Exploring the Influence of Efficacy Beliefs and Homework Help in Predicting Reading Achievement Among Underserved Children in an Afterschool Program

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a local afterschool program in helping underserved elementary school students improve their reading achievement. The study followed a cohort of students with 28 participants who were low-income, ethnic minority children in the 1st–6th grades between the ages of 6 and 12. Data on students’ developmental assets and school progress were collected at two different time points. Overall, students showed increased perceptions of efficacy about having the ability and skills to do well on a task and getting good grades in school, as well as improvements in reading achievement over time. While changes in homework completion predicted changes in reading achievement, changes in efficacy beliefs and program exposure did not. Results suggest that teacher perceptions of homework completion may be an important pathway through which afterschool programs can help narrow the reading achievement gap experienced by ethnic minority students from disadvantaged backgrounds.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of Conflict and Delay Inhibitory Control in Toddlers and Preschoolers

Research Findings: A total of 81 children participated in a longitudinal investigation of inhibitory control (IC) from 2 to 4 years of age. Child IC was measured via maternal report and laboratory measures under conditions of conflict and delay. Performance on delay IC tasks at 3 years was related to performance on these same tasks at 2 and 4 years, but performance on conflict IC tasks was not related over time. Delay IC task performance was concurrently related to conflict IC task performance in 3- and 4-year-olds but was not related in 2-year-olds. Measures of IC varied in their associations with measures of verbal ability and maternal-report IC. Such findings highlight important similarities and distinctions between conflict and delay IC abilities in their relation to one another and to temperament and language over time. Practice or Policy: Studies of IC and related concepts reveal that children who are regulated enjoy school more and have higher school competence, particularly in mathematics and reading achievement. Because conflict IC and delay IC show unique patterns of development over time, educators can expect classroom behaviors drawing on the state-like conflict IC to show more fluctuation over time than those drawing on the trait-like delay IC.     

Personalizing and Contextualizing Multimedia Case Methods in University-based Teacher Education: An Important Modification for Promoting Technological Design in School Science

Results of various studies suggest that multimedia ‘case methods’ (activities associated with case documentaries) have many benefits in university-based teacher education contexts. They can, for example, help to ‘bridge the gap’ between perspectives and practices held by academic teacher educators and those held by student-teachers – who may adhere to perspectives and practices commonly supported in schools. On the other hand, some studies, along with theoretical arguments, suggest that there are limits to the effectiveness of multimedia case methods – because, for example, they can never fully represent realities of teaching and learning in schools. Furthermore, often missing from multimedia case methods is the student-teacher in the role of teacher. To address these concerns, we modified an existing multimedia case method by associating it with a special practice teaching situation in a school context. Qualitative data analyzed using constant comparative methods suggest that student-teachers engaged in this modified multimedia case method developed relatively deep commitments to encouraging students to conduct technology design projects – a non-traditional practice in school science. Factors that appeared to influence development of this motivation included student-teachers’ pre-instructional perspectives about science and the personalization and contextualization inherent to the modified multimedia case method.

ELDERCARE IN THE 1990s: CHALLENGES AND SUPPORTS FOR EDUCATING FAMILIES

The purpose of this article is to summarize the recent literature on caregiving in order to identify viable ways to educate families to care for elderly relatives in the home environment. The demands and stresses currently associated with providing home care to older members are discussed, followed by an overview of support services that represent promising and workable approaches in enhancing families’ home‐caregiving capacities. With few exceptions, this paper is based on caregiving research published in the past five years.     

USING LISTENING JOURNALS IN MATH METHODS

The purpose of this teacher action research was twofold: to learn more about preservice teachers' preconceived notions related to listening and to investigate how a listening journal assignment impacted preservice teachers' views of listening as an important aspect of discourse. The participants were enrolled in a mathematics methods course for PreK–3 (early childhood) majors during their last semester of coursework prior to student teaching. Data in the form of final reflections from participants' listening journals and researchers' field notes were analyzed. Findings suggest that the preservice teachers entered the course without truly considering listening as an important component of teaching methods related to facilitating classroom discourse. The listening journal assignment helped them begin to think more deeply about listening and the different definitions and modes of listening; however, at the end of the semester, many still wrote about their own personal journeys with listening and not about the role of listening as a key element in promoting classroom discourse and learning.     

Does Exposure to Code-Switching Influence Language Performance in Bilingual Children?

This study investigated whether the effect of exposure to code-switching on bilingual children's language performance varied depending on verbal working memory (WM). A large sample of school-aged Spanish–English bilingual children (N = 174, M_age = 7.78) was recruited, and children were administered language measures in English and Spanish. The frequency with which the children were exposed to code-switching was gathered through parent report. For children with high verbal WM, greater exposure to code-switching was associated with higher levels of language ability. In contrast, for children with lower verbal WM, greater exposure to code-switching was associated with lower levels of language ability. These findings indicate that children's cognitive processing capacity dictates whether exposure to code-switching facilitates or hinders language skills.     

An Examination of the Effects of Situational Constraints on Appraised Performance

Most workers are subject to factors in the work place that are beyond their power to control and that act to restrict their performances. Despite the uncontrollable nature of these ‘“situational constraints,” there is evidence that appraisals of work performance tend lo unfairly blame the worker for the shortfalls in performance that these constraints cause. The magnitude of this tendency may be unclear due to the ways in which constraints have been assessed in previous research. A lab study was conducted to obtain a better estimate of the magnitude of situational constraint “bias” using a relativistic rating method that factors out the influence of constraints from performance appraisals. The results indicated that this bias is considerably stronger than previous reports had indicated and may be the dominant source of unfairness in performance appraisals.