Early Second Language Learning through SparkLing™: Scaling up a Language Intervention in Infant Education Centers

Infancy (0–3 years) represents a unique time for language learning. Previous research shows that infants' second language (L2) learning advances rapidly in early education centers, through a research‐based method and curriculum delivered by native‐speaking language tutors. Here we test the potential of this method for broad application, through an interactive online tool, SparkLing?, which trains and certifies language tutors to implement the program in infant education centers. Intervention infants (n = 168) from families of predominantly low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds in Madrid, Spain, experienced 18 or 36 weeks of L2 (English) exposure, through daily, 45‐min, group sessions led by SparkLing?‐trained tutors and were compared to a matched Current Practice Comparison (CPC) group of peers (n = 72). Intervention children outperformed the CPC group and showed rapid gains in English comprehension and production. SES was not a significant factor in learning. Infants' L2 skills advance quickly using this research‐to‐practice, scalable program for play‐based infant L2 instruction.     

Time and response matching with topographically different responses

Four pigeons were exposed to several nonindependent concurrent variable-interval schedules of reinforcement. One schedule component required a keypecking response; the other component required a treadlepressing response. The birds matched the ratio of their behavior (as measured by responses and time) between the two topographically different responses to the ratio of reinforcement in those two components. When additional foods not contingent on a keypeck or treadle-press were then added, the birds matched time spent in the components to total rates of food delivered in those components; response matching was somewhat disrupted. The matching law, developed under concurrent variable-interval schedules requiring similar responses, can thus account for choice behavior involving topographically different responses.     

Supplemental Fluency Intervention and Determinants of Reading Outcomes

This study replicates research on the efficacy of a repeated reading intervention with word-level instruction for students in Grades 2 and 3 with low to moderate fluency skills, examines differences between treatment implementers, and tests unique contributions of treatment-related variables on outcomes. Students from 13 schools were randomly assigned to dyads; dyads were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Schools were matched into treatment implementer groups (teachers or paraeducators) at study onset. Tutoring occurred during school hours for 15 weeks (M = 25.5 hr). Multilevel model results showed treatment students (n = 98) gained more than controls (n = 104) on measures of letter-sound knowledge (d = .41), fluency (d = .37–.38), and comprehension (d = .30–.31); students tutored by teachers gained more than their paraeducator-tutored peers on word reading and fluency. Finally, dyads tutored with greater fidelity gained more in word reading and fluency; dyads that read more complex words in their texts gained less on letter-sounds, fluency, and comprehension.     

Examination of the Psychometric Properties of the Knowledge of Aging for Social Work Quiz

Using graduate social work students' data (n = 481) in the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE) in the United States, the study examined psychometric properties of the Knowledge of Aging for Social Work Quiz (KASW), a revision of the Facts on Aging Quiz, to evaluate biopsychosocial knowledge relevant to social work. We examined the intercorrelations of the KASW with the academic and practice experience in aging and score differences by the specialization and school year, and estimated the internal consistencies as reliability. Results showed the convergent validity of the KASW, indicating the items measured theoretically related areas of content with students' skills and experiences in aging. The internal consistencies, nevertheless, remained relatively low, representing the items that failed to measure the expected constructs of biopsychosocial domains. The KASW will be further refined to more sensitively identify students' knowledge deficiencies by selecting an optimal panel of items in biopsychosocial content areas and by providing information relevant to the pedagogical agenda and guidance in field education.     

To perceive and to be perceived: challenges of ethnography in elite schools

Drawing on a larger study on “Gender practices and violence between peers: the stakes of mixed-sex education”, this paper examines the methodological challenges specific to carrying out ethnography in an elite high school. The researcher’s subjective experience in the field reveals the power dynamics at play in the elite setting. We also examine how interdisciplinary collective analysis of the observation journals unveils less-examined challenges to conceptualization in the research process. We call for the heuristic value when contradiction and subjectivity are acknowledged and implicated both in the field and data analysis, which leads us to articulate different social identities in the elite school environment.     

