The effect of distributed monitoring exercises and feedback on performance, monitoring accuracy, and self-efficacy

Monitoring one’s own study processes accurately is important in self-regulated learning. This study compared a treatment (N = 45) and comparison class (N = 39) on the effects of monitoring exercises and feedback on calibration and test performance over a 16-week undergraduate course. Path analyses revealed a significant influence of the intervention on class performance, calibration, and self-efficacy. The results suggest the appropriateness of integrating distributed metacognitive exercises in class content and the fundamental role of monitoring ability in performance-based course outcomes and self-efficacy.     

Mental toughness and transitions to high school and to undergraduate study

Mental toughness can be conceptualised as a set of attributes that allow people to deal effectively with challenges, stressors and pressure. Recent work has suggested that it may be a valuable construct to consider within educational settings. The current studies explored the associations between mental toughness and educational transitions. Study 1 examined the relationships between mental toughness and concerns about moving to a new school in 105 children aged 12–13 years of age. The results revealed significant relationships between several aspects of mental toughness, but particularly confidence in abilities, and children’s concerns. Study 2 examined the relationships between mental toughness and adjustment to university in 200 undergraduate students at various stages of their course. The results revealed a role for several aspects of mental toughness; commitment, control of life, control of emotion, confidence in abilities and interpersonal confidence. The results are discussed in terms of implications for educational practice. It is suggested that measures of mental toughness could be used to identify individuals who may benefit from additional support during transition to a new school or to university, and that future research should explore the potential benefits of mental toughness training.     

Conceptual change through vicarious learning in an authentic physics setting

Recent research on principles of best practice for designing effective multimedia instruction has rarely taken into account students’ alternative conceptions, which are known to strongly influence learning. The goal of this study was to determine how well students of quantum mechanics could learn ‘vicariously’ by watching a student-tutor dialogue based on alternative conceptions. Two video treatments were created to summarize key aspects of quantum tunneling, a fundamental quantum mechanical phenomenon. One video depicted a student-tutor dialogue, incorporating many of the common alternative conceptions on the topic, and resolving inconsistencies in reasoning through discussion. The other presented the same correct physics material in an expository style without alternative conceptions. Second year physics students were randomly assigned to one of the two treatments and were tested before and after watching the video during a lecture. Results show a statistically significant (p < .01) advantage for the learners in the dialogue treatment (d = 0.71). Follow-up interviews of students yielded insight into the affective and cognitive benefits of the dialogue video.     

Indian child welfare: A community team approach to protective services

The purpose of this study is threefold: first, to describe the characteristics of child abuse and neglect on a major Indian reservation; second, to examine the impact of a community team approach to child abuse and neglect as measured by the incidence of reported abuse and neglect and admissions for emergency foster care; and third, to make recommendations for actions to close the gaps in child welfare services to Indian children living on reservations.     

Depressed skull fractures: a pattern of abusive head injury in three older children

OBJECTIVE: To describe a pattern of abusive head injury in a series of children older than 4 years of age. METHODS: A hospital chart review of abused children with skull fractures from 1999 to 2001 was carried out. The clinical features, social background, and subsequent outcome and management are described. RESULTS: An 11-year-old girl and a pair of brothers of ages 7 and 9 were identified. The girl was attacked with a hammer during sleep by her stepmother, who committed suicide shortly afterwards. After craniotomy and intensive care, the child survived her multiple depressed fractures, intracranial bleeding, and brain contusion. Two brothers from a second family were attacked from behind with a hammer by their biological father, who was subsequently found to have undiagnosed schizophrenia. A depressed occipital fracture, without intracranial injury, was found in each child. The elder brother also had metacarpal fractures. Both children recovered without surgical intervention. CONCLUSION: A pattern of abusive head injury was described in older children with depressed skull fractures from blunt injury. The abusing parents were seriously mentally disturbed, and the abusive acts closely resembled child homicide.     

Envisioning Possibility: Schooling and Student Agency in Children’s and Young Adult Literature

This article provides a rationale for using literature in the classroom to explore conceptions of curriculum and teaching. We discuss a number of exemplars from children’s and young adult fiction, both mainstream and less well known; offer a taxonomy for categorizing the range of visions of curriculum and teaching in the literature; and describe the responses of a group of middle school students to a unit that examined schooling in literature. We argue that reading literature which addresses student experiences in school can help students make sense of those experiences and, more importantly, open their minds to ideas about teaching and schooling that they otherwise might never have considered.John Kornfeld is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Education at Sonoma State University. His research in curriculum, children’s literature, school/ university collaboration, and the politics of schooling has been published in such journals as Theory into Practice, Social Education, and Theory and Research in Social Education.Laurie Prothro is a school library consultant and children’s librarian in Sonoma County, California. She specializes in collection development and young adult literature. Her most recent publication with John Kornfeld, entitled “Comedy, Conflict, and Community: Home and Family in Harry Potter,” appears in Elizabeth Heilman’s Harry Potter’s World: Multidisciplinary Critical Perspectives.     

Intellectual Disability and Developmental Risk: Promoting Intervention to Improve Child and Family Well‐Being

Initial intervention processes for children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) largely focused on direct efforts to impact core cognitive and academic deficits associated with the diagnosis. Recent research on risk processes in families of children with ID, however, has influenced new developmental system approaches to early intervention. Recent risk and resilience processes are reviewed that connect stress, family process, and the high rates of behavioral problems in children with ID that have substantial influence on child and family outcomes. These models are linked to emerging evidence‐based intervention processes that focus on strategic parent skill training and mindfulness interventions that reduce parental stress and create indirect benefits for children's behavioral competencies. A family‐focused developmental systems approach (M. J. Guralnick, 2011) is emphasized.