MEETING THE EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF SERVICE PROVIDERS: EFFECTS OF A CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAM ON SELF‐REPORTED KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES ABOUT AGING

A variety of approaches are available for meeting the educational needs of professionals currently providing services to older adults. This article focuses on the development of the Professional Development Program in Gerontology offered through Continuing Education at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and examines the effectiveness of this program in educating regional service providers. The discussion is based on participants’ self‐reported before‐and‐after data on their knowledge and attitudes about aging and the aged. The importance of changing employers’ attitudes about the importance of gerontology education as a qualification for service providers is also discussed.     

Testing Alternative Hypotheses Regarding the Association Between Behavioral Inhibition and Language Development in Toddlerhood

Studies have reported an inverse association between language development and behavioral inhibition or shyness across childhood, but the direction of this association remains unclear. This study tested alternative hypotheses regarding this association in a large sample of toddlers. Data on behavioral inhibition and expressive and receptive language abilities were collected from 816 twins at ages 14, 20, and 24 months. Growth and regression models were fit to the data to assess the longitudinal associations between behavioral inhibition and language development from 14 to 24 months. Overall, there were significant associations between behavioral inhibition and expressive language, and minimal associations with receptive language, indicating that the association is better explained by reticence to respond rather than deficient language development.     

Assessing preschoolers’ emergent literacy skills in English and Spanish with the Get Ready to Read! screening tool

This study investigated the ability of the English and Spanish versions of the Get Ready to Read! Screener (E-GRTR and S-GRTR) administered at the beginning of the preschool year to predict the oral language and phonological and print processing skills of Spanish-speaking English-language learners (ELLs) and English-only speaking children (EO) at the end of the year. The results revealed that the E-GRTR predicted the EO and ELL children’s English emergent literacy skills and the ELL children’s Spanish emergent literacy skills, and the S-GRTR predicted the ELL children’s English and Spanish emergent literacy skills. For both groups, the E-GRTR and the S-GRTR were better at predicting children’s print knowledge in English and Spanish compared to the other emergent literacy measures. The findings suggest that both screeners can be used effectively to assess preschool children’s emergent literacy skills.     

Exposure to Interparental Conflict and Children''s Adjustment and Physical Health: The Moderating Role of Vagal Tone

Physiological regulation, as indexed by baseline vagal tone and delta vagal tone (the change in vagal tone during an attention-demanding or challenging task), was examined as a moderator in the relations between exposure to verbal and physical parental marital conflict and children's adjustment and physical health. Higher vagal tone was posited to serve a protective function (i.e., buffer) for children exposed to higher levels of marital conflict. Seventy-five 8- to 12-year-olds and their mothers completed measures of parental conflict, and children's adjustment and physical health. Children's vagal tone was assessed during baseline conditions and during exposure to an audiotaped interadult argument. Results indicate that higher vagal tone buffered children against increased externalizing, internalizing, and health problems related to exposure to more frequent marital conflict, especially verbal conflict. Further, higher levels of delta vagal tone protected boys against externalizing problems associated with verbal conflict, and health problems associated with physical conflict.     

Genetic Change and Continuity from Fourteen to Twenty Months: The MacArthur Longitudinal Twin Study

Genetic change as well as continuity was investigated within the domains of temperament, emotion, and cognition/language for 200 pairs of twins assessed at 14 and 20 months of age in the laboratory and home. The second year of life is marked by change rather than continuity: correlations from 14 to 20 months averaged about .30 for observational measures of temperament and emotion, about .40 for language measures, and about .50 for mental development. 2 types of genetic change were examined: changes in the magnitude of genetic influence (heritability) and genetic contributions to change from 14 to 20 months. In general, heritability estimates were similar at 14 and 20 months. Evidence for genetic influence on change from 14 to 20 months emerged for several measures, implying that heritability cannot be equated with stability. Analyses of continuity indicated that genetic factors are largely responsible for continuity from 14 to 20 months.     

Teachers' use of rubrics to score non‐traditional tasks: factors related to discrepancies in scoring

This study considered middle school mathematics teachers’ use of rubrics to score non‐traditional tasks. A group of eighth‐grade teachers attended a two‐day workshop where they evaluated assessment tasks and discussed the use an associated scoring rubric. Scored samples of student work submitted by the teachers indicated that they had difficulty using the rubrics for scoring. When compared to expert ratings, all except one teacher had discrepancies in scoring and some discrepancies indicated major problems. These discrepancies appear to be related to whether the task contained familiar or unfamiliar content and the mix of procedure and explanation the task required. Several other factors related to discrepancies, such as leniency errors, teacher knowledge, and the halo effect are also discussed. With the expanded use of rubrics in many arenas, these results show the need for more professional development related to rubric use.     

Teachers and Students Poised to Use Mobile Phones in the Classroom

This study examined the perceptions of 15 teachers and 103 middle school students at a progressive private school located in Mumbai, India to determine their support for the use of mobile phones in the classroom, their perceptions of the mobile phone features that are beneficial for school-related work, and the instructional benefits and barriers to mobile phone use prior to beginning a mobile phone pilot program. The results indicated that most teachers (86%) and students (92%) supported the use of mobile phones in the classroom while those remaining voiced uncertainties. The participants perceived many mobile phone features as being useful in the classroom, but the teachers and students significantly differed in their views. Participant responses revealed little concern about most of the barriers reported in the literature; both teachers and students were least concerned about the use of mobile phones causing a disruption to learning.