Reframing conversations about teacher quality: school and district administrators’ perceptions of the validity,reliability, and justifiability of a new teacher evaluation system

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - In changing accountability contexts, policymakers are engaging in international dialogue and collaborative efforts with new opportunities to...     

Metaphors of hierarchy in mathematics education discourse: the narrow path

This paper adopts a rhetorical perspective in order to examine language about children in the discourse of mathematics education through a study of metaphor. Previous research has tended to emphasize the notion of ‘beliefs’, which locates responsibility for problematic conceptions of children within the heads of individuals, particularly practising and preservice teachers. Using the notion of metaphor, this paper examines several texts in US mathematics education, including conversations in an elementary classroom, a university mathematics methods classroom, mathematics textbooks, and standards documents. All of these texts draw on the metaphor of children’s learning as travel along a physical path, which supports talking and thinking about children in hierarchical ways. The dominance of this metaphor presents a new challenge for teacher educators concerned with equity: that of examining their own language and practices for hierarchical language.     

How do African American Mothers in a Rural Community Perceive Resources for Supporting Family Involvement in the Early Years?

Previous research focused on schools that serve low-income and minoritized communities has demonstrated that families often do not feel that their schools are receptive to family involvement. This interview study, which comes out of a long-term ethnographic project at a rural school that primarily served low-income, African American families, reports on the ways that mothers in this school felt welcomed by school staff during their children’s first three years of schooling (Prekindergarten to Grade 1). Many of the parents identified the rural context as contributing to their positive feelings about involvement with the school because the context supported long-term relationships with school staff, and the small school allowed parents to feel that both they and their children were known. Mothers reported that these characteristics supported their efforts to intervene on behalf of their children.     

The instinct fallacy: the metacognition of answering and revising during college exams

Students often gauge their performance before and after an exam, usually in the form of rough grade estimates or general feelings. Are these estimates accurate? Should they form the basis for decisions about study time, test-taking strategies, revisions, subject mastery, or even general competence? In two studies, undergraduates took a real multiple-choice exam, described their general beliefs and feelings, tracked their performance for each question, and noted any revisions or possible revisions. Beliefs formed after the exams were poor predictors of performance. In contrast, real-time metacognitive monitoring – measured by confidence ratings for each individual question – accurately predicted performance and were a much better decisional guide. Measuring metacognitive monitoring also allowed us to examine the process of revising an answer. Should a test-taker rely on their first choice or revise in the face of uncertainty? Experience seems to show that first instincts are correct. The decision-making literature calls this the first-instinct fallacy, based on extensive analysis of revisions, and recommends revising more. However, whereas revisions have been analyzed in great detail, previous studies did not analyze the efficacy of sticking with an original choice. We found that both revising and sticking resulted in significantly more correct than incorrect outcomes, with real-time metacognition predicting when each was most appropriate.     

Factors contributing to the retention of natural mentors among underrepresented students across the first year of college

The current study examined characteristics of natural mentoring relationships (NMRs; i.e. mentoring relationships that develop organically with adults in one’s pre-existing social network) among underrepresented college students as contributors to NMR retention across the first year of college. The sample consisted of 209 underrepresented college students (73% female; mean age = 18.1, SD = .35) who reported having a natural mentor during the first semester of college. Each participant could report up to five natural mentors and a total of 550 NMRs were reported. We found that more frequent contact and greater relational closeness with natural mentors during the Fall semester of mentees’ first year of college increased the likelihood that NMRs were retained through the Spring semester of the first year. These findings shed light on aspects of NMRs that may be most central to fostering their duration during difficult transitional spaces.     

In Memoriam

SEYMOUR MARTIN LIPSET On December 31, 2006, Seymour Martin Lipset, co-founder andeditor of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research,passed away at the age of 84 after a long and difficult illness.It is with deep sorrow and immense gratitude that we rememberour dearly departed friend, to whom     

Low Cost but Effective: Staff Development Activities in Community College Student Affairs

This study examines staff development practices in community college student affairs. Nineteen interviews were conducted with supervisors in a variety of departments at community colleges. We found that supervisors frequently used multiple practices such as conducting staff meetings, attending institutional training, or viewing topical webinars were frequently used by supervisors to provide professional development opportunities. We also highlight distinct approaches including the concept of active listening and after-hours activities. Finally, we explore implications for staff development in community colleges and identify potential future practices and improvements.     

Rational engagement buffers the effect of conservatism on one's reported relevance of the theory of evolution

Previous research has noted one's knowledge of and attitudes toward the theory of evolution is negatively predicted by one's political ideology, specifically how conservative the individual identifies, and positively predicted by one's level rational thinking. The present research expands on this past research by examining the roles of political conservatism and rational thinking in predicting one's reported relevance of evolutionary theory in a multi-study design. In Study 1, a sample of undergraduate college students (N = 198) completed a survey with measures of conservatism, rational and intuitive thinking styles, including both engagement and ability, and attitudes toward the relevance of evolutionary theory. A multiple mediator model revealed that conservatism was a negative predictor rational engagement, rational engagement was a positive predictor of relevance of evolution, and the indirect effect of conservatism on relevance of evolution through rational engagement was significant. In Study 2, a new sample of college students (N = 146) completed an experiment where rational engagement was manipulated. Conservatism negatively predicted relevance of evolution for individuals who were not primed to engage in rational thought and were below average in rational ability. Conversely, conservatism was not a significant predictor of relevance of evolution for individuals who were primed to engage in rational thought, and who had below average rational ability scores. These results suggest that when individuals are lower in rational ability, priming for rational engagement may be effective at buffering the effect of conservatism on one's reported relevance of evolution. Thus, examining additional procedures for increasing one's rational engagement may be useful for educators and researchers interested in reducing the effects of political ideology on one's knowledge of and attitudes toward evolution.