Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood

Behavioral aspects of self-regulation, including controlling and directing actions, paying attention, and remembering instructions, are critical for successful functioning in preschool and elementary school. In recent years, several direct assessments of these skills have appeared, but few studies provide complete psychometric data and many are not easy to administer. We developed a direct measure of children's behavioral regulation, the Head-to-Toes Task, and report performance of participants aged 36–78 months, including a group of Spanish-speaking children, from two different sites (N = 353; N = 92). We examined construct validity, examiner reliability, sources of variation, and associations between task scores and background characteristics. Results showed that the task was valid, reliable, and demonstrated variability in children's scores. A cross-classified hierarchical growth curve analysis indicated that girls, participants assessed in English, and higher-socioeconomic status (SES) children achieved slightly higher average scores than did boys, Spanish-speaking and lower-SES children, but effect sizes were small. Older participants achieved higher scores than did younger children, and there were no effects for site. Results suggest that the Head-to-Toes Task is an informative and easy-to-administer direct assessment of children's behavioral regulation. We discuss implications for its use in early childhood settings.     

Identifying Dysfunctional Education Ecologies: A DisCrit Analysis of Bias in the Classroom

In this critical theoretical conceptualization situated in Disability Critical Race Theory (Annamma, Connor, & Ferri, 2013), we identify the current education system as a series of dysfunctional education ecologies. We next analyze how dysfunctional education ecologies are maintained through implicit bias, consider how these biases may impact classroom interactions, and reframe bias as dysconscious racism (King, 1991). Finally, we explore how school personnel can use transformative praxis (Freire, 1970) to actively dismantle these dysfunctional education ecologies through a shift in both their epistemological and axiological commitments to develop functional ecologies of learning by enacting a DisCrit Classroom Ecology.     

Fluid balance and hydration assessment during the weight-stable preparation phase in elite youth boxers

This study investigated (i) the prevalence of hypohydration and (ii) association between urinary indices of hydration status and confounding factors (e.g., urine protein content, water intake) in elite youth boxers during their weight-stable phase before competition. Sixteen national champion boxers (all male, 17 ± 1 y) were measured on 3 occasions (baseline, day 3, day 10), 30-day prior to competition. Body mass, total body water, urine specific gravity (USG), osmolality (UOSM) and total protein content (TPC) were evaluated to determine hydration status and fluid balance. Overall macronutrient and water intake were assessed using dietary records. Both UOSM and USG increased from day 3 to day 10 by 16% and 0.4% (P < 0.001), despite athletes being in their weight-stability period, and regardless of ad libitum fluid intake. Hypohydration was universally prevalent among all athletes on both test days with USG: 1.027 ± 0.003 g · mL^?1 and UOSM: 1035 ± 108 mOsmol · kg^?1. An inverse association between mean UOSM values and mean water intake was observed (R = ?0.52, P = 0.04), while TPC was not associated with any urinary dehydration markers (USG, P = 0.51; UOSM, P = 0.61). The present outcomes find that the most prevalent urinary dehydration markers used to classify hydration status in competition exhibit large variability, even during weight-stable periods.     

Small scholar‐led scholarly journals: Can they survive and thrive in an open access future?

This article presents early results of a research project designed to further our understanding of how to ensure that small scholar‐led journals can survive and thrive in a global open access knowledge commons. This phase of the research focuses on generation of ideas through interviews and focus groups with 15 participants involved in producing small scholar‐led journals that either are or would like to become open access. Although a couple of journals reported that they could survive in an open access future based on existing resources, most were concerned about survival and none expressed confidence that they could thrive in an open‐access future. These journals are far more diverse than one might imagine. Comparing the costs of article production from one journal with another might not make sense. A number of avenues for further research are discussed.     

Expanding and enacting transformative meanings of equity,diversity and social justice in science education

Cultural Studies of Science Education - In this paper, we provide a conceptual critique of the various constructs often used to justify policies and/or research to promote equity, diversity and...     

