Family-Peer Connections: The Roles of Emotional Expressiveness within the Family and Children''s Understanding of Emotions

The purpose of this study was to explore patterns of parent and child emotional expressiveness within the family context, to examine links between these patterns and children's peer relations, and to examine whether these links might be mediated by children's understanding of emotions. Subjects were 61 kindergarten and first-grade white, middle-class children and their parents. Parent and child expressiveness were assessed in a laboratory ring-toss game designed to elicit a range of emotional responses. Parent expressiveness in the home was also assessed with Halberstadt's Family Expressiveness Questionnaire. The questionnaire, completed by both mother and father, assesses a range of emotions in a variety of settings typical of many families, and consists of items tapping both positive and negative expressiveness. Children were interviewed about their understanding of emotions across a broad range of areas. Results indicated that maternal expressiveness (home) and paternal expressiveness (home and laboratory) but not children's expressiveness with parents were associated with children's peer relations. Although children's understanding of emotions was generally not associated with family expressiveness, understanding predicted children's peer relations. In addition, children's understanding influenced the links between maternal expressiveness in the home and peer relations and between paternal expressiveness in the laboratory and peer relations. This pattern of results underscores the importance of the emotional climate of the family for the development of children's social relations with peers.     

Online Schooling: A Cautionary Tale

In this controversy piece, we portray online learning as growing too fast for existing regulatory structures to oversee and generally as having failed to live up to its potential. Operators, particularly for-profit operators, have generally not produced successful schools. We urge reforms of cyber schooling funding mechanisms, data systems, and oversight.     

A plan for the co-construction and collaborative use of rubrics for student learning

Abstract

The use of assessment rubrics in the higher education sector is now widespread in a number of disciplines. Typically, these rubrics are constructed by teachers who also tend to be the main users of the rubrics throughout the grading process. In recent years, questions have been raised about this teacher-directed approach and some educators have begun to explore an alternate approach to rubric construction; that is, engaging students in collaboration with their teachers to co-construct assessment rubrics. This paper outlines the processes employed in a project that investigated the co-construction of rubrics within six different contexts. The project aimed to engage students in collaboration with their teachers to co-construct rubrics which are co-owned by teacher and student. A mixed methods approach was utilized to explore the effectiveness of the strategy. Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups were utilized to gather data from both the teacher-participants and student-participants regarding their experiences of being involved in the study. Findings are presented from the perspectives of both students and teachers, relating their views of rubrics and the activity of rubric co-construction. The paper concludes with recommendations for practical approaches to rubric co-construction and future research directions.     

Justice,practice and the ‘Real World’: pre-service teachers’ critically conscious visions for teaching amid the complexities and challenges of learning to teach

Stemming from a problem of practice in the author’s justice-oriented social foundations course, this article investigates the relationship between pre-service teachers learning critical conceptual tools about justice and equity, and the ‘problem of enactment’ of leveraging that learning in their practice. Drawing on a theoretical framework linking Social Justice Teacher Education (SJTE) and Practice-based teacher education (PBTE), this study employed practitioner research methodologies and critical qualitative research methods to explore how pre-service teachers themselves negotiated the intersection of justice and practice. Three inductive findings emerged: they conceptualized professional visions oriented toward the ‘bigger picture’; the complexities of teaching complicated living these visions in practice; and their status as novice practitioners mediated their readiness to integrate justice and practice. The article concludes with a discussion of lessons learned for connecting justice and practice in social foundations specifically, and possibilities for convergence between SJTE and PBTE more broadly.     

The impact of family obligation on the daily activities and psychological well-being of Chinese American adolescents

A daily diary method was employed to examine the extent to which Chinese adolescents in the United States assist and spend time with their families, and the implications of such behaviors for their involvement in other activities and psychological well-being. Adolescents (N = 140) completed checklists in which they reported their activities and psychological well-being every day for a period of 2 weeks. Adolescents showed a greater propensity to balance family obligations with their academic demands than with their social life with peers on a daily basis. Girls experienced slightly more daily conflict between activities than boys. Neither the extent of involvement in family obligations nor the balancing of family obligations with other activities were associated with psychological distress among adolescents. These findings demonstrate the complex manner in which adolescents from immigrant families attempt to combine their cultural traditions with selected aspects of American society on a daily basis. In contrast to the expectations of some observers, the youths in this study appeared to accomplish such an integration with little cost to their psychological well-being.     

