The stability of kindergarten teachers’ effectiveness: A generalizability study comparing the Framework For Teaching and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System

To meet recent accountability mandates, school districts are implementing assessment frameworks to document teachers’ effectiveness. Observational assessments play a key role in this process, albeit without compelling evidence of their psychometric rigor. Using a sample of kindergarten teachers, we employed Generalizability theory to investigate (across teachers, raters, and lessons) the stability of scores obtained with two different observation measures: The CLASS K-3 and the FFT. We conducted a series of Decision studies to document (for both measures’ constituent domains) the number of lessons per teacher and raters per lesson that would justify the use of observation scores for high stakes decisions. Acceptable, stable scores for individual-level decisions about teachers may generally require more raters and lessons than is typically used in practice (1–2 raters and fewer than 3 lessons). The considerable variability of observation-based scores raises concerns about either measure’s appropriateness for making individual or group decisions about teachers’ effectiveness.     

Students’ perceptions of vocabulary knowledge and learning in a middle school science classroom

This study investigated eighth-grade science students’ (13–14-year-olds) perceptions of their vocabulary knowledge, learning, and content achievement. Data sources included pre- and posttest of students’ perceptions of vocabulary knowledge, students’ perceptions of vocabulary and reading strategies surveys, and a content achievement test. Students’ perceptions of vocabulary knowledge were compared before and after instruction to see whether students believed they gained knowledge and the ability to explain categories of technical science terms. Students’ perceptions of vocabulary knowledge increased as a result of instruction. The participants had favorable views of the vocabulary and reading strategies implemented and believed the literacy approaches were important for their developing science knowledge. In addition, students’ content achievement was compared to a national data set. Students in this study outperformed a national data set on all content knowledge items assessed. Students’ perceptions of their knowledge and vocabulary and reading strategies were congruent with their content achievement. This study is one of the first to highlight the pivotal role students’ perception of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary and reading strategies plays in science content learning.     

Training in phonological strategies improves Chinese dyslexic children’s character reading skills

This study investigated Chinese dyslexic children’s efficiency in employing phonological strategies (i.e. the use of orthography-phonology correspondence rules) in reading and the effectiveness of training phonological strategies in improving Chinese dyslexic children’s reading performance. An Experimental Group of 15 Chinese dyslexic children received a five-day intensive training in phonological strategies while a comparable Control Group did not. The results showed that Chinese dyslexic children did not use the phonological strategies as efficiently as Chinese average readers, and the training programme was effective in significantly improving the Experimental Group’s reading performance. This suggests that Chinese dyslexic children can benefit from training in phonological strategies.     

The Long and Winding Road from Promise to Fulfilment in Science Among Gifted Females in Israel

A long and winding road awaits gifted females in Israel in their quest to actualize their potential in the sciences. The present state of affairs can be pieced together from a series of studies on various aspects related to the development in the sciences of females in general and gifted females in particular. Gender differences observed in the participation of students in challenging science programs and in their consequent achievement can be attributed to cognitive differences, to environmental and cultural emphasis, or to an interaction between cognitive and environmental factors, reflected in different preferences for methods of inquiry and differences in styles of problem solving. Examples of recent efforts in Israel that attempt to deal with observed gender differences and encourage females to fulfil their talents include group counseling programs, such as “Trapped in Blue and Pink” and instructional programs integrating counseling, such as “Na'aleh — Girls toward degrees in engineering” and a crosscultural intervention program for enhancing gifted females' achevement in the sciences via reattribution training.     

Observed peer victimization during early elementary school: continuity, growth, and relation to risk for child antisocial and depressive behavior

The rate at which 266 boys and girls ages 5 to 7 years old were victimized by peers was observed on multiple occasions in kindergarten and first grade. Individual differences in victimization were observed at kindergarten entry and in growth over the subsequent 2 years. Victimization increased for some children but decreased for others. Growth in victimization was reciprocally related to growth in teacher-reported antisocial and depressive behavior for boys. For girls, kindergarten victimization was related to growth in parent-reported antisocial behavior, teacher-reported depressive behavior to growth in victimization, and growth in victimization to parent-reported depression. At a short-term group level, antisocial behavior had a lagged suppressive effect on victimization for boys but a facilitating effect for girls.     

The role of feedback in implicit and explicit artificial grammar learning: a comparison between dyslexic and non-dyslexic adults

The importance of feedback for learning has been firmly established over the past few decades. The question of whether feedback plays a significant role in the statistical learning abilities of adults with dyslexia, however, is currently unresolved. Here, we examined the role of feedback in grammaticality judgment, type of structural knowledge, and confidence rating in both typically developed and dyslexic adults. We implemented two artificial grammar learning experiments: implicit and explicit. The second experiment was directly analogous to the first experiment in all respects except training format: the standard memorization instruction was replaced with an explicit rule-search instruction. Each experiment was conducted with and without performance feedback. While both groups showed significantly improved learning in the feedback-based explicit artificial grammar learning task, only the typically developed adults demonstrated higher levels of conscious structural knowledge. The present study demonstrates that the basis for the grammaticality judgment of adults with dyslexia differs from that of typically developed adults, regardless of increase in the level of explicitness.     

Methods of analysis and overall mathematics teaching quality in at-risk prekindergarten classrooms

Research Findings: This study analyzed the quality of teacher–child interactions across 10 videotaped observations drawn from 5 different prekindergarten classrooms delivering the same mathematics curriculum: MyTeachingPartner–Math. Interactions were coded using 2 observational measures: (a) a general measure, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS); and (b) a math-specific measure, the Classroom Observation of Early Mathematics–Environment and Teaching (COEMET). Practice or Policy: High correlations were found between the 2 measures, suggesting that the CLASS may serve as a sufficient metric to determine the quality of mathematics instruction in prekindergarten, though the COEMET may provide finer grained detail about teachers’ practice. Results indicate that the quality of mathematics instruction provided by teachers generally fell in the low- to medium-quality range and did not differ significantly across curriculum-related contextual factors.     

Universal Interventions: Fully Exploring Their Impacts and Potential to Produce Population-Level Impacts

In this article we seek to promote a deeper understanding of the value of universal intervention research in education as well as other fields and to call for greater interdisciplinary learning and discourse. Our goal is to deepen the conversation regarding how to build a stronger research orientation toward longitudinal, population-level outcomes in education and mental health. After highlighting the value of universal approaches targeting entire populations and their relevance to education, we raise issues regarding the traditional benchmarks of efficacy when applied to universal intervention trials and suggest alternative metrics for judging the impact of universal approaches. We conclude with lessons based on exemplar studies to help shape future research and policy regarding universal interventions.