Cortisol Reactivity to Social Stress as a Mediator of Early Adversity on Risk and Adaptive Outcomes

Children chronically exposed to stress early in life are at increased risk for maladaptive outcomes, though the physiological mechanisms driving these effects are unknown. Cortisol reactivity was tested as a mediator of the relation between prenatal substance exposure and/or early adversity on adaptive and maladaptive outcomes. Data were drawn from a prospective longitudinal study of prenatal substance exposure (N = 860). Cortisol reactivity was assessed at age 11. Among African Americans, prenatal substance exposure exerted an indirect effect through early adversity and cortisol reactivity to predict externalizing behavior, delinquency, and a positive student–teacher relationship at age 11. Decreased cortisol reactivity was related to maladaptive outcomes, and increased cortisol reactivity predicted better executive functioning and a more positive student–teacher relationship.     

VIOLENCE DIRECTED AGAINST TEACHERS: RESULTS FROM A NATIONAL SURVEY

Teachers in U.S. schools report high rates of victimization, yet previous studies focus on select types of victimization and student perpetrators, which may underestimate the extent of the problem. This national study was based on work conducted by the American Psychological Association Classroom Violence Directed Against Teachers Task Force and is one of the few national studies to examine violence directed at teachers. Participants included 2,998 kindergarten through 12^th‐grade (K‐12) teachers from 48 states who completed an anonymous web‐based survey assessing their experiences with victimization. Results revealed that 80% of teachers reported at least one victimization, and of these teachers, 94% reported being victimized by students. Nearly three‐fourths of all teachers experienced at least one harassment offense, more than half experienced property offenses, and 44% reported physical attacks. Findings suggest that specific teacher and community characteristics are associated with a higher likelihood of victimization, namely, male gender and urban settings; whereas, African American teachers were less likely to report victimization. Implications for teacher training, school interventions, public policy, and future research are discussed.     

Technology-enhanced learning and teaching in higher education: what is ‘enhanced’ and how do we know? A critical literature review

The term technology-enhanced learning (TEL) is used to describe the application of information and communication technologies to teaching and learning. Explicit statements about what the term is understood to mean are rare and it is not evident that a shared understanding has been developed in higher education of what constitutes an enhancement of the student learning experience. This article presents a critical review and assessment of how TEL is interpreted in recent literature. It examines the purpose of technology interventions, the approaches adopted to demonstrate the role of technology in enhancing the learning experience, differing ways in which enhancement is conceived and the use of various forms evidence to substantiate claims about TEL. Thematic analysis enabled categories to be developed and relationships explored between the aims of TEL interventions, the evidence presented, and the ways in which enhancement is conceived.     

Developmental trajectories of sensory patterns from infancy to school age in a community sample and associations with autistic traits

This prospective study examined the latent growth trajectories of sensory patterns among a North Carolina birth cohort (N = 1517; 49% boys, 87% White) across infancy (6–19 months), preschool (3–4 years), and school years (6–7 years). Change rates of sensory hyper- and hyporesponsiveness better differentiated children with an autism diagnosis or elevated autistic traits from those with other developmental conditions, including non-autistic children with sensory differences. More sensory hyper- and hyporesponsiveness at infancy followed by steeper increases differentially predicted more autistic traits at school age. Further, children of parents with higher education tended to show stable or improving trajectories. These findings highlight the importance of tracking sensory patterns from infancy for facilitating early identification of associated challenges and tailored support for families.     

Gender-Sexuality Alliance meeting experiences predict weekly variation in hope among LGBTQ+ youth

Hope is considered a marker of resilience among youth facing oppression, including LGBTQ+ youth. This 8-week weekly diary study among 94 LGBTQ+ youth (ages 14–19; M_age = 15.91, 46% youth of color, 44% transgender or nonbinary) in 2021 considered whether a youth's meeting-to-meeting experiences in Gender-Sexuality Alliances (GSAs; LGBTQ+ affirming school clubs) predicted subsequent hope from week to week. Youth reported greater hope on days following meetings where they felt more group support, greater advisor responsiveness, and had taken on more leadership responsibilities. Group support and advisor responsiveness were stronger predictors of a youth's hope on days closer to GSA meetings; leadership's effect was stronger when more days had elapsed. Findings suggest how GSAs may cultivate hope among LGBTQ+ youth.     

