TPC Program Snapshots: Developing Curricula and Addressing Challenges

This article reports results from a survey of US technical and professional communication undergraduate programs concerning core concepts emphasized and most commonly taught procedures, skills, and tools. Snapshot views of current programs are derived from the results, and the developmental processes and directions of four new programs are described in more detail. The article concludes with challenges for programs to maintain humanistic concerns while also providing effective professional and technical preparation.     

Success at Scale: Outcomes of Community-Based Neurodevelopment Intervention (CASITA) for Children Ages 6–20 months With Risk of Delay in Lima,Peru

This study is a randomized controlled trial of a 12-week community-based group parenting intervention (“CASITA”) in Lima, Peru. CASITA improved neurodevelopment in a pilot study of 60 Peruvian children and subsequently scaled to 3,000 households throughout the district. The objective of this study was to assess intervention effectiveness when implemented at scale. A total of 347 children ages 6–20 months (52.7% male, 100% identified as “mestizo”) at risk for developmental difficulties were randomized to immediate or delayed CASITA. At 3 months after enrollment, the immediate arm showed significantly higher overall development, based on the Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire and Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scores (Cohen’s ds = .36 and .31, respectively). Programs demonstrably effective at scale could help address children’s development risks worldwide.     

Minoritized Professionals' Experiences in Counselor Education: A Review of Research

Findings from our review of research articles published between 2004 and 2019 indicated students and faculty in counselor education who identify as women; as people of color; or as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning face eight common types of adverse experiences. Implications for praxis and research are provided to support the profession's aim to diversify and embody inclusion.     

8种威胁孩子健康的宠物

That iguana in your son's bedroom isn't just a reptile.It's also a deadly-germ machine. 　　So says the American Academy of Pediatrics,which warns parents that many of the"easy"pets-the ones that don't shed,don't need to be walked,and don't throw up on the sofa-pose serious health threats to young children.And here I was so ready to convince my daughter that lizards are almost as cuddly as a Beverly Hills Chihuahua.……     

The special needs of teachers of special needs children

More and more, special needs children are entering early childhood education programs. But the integration of special needs children into the regular classroom — and their acceptance by their nonhandicapped peers — continues to be a concern of both parents and teachers. Many of the proposed benefits of mainstreaming are based upon opportunities for interactions between special needs children and their nonhandicapped peers. What we know about enhancing the quality of these interactions has definite implications for teachers. After examining the research on social relations and social skills training programs for special needs children, we will discuss these implications.Cary A. Buzzelli is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Birmingham, Alabama. Nancy File is a doctoral student in the Department of Child Development and Family Studies at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.     

An investigation of reading and language abilities of college freshmen

The purpose of this study was to compare a range of reading–related abilities in two groups of college freshmen with higher and lower reading comprehension abilities. Reading comprehension ability groups were formed using American College Test reading scores. The groups were compared on measures of oral language vocabulary and syntax, phonemic awareness and print decoding skills. Results indicated that abilities that appear to relate to reading comprehension include recognition of the order of phonemes in spoken syllables, recognition of words that are good semantic and syntactic fits for sentence frames, recall of meanings for spoken words and conversion of printed to spoken words.     

Personalizing context in teaching mathematical concepts: Teacher-managed and computer-assisted models

The present paper examines a strategy intended to facilitate mathematics learning by adapting the context of instructional material to students’ backgrounds and interests. In four validation studies, the strategy was implemented through teacher management, using college students learning statistical probability rules as subjects. Achievement and attitude outcomes consistently favored treatment groups who received the adaptive contexts over control groups. The culmination of this research is the development of a computer-assisted model to increase the strategy’s practicality and sensitivity to learner differences. The computer model uses stored information about each student to personalize explanations and story examples on a fractions unit.     

Effective literacy teaching behaviours

There is much current interest in the identification of effective programmes for raising literacy standards. However, the effectiveness of such programmes might vary greatly according to implementation integrity and the preferred teaching styles or behaviours of teachers. This research explored whether highly effective teachers of literacy used teaching behaviours that were independent of any specific programme, whether these were consistent between teachers and different literacy teaching contexts, and whether teacher perceptions corresponded with observations of their behaviour. Five teachers were selected on the basis of high pupil literacy attainment and expert nomination, and observed during shared reading and general literacy teaching contexts. These highly effective literacy teachers tended to utilise similar teaching behaviours, but they did not utilise all behaviours thought to be associated with pupil achievement. Additionally, they utilised effective behaviours more in shared reading sessions than in general literacy sessions. Thus even these highly effective literacy teachers had room for improvement. To some extent the teachers were actually using more complex behaviours than they reported perceiving. They did not appear to perceive their behavioural variation between contexts, nor any under‐use of other effective teaching behaviours. The implications for professional practice, professional development and future research are explored.     

Parent-child interaction therapy: application to maltreating parent-child dyads

OBJECTIVE: Parent-Child Interaction Training (PCIT), which uses a social learning framework, is a dyadic intervention that is designed to alter specific patterns of interaction found in parent-child relationships. Previous research suggests that maladaptive and high-risk characteristics found in maltreating parent-child dyads may be responsive to PCIT. The primary focus of this study is to examine the effectiveness of PCIT with maltreating parent-child dyads. METHODOLOGY: This study describes the effectiveness of PCIT with 136 biological parent-child dyads in which 66.9% (N=91) of the children had been maltreated. Of the 91 maltreated children, 64.8% (N=59) of the parents had maltreated their children, and were thus considered to be at high risk of repeating the abuse. RESULTS: Primary outcomes of this study show the following: (1) a decrease in child behavior problems, (2) a decrease in parental stress, and (3) a decrease in abuse risk from pre- to post-treatment for dyads with and without a history of maltreatment. CONCLUSIONS: Our results add to the body of research supporting PCIT as a promising intervention and as a means to aid both children and parents in high-risk families for maltreatment.