Assisting children and families with military‐related disruptions: The United States Marine Corps school liaison program

Military families face a number of unique challenges, including frequent relocations and school transitions, as well as extended separations from loved ones. The military, schools, and communities have been working together to build the capacity of children, youth, and families to successfully cope with the stressors they encounter. Most branches of the military have instituted liaison programs within schools and communities to help military school‐aged children make more seamless transitions from one school to another due to relocations. This study assessed the thoughts and perceptions of U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) school liaison professionals (SLs) regarding their work with a broad array of stakeholders, both on‐ and off‐base. Generally, SLs expressed positive sentiments regarding the USMC liaison program. They also reported that they were working hard at developing stronger connections to various constituencies in position to assist military families. Unfortunately, there was some indication that SLs may be at risk for burnout. Given the needs of military children, youth, and families, SLs appear to be filling an important function that could enhance military–school–community partnerships. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Facebook and classroom group work: A trial study involving University of Botswana Advanced Oral Presentation students

In the 21st century, the use of information technology in the classroom is advancing rapidly, especially in higher education. The Internet, through social networking, has made it possible for students to learn and teachers to teach outside the classroom walls. Facebook in particular has made it possible for students to interact and communicate with their teachers and among themselves about their progress and about the problems they encounter in learning. Yet, limited research exists on the use of Facebook in education in Sub‐Saharan Africa more especially in Botswana. This is in spite of the observation that Sub‐Saharan Africa is the fastest growing Internet population with a growth of more than 2500% between 2000 and 2011. This study therefore set out to examine (1) the students' interest in using Facebook to facilitate group work activities in the Advanced Oral Presentation Skills course; (2) whether the students interact and communicate using Facebook on matters relating to the Advanced Oral Presentations course; (3) whether the students benefitted from using Facebook for learning advanced oral presentation skills; and (4) what challenges the students encountered when using Facebook in the Advanced Oral Presentations course. In this trial study, students were allocated groups and assigned to conduct their group activities via Facebook. Although this was optional, more than 80% of the groups opted for Facebook and less than 20% chose to do their group work traditionally. A follow‐up evaluation of the experiment was done through a questionnaire and interviews. The findings suggest that Facebook could facilitate student communication and interaction about group assignments.     

Engagement Beyond Interruption: A Performative Perspective on Listening and Ethics

This article presents an understanding of listening as a performative and pedagogical act. Moving beyond existing theories of listening in communication and education studies that frame listening as a selective and incremental act, this article considers listening in terms of a performance studies and critical education studies perspective. An argument for listening as an embodied act is developed through the consideration of 3 classroom interactions and the critical reading of existing education and communication studies literature on listening. Six implications of the respecification of listening as a mode of embodiment are offered for critical education studies.     

Analogy in Scientific Argumentation

Analogical reasoning has long been an important tool in the production of scientific knowledge, yet many scientists remain hesitant to fully endorse (or even admit) its use. As the teachers of scientific and technical writers, we have an opportunity and responsibility to teach them to use analogy without their writing becoming “overly inductive,” as Aristotle warned. To that end, I here offer an analysis of an example of the effective use of analogy in Rodney Brooks's “Intelligence Without Representation.” In this article, Brooks provides a model for incorporating these tools into an argument by building four of them into an enthymeme that clearly organizes his argument. This combination of inductive and deductive reasoning helped the article become a very influential piece of scholarship in artificial intelligence research, and it can help our students learn to use analogy in their own writing.

Every one who effects persuasion through proof does in fact use either enthymemes or examples: there is no other way. (Aristotle, 1984b Aristotle. 1984b. The rhetoric and the poetics of Aristotle, Edited by: Roberts, W. R. and Bywater, I. New York: The Modern Library.  [Google Scholar], p. 26)     

Neglect the Structure of Multitrait-Multimethod Data at Your Peril: Implications for Associations With External Variables

In 1959, Campbell and Fiske introduced the use of multitrait–multimethod (MTMM) matrices in psychology, and for the past 4 decades confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) has commonly been used to analyze MTMM data. However, researchers do not always fit CFA models when MTMM data are available; when CFA modeling is used, multiple models are available that have attendant strengths and weaknesses. In this article, we used a Monte Carlo simulation to investigate the drawbacks of either using CFA models that fail to match the data-generating model or completely ignore the MTMM structure of data when the research goal is to uncover associations between trait constructs and external variables. We then used data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to illustrate the substantive implications of fitting models that partially or completely ignore MTMM data structures. Results from analyses of both simulated and empirical data show noticeable biases when the MTMM data structure is partially or completely neglected.     

Toward Improving the Modeling of MTMM Data: A Response to Geiser,Koch, and Eid (2014)

Geiser, Koch, and Eid (2014) expressed their views on an article we published describing findings from a simulation study and an empirical study of multitrait–multimethod (MTMM) data. Geiser and colleagues raised concerns with (a) our use of the term bias, (b) our statement that the correlated trait–correlated method minus one [CT–C(M–1)] model is not in line with Campbell and Fiske’s (1959) conceptualization of MTMM data, (c) our selection of a data-generating model for our simulation study, and (d) our preference for the correlated trait–correlated method (CT–CM) model over the CT–C(M–1) model. Here, we respond to and elaborate on issues raised by Geiser et al. We maintain our position on each of these issues and point to the interpretational challenges of the CT–C(M–1) model. But, we clarify our opinion that none of the existing structural models for MTMM data are flawless; each has its strengths and each has its weaknesses. We further remind readers of the goal, findings, and implications of our recently published article.     

Fostering a “head start” in math: observing teachers in early childhood mathematics engagement

ABSTRACT

Studies show that early engagement with mathematics leads to increased math achievement later in life. Yet, early childhood teachers do not regard mathematics as critical to young learners’ development and lack confidence with helping children learn mathematics. Early childhood teacher comfort and engagement with mathematics is a critical element to promoting intentional math instruction. Research was conducted to examine the effects of an innovative professional development program for Head Start preschool teachers with the goal of increasing pedagogical content knowledge and confidence in teaching mathematics. The findings in this article focus on classroom observations that concentrated on teacher engagement with mathematics.