Behaviors of youth involved in the child welfare system

OBJECTIVE: Using data from a nationally representative panel study, the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), we address the following questions: (a) What are the youth, family, community, and child welfare system risk factors that place youth (ages 11-14 years) living at home, who are referred for maltreatment, at increased risk of delinquent behaviors over time? and (b) What promotive factors at the youth, family, community, and child welfare system levels appear to minimize the risk of delinquent behaviors for these youth over time? METHODS: The study uses the NSCAW data collected at baseline (Wave 1) and 18 months later (Wave 3). The multivariate analyses were conducted using a tobit model adjusted for longitudinal data and a complex survey sample. RESULTS: Several significant risk and promotive factors were found to influence the risk of delinquent behaviors over time. Older youth were more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors than younger youth. Girls were less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors than boys. Race or ethnicity did not have a statistically significant relationship with engaging in delinquent behaviors. Compared with neglected youth, youth who were physically abused were more likely to engage in delinquent behaviors. Increases in caregiver monitoring and in the quality of relationship with caregivers were associated with decreases in delinquent behaviors. Youth at greatest risk and those who engaged in more delinquent behaviors received more child welfare services then youth who did not engage in delinquent behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: The current child welfare delivery system emphasizes provision of services to youth experiencing the more serious problems and less on preventive services. The study findings suggest that preventive services when youth first enter the child welfare system that focus on enhancing caregiver skills in building positive relationships with their youth and increased monitoring of the youth's activity may alter the pathway to delinquent behaviors for these youth.     

Expert versus novice users: Power rules in virtual space

This study sought knowledge of the decision-making used by learners when interacting with multi-media environments. Mounting evidence on related thinking processes appeared to expose a gap in the prior knowledge, vocabularies and values used when entering cyberspace. We were curious to know about the decision making judgements made by learners and any associated rules or strategies they had developed to interact with new and emerging information technology environments. How decisions are undertaken are considered major issues for educational institutions at local, national and global levels with ramifications for civic and community life. In a sample drawn from a senior high school and university we investigated students’ responses to different questions including: What ways of knowing are used by learners? What codes of behaviour apply? Are they age and gender related? The responses provide a rich and fascinating insight to the ways in which people are interacting with the new media environments. ‘Experts’ versus ‘novices’ appeared to provide the major distinction.     

Evaluation of an innovative hands‐on anatomy‐centered ultrasound curriculum to supplement graduate gross anatomy education

Ultrasound (US) can enhance anatomy education, yet is incorporated into few non‐medical anatomy programs. This study is the first to evaluate the impact of US training in gross anatomy for non‐medical students in the United States. All 32 master's students enrolled in gross anatomy with the anatomy‐centered ultrasound (ACUS) curriculum were recruited. Mean Likert ratings on pre‐ and post‐course surveys (100% response rates) were compared to evaluate the effectiveness of the ACUS curriculum in developing US confidence, and gauge its impact on views of US. Post‐course, students reported significantly higher (P < 0.001) mean confidence ratings in five US skills (pre‐course versus post‐course mean): obtaining scans (3.13 ±1.04 versus 4.03 ±0.78), optimizing images (2.78 ±1.07 versus 3.75 ±0.92), recognizing artifacts (2.94 ±0.95 versus 3.97 ±0.69), distinguishing tissue types (2.88 ±0.98 versus 4.09 ±0.69), and identifying structures (2.97 ±0.86 versus 4.03 ±0.59), demonstrating the success of the ACUS curriculum in students with limited prior experience. Views on the value of US to anatomy education and to students' future careers remained positive after the course. End‐of‐semester quiz performance (91% response rate) provided data on educational outcomes. The average score was 79%, with a 90% average on questions about distinguishing tissues/artifacts, demonstrating positive learning outcomes and retention. The anatomy‐centered ultrasound curriculum significantly increased confidence with and knowledge of US among non‐medical anatomy students with limited prior training. Non‐medical students greatly value the contributions that US makes to anatomy education and to their future careers. It is feasible to enhance anatomy education outside of medical training by incorporating US. Anat Sci Educ 10: 348–362. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.