Culturally and Linguistically Relevant Readalouds

The teacher readaloud is an instructional tool established in its ability to foster children's language and literacy development. Increasing cultural and linguistic diversity and changing standards place pressure on teachers to provide literacy and language instruction relevant to children's everyday lives and learning. This article presents a framework for conducting culturally and linguistically relevant readalouds within two essential components, talk and text, in terms of developing cultural competence, maintaining high academic expectations, and fostering a critical stance. Particular attention is given to the interactive nature of these readalouds and how they can be used to promote children's active co-construction of textually-based meaning.     

Factorial Invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale among Senior Women in the Nurses’ Health Study Cohort

The purpose of this study was to examine the factorial invariance of the Abbreviated Neighborhood Environment Walkability Scale (NEWS-A) across subgroups based on demographic, health-related, behavioral, and environmental characteristics among Nurses’ Health Study participants (N = 2,919; age M = 73.0, SD = 6.9 years) living in California, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. A series of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate increasingly restrictive hypotheses of factorial invariance. Factorial invariance was supported across age, walking limitations, and neighborhood walking. Only partial scalar invariance was supported across state residence and neighborhood population density. This evidence provides support for using the NEWS-A with older women of different ages, who have different degrees of walking limitations, and who engage in different amounts of neighborhood walking. Partial scalar invariance suggests that researchers should be cautious when using the NEWS-A to compare older adults living in different states and neighborhoods with different levels of population density.     

Interaction between Reading Test Results and Elementary Reading Programs 1

Hansen, M. 1979. Interaction between Reading Test Results and Elementary Reading Programs. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 23, 79‐89. All Pupils in grades 2‐4 in suburban Lyngby‐Taarbæk north of Copenhagen are tested each year with silent reading tests. In the school years 1975‐77 the results have been analyzed in a systematic dialogue between teachers of the mother tongue and reading specialists. This interaction seems to be a potent mechanism for change in educational planning. The individual class ‐ as the educational unit with common developmental conditions ‐ is given most weight in the analysis. The teacher's awareness of the reading development in the class is raised,’and the focus on individual children is related to the specific class. The general reading progress in Lyngby‐Taarbæk has been raised, and the number of pupils with severe reading problems has been reduced after some years of an unsatisfactory gradual lowering of general reading proficiency in the first school years. Results are used exclusively for internal evaluation.

     

Infant vocalizing and phenotypic outcomes in autism: Evidence from the first 2 years

Infant vocalizations are early-emerging communicative markers shown to be atypical in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but few longitudinal, prospective studies exist. In this study, 23,850 infant vocalizations from infants at low (LR)- and high (HR)-risk for ASD (HR-ASD = 23, female = 3; HR-Neg = 35, female = 13; LR = 32, female = 10; 80% White; collected from 2007 to 2017 near Philadelphia) were analyzed at 6, 12, and 24 months. At 12 months, HR-ASD infants produced fewer vocalizations than HR-Neg infants. From 6 to 24 months, HR-Neg infants demonstrated steeper vocalization growth compared to HR-ASD and LR infants. Finally, among HR infants, vocalizing at 12 months was associated with language, social phenotype, and diagnosis at age 2. Infant vocalizing is an objective behavioral marker that could facilitate earlier detection of ASD.     

When friendships surpass parental relationships as predictors of long-term outcomes: Adolescent relationship qualities and adult psychosocial functioning

Perceptions of adolescent–parent and adolescent–peer relationship qualities, and adolescents’ attachment states of mind were examined as predictors of adult social and romantic relationship quality, depressive symptoms, and work performance. Adolescents (86 male, 98 female; 58% White, 29% African American, 8% mixed race/ethnicity, 5% other groups) were followed from age 13 to 24 via observational, self-, parent-, and close friend-reports. Adolescent close friendship quality was a significantly better predictor of adult peer and romantic outcomes, work performance, and depressive symptoms than parental reports of the parent–teen relationship; attachment security was also a strong predictor of numerous outcomes. Results are interpreted as reflecting the difficulty for parents judging parent–teen relationship quality and as reflecting the growing importance of close friendships during this period.     

Agricultural and science education: a socio-analysis of their intersection and positions within the educational field

It can be argued that agricultural science is one of the original forms of science education. However, over the past century, agricultural science education has habitually been perceived as an educational venue meant solely for production agriculturalists. When examining modern agricultural education we find it to be a minority within the broader field of science education, contradicting its historically stout scientific standing within the sciences. This educational shift leaves one to ponder the historic development of contemporary agricultural education. To gain deeper insight into these questions we reviewed the historical evolution of agricultural education within the United States. We then examined the professional habitus, or cultural nuances, associated with contemporary agricultural education. Next, we considered potential outcomes associated with the profession embracing post-modern perspectives within mainstream science and community-based education. Finally, we call for critical venues within agriculture education to question the status quo and challenge the acceptance of commonly held views.     

Ethnicity and gender gaps in early childhood

Gender differences in academic performance and achievement have been of policy concern for decades—both interest in lower performance by girls in the areas of mathematics and science and, more recently, in boys' underperformance in most other academic areas. Much previous research has focused on gender gaps, while overlooking other factors that may play a role, such as ethnicity. This study looks at the gender differences in cognitive assessments at age five across ethnic groups in a sample of English children from the Millennium Cohort Study. While girls generally perform better than boys, general trends mask some differences across ethnic groups. Results show gender gaps at the mean are largest for black and Pakistani and Bangladeshi children and smallest for white children, they are also larger for the teacher‐rated assessments than for the survey‐administered tests.