Caregiver-child interactions and the type A coronary-prone behavior pattern

Type A behavior, 1 of the risk factors for heart disease, is characterized by impatience and competitive achievement striving. An opposing type B pattern is characterized by patience and a lack of competitive achievement striving. Previous observations of mother-child interactions revealed that mothers gave type A and type B children different frequencies of pushing and positive task evaluation. To isolate the effects of type A and B children on caregivers, the present study examined the caregiver behavior of female strangers elicited by boys' type A and B behavior. In addition, it examined whether the child effects differed according to the caregivers' behavior pattern. Results indicated that, relative to type B children, type A children elicited more pushing and positive task evaluation from type B caregivers. However, type A caregivers did not respond to the differences in the children's behavior pattern. The caregiver behavior of type A's and type B's is discussed in light of previous experimental findings of their general responsiveness to variations in their environment.     

The effects of dialect awareness instruction on nonmainstream American English speakers

The achievement gaps between poor and more affluent students are persistent and chronic, as many students living in poverty are also members of more isolated communities where dialects such as African American English and Southern Vernacular English are often spoken. Non-mainstream dialect use is associated with weaker literacy achievement. The principal aims of the two experiments described in this paper were to examine whether second through fourth graders, who use home English in contexts where more formal school English is expected, can be taught to dialect shift between home and school English depending on context; and whether this leads to stronger writing and literacy outcomes. The results of two randomized controlled trials with students within classrooms randomly assigned to DAWS (Dialect Awareness, a program to explicitly teach dialect shifting), editing instruction, or a business as usual group revealed (1) that DAWS was more effective in promoting dialect shifting than instruction that did not explicitly contrast home and school English; and (2) that students in both studies who participated in DAWS were significantly more likely to use school English in contexts where it was expected on proximal and distal outcomes including narrative writing, morphosyntactic awareness, and reading comprehension. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Opportunities and Challenges of Implementing Instructional Games in Mathematics Classrooms: Examining the Quality of Teacher-Student Interactions During the Cover-up and Un-cover Games

This study explored the design and implementation of the Cover-up and Un-cover games, two manipulative-based fraction games, in 14 fifth-grade classrooms. We examined how the fraction concepts were integrated into the game design and explored the nature of teacher-student interactions during games using lesson videos. Our examination showed that interactions focused on game progress, rules, and turn taking with little exploration of strategies or the underlying mathematics. To compare the quality of teacher-student interactions during games with interaction quality during other instructional activities, we coded 5 videotaped lessons from each of the 14 classrooms. Statistical results from a dependent t test indicated that teacher-student interactions were of statistically significant lower quality during games than during non-game segments with similar instructional purpose. Teachers might benefit from additional curriculum support and training to implement games as rich mathematical learning opportunities.     

An eight‐year study of online lecture use in a medical gross anatomy and embryology course

Online lectures have been used in lieu of live lectures in our gross anatomy and embryology course for the past eight years. We examined patterns of online lecture use by our students and related that use to academic entry measures, gender and examination performance. Detailed access records identified by student were available from server logs. Total views per page of lecture material increased over the first six years, then decreased markedly between years seven and eight, possibly due to the recent availability of alternate forms of lecture audio. Lecture use peaked in midafternoon and again in the evening, although some use was seen at all hours. Usage was highest at midweek and lowest on Fridays as might be expected. Individual student's use varied widely from rates equivalent to less than one viewing/page to more than three viewings per page. Overall use by male students was greater than that of females and gender‐specific differences in the daily pattern were seen. Lecture use was correlated to the Medical College Admission Test® (MCAT®) Verbal Reasoning and Physical Sciences scores but not to composite MCAT scores or undergraduate grade point average. Overall use appeared to be driven by scheduled team‐based learning (TBL) sessions and major examinations. Specific subsets of lecture material were most often viewed before related TBL sessions and again during review for examinations. A small but significant correlation between lecture use and examination and course performance was seen, specifically in the male student population. These findings, along with earlier observations, suggest that varied use of online lectures is attributable to multiple factors. Anat Sci Educ © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

