Estimated student score gain on the act COMP exam: Valid tool for institutional assessment?

The higher education community needs measures of the value added to student development by the college experience. ACT provides a quick, easy method for estimating the extent of student growth in general education. An institution can test seniors with the ACT College Outcome Measures Project (COMP) exam, then subtract from the senior score anestimated freshman score obtained from a concordance table that is based on the known relationship between freshman ACT Assessment composite score and freshman COMP Total score. Studies using scores for 4,200 seniors and 2,100 freshmen tested during a two-year period at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, indicate that this method is not sufficiently reliable or valid to serve as the basis for making precise judgments about the quality of general education programs.     

An interactive systems model derived from experts' perceptions of human-computer issues

This research elicited experts' perceptions of factors affecting the development and use of interactive technologies (e.g., interactive video, multimedia, videoconferencing) using a survey of 85 human/social items extracted from current literature. Analysis of responses from members of several professional organizations having significant involvement with these technologies allowed determination of perceptions of key issues. Factor analyses were used to formulate a categorization and identify underlying dimensions, from which a general model of interactive systems was derived. The model is a graphical display of the co-dependencies and interactions among the dimensions of interactive systems. It is useful for educational technologists, instructional designers, and communications professionals in the analysis of interactive technologies and a means for viewing overall systems development, use, and effectiveness.     

More than Manners: Conflict Resolution in Primary Level Classrooms

A diverse sample of kindergarten and 1st grade students participated in a social-emotional literacy and problem solving program. Students and their teachers participated in seven one-hour training sessions which included concrete activities designed to increase affective vocabulary and social problem-solving. Effective communication strategies such as I-messages and paraphrasing were also introduced and practiced. Pretest data and responses to the activities revealed that students could easily articulate inappropriate and disrespectful behaviors prior to training; however they were unable to articulate behaviors that would be helpful in resolving conflict. Although students had been extensively exposed to manners curricula which emphasized respectful behavior, the posttest results indicate that the social-emotional problem solving curricula offers a distinct set of skills which enable students to constructively manage conflict, manifested through statistically significant decreases in verbal and physical aggression. Teacher and staff posttest surveys corroborated the student findings.     

Locating learning in teachers’ communities of practice: opening up problems of analysis in records of everyday work

Research spanning more than two decades points to the benefits of vigorous collegial communities, yet relatively little research examines specifically how professional communities supply intellectual, social and material resources for teacher learning and innovations in practice. This paper examines the theory-building potential of audio- and videotaped records of situated interaction among teachers in the course of everyday work. The paper employs a small segment of a larger data set to chronicle analytic dilemmas and opportunities and to introduce a scheme for theorizing about the nature and significance of professional community for teacher development and school reform.     

Teacher management behaviors and pupil task involvement during small group laboratory activities

A major concern of many beginning and experienced teachers is that of classroom management and control. This article describes recent research into defining classroom management procedures that are used by high school science teachers and their relationship to pupil ontaskness. The classroom is conceptualized as a manipulable behavioral system. This construct arises directly from Barker's (1968) ecological psychology, the classroom and its occupants being conceptualized as a behavior setting. The behaviors of the teacher and the pupils are an integral part of the unit (behavior setting), which in turn coerces certain behaviors from its participants. Thus settings, and, in particular, subsettings, are seen as more important determiners of social behavior than the personality of individual teacher or pupil. The methodology employed in this research has involved the extensive use of video in naturalistic science classrooms. Tapes of both teacher and pupil behaviors were continuously and independently recorded. Intensive analysis using electronic recording instruments interfaced with the computer has allowed the collection and sophisticated analysis of the observational data. Data relating to teacher management behavior in small group settings have been analyzed and the relationships to pupil task involvement have been explored.     

Parent and School Partnerships in Supporting Literacy and Numeracy

This study examined home literacy and numeracy practices. It also focused on the roles of home and school in fostering Year 3 children's literacy and numeracy development in Australian schools. A parent survey of 95 parents from four schools, and focus interviews of parents, teachers and a school administrator within one school, provided the data for this study. Results showed that parents helped their children with literacy and numeracy at home. Most of this assistance is given with reading, some with writing and some with routine mathematics. Both parents and school personnel held the children's learning interests at heart and advocated for the formation of parent/school partnerships. Yet the discourses relating to school and home roles for assisting children's literacy and numeracy development provided contrasting views. Implications for school personnel are drawn from the results of this study.     

Infant Temperament and Genetics: An Objective Twin Study of Motor Activity Level

Child temperament theories generally presume genetic contributions to behavioral differences, but empirical support is based largely on parent ratings of twins. These subjective ratings may be biased by parental exaggeration of dizygotic differences or of monozygotic similarities. An objective assessment of the genetic hypothesis was undertaken with motor activity level, a core dimension of most temperament theories. The activity level of 60 infant twin pairs was measured both by parent ratings and by motion recorders over a 2-day period. Data from the motion recorders showed evidence of genetic influences (RMZ = .76, RDZ = .56), as did parent ratings (RMZ = .82, RDZ = .21). The motion recorder results confirm with instrumentation a critical assumption of temperament theories and identify the presence of genetic contributors to temperamentally relevant behavioral differences in infancy.     

Appraisal, social support, and life events: predicting outcome behavior in school-age children

To examine the relation between social support and appraisal of life events in predicting adaptive, externalizing, and internalizing behavior in 265 school-age children, child-report on both a global and a significant other measure of social support was used. Life event scores were separated into events endorsed as negative and events endorsed as positive by the child. Using hierarchical regression analyses, the present study tested two models: main effects and moderator models of the relation between life events, social support, and behavioral outcome. Support was found for global social support and positive life events in predicting adaptive, externalizing, and internalizing behavior. Gender differences were also found. Support was found for both the main effects and moderator models of the association between life events and global social support. Appraisal of life events as positive appears to compensate for lower levels of global social support. Appraisal is discussed as a possible protective factor from maladjustment after exposure to major life events.