Houston Teaching Academy: Partnership in developing teachers

The need for excellent teachers to teach at-risk inner-city children is well documented. Too often new teachers who have received their field experience in the suburbs are hired to teach in multicultural inner-city schools with little preparation to serve this population of children and families. Changing the history of failure for this population of teachers and their students to an experience of success was the primary goal of the partnership between the Houston Independent School District and the University of Houston's College of Education.The structure of the Houston Teaching Academy (HTA) includes four collaborative decision-making councils. Representatives from the school and college serve on each of the councils. Shared weekly seminars for supervising teachers, student teachers, and college supervisors are led by school teachers or college supervisors. Methods courses are taught at the HTA, and the students serve as tutors in the classrooms. Several graduate college courses requested by teachers are offered at the HTA.Concurrent with the development of the HTA, a formative and summative evaluation has monitored the progress of the HTA toward its goals. The HTA graduates have been followed into their first years of teaching. Interviews with their principals indicate that 77% are effectively teaching in inner-city and multicultural settings.     

The overall effects of end-of-course assessment on student performance: A comparison between multiple choice testing, peer assessment, case-based assessment and portfolio assessment

This study investigates the effect of method of assessment on student performance. Five research conditions go together with one of four assessment modes, namely: portfolio, case-based, peer assessment, and multiple choice evaluation. Data collection is done by means of a pre-test/ post-test-design with the help of two standardised tests (N=816). Results show that assessment method does make a difference: assessments do not produce overall effects on student performance. Moreover, student-activating instruction efforts do not automatically result in more extensive learning gains. Finally, test results show, when compared to other assessments, a statistically significant positive effect of the multiple choice test on students' test scores. However, students' preparation level and the closed book format of the tests might serve explanatory purposes.     

Mental toughness and transitions to high school and to undergraduate study

Mental toughness can be conceptualised as a set of attributes that allow people to deal effectively with challenges, stressors and pressure. Recent work has suggested that it may be a valuable construct to consider within educational settings. The current studies explored the associations between mental toughness and educational transitions. Study 1 examined the relationships between mental toughness and concerns about moving to a new school in 105 children aged 12–13 years of age. The results revealed significant relationships between several aspects of mental toughness, but particularly confidence in abilities, and children’s concerns. Study 2 examined the relationships between mental toughness and adjustment to university in 200 undergraduate students at various stages of their course. The results revealed a role for several aspects of mental toughness; commitment, control of life, control of emotion, confidence in abilities and interpersonal confidence. The results are discussed in terms of implications for educational practice. It is suggested that measures of mental toughness could be used to identify individuals who may benefit from additional support during transition to a new school or to university, and that future research should explore the potential benefits of mental toughness training.     

Emotion Regulation Strategies and Parenting Practices among Parents of Children With Clinic-Referred Conduct Problems

Objective. This study examined the cognitive-affective strategies used by parents of young children with conduct problems to regulate emotions. Key questions concerned the extent to which these emotion regulation strategies are associated with positive and negative parenting practices and predict quality of parenting through interplay with parental depression. Design. Participants were families of toddlers (n = 84) referred to a tertiary-level health service for the treatment of disruptive behavior problems. Parenting practices were indexed through observational coding of parent–child interactions and self-report data on multiple dimensions of positive and negative parenting. Parents self-reported their use of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression—the two emotion regulation strategies that are most robustly associated with psychosocial functioning in adults. Results. Associations between emotion regulation strategy and quality of parenting were moderated by parental depressive symptom severity, with distinct effects seen for positive and negative parenting practices. In terms of positive parenting, more frequent use of cognitive reappraisal was associated with increased use of labeled praise among parents with lower levels of depressive symptoms, whereas parents who had higher levels of depressive symptoms engaged in less such praise regardless of how frequently they used reappraisal. In terms of negative parenting, frequent use of cognitive reappraisal and expression suppression were associated with reduced levels of negative parenting, but only among parents with high levels of depression. Conclusions. These findings add to growing support for the integration of emotion regulation strategies into family process models of early-onset conduct problems and related clinical interventions.     

