through 2020. The sample includes 424 studies from 53 countries, reflecting 252 discrete USB SEL interventions, involving 575,361 students. Results endorsed that, compared to control conditions, students who participate in USB SEL interventions experienced significantly improved skills, attitudes, behaviors, school climate and safety, peer relationships, school functioning, and academic achievement. Significant heterogeneity in USB SEL content, intervention features, context, and implementation quality moderated student experiences and outcomes. Strengths and limitations of this evidence and implications for future USB SEL research, policy, and practice are discussed.     

Linking Stereotype Threat and Anxiety

Claude Steele’s stereotype threat hypothesis has attracted significant attention in recent years. This study tested one of the main tenets of his theory—that stereotype threat serves to increase individual anxiety levels, thus hurting performance—using real‐time measures of physiological arousal. Subjects were randomly assigned to either high or low stereotype threat conditions involving a challenging mathematics task while physiological measures of arousal were recorded. Results showed significant physiological reactance (skin conductance, skin temperature, blood pressure) as a function of a stereotype threat manipulation. These findings are consistent with the argument that stereotype threat manipulations either increase or decrease situational‐specific anxiety, and hold significant implications for thinking about fair assessment and testing practices in academic settings.     

Toward a framework for the development of mathematical knowledge for teaching

Shulman (1986, 1987) coined the term pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) to address what at that time had become increasingly evident—that content knowledge itself was not sufficient for teachers to be successful. Throughout the past two decades, researchers within the field of mathematics teacher education have been expanding the notion of PCK and developing more fine-grained conceptualizations of this knowledge for teaching mathematics. One such conceptualization that shows promise is mathematical knowledge for teaching—mathematical knowledge that is specifically useful in teaching mathematics. While mathematical knowledge for teaching has started to gain attention as an important concept in the mathematics teacher education research community, there is limited understanding of what it is, how one might recognize it, and how it might develop in the minds of teachers. In this article, we propose a framework for studying the development of mathematical knowledge for teaching that is grounded in research in both mathematics education and the learning sciences.

Cognitive-linguistic profiles of Chinese typical-functioning adolescent dyslexics and high-functioning dyslexics

Dyslexia is a developmental disability affecting the acquisition of reading and writing skills, and its developmental nature makes longitudinal research of great importance. This study therefore investigated the cognitive-linguistic profiles of the typical-functioning dyslexics and high-functioning dyslexics with longitudinal cohorts of Chinese-speaking adolescents diagnosed with childhood dyslexia. These two dyslexic groups of fifty students (with 25 typical-functioning dyslexics) were assessed in Grade 2 (Time 1) and in Grade 8 (Time 2), whereas 25 typically developing controls were assessed at Time 2. Students were administered measures of phonological awareness, morphological skills, visual-orthographic knowledge, rapid naming, verbal working memory, and literacy skills. Results showed that, at Time 2, both dyslexic groups performed less well than the control group on most of the measures. Deficits in rapid naming were particularly salient in both dyslexic groups. Comparing the two dyslexic groups, the typical-functioning dyslexics had more multiple deficits than the high-functioning dyslexics. Findings highlight the importance of rapid naming deficits as potential universal causes of dyslexia and the utility of targeting visual-orthographic knowledge and morphological skills in supporting the development of dyslexic adolescents.     

Parent and Child References to Letters During Alphabet Book Reading: Relations to Child Age and Letter Name Knowledge

Research Findings: The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency of extratextual references to letters made by parents and preschoolers during shared reading of an alphabet book. The frequency of letter references was also examined in relation to child age and knowledge of letter names. Participants consisted of 44 preschoolers and their primary caregivers. Videotaped book-reading data were transcribed verbatim and coded for their inclusion of 14 types of letter references (e.g., naming requests, labels, repetitions). Significant findings included the following: Parent labels were significantly correlated with child age; and child knowledge of letter names was significantly correlated with parent naming requests, corrections, and repetitions, and child answers and initiations. Practice or Policy: Findings are discussed in reference to the literature regarding parental sensitivity to child age and knowledge in educational interactions with their child.     

Intelligence and Neurophysiological Markers of Error Monitoring Relate to Children's Intellectual Humility

This study explored developmental and individual differences in intellectual humility (IH) among 127 children ages 6–8. IH was operationalized as children's assessment of their knowledge and willingness to delegate scientific questions to experts. Children completed measures of IH, theory of mind, motivational framework, and intelligence, and neurophysiological measures indexing early (error-related negativity [ERN]) and later (error positivity [Pe]) error-monitoring processes related to cognitive control. Children's knowledge self-assessment correlated with question delegation, and older children showed greater IH than younger children. Greater IH was associated with higher intelligence but not with social cognition or motivational framework. ERN related to self-assessment, whereas Pe related to question delegation. Thus, children show separable epistemic and social components of IH that may differentially contribute to metacognition and learning.