Rigidity in Gender‐Typed Behaviors in Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study of Ethnic Minority Children

A key prediction of cognitive theories of gender development concerns developmental trajectories in the relative strength or rigidity of gender typing. To examine these trajectories in early childhood, 229 children (African American, Mexican American, and Dominican American) were followed annually from age 3 to 5 years, and gender‐stereotypical appearance, dress‐up play, toy play, and sex segregation were examined. High gender‐typing was found across ethnic groups, and most behaviors increased in rigidity, especially from age 3 to 4 years. In addressing controversy surrounding the stability and structure of gender‐typing it was found that from year to year, most behaviors showed moderately stable individual differences. Behaviors were uncorrelated within age but showed more concordance in change across time, suggesting that aspects of gender‐typing are multidimensional, but still show coherence.     

Making departmental changes through action research,based on adult learning principles

Action research was used as a means of introducing adult learning principles into the teaching of an optometry department. The department took as an overall development theme the move from teacher-directed to leamer-directed activities. Pilot studies were used as a mechanism for trialling particular innovations. Lessons learnt from the pilot studies are shared with the remainder of the department for incorporation into other subjects, thus evolving a mechanism for departmental change. The paper shows how change occurred by reporting briefly two pilot studies as examples. The first used group project teams to prepare class presentations for specified topics. Some novel presentation methods were used by the student teams. Peer assessment was introduced into this subject in the second cycle of the pilot study as a result of feedback from the first cycle. The second pilot study introduced active learning methods in place of lectures.     

Too Much Feeling: S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders (1967), Conflicting Emotions,Identity, and Socialization

Children's Literature in Education - This article argues that emotions are utilized for norm breaking, identity formation, and socialization in S.E. Hinton’s YA novel The Outsiders...     

Associations Between School Readiness and Obesity‐ and Inflammation‐Related Biomarkers in Low‐Income Preschoolers Within the Healthy Kids Study

Previous research suggests obesity is negatively related to cognitive functioning and academic outcomes in addition to physical health. However, not much is known about this association in early childhood or potential physiological underpinnings. Biomarkers related to obesity have been associated with cognition, in particular the adipokine leptin, and pro‐inflammatory cytokines including interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), tumor necrosis factor‐alpha (TNF‐alpha) and C‐reactive protein (CRP). These associations may be further exacerbated for children who experience early life stress. With a sample of low‐income preschoolers, the current study examined associations between obesity‐related biomarkers and aspects of behavioral and cognitive school readiness. Partial correlations controlling for child age show hypothesized negative associations between pro‐inflammatory cytokines and school readiness, while leptin was positively associated with cognitive school readiness and body mass index (BMI) z‐score. Findings suggest connections between obesity, physiology, and school readiness need further examination, but may have implications for early childhood education and health interventions.     

Attitudes toward Family Obligations among American Adolescents with Asian, Latin American, and European Backgrounds

This study was designed to examine the attitudes toward family obligations among over 800 American tenth ( M age = 15.7 years) and twelfth ( M age = 17.7 years) grade students from Filipino, Chinese, Mexican, Central and South American, and European backgrounds. Asian and Latin American adolescents possessed stronger values and greater expectations regarding their duty to assist, respect, and support their families than their peers with European backgrounds. These differences tended to be large and were consistent across the youths' generation, gender, family composition, and socioeconomic background. Whereas an emphasis on family obligations tended to be associated with more positive family and peer relationships and academic motivation, adolescents who indicated the strongest endorsement of their obligations tended to receive school grades just as low as or even lower than those with the weakest endorsement. There was no evidence, however, that the ethnic variations in attitudes produced meaningful group differences in the adolescents' development. These findings suggest that even within a society that emphasizes adolescent autonomy and independence, youths from families with collectivistic traditions retain their parents' familistic values and that these values do not have a negative impact upon their development.     

Unpacking the paradox of Chinese science learners: insights from research into Asian Chinese school students’ attitudes towards learning science,science learning strategies,and scientific epistemological views

Chinese students’ excellent science performance in large-scale international comparisons contradicts the stereotype of the Chinese non-productive classroom learning environment and learners. Most of the existing explanations of this paradox are provided from the perspective of teaching and learning in a general sense, but little work can be found which systematically summarises the findings from the research on Chinese science learners and their science learning so as to explain the paradox. In this paper, a total of 25 empirical quantitative studies, whose sample sizes range from 132 to 8815, published between 1987 and 2014, are reviewed. Three aspects are explored: students’ science learning strategies, attitudes towards learning science and their scientific epistemological views. In addition to summarising the results reported in these studies, efforts are made to link them with the paradox of the Chinese learners, and to generate some hypotheses to resolve it. Finally, directions for further research are suggested.     

Teachers’ professional development: a theoretical review

Background and purpose:?The article reviews studies that focus on the professional development of teachers after they have completed their basic teacher training. Teacher professional development is defined as teachers’ learning: how they learn to learn and how they apply their knowledge in practice to support pupils’ learning. The research question addressed in the article is: How do experienced teachers learn?

Main argument:?The review is framed by theories within the constructivist paradigm. From this perspective, knowledge is perceived as the construction of meaning and understanding within social interaction. The social surroundings are seen as decisive for how the individual learns and develops. It is argued that courses and lectures, or ‘times for telling’, and teachers’ development of a metacognitive attitude are decisive factors for teachers’ learning within a constructivist frame of reference.

Sources of evidence and method:?To attempt to answer the research question, a search was conducted of the subject of pedagogy in the ISI WEB of Science (search undertaken 9 August 2011) using the search strings ‘teacher learning’, ‘teacher development’ and ‘teacher professional development’, and covering the period from 2009 to 2011 to probe the most recent decade of research. Articles that dealt with basic education, primary and secondary school, were selected, and articles that dealt with learning using digital tools and the internet and newly trained teachers were rejected. A set of 31 articles was selected from this search. To ensure width and depth of coverage, this was supplemented by a selection of review studies and research on further education in respect of teachers’ learning. The texts were analysed by means of open and axial coding, developing main and sub-categories.

Conclusions:?The review of articles shows that both individual and organisational factors impact teachers’ learning. Teacher co-operation has importance for how they develop, and some of the teachers can lead such learning activities themselves. Moreover, a positive school culture with a good atmosphere and understanding of teachers’ learning, in addition to co-operation with external resource persons, may impact the professional development of teachers. The article concludes with the reflection that learning in school is the best arena for further development of teachers.