Aligning Teaching to Learning: A 3-Year Study Examining the Embedding of Language and Argumentation into Elementary Science Classrooms

How can classrooms become communities of inquiry that connect intellectually challenging science content with language-based activities (opportunities to talk, listen, read, and write) especially in settings with diverse populations? This question guided a 3-year mixed-methods research study using the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach in cooperation with 2 universities, area education agencies, 6 school districts, 32 elementary teachers, and over 700 students each year. The participating teachers engaged in a yearly summer institute, planned units, implemented this curriculum in the classroom, and contributed to ongoing data collection and analysis. Findings demonstrate that critical embedded language opportunities contribute to an increase in student Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) scores in science and language based on level of implementation particularly for elementary students who receive free and reduced lunch (an indicator of living at the poverty level).     

Women Students’ Interactions with Faculty and Exposure to Good Teaching at Colleges and Universities with Varying Histories of Admitting Women

This study considers how institutional histories of admitting women are associated with present college experiences, and uses data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education to compare the experiences of women at women’s colleges or former women’s colleges to those of women at former men’s colleges and colleges that have always been coeducational. Results indicate that women attending former men’s colleges and colleges that have always been coeducational seem to experience similar or greater frequency and quality of student–faculty interaction and exposure to good teaching practices, compared to women attending women’s or former women’s colleges. Results also suggest that considering the gender enrollment histories of colleges and universities may provide valuable context for evaluating the experiences of women at women’s colleges and coeducational institutions.     

Teacher perceptions of the regular education initiative

A survey of 381 special and regular educators assessed perceptions and opinions surrounding the regular education initiative. Confirmatory factor analysis supported an a priori hypothesized structure of teachers' responses. Items factored into 14 categories. These factors describe issues related to preferred placement of students with mild disabilities, teachers' responsibility and ownership, teacher preparedness for meeting the needs of these students, achievement outcomes for all children, and the changes that would result from adopting the proposed consultant model rather than a pullout program. Results favored current special education practices (pullout programs) in elementary schools.     

Laptop versus longhand note taking: effects on lecture notes and achievement

There has been a shift in college classrooms from students recording lecture notes using a longhand pencil-paper medium to using laptops. The present study investigated whether note-taking medium (laptop, longhand) influenced note taking and achievement when notes were recorded but not reviewed (note taking’s process function) and when notes were recorded and reviewed (note taking’s product function). One unique aspect of the study was determining how laptop and longhand note taking influence the recording of lecture images in notes and image-related achievement. Note-taking results showed that laptop note takers recorded more notes (idea units and words) and more verbatim lecture strings than did longhand note takers who, in turn, recorded more visual notes (signals and images) than did laptop note takers. Achievement results showed that when taking laptop notes, the process function of note taking was more beneficial than the product function of note taking (i.e., better image-related learning and similar text-related learning). When taking longhand notes, the product function of note taking was more beneficial than the process function of note taking (i.e., better text-related learning and similar image-related learning). Achievement findings suggest that the optimal note-taking medium depends on the nature of the lecture and whether notes are reviewed.     

The basis of feeling-of-knowing judgments in patients with schizophrenia

We examined the basis of feeling-of-knowing judgments (FOK) in patients with schizophrenia. Such patients typically have impaired memory and awareness, but not metamemory-accuracy deficits. The magnitude of FOKs are lower for patients with schizophrenia than for healthy participants, but judgments equally predict memory performance. In healthy participants, FOK is based on accessible information, including retrieval of partial-target (e.g., retrieving the first letter) and contextual information (e.g., related facts). In Experiment 1, we examined if accessible information predicts FOKs for episodic memory in patients with schizophrenia. Patients and healthy controls learned names paired with drawings of imaginary animals. The results showed that patients’ FOK increased with the retrieval of partial-target and contextual information. In Experiment 2, using semantic-memory general-information questions, accessible partial-target information predicted FOKs in patients with schizophrenia. The accessibility model of FOK applies to patients with schizophrenia, and it is important to determine what occurs in other memory-impaired populations.     

Stylistic Variation at the "Single-Word" Stage: Relations between Maternal Speech Characteristics and Children's Vocabulary Composition and Usage

In this study we test a number of different claims about the nature of stylistic variation at the "single-word" stage by examining the relation between variation in early vocabulary composition, variation in early language use, and variation in the structural and functional propreties of mothers' child-directed speech. Maternal-report and observational data were collected for 26 children at 10, 50, and 100 words, These were then correlated with a variety of different measures of maternal speech at 10 words, The results show substantial variation in the percentage of common nouns and unanalyzed phrases in children's vocabularies, and singficant relations between this variation and the way in which language is used by the child. They also reveal singficant relations between the way in whch mothers use language at 10 words and the way in chich their children use language at 50 words and between certain formal properties of mothers speech at 10 words and the percentage of common nouns and unanalyzed phrases in children's early vocabularies, However, most of these relations desappear when an attempt is made to control for ossible effects of the child on the mother at Time 1. The exception is a singficant negative correlation between mothers tendency to produce speech that illustrates word boundaries and the percentage of unanalyzed phrases at 50 and 100 words. This suggests that mothers whose sprech provides the child with information about where new words begin and end tend to have children with few unanalyzed. phrases in their early vocabularies.     

Linking family hardship to children's lives

The impact of drastic income loss on children is mediated by a number of family adaptations, including the shift toward more labor-intensive households and altered relationships. Using newly developed codes on parenting behavior during the Great Depression, this study investigates the role of parental behavior (rejecting, nonsupportive) in linking economic hardship to children's lives in the Oakland Growth Study. The results extend beyond those reported in Children of the Great Depression by showing that economic hardship adversely influenced the psychosocial well-being of girls, but not boys, by increasing the rejecting behavior of fathers. The parenting behavior of mothers did not vary significantly by income loss. In addition, the rejecting influence of hard-pressed fathers was more pronounced in relation to less attractive daughters, as judged by physical features. Attractive daughters were not likely to be maltreated by their fathers, no matter how severe the economic pressure. These outcomes on family mediation and conditional effects underscore the importance of viewing economic decline in relation to both the child's characteristics and parenting behavior. An understanding of the effects of economic decline in children's lives requires knowledge of parent and child behavior within the family and life course.     

Social learning as a key factor in sustainability transitions: The case of Okayama City

The Okayama Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project is an ongoing initiative in Okayama City, Japan, established in 2005 by the Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) Okayama and the Okayama Municipal Government with the aim “to create a community where people learn, think and act together towards realising a sustainable society”. With a diverse participant base of over 240 organisations – including community learning centres (kominkans), schools, universities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) – this initiative has administered numerous programmes. It has engaged a large and diverse group of citizens from Okayama City in exploring sustainability issues through collective discussion, envisioning and practice with the aim of living more sustainable lives. The decade-long experience of the Okayama ESD Project has gained international attention, and the “Okayama Model” is considered an inspiring example of community-based ESD due to the positive changes it has supported. In this article, the Okayama ESD Project is presented as a case study on effective social learning for sustainability. In particular, the practical efforts made are examined to provide insights into how various elements of a social learning process were strengthened and linked to create active learning cycles among community members. In addition, the conditions for creating an effective learning community are investigated, while the practical actions taken are examined in relation to creating an effective social learning process. Finally, this article presents the important role which social learning has played in Okayama City’s transition to sustainability and identifies the key efforts made to address and link each of these elements of social learning into a dynamic cycle.