Everybody Counts,but Usually Just to 10! A Systematic Analysis of Number Representations in Children’s Books

Research Findings: Teachers and parents often use trade books to introduce or reinforce mathematics concepts. To date, an analysis of the early numeracy content of trade books has not been conducted. Consequently, this study evaluated the properties of numbers and counting within trade books. We coded 160 trade books targeted at establishing early numeracy skill in children to determine the numbers included; the representations of number presented; and how books used representations of number to inform children about numbers, including counting. The main findings included limited opportunity to learn the number 0 and numbers beyond 10 as well as limited exposure to multiple representations of number deemed necessary to build strong number understanding and counting skills. Practice or Policy: We discuss practical implications for the selection and use of trade books about number with young children.     

Handwriting fluency and visuospatial generativity at primary school

Handwriting is a complex activity that involves continuous interaction between lowerlevel perceptual-motor and higher-level cognitive processes. All handwriting models describe involvement of executive functions (EF) in handwriting development. Particular EF domains associated with handwriting include maintenance of information in working memory, inhibition of prepotent responses, and shifting and sustaining of attention. Generativity, an EF domain that has not been extensively studied, may play a role in the acquisition and automation of handwriting. We hypothesized that neuropsychological performances and handwriting fluency would be mutually associated, and that visuospatial generativity could have a specific role in handwriting speed. We enrolled 96 children who completed a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. The study found that handwriting speed was associated with visuospatial fluency, which involves behavioural execution and initiation. In learning and performing handwriting, there is an inherent non-exclusive role of fine motor skills.     

Tenets of Body-Soul Rooted Pedagogy: teaching for critical consciousness,nourished resistance,and healing

ABSTRACT

For marginalized communities, schooling is mired in social/bodily control, tracking, and cultural erasure circumscribing difference/culture as obstacles, as opposed to sites of wisdom, connectedness, and critical consciousness. Authors shape a transformative pedagogical framework across teacher education and partnering schools by utilizing spiritually embodied, land-based Chicana Feminist and Indigenous Epistemologies. We outline six tenets of Body-Soul Rooted Pedagogy which: 1) construct education politically, 2) enact schooling as decolonization/empowerment, 3) center epistemologies, multiliteracies of marginalized groups, 4) foster critical frameworks navigating oppression, 5) engage social action pedagogy, and 6) engender hope, well-being. Scholarship has implications for educational theory and practice at all levels.     

Protective and vulnerability factors for physically abused children: effects of ethnicity and parenting context

OBJECTIVE: Although social maladjustment appears to be common among abused children, negative outcomes are not inevitable. This investigation was designed to determine whether ethnicity and features of the parenting context predicted children's social adjustment, and whether the strength and direction of these relations differed for abused and nonabused children. METHOD: Participants included 78 physically abused and 75 demographically matched nonabused children and one of their parents. Observations of parenting were used to measure parental sensitivity, and parent self-reports of depression were obtained using the SCL-90-R. Children's peer social adjustment was measured by teacher report. RESULTS: Using regression analysis, we tested whether each potential protective or vulnerability factor interacted with abuse status in prediction of social adjustment. Results indicated main effects of ethnicity and sensitivity for prosocial behavior, and a main effect of sensitivity for aggression. In addition, there was a significant interaction of ethnicity and abuse status for aggression such that there was a significant difference between abused and nonabused European American children but not between abused and nonabused African American children. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that risk for aggressive behavior among abused children might be culturally specific rather than universal. In addition, results point to beneficial effects of parental sensitivity for maltreated children.     

Do pre-visit preparation and post-visit activities improve student outcomes on field trips?

Abstract

Studies of individual environmental education (EE) field trip programs have found that pre-visit preparation and post-visit follow-up activities can enhance desired student outcomes. We examined these relationships across a broad sample of single-day EE field trip programs for adolescent youth (grades 5-8) across the United States. We measured student outcomes, reflecting environmental literacy, 21^st century skills, positive youth development, and student learning, through end-of-visit retrospective student surveys and follow-up surveys with visiting teachers two weeks after the field trip. Pre-visit logistical preparation as well as both pre-visit preparation and post-visit follow-up related to the subject matter were each associated with more positive student outcomes. The study provides further evidence across a large sample of programs that pre-visit preparation and post-visit follow-up can have meaningful impacts on student outcomes for EE field trips. We discuss the implications of the findings and provide examples and guidance for future programming efforts.     

The Long-Term Follow-up of Severely Malnourished Children Who Participated in an Intervention Program

18 severely malnourished children (IM) who participated in a 3-year home-visiting program were compared with 2 other comparison groups comprising 17 severely malnourished (NIM) and 19 adequately nourished children (controls). On enrollment, all the groups were in the same hospital, and both malnourished groups had lower developmental levels than the controls. The IM group received intervention for 3 years after hospitalization, consisting of weekly or 2 weekly home visits with toy demonstrations. At 7, 8, 9, and 14 years after leaving the hospital, the 3 groups were compared on tests of school achievement and IQ. The NIM group showed no sign of reducing their deficits, and at the 14-year follow-up they had markedly lower scores on the WISC verbal and performance scales, the Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT), and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT), than the controls. Throughout the follow-up the IM group's scores were intermediate between the NIM and the controls in every test. At the 14-year follow-up, their scores were significantly higher than those of the NIM group in the WISC verbal scale, and the difference approached significance in the WRAT. We conclude that psychosocial intervention should be an integral part of treatment for severely malnourished children.     

KEEPING IT LIVE: STAFF DEVELOPMENT AS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THE CHANGE PROCESS

This cross‐institutional evaluation assesses the effectiveness of promoting staff development as the central strategy for change within the EATE initiative. Increasingly, in institutions of initial teacher education as elsewhere, accountability requires output‐oriented staff who are able to attain given targets at reasonable cost. This “impact” case study is both explanatory and confirmatory, justifying the process of change specified by EATE in relation to organisational efficiency, current relevance and need.

The evaluation demonstrates how change can be effectively managed to improve teaching and learning within a short time scale and how EATE has played a critical part in opening up institutions to working with the business community, an integral element of the EATE strategy previously seldom encountered within initial teacher education.

The EATE initiative sought behavioural changes in participants through raising awareness, identifying the catalysts, better networking, the critical support of management and the business community, in order to keep it live and consequently embed thechange. Whilst staff in differing institutions perceived and defined some changes differently, the evidence suggests that strategies employed by EATE have been and are being efficient and effective contributors to the process of change.     

What the kids will like

For the British teacher interested in children and books, the year's best buy has been a monthly review sheet produced by two Sheffield teachers; 60p for twelve issues, post paid, promptly delivered. CLE invited Jane Powell and Steve Bowles to describe their project; and we publish extracts to illustrate the practical nature of their reviews.