How do high school students structure an important life decision? A short-term longitudinal study of the college decision-making process

This study details the processes students use and the information they consider as they confront what is likely to be their first major life decision. Over the course of a year, 322 college-bound high school students participated in up to three survey sessions in which they described their thinking about college decisions. At each session, students rated the frequency with which they had consulted various sources of information or engaged in different decision-making activities. They also listed and rated the importance of the criteria they were using, and listed the schools they were actively considering. Responses were analyzed as a function of time of survey, level of parental education, academic ability, and gender. Throughout the year, students considered roughly the same number and type of criteria. There were expected shifts in the kinds of information sought and activities undertaken. Higher-ability students listed significantly more criteria and slightly (but nonsignificantly) more schools than did students of other ability levels, especially early in the process. A variety of gender differences emerged in the information sought and the criteria used to make this decision.     

Blended Perspectives: A Global Vision for High-Quality Early Childhood Education

What are the attributes of a high-quality early childhood education program worldwide? An group of experienced early childhood educators that represent diverse international backgrounds attempts to respond to this question by examining six dimensions of quality set forth by the Association for Childhood Education International: (1) philosophies and goals, (2) high-quality physical environments, (3) developmentally appropriate and effective pedagogy and curriculum, (4) attention to basic and special needs, (5) respect for families and communities, (6) professionally prepared teachers and staff, and (7) rigorous program evaluation. The article concludes with an annotated list of references, both in professional publications and online, that examine early childhood education from an international perspective.     

Following My Head and My Heart: Integrating Preschoolers' Empathy,Theory of Mind,and Moral Judgments

Associations among hypothetical, prototypic moral, and conventional judgments; theory of mind (ToM); empathy; and personal distress were examined in 108 socioeconomically diverse preschoolers (M_age = 42.94 months, SD = 1.42). Repeated measures analysis of covariance with empathy, false beliefs, and their interaction as covariates indicated that empathy was significantly associated with judgments of greater moral but not conventional transgression severity, particularly for psychological harm, and with deserved punishment for unfairness. False beliefs were associated with (combined) moral criterion judgments of rule and authority independence and inalterability. Empathy also was positively associated with criterion judgments but only for children low in ToM. Personal distress was unrelated to judgments. Results demonstrate the importance of both affective and cognitive processes in preschoolers' moral judgments.     

Temperamental Shyness and Anger/Frustration in Childhood: Normative Development,Individual Differences,and the Impacts of Maternal Intrusiveness and Frontal Electroencephalogram Asymmetry

This study used latent growth curve modeling to identify normative development and individual differences in the developmental patterns of shyness and anger/frustration across childhood. This study also examined the impacts of maternal intrusiveness and frontal electroencephalogram (EEG) asymmetry at age 4 on the developmental patterns of shyness and anger/frustration. 180 children (92 boys, 88 girls; M_age = 4.07 years at baseline; 75.6% White, 18.3% Black, 6.1% multiracial/other) participated in the study. Normative development included significant linear decreases in shyness and anger/frustration. Individual variation existed in the developmental patterns. Children with left frontal EEG asymmetry showed a faster decreasing pattern of shyness. Children who experienced higher maternal intrusiveness and had left frontal EEG asymmetry showed a slower decreasing pattern of anger/frustration.     

SIGNIFICANCE AND DIALOGUE IN LEARNING AND TEACHING

A bstract .  In this essay Andrew Metcalfe and Ann Game argue that although the term "dialogue" is commonly used in educational theory, its full significance is diluted if it is seen as a matter of exchange or negotiation of prior positions and identities. As a meeting point, they argue, dialogue suspends the senses of time, space, and ontology on which identities are based. It is therefore not simply metaphorical to say that dialogue changes lives and opens minds. Using empirical material from interviews with Australian students and teachers, Metcalfe and Game draw out the relational qualities of genuine dialogue and the significance they have for how we understand everyday classroom life.     

Adrenocortical Underpinnings of Children’s Psychological Reactivity to Interparental Conflict

This study examined interrelationships among children’s cortisol reactivity and their psychological reactivity to interparental conflict in a sample of 208 first graders (mean age = 6.6 years). Assessments of children’s psychological reactivity to conflict distinguished among their distress, hostile, and involvement responses across multiple methods (i.e., observation, questionnaire) and informants (i.e., observer, parent). Relative to other forms of conflict reactivity, children’s distress responses to interparental conflict were consistent, unique predictors of their elevated cortisol reactivity to interparental conflict even after inclusion of demographic factors as moderators and covariates. Moderator analyses further revealed that associations between distress and elevated cortisol levels in response to interparental conflict were particularly pronounced when children exhibited high levels of involvement in conflicts.     

Identifying and evaluating teachers’ knowledge in relation to child abuse and neglect: A qualitative study with Australian early childhood teachers

Child abuse and neglect are serious social problems that make extraordinary demands on teachers’ knowledge and professionalism. Yet the field of education has been slow to develop a discipline-specific knowledge base about child abuse and neglect for teachers and teacher education programmes and there is a paucity empirical research into teachers’ knowledge in relation to child abuse and neglect. This paper describes a qualitative study of eight purposively selected early childhood teachers. To identify and evaluate their child abuse and neglect knowledge, Grossman's [(1990). The making of a teacher: Teacher knowledge and teacher education. New York: Teachers College Press; (1995). Teachers’ knowledge. In L. W. Anderson (Ed.), International encyclopedia of teaching and teacher education (2nd ed., pp. 20–24). Tarrytown, NY: Pergamon] typology of teachers’ knowledge is used as an analytic framework on which to map the teachers’ interview data. Findings reveal that, in the absence of preservice and inservice education specifically about child abuse and neglect, early childhood teachers held and deployed knowledge in resourceful ways. They used, as a basis, their existing early childhood knowledge and adapted this knowledge by augmenting it with a range of personal and professional knowledge resources to fit their particular challenges and situations. This approach, however competent and innovative, also reveals shortfalls in knowledge. Implications of this research are drawn for child abuse and neglect curriculum development in initial and continuing teacher education including the case for specialist knowledge needed to establish teachers’ professional reputation for dealing capably with cases of child abuse and neglect.     

Moving on: The challenges for foreign language learning on transition from primary to secondary school

Europe's commitment to language learning has resulted in higher percentages of pupils studying foreign languages during primary education. In England, recent policy decisions to expand foreign language learning at primary level by 2010 create major implications for transition to secondary. This paper presents findings on transition issues from case studies of a DfES-funded project evaluating 19 local authority Pathfinders piloting the introduction of foreign language learning at primary level. Research on transition in other countries sets these findings in context. Finally, it investigates the challenges England faces for transition in the light of this expansion and discusses future implications.     

Verbal and spatial encoding of text

Two experiments were conducted which examined conjoint retention of spatial and verbal information in memory. The first experiment examined processing of text with simultaneous active dual coding. With spatial and verbal information from experiment one, the second experiment examined the effects of introducing dual coding prior to text processing and keyed recall to what was encoded prior to reading. Recall of both concrete features and events referring to these features was keyed to constructive encoding processes. Even minimal cueing produced better recall than no cues. Spatial primers produced not only better recall of features, but subjects who encoded spatial primers demonstrated increased ability to recall those primers. Results were interpretet in terms of dual coding theory for encoding and retrieval.