Understanding Early Adolescents Through Dialogue Journals

The purpose of this article is to share the results of a study that explored the recommendations of practicing teachers about ways to prepare preservice teachers for including children with disabilities into general education classrooms. A survey was distributed to 71 practicing general elementary education teachers. The survey included the following questions: What should the general education student know about teaching students with special needs? Should this information be included in one course or integrated with other course content? General education teachers reported that teacher education programs should include the following content: behavioral strategies, conflict resolution and social skills, identification of students with special needs, adaptation of curriculum and materials, adaptation of instructional strategies, legal regulations and individual education programs, and co-teaching, teaming, and collaboration. These data suggest that preservice teacher preparation programs would include content courses to address these thematic areas and present a solid knowledge base about teaching children with disabilities.     

Embracing the Complexity of Instruction: A Study of the Effects of Teachers' Instruction on Students' Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to determine whether third-grade teachers' instructional actions during reading comprehension lessons contributed to their students' reading comprehension achievement. Our framework focused on teachers' emphasis on three dimensions of instruction (pedagogical structure, teacher-directed instruction, and support for student learning), as observed in comprehension lessons across a year. Third-grade teachers' instruction was analyzed first by measuring their latent propensity to engage in instructional actions in the three dimensions and then by using these latent variables in a multilevel model to examine their students' gains in reading comprehension. Results provided support for the theoretical dimensions, taking into account contextual variables including lesson, student, and teacher characteristics; teachers' engagement in teacher-directed instruction and their support for student learning significantly contributed to their students' reading comprehension. Results suggest that analysis of teachers' instructional actions within and across lessons is a promising approach for the study of effective reading instruction.     

From knowing to doing: assessing the skills used to teach reading and writing

Reading and Writing - This study presents results from a project to develop and pilot a new type of performance assessment of the skills used when teaching reading and writing. To provide context...     

Adapting to Adaptive Learning

ABSTRACT

Unfamiliarity with adaptive courseware and its uses may be a barrier to implementation. This article provides insights from a qualitative case study that was conducted to illuminate experiences and perceptions of faculty and staff involved in an adaptive learning technology pilot at a nonprofit university in the United States. Findings revealed that team dynamics, including diversity and persistence, were critical for the success of the project and overcoming the challenges of working with a vendor in terms of process, timeline, and role clarity. Finally, the study helps to underscore the importance of using adaptive courseware to support and train faculty.     

Just knowing how to read isn't enough! Assessing knowledge for teaching reading

Debates persist over the knowledge needed to teach elementary reading effectively. In one commonly held view verbal ability is what matters most and the best approach to improving teacher quality is to recruit teachers who themselves are good readers. Others argue that teachers need special forms of professional knowledge that differ substantially from common adult reading and verbal ability. These different assumptions about what teachers need to know are directly relevant to whether teaching reading demands specialized professional knowledge and they have lead to radically different policy recommendations for both teacher preparation and induction. This study presents preliminary evidence that elementary reading teachers can hold a special knowledge of language, text, and reading process that differs substantially from common reading and verbal ability. Implications for the measurement and study of teacher quality and related implications for teacher evaluation and teacher development are discussed.

Factor analysis of the Woodcock-Johnson with conduct disordered adolescents

A factor analysis of the 12 subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability was performed, using 286 conduct disordered male adolescents as subjects. A principal factor analysis procedure was utilized. Factors to be retained were confirmed using the scree test. The factor analysis procedure yielded three factors. These were interpreted as being a primary verbal ability factor, a secondary reasoning factor, and a secondary numerical processing factor. The perceptual speed and memory groupings identified by Woodcock were not duplicated. Implications of these results suggest the cautious use of the Cognitive Factor cluster scores for diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses for the behavior disordered population.     

The comparison of performance by sex of deaf children on the WISC-R

The Performance Scale of the WISC-R was administered to 60 female and 65 male hearing-impaired subjects. The only significant sex difference found was on the Coding subtest, with females outperforming males by a mean scaled score difference of 1.77 points (t = −3.087, p<.01). Subtest intercorrelational results suggest that deaf females possessed significantly better visual-motor coordination and speed, while males demonstrated better spatial analysis and synthesis skills. A principal factor analysis procedure yielded only one factor for each sex. The high degree of factorial similarity between the female and male samples indicated that the underlying construct being measured by the WISC-R Performance subtests does not differ by gender.     

一双袜子

一个晴朗的下午,我漫步第五大街,忽然想起需要买双袜子。为何我只想买一双,原因已无关紧要了。我拐进跃入眼帘的第一家袜店,一个不到17岁的男售货员迎上来,说:“先生,您要买什么?”“我想买双短袜。”他双眸闪闪发光,声音饱含激情。“您知道您进的可是世上最好的袜店吗?”我倒并未意识到这点,我是偶然进来的。“随我来,”男孩欣喜若狂地说。我跟着他到了店的后部。他开始从货架上拽下一个接一个箱子,向我展示里面的袜子,让我欣赏。     

The Demand for Standardized Student Testing

What does the American public think about standardized testing? D o Americans test too much? Does the public believe that tests are a good way to learn about how well students are doing and to encourage them to d o better? What d o students, teachers, and administrators think?