Encouraging and analyzing student questions in a large physics course: Meaningful patterns for instructors

In a large introductory physics course, structured weekly journals (weekly reports) regularly encouraged students to ask questions about the material. The resulting questions were collected for one quarter and coded based on difficulty and topic. Students also took several conceptual tests during the quarter. The reports contained more questions than typically observed in a college classroom, but the number of questions asked was not correlated to any measure of conceptual performance. Relationships among different types of questions and performance on these tests were explored. Deeper‐level questions that focus on concepts, coherence of knowledge, and limitations were related to the variance in student conceptual achievement. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 776–791, 2003     

Good practices for student learning: Mixed‐method evidence from the Wabash National Study

Kathleen M. Goodman, Marcia Baxter Magolda, Tricia A. Seifert, and Patricia M. King review both quantitative and qualitative data to understand students' college experiences and provide powerful information to guide educators.     

Investigative interviews of alleged sexual abuse victims with and without anatomical dolls

Verbal and nonverbal responses by alleged victims of child sexual abuse were coded for length, amount of information, and the manner in which they were elicited by the interviewer. In 16 of the interviews, anatomical dolls were employed for the purposes of demonstration, whereas they were not used in another eight cases matched with respect to other characteristics of the children and the alleged events. Children interviewed with dolls provided an equivalent number of details and spoke as many words in the substantive portion of the interview as did children interviewed without dolls, and interviewers in the two groups used similar probes to elicit information. However, the average responses by the children were significantly longer and more detailed when dolls were not used. Children gave longer and more detailed responses to open-ended invitations when dolls were not used. Caution is necessary when interpreting these findings.     

Ghosts as rhetorical devices in children's fiction

The relationship of past and present and the linking of characters through time and place are themes that underlie the work of many writers for children. This article considers the use of the Ghost as a literary device to allow the exploration of what is, what has been, and what might have been, particularly in the 1973 Carnegie Medal Winner,The Ghost of Thomas Kempe, by Penelope Lively.Judith Armstrong was brought up in Lancashire. She has travelled widely, and taught young children in England and Ethiopia. She is currently working on themes associated with the supernatural in children's books.     

Sustaining and retaining beginning special educators: It takes a village

The need to support and retain beginning teachers has become critical given: (1) the shortage of teachers in certain disciplines, and (2) the current emphasis on teacher qualifications and student achievement. In this study, five first year special education teachers in the southwestern section of the United States provided information on the persons and activities that supplied them with much needed and valued support. The results indicate that having a strong network of support and a variety of resources positively influenced these teachers’ ability to focus on student learning and on their intent to remain in their positions.     

The Effects of Political Violence on Palestinian Children's Behavior Problems: A Risk Accumulation Model

Interviews with 150 Palestinian mothers and their children living amidst the Intifada in the West Bank were conducted to assess exposure to political violence and family negativity as risk factors associated with behavioral problems as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist. The number of risks present in the child's life was significantly correlated with the number of behavioral problems the child exhibited ( R = .53, p < .001). The analysis further examined the role of gender, age, and community context in moderating the impact of high levels of accumulated risk on children's behavioral problems. Under conditions of high accumulated risk, boys evidenced more problems than girls, and younger children exhibited more problems than older children. Community context (as indicated by a high or low level of political violence) was a significant factor for girls but not for boys.     

Fetal heart rate and variability: stability and prediction to developmental outcomes in early childhood

Stability in cardiac indicators before birth and their utility in predicting variation in postnatal development were examined. Fetal heart rate and variability were measured longitudinally from 20 through 38 weeks gestation (n = 137) and again at age 2 (n = 79). Significant within-individual stability during the prenatal period and into childhood was demonstrated. Fetal heart rate variability at or after 28 weeks gestation and steeper developmental trajectories were significantly associated with mental and psychomotor development at 2 years (n = 82) and language ability at 2.5 years (n = 61). These data suggest that the foundations of individual differences in autonomic control originate during gestation and the developmental momentum of the fetal period continues after birth.     

Validity of the parenting inventory: Young children

The Parenting Inventory: Young Children (PI) is a rating scale that measures the developmental expectations and behaviors of parents of children who are between the ages of 1 and 4 years, 11 months. Using a representative urban sample of 1,056 mothers, the PI was found to discriminate successfully between parents with children of different ages and to have substantial item-construct correlations (content validity). The PI was not strongly related to the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory, a measure of parenting attitudes (discriminant validity). Reasons for this latter finding are discussed. Potential uses of the PI for practitioners working with parents in the schools are described.