Sharing Stories: Parents' Involvement in Reading with Inner-City Nursery Children

Recent research has underlined both the benefits of parents reading stories to their children before they start school and of parental involvement in the early reading stages. A one-year project was carried out in the nursery class of an inner-city primary school to set up a regular book borrowing service to enable and encourage parents to read regularly to their pre-reception class children. The level of parental and child interest was monitored throughout. An attempt to measure the effect of the input was made by testing the children involved in the project at the end of their reception class year. Although the results do not show any significant difference in the level of achievement between the experimental school and the two control schools, the project did reveal an unexpectedly high level of parental interest in orienting children towards literacy.     

Social Foundations of Education as an Unwelcome Counter-Narrative and as Educational Praxis

I am grateful for this opportunity to reflect on the field of Social Foundations of Education (SFE), in part because it affords an opportunity to advance an historical analysis of the trajectory of the field different from what we provided when my colleagues and I sent to press the Handbook of Research the Social Foundations of Education in 2009 (Tozer, Gallegos, Henry, 2011 Tozer, S. E., & Butts, R. F. (2011). The evolution of social foundations of education. In Tozer, S., Gallegos, B., & Henry, A., (Eds), Handbook of research in the social foundations of education (pp. 1–14). New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). I also welcome the opportunity to acknowledge a particular activist tradition established by earlier generations of Social Foundations scholars who have influenced my work. To quote Stuart Hall, these men and women engaged Social Foundations “as a practice which always thinks about its intervention in a world in which it would make some difference, in which it would have some effect” (in Tozer et?al., 2011 Tozer, S., Gallegos, B., & Henry, A. (2011). (Eds.). Handbook of research in the social foundations of education (p. 11). New York, NY: Routledge. [Google Scholar], p. 11). Finally, this occasion invites a perspective on the equity work in Chicago Public Schools that we have pursued since I introduced it in my AESA Presidential Address in 2006.     

The differential influence of instructional context on the academic engagement of students with behavior problems

The teacher–student interactions of 39 students exhibiting high externalizing behavior problems and 59 students exhibiting average behavioral adjustment from urban elementary schools were directly observed. Comparisons between these students within four different instructional contexts indicated that levels of student engagement were significantly related to both behavior and classroom context. Although teachers’ use of behavioral management strategies was minimal, it was significantly related to the type of instructional context in which it occurred. Findings are discussed in terms of how different instructional contexts place unique demands and offer distinct affordances for students with behavior problems. A more comprehensive understanding of the influence of these environmental contexts can allow teachers to scaffold task demands to bring them within the domains of the student's ability.     

Comparison of sequence of trunk and arm motions between short and long official distance groups in javelin throwing

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of sequences of the trunk and arm angular motions on the performance of javelin throwing. In this study, 32 male and 30 female elite javelin throwers participated and were separated into a short official distance group or a long official distance group in each gender. Three-dimensional coordinates of 21 body landmarks and 3 marks on the javelin in the best trial were collected for each subject. Joint center linear velocities and selected trunk and arm segment and joint angles and angular velocities were calculated. The times of the initiations of the selected segment and joint angular motions and maximum angular velocities were determined. The sequences of the initiations of the selected segment and joint angular motions and maximum angular velocities were compared between short and long official distance groups and between genders. The results demonstrated that short and long official distance groups employed similar sequences of the trunk and arm motions. Male and female javelin throwers employed different sequences of the trunk and arm motions. The sequences of the trunk and arm motions were different from those of the maximal joint center linear velocities.     

Handwriting fluency and the quality of primary grade students’ writing

Reading and Writing - Until children can produce letters quickly and accurately, it is assumed that handwriting disrupts and limits the quality of their text. This investigation is the largest...     

A review of handwriting research: Progress and prospects from 1980 to 1994

Contemporary handwriting research has focused on skilled performance, the developing capabilities of children, atypical development, the effectiveness of various letter forms, instructional techniques, and the construction and evaluation of assessment instruments. This paper critically reviews and synthesizes research conducted between 1980 and 1994 in each of these areas, providing suggestions for future research. Considerable progress was made during this time period in understanding the processes involved in handwriting control and development as well as in teaching students with handwriting difficulties. In addition, advances in theory, experimental procedures, on-line recording devices, and computerized instructional programs resulted in an increased level of sophistication. Thus, the prospects for future research in this area are promising.     

Revisiting the Two Faces of Child Care Quality: Structure and Process

While child care quality has been examined in numerous studies, the definition of quality and specifically, the concepts of structural and process quality, have not been adequately explored. In this qualitative analysis of the constructs of process and structural quality, a content analysis of the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R), a commonly used measure of process quality, was conducted to investigate its use as a measure of process quality. Through constant comparative analysis of the ECERS-R at the indicator level, definitions of structure and process were formulated. Results show that over half of the indicators of the ECERS-R are measuring structural quality rather than process quality. Further examination of quality as a dynamic exchange between individuals and context is needed to advance research in the area of early childhood program quality.     

Journaling During a School-Based Secondary Methods Course: Exploring a Route to Teaching Reflection

Journal of Science Teacher Education -