Child race and gender as moderators of the association between teacher–child relationships and school adjustment

This investigation examines teacher and child perceptions of teacher–child relationships and early school adjustment among children (N = 157) in low‐income urban schools. Consistent with prior research, findings indicated that teacher–child relationships were associated with early school adjustment; however, the strength of this association varied depending on perspective (i.e., teacher vs. student) and by student characteristic. Associations between predictor and criterion variables were stronger for within‐rater perspectives than across raters. Children's race moderated the association between teacher–child relationships and early school adjustment when examining data from the same source (i.e., teacher) and across raters (i.e., teacher and student). Gender did not moderate these associations. The implications of these findings for future research focused on understanding teacher–child relationships are discussed. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Leveraging assessment to promote kindergarten learners’ independence and self-regulation within play-based classrooms

ABSTRACT

Currently, kindergarten education is shaped by two priorities: (1) the recognition that early learning must maintain a developmental orientation and support socio-personal growth; and (2) a growing emphasis on standards-based curriculum and the use of assessment to support children’s learning. While some researchers have argued these two priorities are counter-related, research demonstrates the potential to embed these goals through play-based pedagogies. The purpose of this paper is to explore how kindergarten teachers leverage assessment practices, particularly Assessment as Learning (AaL), to support children learning within play-based classrooms. Centrally, we argue that a focus on AaL and self-regulation might be the fulcrum that hinges play-pedagogies with standards-based education and assessment mandates, helping to diminish the divide between these two priorities. Data are drawn from 20 kindergarten classrooms via initial interviews, observations and video-elicitation teacher interviews. Findings identify how kindergarten teachers are productively using assessment to promote learner independence within play-based classrooms.     

‘We May Give Advice,but We Can Never Prompt Behavior’: Lessons from Britain

Four myths that underlie persistent, but ineffective, practices in early literacy education are analyzed in this article. Such analysis is essential because literacy disadvantage ultimately is an issue of equity—a matter of social justice. Research shows that these practices can be refuted and that optimal early literacy outcomes are possible for all students when parents, teachers, and school administrators serve as agents of equity.     

A dominance analysis approach to determining predictor importance in third, seventh, and tenth grade reading comprehension skills

The purpose of the present study was to investigate and rank order by importance the contributions of various cognitive predictors to reading comprehension in third, seventh, and tenth graders. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that for third grade, the best fit was a four-factor solution including fluency, verbal reasoning, nonverbal reasoning, and working memory factors. For seventh and tenth grade, three-factor solutions with fluency, reasoning, and working memory factors were the best fit. The three and four-factor models were used in separate dominance analyses for each grade to rank order the factors by predictive importance to reading comprehension. Results indicated that fluency and verbal reasoning were the most important predictors of third grade reading comprehension. For seventh grade, fluency and reasoning were the most important predictors. By tenth grade, reasoning was the most important predictor of reading comprehension. Working memory was the least predictive of reading comprehension across all grade levels. These results suggest that inferential reasoning skills become an important contributor to reading comprehension at increasing grade levels.     

Calling and Career Counseling With College Students: Finding Meaning in Work and Life

College is often a period when students try to find purpose and meaning in their lives. As a result, counselors may need to help students understand their callings and how to meet these through school, work, and other life roles. This article introduces the concept of calling and reviews relevant research, offers suggestions for integrating it into career counseling with college students, and provides a case example.     

Back to school: An application of human capital theory for mature workers

There is a vast literature on the decision to enroll in higher education, but it focuses almost entirely on traditional students: 18 year olds graduating from high school. Yet less than half of students at degree-granting institutions are in the traditional 18–22 age range; nearly 40% are at least 25. This paper examines the enrollment behavior of persons 25 or older. We use data from a large-scale 1998 Department of Labor (DOL) policy demonstration in Greater Baltimore. By studying the behavior of older people we can examine factors such as age, earnings and marital status that vary little among the much-studied traditional students. Our results conform to the (rarely tested) predictions of human capital theory that age and opportunity costs are impediments to enrollment. We also find that where you live has a substantial impact on whether you return to school.     

Elementary students as active agents in their learning: an empirical study of the connections between assessment practices and student metacognition

This study explored how elementary teachers leveraged and structured student-involved formative assessment to promote metacognition and self-regulation. Research has suggested a connection between formative assessment practices (e.g., self-assessment and peer-assessment) and metacognition. However, this connection has limited empirical support, especially within early elementary contexts (i.e. Grades K-4). In this study, 44 Ontario elementary teachers completed a survey reporting their teaching and assessment practices and beliefs about metacognition. Five participants were then purposefully selected for semi-structured interviews to describe their experiences developing students’ metacognition and self-regulatory capabilities through student-involved assessment processes. Data were inductively and thematically analysed. Participants emphasized the value of assessment as learning practices (e.g., self-assessment and reflective thinking) to develop students’ metacognition and discussed the need for ongoing student feedback regarding metacognitive strategies. However, despite purposefully implementing formative assessment to enhance metacognition and self-regulation, participants articulated the need for additional resources to support the cultural shift towards assessment for and as learning within their classrooms.     

Divided attention performance and the matching law

This experiment examined the applicability of the generalized matching law to changes in divided-attention performance produced by variations in relative reinforcement rate. Pigeons were exposed to a delayed matching-to-sample procedure in which compound samples (color 1 line orientation) and element comparisons (two colors or two line orientations) were used. The relative rate of reinforcement for accurate matches on the two types of comparison trials was varied. Variations in relative accuracy with changes in relative reinforcement were well described by the generalized matching law. We suggest that the bias and sensitivity parameters of the generalized matching law may measure the contributions of sensory activation and stimulus pertinence, respectively, to divided-attention performance. Additional work using similar analyses might contribute to a more general quantitative account of how differential consequences contribute to decision processes involved in the allocation of attention.     

Spelling errors and phonemic segmentation ability: the nature of the relationship

Poor spellers/readers and younger normal children of similar spelling and reading ability carried out phonemic segmentation and spelling tasks. The poor spellers were impaired relative to controls in their ability to detect the odd word out where the middle or final phoneme of the word differed from that of the other items in the list. For example, in the series ‘dot',‘cot',‘pot', 'bat', the word ‘bat’ differs from the other items in terms of its middle vowel. Spelling errors were classified as being ‘pre-phonetic',‘phonetic', or ‘transitional’ in character, according to Morris and Perney's (1984) developmental scheme.‘Transitional’ errors indicate a knowledge of English orthography, and are relatively easy for the reader to decode phonetically, for example, green ?>‘grene', whereas ‘phonetic’ errors indicate a level of phonetic awareness which is not matched by an ability to represent the word according to the conventions of English spelling, for example green ?>‘gren'. Poor spellers were found to make significantly fewer ‘transitional’ errors than controls, there being a non-significant tendency for them to make more ‘pre-phonetic’ and ‘phonetic’ errors. It was found that performance on the odd word out task correlated significantly with the occurrence of ‘transitional’ errors, there being no such relationship with ‘phonetic’ errors.