Instructional practices in secondary science: How teachers achieve local and standards-based success

This article reports on analyses of the instructional practices of six middle- and high-school science teachers in the United States who participated in a research-practice partnership that aims to support reform science education goals at scale. All six teachers were well qualified, experienced, and locally successful—respected by students, parents, colleagues, and administrators—but they differed in their success in supporting students' three-dimensional learning. Our goal is to understand how the teachers' instructional practices contributed to their similarities in achieving local success and to differences in enabling students' learning, and to consider the implications of these findings for research-practice partnerships. Data sources included classroom videos supplemented by interviews with teachers and focus students and examples of student work. We also compared students' learning gains by teacher using pre–post assessments that elicited three-dimensional performances. Analyses of classroom videos showed how all six teachers achieved local success—they led effectively managed classrooms, covered the curriculum by teaching almost all unit activities, and assessed students' work in fair and efficient ways. There were important differences, however, in how teachers engaged students in science practices. Teachers in classrooms where students achieved lower learning gains followed a pattern of practice we describe as activity-based teaching, in which students completed investigations and hands-on activities with few opportunities for sensemaking discussions or three-dimensional science performances. Teachers whose students achieved higher learning gains combined the social stability characteristic of local classroom success with more demanding instructional practices associated with scientific sensemaking and cognitive apprenticeship. We conclude with a discussion of implications for research-practice partnerships, highlighting how partnerships need to support all teachers in achieving both local and standards-based success.     

Partnership,conflict and gaming

Government policy stresses partnership as a critical organizational form of the future to support the development of schooling. This article uses intergroup conflict and gaming theory to analyse data from one partnership. The views of young people and staff are explored to establish the nature and extent of conflict and its impact on the partnership. Gaming theory is used to investigate the engagement and expectations of organizations in the partnership. The article challenges Government rhetoric that suggests that as experience and trust grow, partnership will overcome the barriers which exist as a legacy from previous more competitive and isolationist cultures, to the benefit of service users. It further suggests that the availability of adequate resources alone, if ever achieved, would not in itself create the conditions for successful partnership. Far more attention is required to be given to the complex range of conditions which might support partnership and increase the possibility that the interests of learners would not be subordinated to those of organizations.     

A comparison of online versus traditional student end‐of‐course critiques in resident courses

This study outlines the intraclass differences between online and traditional student end‐of‐course critiques (EOCCs) only in the context of resident courses. Previous research into these differences appears limited to studies that compare entire classes rather than studies within any given class. Hypotheses are stated that the administration method has an effect on: how students will rate EOCCs, EOCC response rates, and, the detail level, favourability level and number of EOCC comments. In this field experiment, students in resident business courses at a large university comprised the sample. Individuals from within each class were randomly assigned either to a control group that completed a traditional paper‐based EOCC or to an experimental group that completed a similar EOCC online. Comments were coded with regard to the level of detail, favourability and total number of comments. Analysis of variance was used to compare the two groups with regard to ratings, comments and response rates. Online EOCCs had lower response rates, lower overall ratings, but more detailed comments. The methodology had no significant effect on the number or favourability level of comments.     

Are You Satisfied? PhD Education and Faculty Taste for Prestige: Limits of the Prestige Value System

This paper empirically evaluates Caplow and McGee??s (The academic marketplace, 1958) model of academia as a prestige value system (PVS) by testing several hypotheses about the relationship between prestige of faculty appointment and job satisfaction. Using logistic regression models to predict satisfaction with several job domains in a sample of more than 1,000 recent social science PhD graduates who hold tenure-track or tenured faculty positions, we find that the relationship between prestige of faculty appointment and job satisfaction is modified by PhD program prestige. Graduates of high prestige PhD programs value prestige more highly and graduates of low prestige programs value salary more highly. We explain our findings by incorporating reference group theory and a theory of taste formation into our model of the academic PVS, which identifies PhD programs as sites of socialization to different tastes for prestige (a process of cultural transmission) in addition to their well recognized role in transmission of human and social capital. We discuss practical and theoretical implications of our findings in relation to efforts to measure PhD program quality and to understand the structure of academic labor markets.