Accounting for the Relationship Between Initial Status and Growth in Regression Models

Educational analysts studying achievement and other educational outcomes frequently encounter an association between initial status and growth, which has important implications for the analysis of covariate effects, including group differences in growth. As explicated by Allison (1990 Allison, P. D. (1990). Change scores as dependent variables in regression analyses. Sociological Methodology, 20, 93–114.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), where only two time points of data are available, identifying a preferred model can be difficult or impossible. In this paper we extend Allison's inquiry by considering multiple sources of the association between initial status and growth simultaneously, including measurement error but also intrinsic associations between initial status and growth. We illustrate the potential trade-offs between the change-score model specifications (models without a control for initial status) and regressor-variable specifications (with a control for initial status) using simulated data.     

Retrieval Practice Benefits Deductive Inference

Retrieval practice has been shown to benefit learning. However, the benefit has sometimes been attenuated with more complex materials that require integrating multiple units of information. Critically, Tran et al. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 22, 135–140 (2015) found that retrieval practice improves sentence memory but not the drawing of inferences from the same sentences. In three experiments, we investigated whether this lack of benefit of retrieval practice for inferential ability was due to the presentation format of the material. Participants studied four sets of seven to nine related sentences by practicing retrieval for two sets and rereading the other two sets. A final test was given 2 days later. When sentences were presented one at a time during study/practice as in Tran et al., we found no effect of retrieval practice on a test requiring inferential reasoning. When sentences in a set were presented simultaneously during study/practice, retrieval practice in the form of fill-in-the-blank testing (experiments 1 and 2) and free recall (experiment 3) aided later deductive inference more than rereading. Our findings suggest that retrieval practice can improve deductive inference, but in order to optimize its utility, the format in which the material is presented during practice must not hinder relational processing of the individual sentences.     

Translating Laboratory Evidence into Classroom Practice with Teacher‐Led Randomized Controlled Trials—A Perspective and Meta‐Analysis

We initiated and structured a single program that supervised teachers, some with neuroscience or psychology degrees, to collaborate and explore the effects of science of learning‐translated pedagogy. This article reports on the 34 findings from teacher‐led randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and replications. Teachers designed trials, looking at areas such as attention, memory, and spaced learning. Overall, positive effects were found over short periods (1–6 weeks; r = 0.15, p < .0001 [d = 0.30], N = 2,157). However, retrieval practice (testing as a learning experience) had differential effects mediated by age, approach, and lesson content. Results suggest science of learning‐translated pedagogy needs extensive replication to establish how best to use laboratory evidence in classrooms. Multiple planned replication of teacher‐led RCTs has potential as an evaluation tool, combining high levels of mundane realism with strong internal validity and the potential to build cost effective large samples for meta‐analysis.     

Culturally responsive peacebuilding pedagogy: a case study of Fambul Tok Peace Clubs in conflict-affected Sierre Leone

Recent research on the peace-promoting agency of teachers in conflict-affected contexts has critiqued the dominance of a menu of curriculum initiatives circulated within aid organizations which ignore or dismiss indigenous cultural resources available within local communities. On the other hand, the turn to local culture in peacebuilding interventions has also been critiqued for idealizing the local. This paper presents a case study of the work of Fambul Tok Peace Clubs in conflict-affected Sierra Leone which aim to support teachers in drawing on local practices, rituals and symbols. Using an interpretative approach, alert to the meanings teachers ascribe to their pedagogical practices, it finds that teachers respond to local culture in multiple, sometimes contradictory ways. These range from celebration of indigenous practices as resources for conflict resolution that resonate with their pupils and communities to critique of their oppressive gender norms and inability to address structural drivers of conflict.     

Using <Emphasis Type="Italic">I am Moving,I am Learning</Emphasis> to Increase Quality Instruction in Head Start Classrooms

Quality teacher-child interactions are characteristic of effective classrooms resulting in benefits for all children, but may be particularly important for children from low-income families. The purpose of this study was to explore the perception of Illinois Head Start teachers related to how I am Moving, I am Learning (IMIL) could improve the quality of their instruction as measured by the Classroom assessment scoring system (CLASS^®), an observation instrument used to assess the quality of teacher-child interactions across three broad domains and their supporting dimensions. While the study found that early childhood professionals perceive IMIL as a meaningful resource, additional research is needed to substantiate the preliminary findings as well as to guide training initiatives that would help Head Start professionals to make the connection between IMIL and the CLASS^®.     

Accounting for Model Uncertainty in the Prediction of University Graduation Rates

Empirical analysis requires researchers to choose which variables to use as controls in their models. Theory should dictate this choice, yet often in social science there are several theories that may suggest the inclusion or exclusion of certain variables as controls. The result of this is that researchers may use different variables in their models and come to disparate conclusions with respect to predicted effects and their statistical significance. In such cases one is uncertain of which particular set of regressors forms the model that represents the data. The approach used below accounts for uncertainty in variable selection by using Bayesian model averaging (BMA). Accounting for uncertainty, we demonstrate that BMA provides better out-of-sample prediction for university graduation rates than results based on alternative variable selection methods.     

Developmental Changes in Achievement Evaluation: Motivational Implications of Self-Other Differences

In order to explore the development of self-evaluative biases, children at 3 age levels (5–6, 7–8, 9–10) evaluated themselves or another child when given social or temporal comparison feedback. Evaluative biases were indicated by higher evaluations for the self than another, especially after failure. Children at different ages were not differentially responsive to temporal vs. social comparison information. However, evaluative bias in response to the type of evaluation differed by age; there was greater bias for general ability evaluations by older children and greater bias for specific performance evaluations by younger children. Alternative explanations for these self-other differences were minimized, as differences in visual orientation were held constant and differences in knowledge of effort were controlled statistically. Other aspects of the design as well as sex differences support a motivational interpretation of these biases. How these biases are manifested is related to children's level of understanding and concerns at different ages.     

MacIntyre's Moral Theory and the Possibility of an Aretaic Ethics of Teaching

In this paper, I reconstruct Alasdair MacIntyre's aretaic, practical philosophy, drawing out its implications for professional ethics in general and the practice of teaching in particular. After reviewing the moral theory as a whole, I examine MacIntyre's notion of internal goods. Defined within the context of practices, such goods give us reason to reject the very idea of applied ethics. Being goods for the practitioner, they suggest that the eudaimonia of the practitioner is central to professional ethics. In this way, MacIntyre's moral theory helps us recover the untimely question, how does teaching contribute to the flourishing of the teacher?     

Why Are Partnerships Necessary for Computer Classroom Administration?

Computer classrooms (CCs) have been an important part of writing instruction since the mid 1980s, yet little scholarship concerns the roles that directors of computer classrooms play in maintaining these facilities. Based on a review of scholarship of CC administration and an informal survey of CC administrators, this article argues that CC directors walk a tightrope between the role of teacher and manager and that we need to focus on building partnerships to maintain our facilities, because we simply cannot do by ourselves everything that this complex role requires of us.