Teaching and Learning with iPads, Ready or Not?

Within weeks of becoming available, the iPad reportedly sold over 3 million units, a brisker pace than other tablets in the personal computer realm. Much of the early success might be attributed to the almost 250,000 applications that could run on the device and a similar interface to the popular iPod Touch and iPhone. This article considers whether the sales spark that has ignited a hardware revolution (numerous device manufacturers have launched–e.g., HP, RIM, Samsung, Motorola, and HTC–or have plans to launch tablet devices over the next year) is being matched on the software front, with a particular focus on K-12 teaching and learning. Authors consider the potential affect both the iPad and its applications might have on teaching and learning in K-12 settings and whether these technologies allow educators and students to accomplish what they otherwise could not, from a teaching and learning perspective.     

Early life stress and behavior problems in early childhood: Investigating the contributions of child temperament and executive functions to resilience

This preregistered study examined whether child temperament and executive functions moderated the longitudinal association between early life stress (ELS) and behavior problems. In a Dutch population-based cohort (n = 2803), parents reported on multiple stressors (age 0–6 years), child temperament (age 5), and executive functions (age 4), and teachers rated child internalizing and externalizing problems (age 7). Results showed that greater ELS was related to higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems, with betas reflecting small effects. Lower surgency buffered the positive association of ELS with externalizing problems, while better shifting capacities weakened the positive association between ELS and internalizing problems. Other child characteristics did not act as moderators. Findings underscore the importance of examining multiple protective factors simultaneously.     

High-Quality Formative Writing Assessment for Middle School Students in Tier 2 Literacy Interventions

Increased expectations for writing performance have created a need for formative writing assessments that will help middle school teachers better understand adolescents’ grade-appropriate writing skills and monitor the progress of students with or at risk for writing disabilities. In this practice piece, we first explain research-based recommendations for high-quality writing prompts that are interesting to students, provide clear directions, and ensure accessibility and fairness. Then, we use lessons learned from working with adolescents in Tier 2 literacy intervention classes to demonstrate how teachers can apply the recommendations to identify or develop prompts that will encourage students to write responses. In addition, we explain how analytic rubrics may be used to evaluate responses as a means of informing instruction and further refining the prompts.     

Adaptability and Grit: Foundations for Their Joint Contribution to Students' Academic and Nonacademic Outcomes

Adaptability (adjustment to new and uncertain situations) and grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals) both sustain students, but their joint contribution has never been explored, and recent studies propose they could compose a single factor. In this study we aim to test whether (i) they actually belong to a single overarching factor as recently posited by the Triarchic Model of Grit and (ii) they have specific effects on different outcomes. We show that, in a sample of 602 students (11–18 years old), perseverance of effort, consistency of interests (the two facets of grit), and adaptability are distinct factors, that uniquely contribute to the outcomes considered (academic self-efficacy, achievement emotions, learning goals, self-regulated learning, achievement, and life satisfaction). Perseverance resulted as the strongest predictor, followed by adaptability and consistency. Conscientiousness was positively related to all three. We conclude that adaptability and grit are two separate but correlated factors that can promote a host of positive outcomes.     

Infants' Perception of Emotion From Body Movements

Adults recognize emotions conveyed by bodies with comparable accuracy to facial emotions. However, no prior study has explored infants' perception of body emotions. In Experiment 1, 6.5‐month‐olds (n = 32) preferred happy over neutral actions of actors with covered faces in upright but not inverted silent videos. In Experiment 2, infants (n = 32) matched happy and angry videos to corresponding vocalizations when the videos were upright but not when they were inverted. Experiment 3 (n = 16) demonstrated that infants' performance in Experiment 2 was not driven by information from the covered face and head. Thus, young infants are sensitive to emotions conveyed by bodies and match them to affective vocalizations, indicating sophisticated emotion processing capabilities early in life.     

Phonological awareness skills in young African American English speakers

The purpose of this study was to examine African American children’s performance on a phonological awareness task that included items reflecting differences between African American English (AAE) and mainstream American English. The relationship between spoken production of AAE forms and performance on phonological awareness, vocabulary, and letter-word recognition tasks was also investigated. Analyses indicated that children who produced fewer AAE features in speech performed significantly different from those who produced AAE features more frequently on the experimental phonological awareness task. Furthermore, analyses showed that the relationship between spoken AAE production and phonological awareness was partially mediated, while the relationship with letter-word recognition was fully mediated. Overall, the results suggest a direct relation between spoken AAE use and phonological awareness and an indirect relation with letter-word reading.     

Using a Table of Specifications to improve teacher-constructed traditional tests: an experimental design

We investigated if instruction on a Table of Specifications (TOS) would influence the quality of classroom test construction. Results should prove informative for educational researchers, teacher educators, and practising teachers interested in evidenced-based strategies that may improve assessment-related practices. Fifty-three college undergraduates were randomly assigned to an experimental (exposed to the TOS strategy) and a comparison condition (no specific strategy support) and given materials for an instructional unit to use to construct a classroom test. Results of a multivariate analysis of covariance suggested that students exposed to the TOS strategy constructed a test with higher test content evidence but not response process evidence scores. Furthermore, we found that treatment participants were able to accurately complete the TOS tool and choose items that reflected the subject matter specified in the TOS tool. However, they experienced difficulty selecting items at the cognitive level specified in the TOS tool.     

Concreteness Fading in Mathematics and Science Instruction: a Systematic Review

A longstanding debate concerns the use of concrete versus abstract instructional materials, particularly in domains such as mathematics and science. Although decades of research have focused on the advantages and disadvantages of concrete and abstract materials considered independently, we argue for an approach that moves beyond this dichotomy and combines their advantages. Specifically, we recommend beginning with concrete materials and then explicitly and gradually fading to the more abstract. Theoretical benefits of this “concreteness fading” technique for mathematics and science instruction include (1) helping learners interpret ambiguous or opaque abstract symbols in terms of well-understood concrete objects, (2) providing embodied perceptual and physical experiences that can ground abstract thinking, (3) enabling learners to build up a store of memorable images that can be used when abstract symbols lose meaning, and (4) guiding learners to strip away extraneous concrete properties and distill the generic, generalizable properties. In these ways, concreteness fading provides advantages that go beyond the sum of the benefits of concrete and abstract materials.