The counseling needs of foreign students

This paper reports the findings of three studies of the counseling needs of international students at a medium sized University in the Midwestern region of USA. The studies were conducted over a period of five years (1977–83), and provide an historical perspective on the changes in student needs as well as in the programs designed to respond to these needs.     

The Impact of Pre‐school Children's Intelligence and Adjustment on their Parents’ Long‐term Educational Expectations

The present study set out to examine the role played by preschool children's intellectual and behavioural characteristics in their parents’ expectations for school performance. Preschool children who were expected by their parents to attend university were compared with those who were expected to leave school at the earliest opportunity. Children whose parents had lower expectations came from lower social classes and tended to be boys. The two groups differed in a number of other ways. The high expectations group tended to be more intelligent and less overactive. When the associations between expectations, sex and SES were controlled for, these differences persisted. The findings show that there is already an association between high educational expectations and educational advantage before children enter school. Educationalists should be cautious when developing policy on the basis of the assumption that the reported association between parental expectations and school achievement reflects the impact of expectations rather than the persistence of early acquired competence.     

Mother–Child Attachment From Infancy to the Preschool Years: Predicting Security and Stability

Relations between maternal mind‐mindedness (appropriate and nonattuned mind‐related comments), children's age‐2 perspective‐taking abilities, and attachment security at 44 (n = 165) and 51 (n = 128) months were investigated. Nonattuned comments predicted insecure preschool attachment, via insecure 15‐month attachment security (44‐month attachment) and poorer age‐2 perspective‐taking abilities (51‐month attachment). With regard to attachment stability, higher perspective‐taking abilities distinguished the stable secure groups from (a) the stable insecure groups and (b) children who changed from secure to insecure (at trend level). These effects were independent of child gender, stressful life events, and socioeconomic status (SES). The contribution of these findings to our understanding of stability and change in attachment security from infancy to the preschool years is discussed.     

EMPIRICAL SYNTHESIS OF THE EFFECT OF STANDARD ERROR OF MEASUREMENT ON DECISIONS MADE WITHIN BRIEF EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSES OF READING FLUENCY

Intervention researchers often use curriculum‐based measurement of reading fluency (CBM‐R) with a brief experimental analysis (BEA) to identify an effective intervention for individual students. The current study synthesized data from 22 studies that used CBM‐R data within a BEA by computing the standard error of measure (SEM) for the median data point from the baseline and intervention data. The median CBM‐R score from the intervention that the authors of each study identified as most effective fell within the SEM (68% confidence interval) of the baseline data approximately 30% of the time, but the ranges for the two author‐identified most effective interventions overlapped over 75% of the time. Extended analyses were consistent with the BEA results for approximately three‐fourths of the instances after considering the SEM of the baseline and intervention phases. Using matched passages did not improve the overlap of the ranges, but there was less overlap when the study used three data points per condition. Results emphasize the importance of considering SEM of CBM‐R data when comparing interventions within a BEA. Further implications for practice and future research are included.     

Towards Caribbean ‘knowledge societies’: dismantling neo‐colonial barriers in the age of globalisation

Pearlette Louisy raises issues of pressing concern for the future of Caribbean education. Here, I elaborate on some of the dilemmas that she raises. Interwoven in this discussion are sketches of potentially positive scenarios in a globalising future.     

Technology,teachers, and the search for school reform

Educational technologists have increasingly moved away from direct involvement in the world of the classroom teacher in recent years. The assumptions that technologists and teachers make about educational technology and about teaching now diverge markedly. At the same time, new reform proposals have suggested ways to restructure schools that would enhance the role of teachers as instructional decision-makers and offer them more control over their professional work life. Elements of the reform agenda are characterized, and ways are described in which educational technologists might work together with teachers in pursuit of reform goals. These include: (1) preparation of models for teaching-with-technology; (2) design of intelligent software; (3) creation of technologically based tools to support teachers' professional work and development; and (4) improvement of research about technology in education. Note:An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Conference of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, Dallas, Texas, February 4, 1989.     

The effect of causal diagrams on text learning

We examined the effect of studying a causal diagram on comprehension of causal relationships from an expository science text. A causal diagram is a type of visual display that explicitly represents cause-effect relationships. In Experiment 1, readers between conditions did not differ with respect to memory for main ideas, but the readers who studied the causal diagram while reading the text understood better the five causal sequences in the text even when study time was controlled. Participants in Experiment 2 studied only the causal diagram or only the text. There were no differences in memory for main ideas or the causal sequences between these groups. Results indicate that causal diagrams are not merely redundant with text and that causal diagrams affect understanding of causal relationships in the absence of a text. These findings supported the causal explication hypothesis, which states that causal diagrams improve comprehension by explicitly representing the implicit causal structure of the text in a visual format.     

A professional development model for the positive practice of school‐based reading consultation

This paper reports on two years of a multiyear consultation/professional development project based on socioconstructivist principles (situated cognition, social context, and scaffolded instruction) that are consistent with key elements of positive psychology. The consultation model used a case analysis framework to engage 12 elementary school teachers in workshops, demonstration lessons, ad hoc inquiry groups, and coaching. Interview, questionnaire, and field note data from the participants identified “control and choice,” “focus on student needs,” “applicability to classroom practices,” “direct instruction of skills,” and “consultant feedback” as key elements of the model. Changes in classroom practices were reported by 78% of the participants with changes in confidence noted from pre‐ to posttests. Better learning for students was mentioned by 89% of the teachers. Discussion focuses on critical theoretical elements associated with positive psychology. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 51–65, 2004.