The Long-term Contribution of Early Childhood Education to Children's Performance--Evidence from New Zealand

Evidence from the longitudinal Competent Children project is provided which shows the continuing contribution of early childhood education to children's competencies at age 10. Among the New Zealand sample, children had higher average scores if they had 3 or more years of early childhood education in general. The quality of their final early childhood education centre, particularly related to teacher-child interaction, also continued to show enduring associations with children's performance. The socio-economic mix of the children's final early childhood education centre also had a bearing on their competency levels 5 years later. L'e´vidence du projet longitudinal 'Enfants Compe´tents' ici fournis montre la contribution continue de la e´ducation de la premie ¤ re enfance aux compe´tences des enfants a ¤ l'age 10. Parmi l'e´chantillon de la Nouvelle-Ze´lande, les enfants avaient des points moyens plus hauts s'ils avaient trois anne´es ou plus d'e´ducation de premie ¤ re enfance en ge´ne´ral. La qualite´ de leur dernier centre d'e´ducation de la premie ¤ re enfance, particulie ¤ rement connexe a ¤ l'interaction de l'enseignant et l'enfant, continuait aussi a ¤ montrer des associations durables avec la performance des enfants. Le me´lange socio-e´conomique du dernier centre d'e´ducation de la premie ¤ re enfance fre´quente´ par les enfants avait aussi un rapport avec leurs niveaux de compe´tence 5 anne´es plus tard. La evidencia del proyecto longitudinal llamado "Nin ¨ os Competentes" aqui´ presentada demuestra la contribucio´n continua de la educacio´n de la nin ¨ ez temprana a las capacidades que tienen los nin ¨ os a los 10 an ¨ os. En la muestra de Nueva Zelanda, los nin ¨ os teni´an puntos medios ma´s altos si teni´an tres o ma´s an ¨ os de educacio´n preescolar en general. La calidad del u´ltimo centro preescolar al cual han asistido, particularmente la calidad relacionada a la interaccio´n de la maestra y el nin ¨ o, tambie´n continuo´ a demostrar asociaciones duraderas relacionadas al desempen ¨ o de los nin ¨ os. La mezcla socioecono´mica del u´ltimo centro preescolar frecuentados por los nin ¨ os tambie´n tuvo efecto sobre sus niveles de capacidad 5 an ¨ os ma´s tarde.     

Extended Collective Licensing and Archives

While extended collective licensing (ECL) is seen by many to be the solution to the use of copyright-protected works in the digital environment, this column critically examines the extent to which ECL applies to the holdings of archival institutions, and concludes that archival holdings and ECL are not a good match.     

Foundational aspects of classroom relations: associations between teachers’ immediacy behaviours,classroom democracy,class identification and learning

This study focused on foundational aspects of classroom relations. Specifically, relationships between teachers’ immediacy (interpersonal) behaviours, classroom democracy, identification and learning were considered. Previous work suggests that these variables can be used as a foundation to shape classroom climate, culture and learning outcomes and, by extension, assist educational institutions to achieve their civic mission. This study examined classroom democracy and class identification as variables that mediate the relationship between immediacy behaviours and learning using data collected from 529 students in six institutions of higher learning in Rwanda. Structural equation modeling revealed that classroom democracy mediates the relationship between immediacy behaviours and that classroom democracy and class identification covary substantially. The significant relationships in the final structural model suggest that immediate teachers are likely to have a positive influence on perceptions of classroom democracy, class identification and learning. Based on the growing scholarship of instructional dissent, this study highlights the foundational and strategic aspects underlying these relationships within the context of relating in the classroom and beyond.     

Age and language skills of deaf children in relation to theory of mind development

Using four traditional false-belief tasks, I investigated deaf children's age and expressive language skills in relation to their theory of mind development. The children's parents who signed reported on their own knowledge of a mental sign vocabulary. The results indicate age of the child to be strongly related to theory of mind development. Deaf children demonstrated an ability to pass the theory of mind assessment battery between the ages of 7 and 8 years, on average. In comparison, hearing children have consistently demonstrated the ability to perform such tasks between the ages of 4 and 5 years. Therefore, the results indicate deaf children are delayed by approximately 3 years in this cognitive developmental milestone. Expressive language skills of the children and sign language skills of the parents who signed were not found to be significantly related to the children's theory of mind development.     

The parents anonymous service provider/service recipient experimental training project

These preliminary evaluation results suggest that the training approach is positively perceived by participants and that it has positive effects in changing their attitudes and behavior.     

Grounding intervention research in the larger context of schooling: A response to Pressley and Harris

In addition to the factors identified by Pressley and Harris for researchers to attend to in designing and conducting intervention research, it is important that this research be grounded in a practical-oriented framework that considers the dynamics of the school setting. This article argues that intervention researchers should solicit the input of practitioners in designing and operationalizing interventions through a co-constructive process, clearly spell out intervention protocols in language that can be understood and followed by practitioners, view interventions within the complex realities of schools, and insure that outcomes of interventions are both statistically and socially significant.     

Where special education goes to die

We suggest that special education could die among common myths about it. That is, special education could cease to exist, at least as we know it, because its true nature and requirements for its functioning are misunderstood. We discuss only 12 common myths about special education, recognizing that there are many more myths and that the ones we write about could be stated differently. We conclude with comments about how the long roots of the idea that special education could become unnecessary might be traced to a publication by Evelyn Deno in 1970 and express our hope that special education will continue as a separate entity.     

The development of epiphonological and metaphonological processing at the start of learning to read: A longitudinal study

The processes involved in the processing of phonological information (awareness and phonological recoding) now occupy a key position in the study of the acquisition of reading. The research performed in the field of learning to read have helped support the idea that the learning of writing is based on the ability to develop a phonological knowledge of the formal properties of the spoken language (Mattingly, 1972). Many studies have therefore been devoted to the relations between the learning of reading and phonological skills, that is to say the ability to perform a phonological analysis of spoken language. The present research concerns the development of the phonological skills both before and during the teaching of reading through the longitudinal study of children in their final year of nursery school (NS) and in first grade (FG).     

Patterns of Social Expectations among Black and Mexican-American Children

In 2 studies, a total of 213 black and Mexican-American third- and sixth-grade children were asked to respond to 8 videotaped scenes of everyday social encounters with same-ethnic, unfamiliar peers at school. Mexican-American children reported expectations for sharing and relying on authority figures significantly more often, and apologizing, getting angry, and initiating action significantly less often than their black peers. Emotional responses decreased and socially desirable responses increased with grade for both groups. In addition, ethnic differences were greater at the sixth-grade than at the third-grade level for both groups. Girls apologized and sought help from teachers more often than boys, and social expectations varied by sex for each ethnic group. Individual children varied in the degree of similarity to their group, with some children giving responses highly typical of their group across all 8 scenes and others giving responses not typical of their group. High self-esteem was significantly correlated to being similar to one's own group.