Immigrant Chinese Mothers’ Socialization of Achievement in Children: A Strategic Adaptation to the Host Society

Academic socialization by low‐income immigrant mothers from Mainland China was investigated in two studies. Immigrant Chinese mothers of first graders (n = 52; M_age = 38.69) in the United States (Study 1) and kindergartners (n = 86; M_age = 36.81) in Hong Kong (Study 2) tell stories that emphasized achieving the best grade through effort more than did African American (n = 39; M_age = 31.44) and native Hong Kong (n = 76; M_age = 36.64) mothers, respectively. The emphasis on achievement was associated with mothers' heightened discussion on discrimination (Study 1) and beliefs that education promotes upward mobility (Study 2), as well as children's expectations that a story protagonist would receive maternal criticism for being nonpersistent in learning (Study 2).     

Mentoring in black and white: the intricacies of cross‐cultural mentoring

Cross‐cultural mentoring relationships can be sites of struggle around the issues of race, class and gender. In addition, the mentor/protégé relationship offers micro‐cosmic insight into power relations within western society. The authors of this paper, a black woman associate professor and a white male professor, use the example of their mentoring relationship to illustrate six common issues facing academicians involved in these relationships: (1) trust between mentor and protégé; (2) acknowledged and unacknowledged racism; (3) visibility and risks pertinent to minority faculty; (4) power and paternalism; (5) benefits to mentor and protégé; and (6) the double‐edged sword of ‘otherness’ in the academy. Literature is used for review and critique of mentoring in the academy while offering personal examples to illustrate the complexity and success of a 13‐year mentoring relationship between a duo who began their association as teacher/student.     

Transformation for adults in an Internet‐based learning environment—is it necessary to be self‐directed?

This research explores the relationships between self‐directed learning readiness and transformative learning theory (TLT) reflected by the Constructivist Internet‐based Learning Environment Scale (CILES). A questionnaire survey about adult learner's perceptions of Internet‐based learning was administered to adults enrolled in classes in community colleges in Taiwan. A total of 593 valid questionnaires were used for the structural equation modeling analysis. The findings confirmed a second‐order hierarchical factor relationship of TLT (technical, dialectical and emancipatory learning interests) from CILES. Moreover, the three domains of learning interests of transformative learning were proved to have a developmental relationship, moderated by the readiness of self‐directed learning for adult learners in Internet‐based learning.     

Food safety in the classroom: Using the Delphi technique to evaluate researcher‐developed food safety curriculum aligned to state academic standards

High school students’ prevalence as food‐service industry employees and their lack of food safety knowledge make them prime candidates for food safety education. The researchers developed a food‐safety‐focused curriculum for high school students aligned with Indiana Academic Standards for Agriculture, Advanced Life Science: Food. The curriculum was designed to provide students with fundamental food safety concepts through experiential learning and incorporation of science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and mathematics (STEAM) activities in the context of different careers related to agriculture, especially in food science. This study uses the Delphi technique to evaluate the food safety curriculum, including the identification of barriers to incorporating the curriculum into classrooms. The Delphi technique uses an expert panel to generate consensus related to a topic. A panel of experts in the field of education evaluated the curriculum through three rounds of surveys containing questions related to six curriculum assessment topics. Experts rated the degree to which they agreed with statements about the curriculum using a 5‐point Likert scale and multiple‐choice questions. At the conclusion of the study, the cost to purchase materials for cooking labs was the only identified barrier to curriculum incorporation (62.5%). Experts agreed that the curriculum addressed academic standards (100%), was engaging for students (100.0%), was easy for teachers to use (89.5%), and successfully incorporated STEAM (100.0%), experiential learning (89.5%), and career‐education (78.9%). This study highlights the feasibility of providing food safety education to high school students in less traditional disciplines while promoting career development through the incorporation of experiential learning, STEAM, and career‐education components.     

Facilitating Intercultural Communication in Parent–Teacher Conferences: Lessons From Child Translators

In this article Abraham Lincoln is considered as an alternative to the usual type of patriot's hero. He reminds us of our great historical failings. He remains a figure of controversy, a national hero in only some corners of society. He is the heroic President who serves as the first compassionate defender of the downtrodden, and he is a hero in those subcultures as well. Lincoln's treatment in the movies is discussed, focusing particularly on the recent movie Lincoln. Lincoln is seen as a match for the usual movie hero. His famous immunity to casual treatment in popular culture is discussed as well.     

Understanding student evaluations of teaching in online learning

In this paper, we have developed a classification model for online learning environments that relates the Instructors Overall Performance (IOP) rating (according to students’ perceptions) with the course characteristics, students’ demographics and the effectiveness of the instructor in his/her teaching roles. To that end, a comprehensive Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) instrument is proposed, which includes not only conventional teaching elements, but also items that encourage twenty-first century skills. The goal of the study is twofold: (i) to quantify the extent to which the selected variables explain the IOP rating, and (ii) determine which teaching and non-teaching variables most affect the IOP rating. The best performing classifier achieved a competitive accuracy, highlighting that the selected variables mainly determine the IOP values. Other important findings include: (i) the IOP value is mainly influenced by the effectiveness of the instructor in his/her teaching roles; (ii) teaching strategies that involve the cooperation between the technical and pedagogical roles should be promoted; (iii) the pedagogical role has the highest impact on the final IOP value; and (iv) the most influential demographic variable is the student’s status (working commitments and family responsibilities).     

An introduction to the special issue on wisdom and moral education

ABSTRACT

This essay introduces the present special issue on wisdom and moral education, which draws on a conference held in Oxford in 2017. Some of the seven contributions (by Sanderse; Ferkany; and Hatchimonji et al.) make use of the Aristotelian concept of phronesis, or practical wisdom, while others focus more on the wisdom concept as it has developed in contemporary psychology (Huynh and Grossman; Ardelt; and Brocato, Hix and Jayawickreme). One (by Swartwood) straddles the distinction between the two. All the contributions, however, address in different ways practical questions about how wisdom can be evaluated and how it relates to issues of moral development and education.     

Teacher education students' reflections on how problem‐based learning has changed their mental models about teaching and learning

Abstract

Students develop robust mental models of teaching and learning during their school years, and as such, often teach as they were taught—possibly perpetuating practices that limit intellectual inquiry in classrooms. This paper reports on an analysis, using a conceptual framework and NUD?1ST software, of a cohort of 3rd‐year teacher education students' reflections on changes in their mental models following their experiences in a problem‐based learning (PBL) topic. Results provide evidence that students do report changing mental models in areas such as (a) the value of case studies for engaging with subject content, motivating learning, and connecting theory with practice; (b) self‐reflection and peer collaboration for cognitive and professional growth; and (c) processes of inquiry for developing self‐regulated learning practices.