Models of Emotion Skills and Social Competence in the Head Start Classroom

Research Findings: Fostering the social competence of at-risk preschoolers would be facilitated by knowing which of children's emotion skills are most salient to social outcomes. We examined the emotion skills and social competence of 44 children enrolled in a Head Start program. Emotion skills were examined in terms of children's emotional lability and emotion regulation, whereas social competence was measured in terms of three aspects of preschoolers' social relationships: social skills, student–teacher relationships, and peer likeability. Although emotion regulation emerged as an important predictor for social skills and positive relationships with teachers, emotional lability was a significant predictor of student–teacher conflict and peer likeability. In fact, emotional lability mediated the relation between student–teacher conflict and peer likeability. Practice or Policy: The findings are discussed in terms of the complex associations between children's emotion skills and early social relationships.     

A framework for analyzing the collaborative construction of arguments and its interplay with agency

In this report, we offer a framework for analyzing the ways in which collaboration influences learners' building of mathematical arguments and thus promotes mathematical understanding. Building on a previous model used to analyze discursive practices of students engaged in mathematical problem solving, we introduce three types of collaboration and discuss their influence on the building of mathematical arguments and student agency. The framework is exemplified using data from a study of the development of mathematical reasoning in an urban sixth-grade informal after-school program.     

Making reasonable adjustments for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities: pre‐service teachers’ perceptions of an online support resource

The Equality Act called on British schools to ‘avoid as far as possible by reasonable means, the disadvantage which a disabled pupil experiences’. Teachers, therefore, must be creative and flexible in order to meet the needs and optimise the capabilities of all pupils. Using focus group interviews, this article explores the influence of an online resource on pre‐service teachers’ perceptions of making reasonable adjustments for children with special educational needs and disabilities. Pre‐service teachers appeared committed to making reasonable adjustments, with reports of the online resource being particularly influential on their planning and assessing progress. The influence of the resource was less significant on those pre‐service teachers with previous experience of making reasonable adjustments.     

Divided by Loyalty: The Debate Regarding Loyalty Provisions in the National Defense Education Act of 1958

The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 was the first federal investment in low‐interest student loans and became a precedent for expansion of student loans in the Higher Education Act of 1965. In its controversial loyalty provisions, the NDEA required loan recipients to affirm loyalty to the U.S. government. Between 1958 and 1962, thirty‐two colleges and universities refused to participate or withdrew from the NDEA loan program, arguing that the loyalty provisions unfairly targeted students and violated principles of free inquiry. This essay argues that debate over the loyalty provisions fractured a partnership between progressives who favored general aid to education and conservatives who supported short‐term investment for defense purposes. Although debates over the NDEA loyalty requirements seem specific to the Cold War, a close examination of the arguments illuminates their alignment with long‐standing ideological conflicts over legitimacy of federal aid to higher education.     

Where Arab social science and humanities scholars choose to publish: Falling in the predatory journals trap

The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study of publishing behaviour among a group of Arab scholars in social science and humanities disciplines. The paper also investigated the number of Arab scholars who are publishing in predatory journals and the reasons that drive them to select these journals to share their scholarly findings. The study adopted a mixed methods approach. Eighteen journals that were categorized as predatory journals were scanned to find the number of Arab scholars who published in them. Then, a questionnaire was sent to Egyptian and Saudi scholars as they were found to be the top Arab contributors in these journals. The questionnaire was followed by semi‐structured interviews to gain an in‐depth understanding of the publishing behaviour. The data showed that many Arab scholars prefer publishing in predatory journals as these journals are easier and faster. The results also indicate that there is a need to raise the awareness of the harm that predatory journals can cause to the scholars and how they can avoid these journals. This study was conducted with social science and humanities scholars in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The publishing behaviour may differ in other scholarly disciplines and other Arabic countries.