The Content of Educational Psychology: an Analysis of Top Ranked Journals from 2003 Through 2007

Educational psychology as a field of study has encountered a lack of distinction by overlapping with other fields of study or disciplines. Consequently, educational psychology continues to have difficulty claiming jurisdiction over bodies of research knowledge and has been encroached upon by other more crystallized disciplines. The purpose of this study is to examine the research literature published across top-ranked educational psychology journals to identify the common ground and current trends in research content and to identify those areas that can be reclaimed by the discipline as its own. Overall, 758 articles published in six journals from January 2003 through December 2007 were included in this study. A combination of statistics-based and linguistics-based methods were used to determine how frequently terms occur in the data and establishing a semantic network which created a probabilistic analysis of the co-occurrence of terms resulting in a constellation of terms showing the relationship and relative importance of the categories of terms. The results showed a consistency of research categories suggesting that in spite of reports to the contrary, there is a collective agreement among educational psychologists demonstrated by the empirical research in the field.     

‘Bowing from the heart’: An investigation into discourses of professionalism and the work of caring for students in further education

Since their incorporation in 1993, further education (FE) colleges in England have been responsible for their own staffing and, faced with funding constraints as well as recruitment and retention targets, some have introduced a new category of staff referred to here as ‘learning support workers’ (LSWs). Though their employment conditions and specific duties vary considerably, LSWs' work often includes providing individual care for students. In this small‐scale study, using semi‐structured interviews, the perceptions of some teachers and LSWs about the nature of their relationships with each other and with students are investigated. The study is set broadly in the context of debates about the impact of public sector reform on FE colleges and teachers. A discourse analysis approach is adopted in discussion of the data. The authors conclude that although they are differently positioned in relation to traditional discourses of professionalism, both teachers and LSWs are perceived to be carrying out what Hochschild termed ‘emotional labour’. The contradictory nature of emotional labour is also highlighted. Some of the implications of employing a new group of workers in FE are discussed.     

Changes in children's peer interactions following a natural disaster: How predisaster bullying and victimization rates changed following Hurricane Katrina

Youth exposed to disasters experience stress and adjustment difficulties, which likely influence their interactions with peers. In this study, we examined changes in bullying and peer victimization in two cohorts of children. Youth from an area affected by Hurricane Katrina were assessed pre‐ and postdisaster (n = 96, mean [M] = 10.9 years old, 53% female), and a comparison group from a nearby area was assessed over the same time interval 1 year prior (n = 120, M = 10.2 years old, 52% female). Within the hurricane group, relations between symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with bullying and victimization also were examined. Following the hurricane, the hurricane group reported increased relational and overt bullying relative to the nonhurricane group, and PTSD symptoms predicted increased victimization. Thus, school personnel should be vigilant and prepared to respond to increased bullying following disasters and for increased victimization in youth experiencing PTSD symptoms. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Capturing and Enhancing Science Teachers’ Professional Knowledge

This paper reports research from a three-year Australian science teacher professional learning project, the Science Teaching and Learning (STaL) Project, in which groups of science teacher participants (across years K – 12) worked with academics over a one-year period as teacher researchers. Through reflecting on their experiences within the STaL Project and collecting data from their classrooms related to specific science teaching concerns, teacher participants constructed cases around particular aspects of their professional learning. The cases that these participants developed elicited rich insights into their teaching and their students’ learning of science. This paper discusses how the cases were developed by the teacher researcher participants and uses exemplars as a way of illustrating the nature of the professional knowledge developed.     

A comparison of the agreement,internal consistency,and 2-day test stability of the InBody 720, GE iDXA,and BOD POD® gold standard for assessing body composition

The study compared the agreement, internal consistency, and measurement stability of the GE iDXA, BOD POD, and InBody 720. Body composition of 43 men and 37 women (31.4 ± 10.7 years; 90% Caucasian and 10% other) was assessed in triplicate using each method over two different days. Mean percent body fat (% BF) of the participants was different for all three machines (27.6 ± 10.0% [GE iDXA)] 25.6 ± 10.4% [BOD POD], and 21.3 ± 10.6% [InBody 720]; p < .05). The coefficient of variation for same day repeated measures was 1.06% (GE iDXA), 3.29% (BOD POD), and 2.97% (InBody 720). The coefficient of variation for 2-day repeated measures was 1.81% (GE iDXA), 4.61% (BOD POD), and 4.24% (InBody 720). The difference between the GE iDXA and BOD POD was within acceptable variability, while the InBody 720 significantly underestimated % BF. The internal consistency was highest for the GE iDXA, followed by the InBody 720, and then the BOD POD.     

Mitigating Unintended Impacts? The Effects of Premiums for Underserved Populations in Performance-Funding Policies for Higher Education

Performance funding is an increasingly prevalent policy state officials use to allocate a portion of state funds to public colleges and universities. Researchers have begun to evaluate the effect of these policies, finding bleak evidence of their effectiveness in yielding intended outputs and suggesting the policies may even result in limited college access for underserved students. There may also be differences in policy effects depending on performance-funding policy designs, which vary considerably across states. Of particular interest to this study are premiums—financial bonuses to institutions—for promoting access and success for specified underserved student groups. Using difference-in-differences models and an original dataset on premiums in funding models, this study evaluates the impact of premiums for underserved students in performance-funding models on selectivity and the enrollment of minority and low-income students at 4-year universities from 1993 to 2014. We find that the share of both low-income and Hispanic students increases in institutions with performance-funding premiums for underserved students compared to institutions subject to performance funding without such premiums. Effects vary depending on premium type and longevity. The findings also reveal unexpected, negative effects of premiums on Black student enrollments. Our findings suggest that, by incorporating premiums, performance-funding model designers might prevent, minimize, or reverse the negative consequences of performance funding on vulnerable student groups. However, given variation in premium effects across student groups, performance- funding model designs should be tailored to local contexts.