Computers and six PACs: An infused approach to computer literacy at the preservice level

One of the big questions in teacher education today is, “How does a college of education insure that its graduates are computer literate?” The addition of a microcomputer course in the preparatory program is the obvious answer; however, it may create programmatic and certificate complications. In order to address the concern for computer literacy and its accompanying complications, the elementary education preparatory program at Northern Illinois University reflects an infused curriculum approach. That is, courses were identified in each of the three professional semesters of the program in which self-paced courseware packets, called STUDY-PACs, were required.     

Investigating the Validity of a Locally Developed Critical Thinking Test

What can be done at the local school level to study the validity of measures of critical thinking? What information other than test scores should be analyzed? What validity can a test have for diagnosis, monitoring achievement, or curriculum reform?     

Lake Wobegon: Where All Teachers Are Competent (Or, Have We Come to Terms with the Problem of Incompetent Teachers?)

The major purpose of this study was to assess the presence of evaluation system components that assist principals in responding to incompetent teachers. According to Virginia principals, 5 per cent of the teachers in their schools were incompetent; however, only 2.65 per cent were documented formally as being incompetent. The typical principal with a staff of 100 teachers identifies 1.53 incompetent tenured teachers per year and remediates 0.68 teacher, encourages 0.37 teacher to resign or retire, reassigns 0.29 teacher, and recommends dismissal for 0.10 teacher. The four evaluation system components of remedial procedures, evaluation criteria, evaluator training, and organizational commitment were found to predict 69 per cent of the variance in the principals' effectiveness rating of their evaluation systems, but none of the evaluation system components were found to predict administrative responsiveness to incompetence. Such findings suggest that principals and school systems are avoiding a serious problem that undermines the education of millions of children, staff morale, and the publics perception of education.     

The relationship between sexual abuse during childhood and parenting outcomes: modeling direct and indirect pathways

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the association between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and parenting outcomes including parenting stress, feelings of competence and discipline strategies. Maternal depression and current partner violence were hypothesized to be mediators of the association between CSA and parenting. METHOD: This study is based on secondary data analysis of archived data. The participants were 263 primiparous mothers (107 with a history of CSA and 156 comparison mothers recruited from a prenatal clinic prior to the birth of their first child. Mothers were interviewed twice: once when they were between 28 and 32 weeks gestation and again when their child was between 2 and 4 years of age. During the first interview, women were asked about childhood experiences of sexual abuse. During their second interview, they were asked about current symptoms of pathology and experiences with partner violence and parenting beliefs and practices. RESULTS: Structural Equation Modeling indicated that the relationship between CSA and punitive discipline was mediated by maternal depression and current partner violence. CSA was associated with higher maternal depression and higher partner violence. CSA, maternal depression, and current partner violence were associated with more negative parental perceptions and higher punitive discipline. Once maternal depression and current partner violence were in the model, the relationship between CSA and parenting outcomes was no different from zero. CONCLUSION: These results highlight the risks associated with CSA for parenting outcomes and suggest two potential pathways for this increased risk.     

The Cognitive Predictors of Computational Skill with Whole versus Rational Numbers: An Exploratory Study

The purpose of the present study was to explore the 3rd-grade cognitive predictors of 5th-grade computational skill with rational numbers and how those are similar to and different from the cognitive predictors of whole-number computational skill. Students (n = 688) were assessed on incoming whole-number calculation skill, language, nonverbal reasoning, concept formation, processing speed, and working memory in the fall of 3rd grade. Students were followed longitudinally and assessed on calculation skill with whole numbers and with rational numbers in the spring of 5th grade. The unique predictors of skill with whole-number computation were incoming whole-number calculation skill, nonverbal reasoning, concept formation, and working memory (numerical executive control). In addition to these cognitive abilities, language emerged as a unique predictor of rational-number computational skill.     

The Impact of Neighborhood,Family, and Individual Risk Factors on Toddlers’ Disruptive Behavior

Disadvantaged neighborhoods confer risk for behavior problems in school‐aged children but their impact in toddlerhood is unknown. Relations between toddlers’ disruptive behavior and neighborhood disadvantage, family disadvantage, violence or conflict exposure, parent depressive symptoms, and parenting behavior were examined using multilevel, multigroup (girl–boy) models. Participants were 1,204 families (mean child age = 24.7 months). Unique associations between disruptive behavior and all risk factors were observed, but the effect of neighborhood disadvantage was negligible when all of the more proximal factors were accounted for. The results suggest both that children in disadvantaged neighborhoods are at greater risk of behavior problems than children in nondisadvantaged neighborhoods and that optimal prevention/intervention work with these children will attend to proximal risk factors.