Unfolding Case‐Based Practicum Curriculum Infusing Crisis,Trauma, and Disaster Preparation

The authors evaluated an unfolding case‐based approach to a practicum in counseling course infusing crisis, trauma, and disaster preparation for changes in students’ crisis self‐efficacy across a semester. The course, informed by constructivist‐developmental pedagogy and centered on the unfolding case, resulted in significant increases in students’ crisis self‐efficacy.     

Doing the right thing: infants' selection of actions to imitate from observed event sequences

Two studies were conducted to investigate how 14- to 16-month-old infants select actions to imitate from the stream of events. In each study, an experimenter demonstrated two actions leading to an interesting effect. Aspects of the first action were manipulated and whether infants performed this action when given the objects was observed. In both studies, infants were more likely to imitate the first action when it was physically necessary to generate the effect, and in Study 2 they were also more likely to imitate the action when it was socially cued. It seems that infants' own knowledge of space and causality as well as their sensitivity to others' social signals both contribute to their tendency to imitate actions.     

PRESERVICE TEACHER APPLICATION OF DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION

Successfully implementing the practice of inclusion by differentiating instruction depends on both the skills and attitudes of general education teachers. New general education teachers who are entering the field are particularly vulnerable to the demands and stress of the profession, and teacher education programs must prepare preservice teachers to meet the needs of all students by teaching the skills needed to make appropriate lesson adaptations, accommodations, and modifications. This study investigates the manifestation of differentiation for special education students in work sample lesson plans written by preservice teachers working toward an elementary school credential. The research examined the nature, characteristics, and types of instructional adaptations included in the work samples prepared by a sample of preservice teachers resulting in six distinct themes and recommendations for teacher education programs.     

New media environments’ comparative effects upon intercultural sensitivity: A five-dimensional analysis

An experimental 2 (channel) × 2 (gender) × 3 (time) mixed factorial design (N = 159) was applied to test and compare how individual dimensions of intercultural sensitivity might be affected by two channels: a virtual environment (i.e., Second Life^®) versus a Web environment. Using a modified version of Chen and Starosta's Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS), the study sought to identify which of the five ISS dimensions played the most influential role in intercultural sensitivity outcomes: interaction enjoyment, interaction engagement, interaction confidence, interaction attentiveness, or respect for cultural differences. Results showed that one's willingness and effort toward understanding an intercultural interaction – interaction attentiveness – played the greatest and most statistically significant role in intercultural sensitivity outcomes, and that this effect was greatest within the virtual environment channel. Gender effects were also found, in which men experienced greater enjoyment but women expressed more attentiveness.     

Abusive head trauma in Maine infants: medical,child protective,and law enforcement analysis

OBJECTIVE: To collect and compare the results of medical, child protective, and law enforcement evaluation of a sample of Maine children who were victims of abusive head trauma (AHT) in order to describe the clinical and evaluative characteristics as they relate to victims, families and perpetrators of such trauma and to improve the professional response to AHT in Maine.METHOD: Retrospective chart review of medical, child protective, and law enforcement records of all AHT victims admitted to two tertiary care hospitals in Maine or seen by the state medical examiner from 1991 to 1994.RESULTS: Nineteen children (age range 2 weeks to 17 months) were identified as victims of AHT (out of a total of 94 head trauma admissions) accounting for 20 hospitalizations during the study period. There was a history of prior injury in 30%, history of prior medical evaluations for possibly abuse related problems in 65%, while, on presentation, 75% had evidence or history of prior injury. The hospitals notified child protective services (CPS) in all 20 cases and correctly identified abuse in 18 (90%). Parental risk factors for abuse identified in CPS records included substance abuse (53%), domestic violence (42%), criminal history (32%), unrealistic expectations (42%), and attachment problems (32%). However, risk factors were inadequately assessed in 53% of homes. Law enforcement identified a likely perpetrator in 79% of cases and in the majority the identified suspect was the father. In the 15 cases where a perpetrator was identified by law enforcement, that person was alone with the child at symptom onset in 14 (93%).CONCLUSIONS: The medical response, at least at the inpatient level, was generally well done with regard to suspicion and reporting. Cases are possibly being missed at the outpatient level. Child protective risk assessment was limited overall yet in a third of the homes where AHT occurred, few if any risk factors were present to aid in identification and prevention. Law enforcement results suggest that a primary suspect for AHT is the caretaker alone with the child at the time of symptom onset.     

Socio-Politically Relevant Pedagogy for Immigrant and Refugee Youth

In this article, the authors discuss how one public high school became a site for socio-politically relevant pedagogy for immigrant and refugee youth, building on the concept of culturally relevant pedagogy that has been discussed in educational scholarship (Howard, 2001, 2003; Ladson-Billings, 1994, 1995a, 1995b). By exploring newcomer youth's understandings of their experiences, self-conceptions, and positioning in the global economy, the authors draw on a three-year qualitative case study utilizing ethnographic methods to highlight the key tenets of a socio-politically relevant pedagogy for youth who lead transnational lives. The key tenets proposed include: (1) the cultivation of critical consciousness around global inequalities and transnational migration; (2) the creation of formal and informal avenues for reciprocal learning between families/communities and schools; and (3) support and care for the material conditions of students' and families' lives.     

Efficacy of the TELL language and literacy curriculum for preschoolers with developmental speech and/or language impairment

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the efficacy of a new preschool oral language and early literacy curriculum package (Teaching Early Literacy and Language [TELL]) for children with developmental speech and/or language impairment (DSLI) either as a primary (e.g., specific to speech and/or language) or secondary impairment (e.g., developmental delay that includes DSLI). Participants included 118 children (30 females, 88 males, M age = 53.58 months) with DLSI and their 29 preschool teachers. The design was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with assignment to experimental versus contrast conditions at the classroom level. Teachers in TELL classes received formal training, in-class support, and mentoring to implement the curriculum. Dependent measures for the children included scores on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool 2nd edition (CELF-P2), the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschool (PALS-PreK), the Renfrew Bus Story (BUS), and a receptive and expressive vocabulary measure developed for this investigation (VOCAB). Results indicated that when compared to the contrast group, children in the TELL condition demonstrated greater gains on the phonological awareness subtest of the CELF-P2, the sentence length score of the BUS, the letter sounds, beginning sound awareness, and rhyme awareness subtests of the PALS-PreK, and VOCAB. Results suggest that the TELL curriculum package has promise for promoting gains in early literacy and oral language skills in preschool children with DLSI.     

Messy learning: Preservice teachers’ lesson-study conversations about mathematics and students

Research about lesson study and other forms of collaborative, practice-based professional development has tended to focus on identifying structures that support teacher learning. This study builds on this work by examining preservice elementary teachers’ efforts to conduct lesson studies in mathematics. Analysis showed that the structures of the lesson study project supported some groups in developing mathematical and equity lenses for looking at teaching; however, the use of these lenses simultaneously led to productive and problematic learning. This finding suggests that future research focus on challenges present in collaborative, practice-based work even when productive structures are in place.