Teacher‐child interaction in the teaching of reading: a review of research perspectives over twenty‐five years

Taking as a starting point a paper published in 1981, this paper considers the importance of interaction between teacher and pupil in learning to read. Twenty‐five years ago, the study of classroom language was relatively new. Research perspectives have moved from describing the process of interaction between teacher and child to considering the outcomes. At the same time a greater awareness of the sociocultural nature of language and classrooms has developed. An enduring theme in research from a variety of perspectives has been the call for more extended opportunities for exchanges about texts and more reciprocity in teacher‐child dialogue. Studies of classroom practice, however, evidence persistence in the use of triadic dialogue in which the teacher controls the interaction and effectively closes down discussion. Despite initiatives calling for high‐quality interaction, it is argued here that there is still no agreement about what high‐quality interaction should look like.     

Robustness Conditions for MIIV-2SLS When the Latent Variable or Measurement Model is Structurally Misspecified

Most researchers acknowledge that virtually all structural equation models (SEMs) are approximations due to violating distributional assumptions and structural misspecifications. There is a large literature on the unmet distributional assumptions, but much less on structural misspecifications. In this paper, we examine the robustness to structural misspecification of the model implied instrumental variable, two-stage least square (MIIV-2SLS) estimator of SEMs. We introduce two types of robustness: robust-unchanged and robust-consistent. We develop new robustness analytic conditions for MIIV-2SLS and illustrate these with hypothetical models, simulated data, and an empirical example. Our conditions enable a researcher to know whether, for example, a structural misspecification in the latent variable model influences the MIIV-2SLS estimator for measurement model equations and vice versa. Similarly, we establish robustness conditions for correlated errors. The new robustness conditions provide guidance on the types of structural misspecifications that affect parameter estimates and they assist in diagnosing the source of detected problems with MIIVs.     

Immediate Effects of a School Readiness Intervention for Children in Foster Care

Research Findings: School readiness is a strong predictor of adjustment in elementary school and beyond. Children in foster care are at particular risk for academic and social difficulties in school. Limitations in self-regulatory skills and caregiver involvement among these children might contribute to a lack of school readiness. This study presents the immediate effects on school readiness of a targeted, short-term intervention designed to improve children's early literacy, prosocial, and self-regulatory skills during the summer before kindergarten entry: Kids in Transition to School. Using a randomized controlled trial design, we assigned 192 children in foster care to either an intervention or services as usual comparison condition. Multimethod, multi-informant assessments were conducted immediately prior to and following the completion of the intervention. The results from structural equation modeling indicated that the intervention had significant positive effects on early literacy and self-regulatory skills. Practice or Policy: An efficacious, short-term, readily scalable, theoretically based intervention targeted at specific vulnerabilities for children in foster care may help to improve the school readiness and eventual school adjustment of these children.     

Prospective elementary school teachers’ professional noticing of children’s early numeracy

The goal of this study is to develop the professional noticing abilities of prospective elementary school teachers in the context of the Stages of Early Arithmetic Learning. In their mathematics methods course, ninety-four prospective elementary school teachers from three institutions participated in a researcher-developed five-session module that progressively nests the three interrelated components of professional noticing—attending, interpreting, and deciding. The module embeds video excerpts of diagnostic interviews of children doing mathematics (representations of practice) to prepare the prospective teachers for similar work. The module culminates with prospective teachers implementing similar diagnostic interviews (approximations of practice) to gain experience in the three component skills of professional noticing. A pre- and post-assessment was administered to measure prospective teachers’ change in the three components. A Wilcoxon signed ranks test was conducted and found the prospective elementary school teachers demonstrated significant growth in all three components. Selected prospective elementary school teacher responses on the pre- and post-assessment are provided to illustrate sample growth in the prospective teachers’ abilities to professionally notice. These results, the first in an ongoing study, indicate the potential that prospective teachers can develop professional noticing skills through this module. Continued data collection and analysis from the ongoing study by these authors and future, longer-term emphasis on professional noticing for prospective teachers should be studied.     

Exploring sexuality education opportunities at in-home sex-toy parties in the United States

While debates about adolescent sexuality education persist in the United States, little attention has been paid to adult sexuality education. Research suggests that teachable moments may be present in interactions between adult bookstore employees and the consumers who shop at these venues. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential for in-home sex-toy parties as an avenue for adult sexuality education for women. A total of 1197 women who facilitate in-home sex-toy parties for a large US-based company completed an online questionnaire related to their experiences facilitating these parties. As part of this larger survey, participants reported in an open-ended question the three most commonly asked questions they received when facilitating a party in the previous three months. Questions reported (n = 3149) were analyzed for commonalities using qualitative methods. Resulting themes were then compared with Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS) guidelines for comprehensive sexuality education to assess the potential for teachable moments at the events. Of the 36 topical areas identified by SIECUS, 31 areas were represented in questions reported by consultants indicating a strong potential for teachable moments related to sexuality education. In-home sex-toy parties may provide an additional avenue through which to increase adult sexual literacy.     

