Baseline Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal Axis and Parasympathetic Nervous System Activity Interact to Predict Executive Functions in Low‐Income Children

We examined interactions between baseline hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity in relation to executive functions (EF) in a sample (n = 1,005) of children in low wealth, nonurban communities at age 48 months. Salivary cortisol and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) represented baseline HPA axis and PNS activity, respectively. The interaction between RSA and cortisol predicted EF such that children with either lower RSA and lower cortisol, or higher RSA and higher cortisol had higher EF scores. These findings suggest a potential compensatory relation in which the PNS and HPA axis counterbalance each other to support cognition.     

Professional development for rural and remote teachers using video conferencing

Teachers in rural and remote schools face many challenges including those relating to distance, isolation and lack of professional development opportunities. This article examines a project where mathematics and science teachers were provided with professional development opportunities via video conferencing to help them use syllabus documents to develop their teaching programs. The study is qualitative and draws on teacher conversations and surveys using a community of inquiry theoretical framework to analyse the data. The results demonstrate that teacher professional development via video conferencing has both strengths and weaknesses but can support teachers through collaboration to develop their expertise in writing teaching programs.     

Using video clubs to develop teachers’ thinking and practice in oral feedback and dialogic teaching

ABSTRACT

The authors report outcomes of an evaluation of a ‘video club’ intervention to improve the feedback and dialogic teaching practice of 91 teachers from 11 primary schools in England. Participating teachers worked collaboratively in a sequence of six video clubs over a six-month period. To understand teacher engagement they examine videos of video club meetings; online platform use metrics; surveys; selected videos of classroom practice; focus groups; and interviews. They evaluate change in teachers’ thinking and practice using survey results for participants compared to a comparison group of non-participating teachers at the intervention schools. The survey includes a new instrument for gathering evidence of teachers’ thinking and practice in feedback. The results suggested changes in thinking and practice for teachers who self-reported as engaging highly with the intervention. They conclude by discussing the potential of video technology within professional development and the challenges of researching changes in thinking and practice.     

Personal and Contextual Contributors to Young Children's Activity-Based Perceived Self-Efficacy

This study investigated personal and contextual influences to young children's perceived self-efficacy (SE) in social and independent learning situations. The participants were children (n?=?24) 6–8 years old from four Finnish elementary school classrooms. First, teachers from each classroom were asked to rate their students’ social competence (SC). Second, the participants were videotaped in 45 social and 15 independent learning situations, and later interviewed about their SE perceptions using video-stimulated recall. Participants with higher SE demonstrated more stable perceptions and greater involvement in social learning situations. However, a statistically significant relationship between perceived SE and SC was not found. Participants also identified 4 factors promoting perceived SE: positive emotional states, mastery experiences, personal strategic behavior, and contextual support.     

Two schemes of intellectual development: A comparison of development as defined by william perry and jean piaget

The theories of Jean Piaget and William Perry provide two different theories of intellectual development with several similiarities, but also with critical differences. In this study a comparison was made to determine whether the two theories describe operation of the same mental structures or two fundamentally different aspects of intellectual development. The results, based upon individual interviews of all participants, indicate that the two theories outline different and independent processes for assessing intellectual development.     

Perceived control and instruction in the college classroom: Some implications for student achievement

Recent research suggests that loss of control by students interferes with the quality of instruction in the college classroom. The present study examined how four types of feedback affected perceived control and student achievement in different instruction settings. College students wrote an aptitude test which provided either contingent, low noncontingent failure, high noncontingent failure, or no-performance feedback. The amount of feedback was varied by modifying the length of the test: short, medium, long. The students then observed a videotaped lecture, presented by a low or high expressive instructor, and completed a postlecture achievement test. High noncontingent failure feedback reduced students' perceived control over their performance and created an external attribution profile. For expressive instruction, achievement deteriorated in accordance with the severity of students' uncontrollability. Implications are discussed regarding loss of control and effective instruction.Parts of this work were presented at the American Psychological Association annual meeting, Los Angeles, August 1981.     

The issues seminar: Changing a large urban school system

Summary This paper describes one urban school system's attempt to become more manageable, responsive, and productive. We have tried to delineate how the seminars are modifying the system, and, in turn, being modified by the system.The Issues Seminar is an elusive item. In theory it allows decision makers to act proactively, to utilize data, and to operate in a synergetic mode. In practice it is an intervention which allows participants to exchange attitudes and perceptions, demands that bureaucrats be accountable, and fosters leader ship at all levels.The criterion for effectiveness of a structural intervention, such as the Seminars, should be the same as that for any educational innovation, practice, or policy-i.e., Does it facilitate student achievement? To that end, we must defer. Wedon't know. What wedo know is that (1) decision-makers do have access to data, atitudes, and perceptions from all levels, (2) members at all hierarchical levels are gaining an understanding of how the system works (and, of equal importance, how it doesn't work), (3) problems of minor importance yet great annoyance are being rectified, and (4) people are beginning to feel a psychic investment in the system. If those outcomes will ultimately have a positive, effect on the students, then the seminar will have been successful. We are optimistic.Roger H. Perry is Assistant Professor of Urban Administration and Policy-making at Washington University.Thomas R. Hoerr is a principal in the University City, Missouri School System.Doris W. Randolph is Coordinator of the St. Louis Public Schools Issues Seminars and a doctoral student in educational administration at Washington University.     

How vocational psychologists can make a difference in K–12 education

In general, vocational psychologists have not been engaged in applied research that demonstrates how career interventions can improve educational problems that matter to relevant decision-makers and stakeholders. This article describes how vocational psychology can make a difference in K–12 education by embracing an interdisciplinary community-based approach. To illustrate this approach, a quasi-experimental evaluation of multiple after-school programs provided to a sample of Hispanic Americans is presented. This study offers a realistic example of how researchers in the field can induce change through the development of meaningful partnerships within the community.     

Biology and behaviour of sharks

As a group, sharks have survived for more than 300 million years and are admirably adapted to their environment. Their complex nervous and reproductive systems are of great scientific interest. Although a hazard in certain areas, they are also human benefactors, providing a small but useful supplement to normal sources of fish flesh, as well as a particularly fine quality leather.     

Transition to school practices: comparisons from Iceland and Australia

This paper is the result of collaboration among early childhood education researchers from different cultures on opposite sides of the globe. The project sought to identify what practitioners in both preschool and primary school settings in Iceland and Australia regarded as successful transition to school practices. Independently developed surveys of these practitioners, both based on earlier work in the USA, gathered data on what the practitioners identified as ‘good ideas’ in transition practices. There were similarities across the countries: popular practices included children visiting primary schools prior to the start of the school year and informational meetings for parents. There were also differences: Icelandic primary school teachers were, for instance, more likely than Australian teachers to write to their prospective students before they started school.