Social-perspective coordination and gifted adolescents’ friendship quality

This research examined links among academic ability, social-perspective coordination, and friendship quality, within the context of gifted adolescents’ friendships. The sample consisted of 120 early adolescents (59 girls, 61 boys), 81 of whom were identified as gifted. Academic ability, sex, and grade significantly predicted social-perspective coordination (an indicator of psychosocial maturity) in multiple regression analyses. Social-perspective coordination, perceptions (self-concept) of ability to make and keep friends, academic ability, sex, and grade predicted perceptions of the overall quality of friendships. Being a female, seventh grader, or adolescent not identified as gifted, significantly predicted higher friendship quality. Social-perspective coordination and self-concept based on having a close friend predicted higher levels of friendship quality for the gifted participants.     

Meeting the Discipline-Culture Framework of Physics Knowledge: A Teaching Experience in Italian Secondary School

The paper deals with physics teaching/learning in high school. An investigation in three upper secondary school classes in Italy explored the reactions of students to a structuring lecture on optics within the discipline-culture (DC) framework that organises physics knowledge around four interrelated fundamental theories of light. The lecture presented optics as an unfolding conceptual discourse of physicists regarding the nature of light. Along with the knowledge constructed in a school course of a scientific lyceum, the students provided epistemological comments, displaying their perception of physics knowledge presented in the classroom. Students’ views and knowledge were investigated by questionnaires prior to and after the lecture and in special discussions held in each class. They revealed a variety of attitudes and views which allowed inferences about the potential of the DC framework in an educational context. The findings and interpretation indicate the positive and stimulating impact of the lecture and the way in which DC-based approach to knowledge organization makes physics at school cultural and attractive.     

Students’ Preference for Field Dependence‐Independence Teacher Characteristics

The study explored whether FI students would rank certain FI teachers’ characteristics as more important for success than would FD students. Similarly, it was examined whether FD students would rank certain FD teacher characteristics as more important for successful teaching than would FI students. The subjects consisted of 50 female teachers (25 FD and 25 FI) and their 844 5‐year‐old classroom children (422 females and 422 males) attending an all day early childhood program. The teachers and children were administered the appropriate form of the Embedded Figures Test to characterise them as more FD or FI. Students rated FDI teacher characteristics. A repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) for the students’ preference for the FDI teacher characteristics was found to be significant by the Wilks’ Lambda Critierion. Significant univariate F ratios are discussed. Significant interactions were found for: (1) the teachers’ cognitive style and sex (p<0.01); (2) the teachers’ cognitive style, sex, and the FDI teacher characteristics (p<0.001); (3) the teachers’ cognitive style and the FDI teacher characteristics (p<0.001).     

“On the Shoulders of Giants”: Exploring the Traditions of Early Childhood Education

Early Childhood educators, in their pursuit of the new—the innovative—too often overlook the traditions of the field. As a result, they often miss the ideologial and value basis of early childhood education programs. Only by building on the past, and understanding the past, can we come to understand the practices of the present and seek better ways of working with young children.     

‘Crossing’ the equals sign: insights into pre-service teachers’ understanding of linear equations

This paper reports on an exploratory study designed to determine and enhance the conceptual understanding of a group of pre-service mathematics teachers at one Irish university utilizing an established framework for understanding mathematics. 23 students on a one year Professional Diploma in Mathematics Education participated in the study, which involved the distribution of a pre- and post-test and engagement in a ten week intervention designed to enhance their subject matter knowledge (SMK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The findings highlight that although there was an improvement in overall conceptual understanding across the entire cohort at the end of the intervention, within certain mathematical topics there was a statistically insignificant improvement and many deep-rooted issues remain. In this paper we focus on the pre-service teachers’ understanding of elementary algebra, in particular, how to solve a linear equation.     

Challenging the Stereotypes of Mexican American Fathers

This critical review presents studies of Mexican American fathers in the United Sates to provide researchers with an understanding of contemporary fatherhood. It describes the myths that cause methodological and conceptual problems in interpreting the results of studies on Mexican American fathers. Several common challenges and limitations in those studies are identified and discussed, such as conflicting cultural perceptions, traditional and contemporary perceptions, and social stereotyping of the Mexican American fathers’ family roles. This review also provides guidelines for future research and practical applications on Mexican American fathers’ involvement in their children’s education. In doing this, it contributes to an emerging understanding of the complexity of Mexican American fathering.     

Leveraging the Librarian in a Nurse Residency Program

Hospitals are increasingly implementing Nurse Residency Programs (NRPs), but medical librarians are often left out of their institution’s respective programs. Librarians possess a unique, knowledge-based skill set that is a natural fit for the content and goals of a NRP and should be more frequently considered and used by such programs. This article identifies and explores several roles for librarians in NRPs and discusses the impact and results of including librarians.     

A study of writing mechanisms in Spanish primary education children / Estudio de los mecanismos de escritura en niños españoles de Educación Primaria

Several studies performed on deep orthography systems reveal variables that influence writing latencies that occur over the course of learning. In transparent orthographies such as Spanish there are very few studies on writing that measure latencies and duration. The aim of this present study was to take a more in-depth look at knowledge of the writing mechanisms used by Spanish children in primary education, by studying the errors, latencies and duration of the writing of words. To do this, sixty children performed a copying task and a dictation task with regular words of different frequency and length. The obtained results show changes in the writing mechanisms used by the children as they became more expert, as indicated by the greater effect of word length in the first years of primary. This word length effect is a more determining factor with regard to the number of letters in words than for the number of syllables. These results hold important implications for the teaching of writing in Spanish.