Uncertainty and previvors’ cancer risk management: understanding the decision-making process

Women who test positive for a BRCA genetic mutation, but who have not been diagnosed, or 'previvors,' experience intense, chronological risk-related uncertainty. Women’s risk management medical decisions can be a way to manage their uncertainty, but little is known about how uncertainty informs their decision or how uncertainty is impacted by these medical decisions. Using an uncertainty management theoretical lens, we interviewed 46 previvors about their decision-making process. A thematic analysis revealed two uncertainty management (i.e., risk-reducing) decision-making pathways (preventive surgery and increased surveillance) with each pathway encompassing a three-part process of 1) uncertainty appraisal, 2) medical decision (i.e., uncertainty management strategy), and 3) outcomes. The findings advance theoretical thinking about uncertainty and risk management as an ongoing, distressful chronic experience, and highlight the importance of life-span phenomena in women’s decision-making process. Based on the findings, we constructed a translational tool to aid genetic counselors and previvors facing these medical decisions.     

Popular Culture

Joseph C. Smith The Day the Music Died (New York: Grove Press, Inc., 1981, 12.95 cloth)

Five Thousand Years of Popular Culture: Popular Culture Before Printing (Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Press, 1980, 9.95 pb)

Barnard Rudofsky Now I Lay Me Down to Eat: Notes and Footnotes on the Lost Art of Living (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1980, 19.95, cloth).

Seymour and Rhoda L. Fisher's Pretend the World is Funny and Forever: A Psychological Analysis of Comedians, Clowns, and Actors (Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1981, 19.95, cloth)

Jock Kinneir, in Words & Buildings: The Art and Practice of Architectural Graphics (New York: Watson-Guptill, - 1980, 32.50, cloth).     

The persuasive campaign: A pedagogy for the contemporary first course in speech communication

The goals, pedagogy, and structure of the first course in speech communication often convey an unintended but nonetheless erroneous implication of audience control by a speaker. Using the persuasive campaign as the pedagogical basis for the speech fundamentals course allows for a broader range of rhetorical strategies and new criteria for evaluating student performances. Use of the persuasive campaign is also totally consistent with contemporary theories of human behavior.     

Influence of measurement errors on HIV risk behavior analysis: A case study examining condom use among drug users

Multiple indicators of HIV risk behaviors are not yet well developed in the field of drug abuse and AIDS prevention, with most research relying on single‐item measures. Weak or inconclusive statistical analyses often result from measurement errors. This study illustrates the problems of biased statistical estimates when single‐item measures with measurement errors are used. Using HIV risk behaviors among injection drug users as an example, this study shows the impact of measurement error on statistical results in path analysis. The results suggest that more attention is needed to address the issue of measurement reliability in survey data. Measurement error should be taken into account in analyzing HIV risk behaviors, and appropriate multiple indicators for a full range of HIV risk behaviors should be developed to deal successfully with the “errors‐in‐variables” problem.     

The political economy of post-secondary education: a comparison of British Columbia,Ontario and Québec

A policy sociology approach is taken to examine the connections between neo-liberalism, post-secondary provincial education (PSE) policy in Canada and the impact of those policies. Our thesis regarding the broad political economy of PSE is that over the last two decades the adoption of this ideology has been a major cause of some dramatic changes in these policies and has brought about a fundamental transformation of PSE in Canada. The discussion builds on a comparative, multiple, nested case study conducted at the provincial (Québec, Ontario and British Columbia) and national level. Through the analysis of key provincial and federal documents, the team concludes that five themes dominated the PSE policy-making process. These themes are Accessibility, Accountability, Marketization, Labour Force Development and Research and Development. In discussing these themes, we illustrate their impact on and within the three provincial PSE systems: BC, Ontario and Québec. In the conclusion, we place the changes in their political and economic contexts and explicate the intended and unintended consequences of these policy priorities. We argue that the pressure for access has led to the emergence of new institutional types, raising new questions about differentiation, mandate and identity and new lines of stratification. A trend toward vocationalism in the university sector has coincided with ‘academic drift’ in the community college sector, leading to convergences in programming and institutional functions across the system, as well as competition for resources, students, and external partners. Unprecedented demand has made education a viable industry, sustaining both a proliferation of private providers and a range of new entrepreneurial activities within public institutions. Levels and objectives of public funding have swung dramatically over the period. Public investments in PSE, in the form of capital grants and tuition subsidies, have alternately expanded and contracted, being at some times applied across the board and at others targeted to specific social groups or economic sectors. Likewise, policymakers have treated PSE at times as a mechanism for social inclusion and equality, at others as an instrument for labour force development, and at yet others as a market sector in its own right.