Pigeons see the Ponzo illusion

Three experiments were performed to address factors contributing to the Ponzo illusion. In Experiment 1, pigeons learned to peck at the longer of two bars in varying line contexts. When these lines converged, the birds had difficulty in learning several patterns in which a Ponzo illusion would reduce the perceived difference. In Experiment 2, the subjects chose one response if a stimulus bar was longer than a predetermined length and a second response for shorter bars. The subjects were more likely to choose “long” as the stimulus bar approached the apex of converging lines. These results suggested that pigeons experience the Ponzo illusion. In Experiment 3, the effects of contexts that did and did not form a texture gradient were compared. The magnitude of the illusion did not differ according to context lines. This result failed to support a perspective theory of the Ponzo illusion.     

Fostering Resilience: A Necessary Skill for Teacher Retention

The goal of this qualitative 2-year study was to examine the resilience building process in four novice secondary science teachers and its link to teacher retention. To achieve the research goal, a resilience framework was established. Three factors were instrumental in creating the framework. The first focused on stressors and protective factors in the lives of novice secondary science teachers and provided direction and goals for the research. Second, a case study was developed for each of the four teachers participating in the research in order to emphasize the detailed analysis of factors linked to resilience. Finally, cross-case analysis was employed to identify similarities and differences and provide insight into issues concerning the resilience process. Results of this study suggest that the interaction between stressors and protective factors acts as a primary force in the resilience process and stimulate responses to help counteract negative effects of resulting stress. Therefore, it can be reasoned that resilience can be fostered in novice teachers as a means to encourage teacher retention.     

Portfolio Assessment: More Than ABCs and 123s

Demands for educational accountability are being called for at all levels: preschool through graduate school. Standardized tests are being widely utilized, but this measurement is not appropriate for young children. Portfolio assessment is a more promising approach to measure children's growth, development, and achievement. This paper outlines criteria that portfolios must have in order to be effective assessment tools. Methods of gathering information and tips for portfolio development are shared and several examples of children's work samples are included     

Detectability and choice during visual search: joint effects of sequential priming and discriminability

Pigeons searched for symbolic targets among heterogeneous distractor items displayed on a video monitor. Phase 1 varied target identity and overall display size, thus establishing differential discriminabilities of three target symbols. Phase 2 varied the relative probability of these targets within sessions. The findings showed that reaction time was lower not only when targets were more discriminable, but also when they were relatively frequent; these effects did not depend on the discriminability of the less frequent targets. Phase 3 was similar in design but provided occasional choice trials on which two targets appeared. The birds were more likely to respond to the more frequent target on such trials only if it was also the most discriminable. The data are not consistent with certain predictions from Guilford and Dawkins’ (1987) reinterpretation of effects attributed to search images. The data indicate that detection and choice are modified jointly by priming-induced expectancies and stimulus-driven perceptual processes.     

Reinstatement of postresponse stimuli prior to reward in delayed-reward discrimination learning by pigeons

Delayed-reward learning in pigeons was examined using a simultaneous red-green visual discrimination task in which the conditions during the delay interval were varied between groups. The nondifferential group received training in which the stimulus present during the 1-min delay was the same following a peck on the correct and incorrect colors. The other three groups received 1-min delay training in which different stimuli occurred in the delay interval following correct and incorrect choices. The differential group received continuous, differential stimuli during the delay. The reinstatement group received the differential stimuli in the 10 sec immediately following the choice and during the last 10 sec of the delay. The reversedcue group was treated in the same way, except that the 10-sec delay stimulus immediately following an incorrect response was also presented for 10 sec prior to reward on correct choices, and the stimulus following a correct response also occurred 10 sec before nonreward on incorrect choices. Nondifferential birds failed to learn the discrimination, while differential and reinstatement birds learned it readily. The reversed-cue birds learned to choose the incorrect stimulus. Differential and reinstatement birds showed no decrement in performance when the delay was increased to 2 min. These findings suggest that similarity of prereward and postresponse delay stimuli controls choice responding in long-delay learning, a finding compatible with both memorial and conditioned reinforcement interpretations.