Specialized instruction within general education: a case study of one elementary school.

This study examined how classroom teachers in one elementary school approached the problem of designing specialized instruction for students with reading problems. We asked 12 teachers to rate their confidence in designing effective interventions and then to diagnose a student's reading problem, select an intervention, and implement it. Teachers were moderately confident about their ability to design effective interventions; but some teachers expressed doubts about how to proceed. Their approach to intervention differed somewhat from that of special education resource teachers. Some teachers experienced considerable difficulty in implementing the interventions they selected.     

Discourse appropriation and category boundary work: casual teachers in the market

With the increasing casualisation of the teacher labour force, there is little written on the experiences of casual teachers and the challenges they face in brokering professional identities within constantly shifting and uncertain work contexts. Being a category bound casual teacher (a product of category boundary work) is a complex subject position. The aim of this article is to advance our understandings of the identity work inherent in casual relief teachers (CRTs) performativity. Anti-essentialist theories support this exploration of CRT subjectivities and processes of discourse appropriation. Using collective biography methodology as re-storied memory work, this article speaks back to neoliberal politics of casualisation. The stories draw attention to how both experienced practitioners and newly graduated teachers might ‘do’ category boundary work within the complexity of school politics as they navigate the uncertainty of gaining and maintaining employment in the Education market.     

Structural marginalisation,othering and casual relief teacher subjectivities

Produced through market relations of neoliberal managerialism, teacher subjectivities are becoming progressively commodified. With the increasing casualisation of the teaching workforce, the well-being and status of casual relief teachers (CRTs) can be seen as an area of concern, at risk of ‘flexploitation’. More than just a convenient labour pool, CRTs operate on the margins of school communities, a space fraught with a range of issues. In many instances, CRTs experience less job satisfaction; less rapport with students and colleagues and less access to school information, professional development, resources and teaching materials. This article draws on a positioning theory to frame the discursive production of CRT selves within the neoliberal milieu. It offers a detailed analysis of collective biographies that explore narrative formations of casual teaching. Schooling discourse is replete with metaphorical language that frames teacher positioning, and a range of existing metaphors in CRT literature highlight their vulnerability in particular. Rather than offering an analysis that addresses casual teacher performance as a problem to be solved, this article proposes that the relationship between ‘structural marginalisation and the ‘othering’ that CRTs can experience is associated with the politics of market-related performativity.     

A framework for enabling graduate outcomes in undergraduate programmes

Our research aim was to determine what enables engagement with graduate outcomes in tertiary institutions in Aotearoa/New Zealand. We used a mixed methods approach comprising a survey sent to all tertiary institutions, follow-up interviews with 10 academic leaders and eight case studies of good practice of programmes engaged with graduate outcomes across four institutions. Using a general inductive approach, analysis of the academic leader interviews generated five categories of enablers: external drivers, structural/procedural, development, student achievement and contextual enablers. Combining these enablers led to an integrating framework for institutional engagement in the development of graduate outcomes. Drawing on wider datasets from the survey, interviews and cases studies, relevant strategies were identified that staff and students perceived influenced the development of graduate outcomes. The framework and the associated strategies adopt a ‘whole-of-institution’ approach, which is inclusive of programmes, staff and students and their individual histories, traditions, cultures and purposes thus allowing for each institution’s unique characteristics.     

Stability of Observed Maternal Behavior Across Tasks,Time, and Siblings

Objective. To further understanding of the stability and variability in maternal behavior across tasks, time, and sibling pairs. Design. Mothers (a total of 451) were observed separately in interactions with two of their children across two tasks and three time points. Independent observers rated responsive and negative maternal behaviors. Results. Moderate to large correlations across tasks (responsivity = .51; negativity = .41), time points (responsivity = .40; negativity = .38), and siblings (responsivity = .56; negativity = .49) were found. Although these correlations indicate significant stability (i.e., consistency) of maternal behavior, they also indicate variability, with unexplained variance ranging from 69–84% for responsivity and 75–86% for negativity. Conclusions. Proportions of maternal behavior across tasks, time, and siblings can and cannot be accurately predicted given examination of maternal behavior in a comparable task, later time point, or sibling. The current study underscores the importance of considering both stability and variability as equally critical components for understanding maternal behavior.     

