Parenting perceptions: Comparing parents of typical and special needs preschoolers

Using the Parent Development Theory (PDT; B.A. Mowder, 2005) as the conceptual framework, this research explored parenting related to preschoolers' special needs status. Parents of special needs children rated general welfare and protection as well as sensitivity as the most important parenting characteristics during the preschool years. By comparison, parents of typically developing preschoolers deemed education the most important parent characteristic. Implications of this research are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 695–700, 2006.     

Engaging youth of color in applied science education and public health promotion

Participation in inquiry-based science education, which focuses on student-constructed learning, has been linked to academic success. Whereas the benefits of this type of science education are evident, access to such high-quality science curriculum and programming is not equitable. Black and Latino students in particular have less access to supplementary science programming, and fewer opportunities to engage in inquiry-based education. This paper describes outcomes associated with an inquiry-based out-of-school time science education program, Nuestro Futuro: Applied Science Education to Engage Black and Latino Youth (NFASE), which sought to build the capacity of middle school students of color to ‘think’ like health scientists from diverse disciplinary perspectives. The program was designed with the intent of (1) improving student attitudes toward and motivation for science and (2) increasing active and engaged citizenship (AEC). NFASE students explored health inequity and the social determinants of health locally and engaged in developing health promotion, outreach and education efforts targeted to their peers, parents/families, and community. Interest in the program was high overall, but implementation was not without challenges. Although evaluation outcomes indicate that there were no statistically significant changes in science-related attitudes or motivation, students reported significant increases in neighborhood social connection, as well as overall AEC.     

Internationalism: A Need in American Education

The author's middle school has created a mediated set of electronic learning resources designed to more effectively meet students' research needs. These research strategies help students with a variety of reading skills and allow students, and their teachers, to focus on higher-level thinking activities because the resource collections provide time-saving shortcuts through open-ended Google searches.     

Assessing conceptual change of teachers involved in STES education and curriculum devleopment - the STEMS project approach

Science-Technology-Environment-Society (STES) orientation in science education is currently being implemented in Israeli high schools within the framework of 'science for all' reform worldwide. This paper focuses on assessing the conceptual change of teachers who have been involved in the development, implementation, field-testing and evaluation of several modules. These modules constitute a grade 10-11 high school national curriculum titled STEMS - 'Science, Technology, Environment in Modern Society'. STEMS is aimed at developing an autonomous learner, capable of system thinking, decision making and problem solving within the real life STES context. We sensed that the intrinsic nature of STEMS curriculum requires that the teachers, who will teach it, will also be the developers of its modules. Involvement of this kind makes the teachers responsible for their own conceptual change, explanations and interpretations. Our formative evaluation indicates that the conceptual change of STEMS teachers was gradual. Participants differed with respect to what sort of 'treatment' or experience within the project actually affected who and when. It was apparent that the change occurred with respect to both their content knowledge and pedagogical views. A positive response towards teaching beyond the discipline boundaries was followed by teachers' active involvement and participation in the development process and team discussions. Thus, the STEMS project affected their teaching/learning perception towards interdisciplinarity. These findings are in accord with teachers' support of a life cycle approach for curriculum development as being suitable for achieving the STEMS objectives. The teachers emphasized the need to practice together with their students scientific inquiry and experiment design skills which, foster an autonomous learner. At the end of the first year of the curriculum development process, STEMS was finally conceptualized by the project teachers as a novel way of learning, rather than another sophisticated teaching technique. The major conceptual change was, the switch teachers made from the role of knowledge providers into that of learners. The interplay among action, participation and conceptualization turned out to be instrumental in our life cycle approach for developing the STEMS curriculum.     

The relationship of gender and topic intimacy to decisions to seek advice from parents

This study explored the impact that respondent gender, parent gender, and perceptions about a topic's intimacy had upon 311 undergraduate students’ likelihood of seeking advice from their parents. Overall, respondents felt they were more likely to seek advice about low‐ than high‐intimacy topics. Both sons and daughters reported a higher likelihood of seeking maternal than paternal advice. However, respondents did indicate a willingness to seek paternal advice in certain conditions. Sons were more likely than daughters to seek advice from fathers about high‐ intimacy topics; daughters were more likely than sons to seek advice from fathers about topics low in intimacy. Possible explanations for and implications of these findings are discussed.     

Educational model for environmental‐cognition development

Environmental education (EE) is an holistic educational approach the main goal of which is to develop the students’ environmental cognition, as compared to the disciplinary approach which develops a compartmentalized cognition. Environmental cognition is defined as a reciprocal relationship, comprising knowledge, understanding, sensitivity, perceptiveness and imagination with regard to the environment as well as responsibility and motivation to make environmental decisions. A conceptual model was constructed for this purpose comprising three stages: sensing the environment and generating questions; analysing and then synthesizing a system presentation of the environment, thereby focusing upon the inter‐relatedness and interdependence of environmental components; and environmental problem‐solving.

The model was implemented for training EE teachers and for EE curriculum development. Both of which may enhance the inclusion of EE within the formal educational system.