When genres meet: Inquiry into a sixth‐grade urban science class

In this study, we explore oral and written work (plays and rap songs) of students in a sixth‐grade all African‐American urban science class to reveal ways affective and social aspects are intertwined with students' cognition. We interpret students' work in terms of the meeting of various genres brought by the students and teachers to the classroom. Students bring youth genres, classroom genres that they have constructed from previous schooling, and perhaps their own science genres. Teachers bring their favored classroom and science genres. We show how students' affective reactions were an integral part of their constructed scientific knowledge. Their knowledge building emerged as a social process involving a range of transactions among students and between students and teacher, some transactions being relatively smooth and others having more friction. Along with their developing science genre, students portrayed elements of classroom genres that did not exist in the classroom genre that the teacher sought to bring to the class. Students' work offered us a glimpse of students' interpretations of gender dynamics in their classrooms. Gender also was related to the particular ways that students in that class included disagreement in their developing science genre. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 579–605, 2002     

Analysis of behavioural responding across multiple instructional conditions for a child with childhood disintegrative disorder

The effects of multiple instructional conditions on self-injury/aggression and on-task behaviours were assessed with a 9-year-old boy diagnosed with childhood disintegrative disorder. Behavioural responses were assessed as part of an educational evaluation to determine the occurrence of target behaviours in relation to varying degrees of educational support. Self-injury/aggression and task engagement were assessed across baseline conditions and instructional conditions involving pre-session access to preferred items, followed by systematic presentation of work tasks with contingent reinforcement and auditory cueing. Results indicated an increase in task engagement and a decrease in the target behaviours from baseline across subsequent conditions. This study lends support for directly assessing the efficacy of specific potential instructional support as a means of developing individualised treatment packages for learners with childhood disintegrative disorder.     

Employment and Achievement: Mothers' Work Involvement in Relation to Children's Achievement Behaviors and Mothers' Parenting Behaviors

Mothers' total weekly work hours and psychological work involvement were examined in relation to children's achievement behaviors and mothers' parenting. 105 middle-class children ( M = 6 years old) and their mothers (both employed and not employed) participated in this study. Data were collected from lab observations, teacher ratings, and parent surveys. Findings of interest include. (1) for the full sample, higher weekly work hours were associated with poorer teacher ratings of children's grades, school work habits, and aspects of personality conducive to achievement: (2) within the employed sample, as mothers' weekly hours of work increased, daughters' grades were higher but sons' grades, work habits, and ego control were poorer, and (3) mothers' psychological motivation to work related to mothers' support of children's achievement and girls' stronger achievement motivation. The study findings point to the utility of including multiple measures of work involvement and children's achievement-related behaviors.     

Evaluating the readiness of special education doctoral students to apply the standards of evidence‐based practice to single‐case research

How well doctoral students in special education are prepared to evaluate research as evidence‐based practice (EBP) is likely to impact their careers, as well as the teachers they will train. In developing a method for evaluating the readiness of small cohort groups of doctoral students to apply a research‐based model of EBP, an instrument and procedure were refined in a pilot evaluation and implemented within a multiple baseline design across participants. Participants’ independent and instrument‐guided performance in rating published research was compared to the ratings of two experts in single‐case research design, yielding proportions of agreement across evaluation conditions. Results indicated group readiness to independently conduct the EBP evaluation and individual differences in readiness indicating the need for remediation.     

Authentic Tasks Online: A synergy among learner,task, and technology

Fostering synergies amongst learner, task, and technology to create innovative and immersive distance learning environments runs counter to the widespread practice of incorporating traditional classroom pedagogical strategies into Web‐based delivery of courses. The most widely accepted model of online higher education appears to be one of reductionism, whereby learning management systems facilitate the design of easily digested packets of information, usually assessed by discrete stand‐alone tests and academic assignments. This article describes a model for the development of authentic tasks that can assist in designing environments of increased, rather than reduced, complexity. It provides a robust framework for the design of online courses, based on the work of theorists and researchers in situated learning and authentic learning. It describes the characteristics of a task's design that facilitates the requirements of an entire course of study being readily satisfied by its completion, where the students make the important decisions about why, how, and in what order they investigate a problem. The article describes several learning environments that were investigated in depth in the study, and explores the synergies that exist between the learners, tasks, and technology engaged in authentic learning settings. The article leads readers to a conceptual understanding of the role of authentic tasks in supporting knowledge construction and meaningful learning, and illustrates the principles of authentic task design for online learning environments.     

