Restructuring and Reculturing: Practicum supervision as professional development for teachers

This paper reports a small case study in which selected experienced co-operating teachers were appointed as school-based teacher educators (SBTE) undertaking a supervisory/ mentoring role for the 3-week period of the first practicum for students in a one-year Graduate Diploma of Education-Secondary (GDE) course. The study identifies any benefits that accrue as a result of changes to the traditional triadic arrangement and any changes in perception about the various roles of participants. The findings illuminate the opportunities for a more collaborative practicum model that has the potential to benefit all participants.     

Maternal and paternal similarities and differences in parenting: An examination of Mexican-American parents of young children

The present study evaluated the degree of parental similarity–dissimilarity across parenting dimensions operationalized in terms of: (1) one's own and one's partner's style; (2) meta-emotion belief structures; (3) behavioral strategies in reaction to children's emotions; as well as (4) parental support and responsiveness. The first four dimensions were assessed with independent self-reports from both mothers and fathers and the latter was measured through observed behaviors in a discussion of emotions. Fifty-seven families participated. The mothers (92%) and fathers (90%) of preschool-aged children (mean age 57.5 months, 54% male) were predominantly of Mexican descent. Results revealed significant similarity when comparing mothers’ and fathers’ observed behaviors. Agreement among parents also emerged when comparing minimizing coping reactions to children's emotional displays and self-reported and reports of one's partner's authoritative parenting. Despite evidence of agreement on use of authoritative strategies and similarity on observed behaviors, comparisons of mean levels revealed dissimilarity. The participating mothers reported a greater tendency to employ authoritative strategies and their partners’ ratings of the mothers’ parenting confirmed this perceived difference. In addition, comparisons of mothers’ and fathers’ observed behaviors in interaction with their children suggested that, while mothers and fathers are engaged in similar behaviors, mothers are observed to engage in them more frequently. These results reinforce the need to assess both parents, employing multiple methods, in determining interdependence or their combined and unique contributions to socializing children.     

Teacher and child variables as predictors of academic engagement among low‐income African American children

A causal model for understanding the complex interplay between student‐reported teacher behaviors, student self‐systems, and student engagement was tested. One hundred seventeen African American students in grades 1 through 12 completed a comprehensive questionnaire regarding teacher context, self, and engagement variables. A series of hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized mediation models and to construct a path model. Most hypotheses were supported. Student self‐system variables (perceived competency and autonomy) mediated relations between teacher context (structure and autonomy support), and engagement. Contrary to predictions, however, teacher involvement exerted a strong and direct effect on student engagement even when controlling for grade level and self‐system variables. Given existing research showing that African American students are at risk for low teacher involvement and that engagement is critical for academic success, research and intervention strategies are urgently needed to promote teacher involvement with these students. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Seven Lessons for Helping Children Make the Most of Their Abilities

We describe seven essential lessons for anyone involved in teaching or research on education. These lessons emerged from our research on developing thinking skills in children and adults. The lessons focus on helping children develop self‐confidence and a belief in self‐efficacy, teaching children to ask good questions, helping children discover their true motivations, encouraging children to take intellectual risks, teaching children to take responsibility for themselves, showing children the value of delaying gratification and encouraging children to put themselves in another's place. We discuss the insights of each lesson through examples from our own and others’ work, and review the recommendations of each lesson for educators and researchers.     

African-American women who use crack cocaine: a comparison of mothers who live with and have been separated from their children

OBJECTIVE: This study examined factors that influenced caregiver status for African-American mothers who use crack cocaine but are not receiving drug treatment and participated in an HIV prevention study in North Carolina. METHOD: Caregiver mothers who were living with at least one of their children at intake (n = 257) were compared with non-Caregivers who were separated from all of their children (n = 378). Bivariate analyses and logistic regression were used to compare these mothers at intake on current drug use, risky sex practices, psychological symptoms, victimization, and aggression. RESULTS: Compared with Caregiver mothers, non-Caregivers reported higher frequencies of drug use, risky sex practices, psychological distress, and victimization experiences. Caregiver mothers were more likely than non-Caregiver mothers to have health insurance, but were less likely to have received drug treatment. Logistic regression found that non-Caregiver mothers were significantly more likely than Caregiver mothers to be older, to have been physically abused as children, to trade sex more frequently, to be homeless, and to have no health insurance. Recent crack use, psychological symptoms, and victimization were not significantly related to caregiver status. CONCLUSIONS: Findings that socio-environmental factors were more strongly associated with caregiver status than crack use underscore the importance of contextual issues such as housing, victimization history, and resources in serving maternal crack users. Community outreach and interventions that engage mothers who use drugs and live with their children may be more effective strategies than formal office-based services to link mothers who use crack and their children to needed drug treatment and family and child services.     

High school students’ literacy practices and identities,and the figured world of school

Conventional wisdom holds that American teenagers do not read or write – that they are a media‐driven group who prefer movies, television and playing video games. Ethnographic data gathered in the High School Literacy Project, a study of four North Carolina high schools, showed a far different picture of teenage literacy. This paper reports on partial findings of the larger study and argues that students use their literacy practices to form their identities within, and sometimes in opposition to, the figured worlds of school, work and family. Many students look to school to provide formal literacy experiences, but find their reading and writing passions at odds with the demands of the school curriculum.     

Whatever happened to STS? Pre-service physics teachers and the history of quantum mechanics

If issues in the history and philosophy of science and those related to science, technology and society are generally accepted in policy, how ought these be handled in practice? Mandate in policy does not guarantee implementation in practice. Indeed, HPS and STS have for decades been marginalized in the curriculum. Subject areas designated to teach components of HPS and STS, such as design and technology, social studies and science, seem preoccupied with other aspects of the curriculum and rarely get around to HPS and STS. This study aimed at eliciting pre-service physics teachers’ perspectives on using HPS to address quantum mechanics and scientific literacy. Through questionnaires, observation of and participation in a physics methods class, 16 pre-service teachers were asked to identify topics they considered problematic to teach or learn. They were challenged to identify those topics that could effectively be taught or learned from HPS. The pre-service teachers agreed that HPS and STS were more appealing for teaching some topics, such as quantum mechanics, which is the focus of this article. This intervention in physics teacher education demonstrates the importance of using specific methods in physics instruction to demonstrate the value of HPS in scientific literacy.     

Children's expectancies and perceptions of adults: effects on rapport

Interpersonal expectancy effects are less thoroughly understood in children than in adults, yet they can have practical implications for children's interactions. To understand better children's expectancies, this study extended earlier work to include expectancies of adults, preexisting (i.e., noninduced) expectancies, and joint effects of expectancies and subsequent perceptions. Children (N = 81) in Grades 4 through 6 (i.e., 9- to 12-year-olds) indicated their expectancies of adults who subsequently interacted with them using a style of either autonomy support (AS) or control (CN). After each interaction, children reported on perceived AS and on rapport. Results indicated that children's expectancies and subsequent perceptions interact to predict rapport, adult AS is associated with increased rapport, and the effect of children's expectancies on rapport is only partially mediated by their perceptions.