Assistant Teachers in Head Start Classrooms: Comparing to and Working With Lead Teachers

Research Findings: The purpose of the present study is to examine the degree to which assistant and lead teachers work together in Head Start classrooms in 3 domains: emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Pairs of lead and assistant teachers from 14 Head Start classrooms were simultaneously observed for 1 morning to examine the quality of teachers’ interactions with students in these 3 domains. First we examined the mean levels of the 3 domains and how they differed among teachers. Overall, results indicated moderate levels of emotional support and classroom organization and low levels of instructional support. In comparing lead and assistant teachers, we found that lead teachers offered significantly higher levels of instructional support than assistant teachers. Next we examined how the quality of lead and assistant teachers’ interactions were related over time. Concurrent correlations were nonsignificant. Lagged correlations suggested that lead and assistant teachers’ interactions with students were related over time. Practice or Policy: Assistant teachers offered comparable levels of emotional support and classroom organization but did not offer the same levels of instructional support. This suggests that assistant teachers are able to help provide a nurturing environment and help with structuring activities despite having lower entry-level qualification requirements. This study supports the notion that assistant teachers as well as lead teachers should be included in quality improvement efforts.     

Whose public,which public? The challenge for public education

Contemporary campaigns for public education rest upon an assumption that public schools are fundamental to an equitable and inclusive society. In this paper, I reflect on this presumption by exploring the inherent tensions of the meaning and practice of ‘public’ education, especially when the ‘public’ in public schooling is linked to political contestation and change in relation to the nation state. In particular, this discussion considers the ways in which the contemporary heightened racial politics of fear of ‘Muslim radicalisation’ structures the ways in which the state creates boundaries surrounding ‘public’ schooling. Here, analysis of recent governmental attempts to addresses the concern of ‘radicalisation’ in schools reveals the difficulties the nation state faces in defining what exactly is the ‘public’, and demonstrates how the politics of race and fear become overarching logics in the constitution of the Australian ‘public’. These logics risk creating exclusions and boundaries in public schooling, which, I argue here, have repercussions for the defence and claim to public education more broadly.     

Eye movements reveal readers’ lexical quality and reading experience

Two experiments demonstrate that individual differences among normal adult readers, including lexical quality, are expressed in silent reading at the word level. In the first of two studies we identified major dimensions of variability among college readers and among words using factor analysis. We then examined the effects of these dimensions of variability on eye movements during paragraph reading. More experienced readers (who also were higher in reading speed) read words more quickly, especially less frequent words, while readers with higher lexical knowledge showed shorter early fixations, especially for more frequent words. These results suggest that individual differences in reading may reflect differences in the quality of lexical representations and in reading experience, which is a source of lexical quality. In a second study, we controlled the lexical knowledge readers obtained from new words through a training paradigm that varied exposure to a word’s orthographic, phonological, and meaning constituents. Training exposure to orthographic and phonological constituents affected first pass reading measures, and phonological and meaning training affected second pass measures. Incomplete knowledge of word components slowed first pass reading times, compared to both more complete knowledge and no knowledge. Training effects were mediated by individual differences, pointing to lexical quality and reading experience—which, combined reflect reading expertise—as important in word reading as part of text reading.     

Teacher evaluation standards in practice: A standards‐based assessment tool for diversity‐responsive teaching

Abstract

Although there is no question about the need for preservice and inservice teachers to have the skills to meet the diverse needs of students in todays classrooms, the issue of how to assess those same skills has proved to be problematic. This article reports on a joint effort by faculty from an urban university and a large public school district to create an observation tool that will assess and mentor preservice and inservice teachers’ abilities to address issues of diversity in their classrooms meaningfully. The authors will first report on missions and background information representing both the university and the school district and then on the development of a standards‐based assessment tool. Lastly, suggestions that compliment a comprehensive body of evidence of teacher evaluation will be discussed.     

The primary school as an institution: Analysis and implications

The aim of this paper is to offer a view of the primary school as an institution with structural properties comparable to institutions in general. Five studies will provide the basis from which such a view is developed, those by Sorokin, (1938), Perrow, (1965), Schon (1970), Taylor, et al (1974) and Collins and Porras, (1998). The common thread running through these studies focuses on three properties — core purpose, technology and task or social group — necessary to the effective functioning of an institution which are incidentally the multiple and overlapping, contexts of teaching.     

What Students Want: A Vision of a Future Online Learning Experience Grounded in Distance Education Theory

ABSTRACT

As online learning continues to evolve many have proposed that we think differently about our pedagogical approaches, to move beyond the replication of the face-to-face experience. Here we explore the student and faculty visions of the future using a Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation (ZMET) method that uses images to metaphorically represent how individuals feel or relate to particular concepts. Focus group interviews with a small sample of faculty and students suggest a desire for a more personalized learning experience, but one that is still highly social within learning communities.     

Surviving organizational tolerance of sexual harassment: an exploration of resilience,vulnerability, and harassment fatigue

ABSTRACT

Although reports of workplace sexual harassment share various similarities, victims uniquely react and assign meaning to these events. Using Weick’s sensemaking theory coupled with Lazarus and Folkman’s model of coping, this study examines the role of organizational tolerance toward sexual harassment and its influence on victim resilience, coping, harassment fatigue, and perceived vulnerability to future sexual harassment. Survey results from 187 victims of workplace sexual harassment indicate that organizational tolerance of sexual harassment is a significant predictor of victim vulnerability, resilience, and harassment fatigue. Specifically, organizations that are more tolerant of sexual harassment are associated with higher victim vulnerability to future harassment and harassment fatigue, as well as lower resilience. Additionally, victims who responded to harassment using problem-focused coping were significantly more resilient, while formally reporting sexual harassment was associated with lower victim resilience. Overall, results illustrate the complexity of addressing sexual harassment from both an organizational and individual perspective.