The relationship between language and reading in bilingual English-Arabic children

The connection between language and reading is well established across many languages studied to date. Little is known, however, about the role of language in reading in Arabic??a Semitic language characterized by diglossia??in which the oral and written varieties differ across language components. This study examined the relationship among multiple components of language, namely, phonology, morphology, and vocabulary and reading outcomes in 83 bilingual English-Arabic children. Results revealed associations between phonological awareness skills across English and Arabic. These associations did not hold for morphological awareness skills. Results also revealed that for Arabic and English, phonological awareness predicted word and pseudoword reading accuracy and vocabulary predicted reading comprehension. These findings are consistent with the tenets of the extended version of the Triangle Model of reading, which underscores the importance of multiple language components in predicting reading outcomes. Implications for future research, early intervention, and instruction with bilingual children are highlighted.     

Reading comprehension interventions for middle school students with learning disabilities: a synthesis of 30 years of research

The authors conducted a synthesis of studies of reading comprehension interventions for middle school students (Grades 6-8) identified with a learning disability. They identified 12 studies between 1979 and 2009 with treatment and comparison designs and 2 single-participant studies. Findings from the studies indicate large effect sizes for researcher-developed comprehension measures. Few studies (n = 4) reported standardized measures of reading comprehension, which indicated medium effect sizes. The majority of study treatments (n = 13) utilized strategy instruction related to main idea or summarization.     

Differential effects of three professional development models on teacher knowledge and student achievement in elementary science

To identify links among professional development, teacher knowledge, practice, and student achievement, researchers have called for study designs that allow causal inferences and that examine relationships among features of interventions and multiple outcomes. In a randomized experiment implemented in six states with over 270 elementary teachers and 7,000 students, this project compared three related but systematically varied teacher interventions—Teaching Cases, Looking at Student Work, and Metacognitive Analysis—along with no‐treatment controls. The three courses contained identical science content components, but differed in the ways they incorporated analysis of learner thinking and of teaching, making it possible to measure effects of these features on teacher and student outcomes. Interventions were delivered by staff developers trained to lead the teacher courses in their regions. Each course improved teachers' and students' scores on selected‐response science tests well beyond those of controls, and effects were maintained a year later. Student achievement also improved significantly for English language learners in both the study year and follow‐up, and treatment effects did not differ based on sex or race/ethnicity. However, only Teaching Cases and Looking at Student Work courses improved the accuracy and completeness of students' written justifications of test answers in the follow‐up, and only Teaching Cases had sustained effects on teachers' written justifications. Thus, the content component in common across the three courses had powerful effects on teachers' and students' ability to choose correct test answers, but their ability to explain why answers were correct only improved when the professional development incorporated analysis of student conceptual understandings and implications for instruction; metacognitive analysis of teachers' own learning did not improve student justifications either year. Findings suggest investing in professional development that integrates content learning with analysis of student learning and teaching rather than advanced content or teacher metacognition alone. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 333–362, 2012     

Parents' role in the academic motivation of students with gifts and talents

Parents play a key role in developing their children's academic motivation, and parents of children with gifts and talents also may face additional parenting challenges that are less commonly faced by parents of average‐ability learners whose needs are more readily met in the school setting. School psychologists may be charged with addressing these issues, despite having little or no training on the needs of families of high‐ability learners. We use the lens provided by the self‐determination theory of motivation to consider how social–environmental climates created by parents can promote or impede the academic motivation of students with gifts and talents. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Serious social media: On the use of social media for improving students' adjustment to college

A considerable body of research indicates that social support plays an integral role in determining students' successful adjustment to college. Unlike previous research that has evaluated face-to-face support interventions that occur during students' first semester at college, the current study reports on a student-centered social media site designed to enhance students' perceptions of social support prior to their arrival on campus. Results indicated that site usage increased students' perceptions that they would have a diverse social support network during their first semester at college, even when controlling for other potent predictors. The importance of social support perceptions for college adjustment is detailed and the ramifications of the social media intervention are discussed.