Prosocial and Aggressive Behavior: A Longitudinal Study

Developmental theorists have made strong claims about the fundamental prosocial or aggressive nature of the human infant. However, only rarely have prosocial behavior and aggression been studied together in the same sample. We charted the parallel development of both behaviors from infancy to childhood in a British community sample, using a two-construct, multimethod longitudinal design. Data were drawn from the Cardiff Child Development Study (CCDS), a prospective longitudinal study of a volunteer sample of parents and their firstborn children. A sample of 332 mothers was recruited from National Health Service (NHS) prenatal clinics and general practice clinics in Wales, UK, between Fall of 2005 and Summer of 2007. Potential participants represented the full range of sociodemographic classifications of neighborhoods. Participating families were divided about equally between middle- and working-class families, were somewhat more likely to have sons than daughters, and the majority (90%) were in a stable partnership. In response to standard categories recommended for use in Wales at the time, the majority (93%) of mothers reported themselves as Welsh, Scottish, English, or Irish; most others named a European or South Asian nationality. Of the 332 families agreeing to participate, 321 mothers (M_age = 28 years) and 285 partners (M_age = 31 years) were interviewed during the pregnancy and 321 of the families contributed data at least once after the child's birth. After an initial home visit at 6 months, data collection occurred in four additional waves of testing when children's mean ages were approximately 1, 1.5, 2.5, and 7 years. Data collection alternated between family homes and Cardiff University. Of those families seen after the child's birth, 89% were assessed at the final wave of testing. Data collection ended in 2015. Methods included direct observation, experimental tasks, and collection of reports from mothers, fathers, other relatives or family friends, and classroom teachers. Interactions with a familiar peer were observed at 1.5 years. Interactions with unfamiliar peers took place during experimental birthday parties at 1 and 2.5 years. At 7 years, parents were interviewed, parents and teachers completed questionnaires, and the children engaged in cognitive and social decision-making tasks. Based on reports from parents and other informants who knew the children well, individual differences in both prosocial behavior and aggression were evident in children. Both types of behavior showed stability across the second and third years. The association between prosocial behavior and aggression changed over time: at 1.5 years, they were not significantly related (the association approached zero), but they became negatively correlated by 3 years. Different patterns were seen when children played with familiar versus unfamiliar peers. At 1.5 years, when children were observed at home with a familiar peer, prosocial behavior and aggression were unrelated, thus showing a pattern of results like that seen in the analysis of informants' reports. However, a different pattern emerged during the experimental birthday parties with unfamiliar peers: prosocial behavior and aggression were positively correlated at both 1 and 2.5 years, contributing to a general sociability factor at both ages. Gender differences in prosocial behavior were evident in informants' reports and were also evident at the 1-year (though not the 2.5-year) birthday parties. In contrast, gender differences in both prosocial behavior and aggression were evident by 7 years, both in children's aggressive decision-making and in their parents' and teachers' reports of children's aggressive behavior at home and school. By age 7, children's aggressive decision-making and behavior were inversely associated with their verbal skills, working memory, and emotional understanding. Some children had developed aggressive behavioral problems and callous-unemotional traits. A few (12%) met diagnostic criteria for conduct disorder or oppositional-defiant disorders, which had been predicted by early angry aggressiveness and lack of empathy for other people. Taken together, the findings revealed a gradual disaggregation of two ways in which children interact with other people. Individual differences in both prosocial behavior and aggression revealed continuity over time, with gender differences emerging first in prosocial behavior, then in aggression. Restrictions in the participant sample and the catchment area (e.g., all were first-time parents; all were drawn from a single region in the United Kingdom) mean that it is not possible to generalize findings broadly. It will be important to expand the study of prosocial behavior and aggression in other family and environmental contexts in future work. Learning more about early appearing individual differences in children's approaches to the social world may be useful for both educational and clinical practice.     

Problem-solving in a case-based course: Strategies for facilitating coached expertise

This paper proposes the use of specific coaching strategies to facilitate student use of expert-like problem-solving strategies while analyzing and solving instructional design case studies. Findings from an exploratory study, designed to examine changes in students' problem-solving skills as they analyzed case studies, suggested that students could show expert characteristics at times, under some circumstances, but did not perform like experts on a regular basis. At two midwestern universities, 37 students analyzed 6 to 10 case studies both in class and in on-line discussions. Comparisons were made both within and across students, as well as across time, to examine patterns and changes in student problem-solving approaches. Findings suggested that primary influences on the incidence of expert performance were more external than internal and might be more aptly characterized as “coached expertise”. Specific suggestions are included for coaching the development of student problem-solving skills within a case-based course.     