Relative Effects of a Comprehensive Versus Reduced Training for Head Start Teachers Who Serve Spanish-Speaking English Learners

With increased demand for improved early childhood education services, it is important to better understand the essential professional development resources that have the greatest impact on both teacher and child outcomes. This study compared the effectiveness of two teacher-training models in bilingual Migrant and Seasonal Head Start and Head Start classrooms. Both conditions included the use of a technology-based student progress-monitoring tool. The progress monitoring provided detailed feedback on students’ progress 15 across the academic year and helped organize instructional groupings. The comprehensive treatment condition included biweekly professional development sessions, in-class mentoring, and provision of classroom materials, whereas the treatment-control condition included only the provision of a limited set of classroom materials. Across multiple sites in Texas, 49 pretest and posttest teacher observations and bilingual child assessments were collected on a subsample of students (n = 387). Research Findings: Improvements in teaching behaviors were observed in both experimental conditions; no significant differences were observed between teachers across conditions. Three measures of child language and literacy growth differed significantly, favoring the comprehensive treatment model, but most outcomes did not differ significantly between groups. Practice or Policy: Implications of these mixed findings and future research directions are discussed.     

Differential inhibition and stimulus generalization cannot account for value transfer in simultaneous discrimination learning by pigeons: Reply to Aitken

Aitken (1999) argues that, in a simultaneous discrimination, reports of the transfer of value from the positive to the negative stimulus can be more readily explained in terms of an artifact produced by the procedure in which differential inhibition accrues to the negative test stimuli during training, together with stimulus generalization (similarity between the positive and negative stimuli). We argue that (1) there is little evidence for differential inhibition, and it often occurs in the wrong direction; (2) value transfer can be demonstrated when differential value is established to the positive stimuli afterdiscrimination training, when differential inhibition is not likely to be a factor; and (3) on both logical and empirical grounds, stimulus similarity does not provide an adequate account of the transfer of value from the positive to the negative stimulus (i.e., the strongest evidence for value transfer occurs when there is least stimulus similarity). We propose that value transfer occurs whenever there is relatively little experience with the negative stimuli. However, when there is extended experience with the negative stimuli, contrast will be found.     

AN INVESTIGATION OF RELATIONS AMONG ACADEMIC ENABLERS AND READING OUTCOMES

The current study examined the link between academic enablers and different types of reading achievement measures. Academic enablers are skills and behaviors that support, or enable, students to perform well academically, such as engagement, interpersonal skills, motivation, and study skills. The sample in this study consisted of 61 third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade students (54% male). Academic enablers were rated by classroom teachers via the Academic Competence Evaluation Scales (ACES; DiPerna & Elliott, 2000 ). Four different measures of reading achievement were included: classroom grades, global ratings of reading skills, standardized test scores, and Reading CBM scores. Results indicated that academic enablers were significantly related to each type of reading outcome. Academic enablers accounted for the greatest amount of variance for classroom grades (45%) and the least amount of variance in standardized test scores (11%). Results suggest that academic enablers are an important part of academic success in reading, particularly classroom grades, but when considering the variance accounted for by academic enablers, they alone are not likely to improve Reading CBM scores or standardized test scores.     

Geriatric Expertise among Medical School Faculty: Preparing for the Challenges of an Aging Population

This study examined non-geriatrician physicians' experiences in a geriatrics-focused faculty development program, and effects of the program on their geriatrics knowledge and their teaching and practice. In-depth interviews were conducted with all physicians (n = 26) participating in the Dean's Faculty Scholars in Aging program. Most participants reported substantial gains in geriatric knowledge, and in the knowledge that older people are a distinct group with special needs. Most reported substantial changes in the way they care for older patients. Most reported incorporating notably more geriatrics content into their teaching. The program may serve as a process to address the growing need for physicians with geriatric knowledge.