Child Temperament and Home-Based Parent Involvement at Kindergarten Entry: Evidence From a Low-Income,Urban Sample

Research Findings: Home-based involvement—defined as the actions parents take to promote children’s learning outside of school—is often the most efficient way for low-income parents to be involved with their children’s education. However, there is limited research examining the factors predicting home-based involvement at kindergarten entry for low-income families. This is a notable oversight given established links between parent involvement and children’s educational outcomes. To learn more about this gap, we used data from 220 low-income, urban students to examine associations between 4 dimensions of child temperament—negative reactivity, task persistence, withdrawal/shyness, and motor activity—and home-based parent involvement. Parent–child conflict was also examined as a mechanism explaining associations between dimensions of child temperament and parent involvement. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that a withdrawn/shy temperament in children predicted lower levels of home-based parent involvement, whereas a task-persistent temperament predicted higher levels of home-based parent involvement. Parent–child conflict partially mediated the relationship between task persistence and home-based parent involvement. Practice or Policy: Results expand understanding of home-based involvement at kindergarten entry in low-income families and illuminate the need to consider child temperament within the context of early intervention programs.     

Educational Neuroethics: A Contribution From Empirical Research

In recent years, educational neuroscience has begun to move into the limelight, suggesting an increased importance on the ethical considerations of educational neuroscience work, or educational neuroethics. In a departure from previous work on educational neuroethics, this article focuses on the ethical considerations that are applicable to empirical educational neuroscience research. Neuroethics concepts were compiled through a thorough survey of neuroethics articles. Then, 28 empirical educational neuroscience articles were analyzed through the lens of five categories of neuroethics concepts collected through the literature survey: the scientific enterprise, prediction, neuro‐manipulation, social considerations, and philosophical considerations. Three of the five categories (i.e., the nature of scientific investigation, prediction, and social considerations) applied to a subset of the articles. In addition, a fourth ethical issue not stemming from the neuroethics literature, referred to here as brain‐based justifications, emerged from the nature of educational neuroscience work. Limitations of this study and future directions for educational neuroethics research are discussed.     

Instructor Privacy Management in the Classroom: Exploring Instructors’ Ineffective Communication and Student Communication Satisfaction

The aim of this investigation was twofold: (a) drawing from communication privacy management theory, we wanted to examine the associations between instructors’ ineffective communication (i.e., inappropriate conversations, amount of disclosures) and student communication satisfaction; and (b) we wanted to determine if students’ positive perceptions of instructor nonverbal immediacy mediated the negative influences of instructors’ inappropriate conversations and amount of disclosures on student communication satisfaction. Overall, students reported lower levels of communication satisfaction when instructors engage in inappropriate conversations and frequent disclosures. Based on results, we also concluded that instructor nonverbal immediacy maintains students’ communication satisfaction even when instructors engage in inappropriate conversations or disclose too frequently.     

Teaching Castells [Review of the book Castells and the Media,by Philip N. Howard]

This study examines gender role and sexual content in television advertising messages, and the cognitive elaborations of adolescents processing these messages. Adolescents viewed and commented on television advertisements of beer and non-beer products in the contexts of sports and entertainment programming. Results found that a majority of the ads contained traditional gender role content. Fewer ads combined sexual with traditional gender role content. The adolescents' comments criticized female imagery, while their comments on male portrayals were relatively neutral. More than half the respondents challenged ad content, including product claims, realism, and production techniques, with females counterarguing more than males.     

Analyzing service-learning reflections through Fink's taxonomy

Reflection is an increasingly essential component of experience-based learning in higher education to encourage students to draw connections between theoretical and practical knowledge and experiences. This qualitative study examines the reflections of undergraduate students in a service-learning course for secondary English teacher candidates. The authors use Fink's taxonomy of significant learning as a lens through which to examine the learning within and critical natures of students’ reflections. Findings from this study suggest that to consider and extend students’ academic content knowledge and to move students toward new and critical understandings of their service work, reflections should direct students toward more explicit considerations of academic course content over a period of time. To help students write critical reflections that achieve both academic and personal growth learning goals, the authors recommend explicitly teaching the reflective mode, introducing students to Fink's taxonomy, and instructing students to include course content in their reflections.     