Unlocking education through relationship building: Identity and agency in English educational institutions during Covid-19

This paper reports on a longitudinal study in the North of England with 13 educators in schools, colleges and universities during two lockdowns. The project was designed to ‘unlock’ education by providing spaces to co-create new ways of thinking about education in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Focus groups were conducted with school and college teachers as well as university staff at the end of the first and second English lockdowns, in summer 2020 and spring 2021. An initial analysis identified issues with expectations and communication between educators and executive management as well as a lack of agency of educators, and how participants framed them as impacting on their identity as educators. Therefore, the framework of tactics of intersubjectivity was adopted to explore how educators discursively positioned themselves and others through constructions of similarity and difference, realness and power, and how their professional identities were affected by the experience of working through the pandemic and by those around them. Whilst educators took opportunities to authenticate their identity and reimagine education, their agency was undermined by top-down governing involving little successful communication, leading to denaturalising and illegitimising experiences for educators. Executive management were perceived as lacking engagement with staff and understanding of the implications of their decisions on them. The findings call for relationship building and recognition of educators' voice.     

Workplace learning as a spiritual practice

This paper reviews the literature on workplace and transformational learning to explore how spirituality can be accessed to encourage individual growth through the development of critical awareness while providing a sense of direction in the workplace as part of organisational learning. In communities and societies where organisations may have replaced religious institutions as centres for adult learning, the workplace continues to respond to the universal need for community and support. These elements are related to spiritual values. Still, leaders of organisations need to consider values that underlie typical workplace activities and recognise how collective engagement and workplace interactions direct personal development and ground identity. Providing opportunities to reflect on meaning and direction at work supports a transformative approach to learning and leadership that promotes cooperative working conditions, conscious behaviour and informed citizenship through encouraging attitudes of critical awareness, praxis and collective engagement in workplace interaction.     

Making Research Relevant in Preservice Early Childhood Teacher Education

Increasingly, researchers, teacher educators and governmental agencies underline the need for early childhood professionals to be able to conduct and use relevant research in their practice. In contrast, early childhood teachers tend to draw exclusively on practical advice rather than research evidence to evaluate and develop their teaching. To address these contradictions in expectations, recently developed preservice early childhood teacher education programs have included a core research subject that aims to foster an appreciation of the value of research and its contributions to professional practice. This study examines the effectiveness of teaching and learning approaches designed to make research relevant to undergraduates at an Australian regional university by tracking students' changing views about research during a one-semester teaching period. The findings of this study show that relevant learning experiences, such as designing and conducting a simple research project, modeling research, collaborative inquiry, focused reading, and organizing a research conference, significantly changed student perceptions of the relevance of research to their teaching and their future role as early childhood professionals.     

Making instruction and assessment responsive to diverse students' progress: group-administered dynamic assessment in teaching mathematics

This study entailed a 3 (instructional intervention) × 2 (assessment-type) between-subjects experimental design employing a pretest-intervention-posttest methodology. The instructional interventions were administered between subjects in three conditions: (a) dynamic instruction, (b) triarchic or theory of successful intelligence-control instruction, and (c) standard-control instruction. The assessment-type consisted between subjects of either (a) a group-administered dynamic posttest or (b) the same group-administered posttest interspersed with a control filler activity. Performance in different mathematics content areas taught in fourth grade was investigated. In total, 1,332 students and 63 classroom teachers in 24 schools across six school districts participated in the study. The results indicate the advantages of using dynamic instruction and assessment in regular classrooms while teaching mathematics, especially when the student body is highly ethnically diverse.