Factors Associated with Behavioral Competence at School Among Young Boys from Multi-Problem Low-Income Families

Factors associated with school behavioral competence at 72 months were investigated in a sample of at-risk boys followed longitudinally from 18 months. Boys were at risk for developing behavior problems due to early exposure to sociodemographic and family-environmental stressors associated with low-income urban living. Research findings: Of child protective factors investigated, main effects were found for intelligence, mother-reported emotionality and sociability, and observed likability in relation to teacher-reported behavior problems, and results were generally consistent across type of risk. In only one instance did the effect of a protective factor depend on the level of risk. Furthermore, a cumulative measure of protective factors was strongly predictive of child behavior problems and was a better predictor than cumulative risk measures. Observed infant emotionality, child physical attractiveness, and children's self-perceptions of being pro-social or aggressive and fearless were essentially unrelated to behavioral outcome. Mother-reported child emotionality mediated both the relation between mother-reported infant emotionality and teacher-reported internalizing problems, and the relation between observed likability and teacher-reported externalizing problems. Practice/Policy: Clinical implications concern improved identification accuracy of at-risk children who should be targeted for intervention, and forms that intervention should take.     

Using Panel Data to Identify the Effects of Institutional Characteristics,Cohort Characteristics,and Institutional Actions on Graduation Rates

Research in Higher Education - Institutional graduation rates occupy a prominent place in institutional research and public policy. Graduation rates are used in the College Scorecard, state...     

Lyotard’s pedagogies of affect in Les Immatériaux

Abstract

This paper explores the continuing relevance to education of ideas about art and resistance that Jean-François Lyotard signalled in his curated exhibition in 1985 at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris entitled Les Immatériaux. The exhibition was for Lyotard the ‘staging’ of a resistance at the dawning of an information age that challenged the prioritisation of computerised ‘data’ through the very deconstruction of data as presented in artistic form. While the implications of this event for art exhibitions are still being theorised and debated, it is the insight Les Immat?ériaux provides as pedagogical encounter that is the focus of this article. The paper explores the exhibition in the context of the immateriality of art and develops this argument towards a notion of artistic testimony that then culminates in an analysis for the pedagogical significance of the exhibition in the information drenched, highly networked context of contemporary education.     

Test-Based Learning: Inconsistent Effects Between Higher- and Lower-Level Test Questions

Providing test questions after an initial study phase is a common instructional technique. In theory, questions that require higher-level (deep) processing should be more beneficial than those that require lower-level (shallow) processing. However, empirical evidence on the matter is inconsistent. To shed light on two potential reasons for these inconsistencies, we conducted an experiment (N = 81) to analyze the role of (a) the share of information to which test questions direct learners and (b) the learning activities performed in the initial study phase with respect to the effects between higher- and lower-level test questions. We found that both the share of focused information and the initial learning activities moderated the effects between higher- and lower-level test questions.     

Teacher as Tragic Ironist

In this article Karl Hostetler portrays teachers as tragic ironists whose existence is prone to “playful disruptions of the soul,” when the meaning and value of ideas pertinent to teaching — including “teaching” itself — become puzzling, prompting a reassessment and reinvigoration of those ideas. In developing his concept of tragic irony, Hostetler draws particularly on Jonathan Lear's A Case for Irony and the Greek tragedies Oedipus Tyrannus and Medea. According to Lear, the aim of irony is “to inject a certain form of not‐knowing into polis life.” Relatedly, Hostetler observes, a frequent theme in classical Greek tragedy is the misery that can result from purporting to “know.” Tragedy and irony, he argues, can be particularly powerful and unsettling avenues for introducing uncertainty. He further contends that teachers as tragic ironists maintain a measure of uncertainty about their craft, not only recognizing that they do not know everything, but sometimes questioning whether they know anything. In a culture that tends to valorize certainty, Hostetler concludes, this is an essential attitude in the practice of and discourse about education.     

The role of community sports coaches in creating optimal social conditions for life skill development and transferability – a salutogenic perspective

Sport is widely recognised as having the potential to enhance the personal development of socially vulnerable youth, yet there is very limited knowledge on how community sports coaches can create optimal social conditions for life skill development and transferability. We adopt a salutogenic approach in order to study whether and how community sports coaches create these optimal social conditions. Based on the salutogenic framework, a thematic analysis was conducted of 15 in-depth interviews with community sports coaches providing sports lessons to socially vulnerable youth. As part of the interviews, the sports coaches were presented with several training scenarios and asked how they would respond in specific training situations. The results showed that the sports coaches aimed to create meaningful sporting experiences for youths. These meaningful sporting experiences were considered a precondition for keeping youths engaged in the sporting activities, as well as a precondition for life skill development. The sports coaches specifically focused on creating little moments of success and on making sure that the youths felt they belonged to a group. In order to ensure that the youths could experience moments of success, specific coaching strategies were implemented to increase the youths’ comprehensibility and manageability in specific sport situations. According to the sports coaches, experiencing little moments of success could contribute to an increase in socially vulnerable youths’ understanding of the everyday challenges that they face, as well as contribute to their ability to deal with these challenges. Creating meaningful sporting experiences may help youths ‘to learn to cope' – a skill that could be beneficial over their lifespan and in different societal domains.     

Pre-service teachers in an after school program: increasing understanding of students,communities, and teaching

The purpose of the After School Creative Expression Program (ASCEP) was to provide a short-term afterschool program focusing on the visual and written creative arts to a group of elementary school children attending a Title 1 school. Pre-service teachers attending a liberal arts university within the same geographic region developed lessons in writing and photography and served as afterschool educators for ASCEP. The program provided pre-service teachers a valuable experience outside the classroom. Findings demonstrate pre-service educators gained new insights from ASCEP that will impact their teaching practices during school. Overall, results show ASCEP provided future educators with valuable learning experiences and opportunities to connect more deeply with their students and their community.