Becoming Teachers for Social Justice: Raising Critical Consciousness

This article shares processes and practices which foster students’ critical consciousness. Critical consciousness, the core of social justice teaching, is a heightened awareness of the world and the power structures that shape it. Teachers can become forces for equity and change by: challenging students to reflect critically on their beliefs and the sources of these beliefs; using text to guide students to look outwards and discover the perspectives and challenges of others; selecting texts purposefully to heighten student awareness of issues of power and equity; teaching students to read texts critically, listening carefully for the points of view of others often ignored or silenced; creating space for dialogue beyond text; and finally, making the world their classroom, blurring the boundary between schools and communities as students research the world and take steps toward change in ways that recognize and re-value our common humanity. Becoming teachers for social justice entails moving students through intentional processes and practices to foster critical consciousness in the hope of effecting change.     

What Preschool Classroom Experiences Are Associated With Whether Children Improve in Visuomotor Integration?

Research Findings: This study examined the contribution of several class-room experience measures (classroom characteristics, teacher characteristics, and teacher–child interactions) to preschoolers’ improvement in visuomotor integration. Children (N = 467) ranged in age from 3 to 5 years old and were enrolled in 115 classrooms in 5 U.S. states. Children’s visuomotor integration was measured twice (on average 5.2 months apart) using the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (visuomotor integration subtest). Hierarchical linear models controlling for background characteristics and inhibitory control showed that children improved more in visuomotor integration when they were in classrooms with fewer 3-year-olds, when their teacher had at least a bachelor’s degree, and when teachers demonstrated high quality in their interactions. Practice or Policy: Visuomotor integration, and specifically the ability to copy designs with a writing utensil, is a robust indicator of children’s school readiness and longitudinal achievement. U.S. preschoolers gained more on visuomotor integration in classrooms with fewer 3-year-old children that were taught by a college-educated teacher and when such classrooms provided high-quality organizational and instructional interactions. These results expand the outcomes linked to early childhood education experiences and emphasize the need for well-prepared early childhood teachers who interact with children effectively.     

Splicing the Divide: A Review of Research on the Evolving Digital Divide Among K–12 Students

The digital divide has narrowed with regard to one definition of access to technology—the binary view of the “haves” and “have-nots.” However, use of technology at home and in school is not equitable for all students. According to recent literature, a broader and more nuanced definition of the technological divide is necessary in order to express the ways technology is used or not used. The purpose of this research review is to examine the defining characteristics of technology use by K–12 students, highlighting the complexities of the evolving digital divide. This review integrates findings from empirical studies, theoretical articles, research reviews, and government surveys in the United States in order to present a renewed look at an evolving digital divide, explore the underlying causes of the unequal student use of technology, suggest directions for future research, and provide current implications for practice.     

Challenging teacher beliefs about student engagement in mathematics

This study explored the beliefs about student engagement in mathematics of three Year 5 and 6 teachers, focusing on the shifts that occurred during a 10-week intervention. Data obtained from teacher surveys, interviews, video-recorded workshop observations and artefacts from teachers’ classrooms reveal variations in their reactions to the professional learning experiences. Teacher responses were mediated by personal and contextual elements including teacher efficacy beliefs, teacher confidence in mathematics and their conceptions of student engagement. Theories of teacher conceptual change are used to account for variations to teacher beliefs.     

How does validating activity contribute to the modeling process?

Contemporary scholars describe mathematical modeling as a transformation of a real-world problem to a mathematical problem and back again. This paper treats a critical issue in the modeling process: how modelers determine if the transformation from the real world to mathematics was carried out well. I present an empirically derived typology of validating activities explaining how validating functions to ensure a mathematical model will yield a reasonably accurate prediction. The typology arose from analysis of four engineering undergraduates’ production of 276 instances of validating. The nuances of validating suggest that creating and maintaining relationships between reality and mathematics is more complex than a transformation and that we should afford a more prominent role to validation in the modeling process.     

Auditing for Score Inflation Using Self-Monitoring Assessments: Findings From Three Pilot Studies

Test-based accountability often produces score inflation. Most studies have evaluated inflation by comparing trends on a high-stakes test and a lower stakes audit test. However, Koretz and Beguin (2010) noted weaknesses of audit tests and suggested self-monitoring assessments (SMAs), which incorporate audit items into high-stakes tests. This article reports the first three trials of SMAs, evaluating whether SMAs can detect inflation that had already been documented. The studies were conducted with mathematics tests in three grades. Despite severe conservative biases, the audit component functioned as expected in many of the trials. The difference in performance between nonaudit and audit items was associated with factors that earlier research showed to be related to test preparation and score inflation, such as scoring just below the Proficient cut in the previous year and school poverty. However, a number of null findings underscore the need for additional research into the design of audit items.