Special Education Advocacy in the Juvenile Justice System: Perspectives from Probation Officers

Although students with disabilities are over-represented in the juvenile justice system and frequently receive poor educational services, few studies have examined strategies to increase compliance with student needs and individualized education programs. In this study, we conducted interviews with eight probation officers in the Advocacy Unit of a juvenile justice system in a large Midwestern city. We examined the advocacy strategies used by the probation officers as well as the barriers they faced in ensuring court-involved youth received appropriate educational supports. Advocacy strategies included: documentation, collaboration with other stakeholders, and assertive but not aggressive communication. Probation officers also mentioned more creative advocacy strategies. Barriers to effective advocacy included: poor working relationships with schools, older age of youth, and obstacles to parent involvement. We discuss implications for research and practice.     

Middle-class parents’ educational work in an academically selective public high school

This article reports the findings of a study on the nature of parent–school engagement at an academically selective public high school in New South Wales, Australia. Such research is pertinent given recent policies of ‘choice’ and decentralization, making a study of local stakeholders timely. The research comprised a set of interviews with parents and teachers (n = 15), through which parents – all members of the school’s Parents’ and Citizens’ group – theorized and explained their involvement with the school, and teachers spoke about their views on this involvement. Results are organized around three themes: ‘how parents worked to nurture their children’s schooling’, ‘reasons behind parents’ involvement with the school’, and ‘communication and use of parental resources by the school’. Overall it was found that while parents were making significant efforts to involve themselves in the education of their children and with the school more broadly, the reasons for their involvement were not always consistent, but instead revealed a range of motivations for and conceptions of parents’ roles within schools, which at times were at odds with the teachers’. Through this, the study contributes to our understanding of middle-class parent engagement at an unusual and particular type of school.     

The Nature,Correlates, and Conditions of Parental Advocacy in Special Education

Although parents often advocate for the best educational services for their children with disabilities, few studies examine parents’ advocacy activities; identify parent-school relationship, parent, and student correlates of advocacy; or describe the conditions of advocacy. Responding to a national, web-based survey, 1087 parents of students with disabilities completed a 163-item questionnaire. A seven-item Special Education Rights and Advocacy Scale converged on a single factor. Higher levels of advocacy were found among parents who enacted their procedural safeguards, reported less satisfactory partnerships with schools, and were less satisfied with educational services. Parents engaging in the highest levels of advocacy described negative experiences, with schools refusing services, acting disingenuously, lacking trained personnel, and communicating poorly. Conversely (and with some exceptions), parents engaging in lesser amounts of advocacy reported positive experiences, were satisfied, and felt that their IEP teams were collaborative. High levels of parental advocacy may be a reaction to poor relationships with and behaviors by the school. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.     

Shining Light on Language for,in, and as Science Content

The work of science is a linguistic act. However, like history and philosophy of science, language has frequently been isolated from science content due to factors such as school departmentalization and narrow definitions of what it means to teach, know, and do science. This conceptual article seeks to recognize and recognize—to understand and yet rethink—science content in light of the vision of science expected by academic standards. Achieving that vision requires new perspectives in science teaching and teacher education that look into the role that science language expectations play in science content. These perspectives reposition attention to language from a hidden, overlooked, or outsourced aspect of science teaching, to one at its core. To help bring teachers and teacher educators into this integrative view of science content, this article offers a mirror, a prism, and a lens as three metaphorical tools to explore the essential roles that language plays for, in, and as science content. The reflection, refraction, and refocusing of science content reveal complex science language expectations that function alongside facts, figures, and formulas of science as gatekeeping mechanisms that, once noticed, cannot be ignored or marginalized in science teaching and science teacher education.