Early Education Essentials: Validation of Surveys Measuring Early Education Organizational Conditions

Research Findings: The Early Education Essentials surveys use teacher and parent perceptions to measure 6 organizational conditions of early childhood education programs, extending and complementing existing measures of early childhood care and education (ECE) quality constructs. This study tests the reliability and concurrent validity of the Early Education Essentials in 81 school- and community-based ECE sites in a large Midwestern city selected using a stratified random sampling method. Using a Rasch item response theory model, scales were created; theory and exploratory factor analyses combined scales into higher level constructs called essentials. Multilevel models took into account individual measurement error to create site-level essential scores and assessed relationships between programs’ essential scores and site-level teacher–child interactions scores and student attendance. Findings suggest that the Early Education Essentials is reliable in multiple ECE settings; it is sensitive to site-level differences; and some, but not all, organizational conditions measured are associated in expected directions with site-level metrics indicative of center-based ECE quality. Practice or Policy: The Early Education Essentials has the potential to provide leaders and practitioners with actionable data about organizational supports that enable ECE practitioners to be more effective in their daily work with children and families.     

Promoting Student–Teacher Interactions: Exploring a Peer Coaching Model for Teachers in a Preschool Setting

Peer coaching provides an attractive alternative to traditional professional development for promoting classroom quality in a sustainable, cost-effective manner by creating a collaborative teaching community. This exploratory study describes the development and evaluation of the Colleague Observation And CoacHing (COACH) program, a peer coaching program designed to increase teachers’ effectiveness in enhancing classroom quality in a preschool Head Start setting. The COACH program consists of a training workshop on coaching skills and student-teacher interactions, six peer coaching sessions, and three center meetings. Pre-post observations of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System of twelve classrooms assigned to peer coaching were compared to twelve control classrooms at baseline and following the intervention. Findings provide preliminary support that the peer coaching program is perceived as acceptable and feasible by the participating preschool teachers and that it may strengthen student–teacher interactions. Further program refinement and evaluation with larger samples is needed to enhance student–teacher interactions and, ultimately, children’s adaptive development.     

如何给自己当老板

建立并经营一家小公司是一个伟大的梦想。它可以让你使用自己的天资,使你在财政上独立,并可使你免受那些智商比他们鞋子号码尺寸还要小的老板的奴役。但如果没有周密计划、灵活性、无穷精力、准确的财政记录和足够现金来保持大约3年的个人花费的话,这个梦想几乎一定会成为一场财政灾难。     

如何调节上班时的抑郁情绪

它与季节性周一早上的抑郁症相似。下周劳工节的到来对于多数人来说不仅是夏季的结束,还是温文尔雅快节奏上班时间的回归。这本来是重新组合日常事务的绝佳时刻。几乎每个人都说他们想使工作变得更加完美。无论你担任什么职务,下面是四个寻求完美的方法:     

Disaggregating assessment to close the loop and improve student learning

This study examined student learning outcomes for accelerated degree students as compared to conventional undergraduate students, disaggregated by class levels, to develop strategies for then closing the loop with assessment. Using the National Survey of Student Engagement, critical thinking and oral and written communication outcomes were examined. Within- and between-group learning outcome differences with freshmen and seniors in both instructional formats were tested to determine if instructional goals were met and student learning transpired. A quantitative, single case analysis method was used to determine significance with the items relating to these outcomes. Results indicated that seniors in both instructional formats typically reported greater engagement scores than freshmen, and that accelerated students tended to report more engagement than their conventional counterparts. These findings were most robust for the critical thinking outcome. Ramifications for student learning and relevant instructional formats are then explored, so as to close the loop with assessment.