Factors affecting journal submission numbers: Impact factor and peer review reputation

Previous research has found that researchers rank journal reputation and impact factor (IF) amongst the key selection criteria when choosing where to submit. We explored the actual effect upon submission numbers of several possible factors. We retrieved 10 years of submission data from over a thousand journals, as well as data on IF, retractions, and other factors. We performed statistical analysis and identified correlations. We also undertook case study research on the 55 most significant submission decreases. We found a statistically significant correlation between changes in IF, ISI percentage ranking, and changes in submissions numbers in subsequent years. We also found a statistically significant effect on submission numbers in the year following the publication of a retraction. Our case studies identified other factors, including negative feedback on the peer review process. Our findings regarding IF confirm previous indications about the significance of IF on submissions. We explain the correlation with retractions through the concept of ‘peer review reputation’. These results indicate that editors and publishers need to focus on a journal's peer review practices, as well as a journal's IF, if they are to maintain and grow submissions.     

Extending WHIRL with background knowledge for improved text classification

Intelligent use of the many diverse forms of data available on the Internet requires new tools for managing and manipulating heterogeneous forms of information. This paper uses WHIRL, an extension of relational databases that can manipulate textual data using statistical similarity measures developed by the information retrieval community. We show that although WHIRL is designed for more general similarity-based reasoning tasks, it is competitive with mature systems designed explicitly for inductive classification. In particular, WHIRL is well suited for combining different sources of knowledge in the classification process. We show on a diverse set of tasks that the use of appropriate sets of unlabeled background knowledge often decreases error rates, particularly if the number of examples or the size of the strings in the training set is small. This is especially useful when labeling text is a labor-intensive job and when there is a large amount of information available about a particular problem on the World Wide Web.

A semester-long student-directed research project involving enzyme immunoassay: appropriate for immunology, endocrinology, or neuroscience courses

The following project aimed at promoting integrated and long-lasting learning is described for an Immunology course, but it may be adapted to other disciplines. Students were asked to develop and carry out a research project to examine the relationship between immune function and stress. The experiments were required to include the assessment of salivary cortisol and salivary IgA (sIgA) with enzyme immunoassays. All other aspects of the experiments were developed by student groups with appropriate guidance from the instructor. Data are presented for one group project that assessed the effect of music on cortisol and sIgA. Overall levels of sIgA and cortisol were consistent with reported values. Students found a significant decrease in cortisol over time. Additionally, there was a trend that supported the overall student hypothesis regarding the effect of stress and immune function. Compared with the same Immunology course that included an instructor-designed experiment using enzyme immunoassays for cortisol and sIgA, several assessments (e.g., final grades and comments on student evaluations) show that overall learning seemed to be much better in the course with the student-directed research project.     

Phenomenal permanence and the development of predictive tracking in infancy

The perceived spatiotemporal continuity of objects depends on the way they appear and disappear as they move in the spatial layout. This study investigated whether infants' predictive tracking of a briefly occluded object is sensitive to the manner by which the object disappears and reappears. Five-, 7-, and 9-month-old infants were shown a ball rolling across a visual scene and briefly disappearing via kinetic occlusion, instantaneous disappearance, implosion, or virtual occlusion. Three different measures converged to show that predictive tracking increased with age and that infants were most likely to anticipate the reappearance of the ball following kinetic occlusion. These results suggest that infants' knowledge of the permanence and nonpermanence of objects is embodied in their predictive tracking.     

Impact of a statewide home visiting program to prevent child abuse

OBJECTIVES: To assess the impact of a voluntary, paraprofessional home visiting program in preventing child maltreatment and reducing the multiple, malleable psychosocial risks for maltreatment for which families had been targeted. METHODS: This collaborative, experimental study focused on 6 Healthy Families Alaska (HFAK) programs; 325 families were enrolled in 2000-2001, randomized to intervention and control groups, and interviewed to measure baseline attributes. Follow-up data were collected when children were 2 years old (85% follow-up rate). Outcomes included maltreatment reports, measures of potential maltreatment and parental risks, for example, poor mental health, substance use, and partner violence. HFAK records were reviewed to measure home visiting services. Home visitors were surveyed to measure perceived effectiveness and training adequacy. RESULTS: Parental risks were common at baseline, and one-sixth of families had a substantiated child protective services report in the child's first 2 years of life. There was no overall program effect on maltreatment reports, and most measures of potential maltreatment. Home visited mothers reported using mild forms of physical discipline less often than control mothers. The groups were similar in their use of more severe forms of physical discipline. There was no program impact on parental risks. There was no impact on outcomes for families with a 'high dose' of home visiting. Home visitors often failed to address parental risks and seldom linked families with community resources. Contradictions in the model compromised effectiveness. CONCLUSIONS: The program did not prevent child maltreatment, nor reduce the parental risks that had made families eligible for service. Research is needed to develop and test strategies to improve the effectiveness of home visiting.