Supporting Teachers' Professional Learning by Navigating Openings in the Curriculum

Researchers agree that achieving thefundamental changes called for by currentreforms in mathematics education requires newlearning on the part of teachers. Currently,across the United States there exists atremendous variety of teacher-enhancementprojects representing a range of perspectivesand approaches to supporting teachers'learning. This paper presents a comparativeanalysis of three teacher educators using acurriculum designed for use with elementaryteachers in an inquiry-group setting. The aimof the study was to examine the process anddemands of supporting teachers' learning andteachers' efforts to reform their practices. Analyses revealed that the central demand ofsupporting teachers' learning through inquiryinvolved navigating through what we have calledopenings in the curriculum. Theseopenings took the form of unanticipatedquestions, challenges, observations, or actionsby participating teachers that requiredfacilitators to make on-the-spot judgmentsabout how to guide the discourse. Examinationsof the facilitators' processes of navigatingthese openings revealed a set of threeactivities they employed in determining how torespond. Analysis of the activities offacilitators in response to openings furtherilluminates the work involved in supportingteachers' learning and has implications for theskills needed by teacher educators engaged inthis work.     

Health sciences librarians' research on medical students' use of information for their studies at the medical school, University of Queensland, Australia

This study reports the findings of research undertaken by health sciences librarians at the University of Queensland Library into how medical students use information for their studies, particularly resources and services provided by the Library. The methods utilized were an online survey and focus groups. Results indicated that students favor print resources over electronic, value accessing resources on a one-stop basis, and prefer training to be delivered flexibly. The implication of these results for future resource selection, service provision, and instructional design and delivery is discussed.     

Developing a Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS): Measuring Undergraduates�� Evaluation of Scientific Information and Arguments

Life sciences faculty agree that developing scientific literacy is an integral part of undergraduate education and report that they teach these skills. However, few measures of scientific literacy are available to assess students’ proficiency in using scientific literacy skills to solve scenarios in and beyond the undergraduate biology classroom. In this paper, we describe the development, validation, and testing of the Test of Scientific Literacy Skills (TOSLS) in five general education biology classes at three undergraduate institutions. The test measures skills related to major aspects of scientific literacy: recognizing and analyzing the use of methods of inquiry that lead to scientific knowledge and the ability to organize, analyze, and interpret quantitative data and scientific information. Measures of validity included correspondence between items and scientific literacy goals of the National Research Council and Project 2061, findings from a survey of biology faculty, expert biology educator reviews, student interviews, and statistical analyses. Classroom testing contexts varied both in terms of student demographics and pedagogical approaches. We propose that biology instructors can use the TOSLS to evaluate their students’ proficiencies in using scientific literacy skills and to document the impacts of curricular reform on students’ scientific literacy.     

Not Mechanics but Meaning: Error in Tertiary Students' Writing

This paper draws upon an extended report to the now‐defunct Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission which analyses the errors found in over 300,000 words of writing in a British History course, produced by two groups of first year students in 1974 and 1984. There were no statistically significant differences between the two year groups. More interestingly and importantly, the results of the study indicate that the most statistically significant elements in error‐prone writing are those concerned not so much with the formal mechanics of writing but with the constitution of meaning. We interpret these results to suggest strongly that most of the problems of those writers who make many grammatical errors in their writing are problems which do not lend themselves to ‘purely’ grammatical solutions     

Beyond the Classroom: A Framework for Growing School Capacity in a Digital Age

Abstract

Rapid technological advancements promise unprecedented educational opportunities to foster student-centered and personalized learning, yet many schools are underprepared, lacking comprehensive organizational strategies for technology enhanced learning. This study sought to provide a framework to guide K-12 school leaders to build and evaluate digital-age school capacity by identifying essential criteria for digital learning in schools, resulting in the development of the Digital Learning Implementation Framework for Education (D-LIFE). Geographically dispersed digital learning experts contributed to a six-round Delphi study gaining consensus on 148 essential criteria for school administrators and policymakers to appraise strategic evaluation of technology implementation. When compared to prominent frameworks, D-LIFE confirmed high-level alignment with ISTE Essential Conditions, providing a comprehensive evaluation framework for K–12 schooling not addressed in prominent standards or frameworks.