Creating a common terminology for play behavior to increase cross-disciplinary research

Historically, play behavior has been difficult to define. This likely stems from the number of different species, types of play, and context under which it occurs. In 2016, the Chicago Zoological Society – Brookfield Zoo hosted the Psychonomic Society leading edge workshop on the evolutionary and psychological significance of play. Sixteen experts attended from the diverse fields of African ethnology, animal behavior, animal science, animal welfare, cognitive psychology, cognitive zoology, comparative psychology, cultural anthropology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, ethology, neuroscience, primatology, and zoology. Approximately half of the participants studied human play and the other half studied non-human play. Before the workshop, participants were asked to send in either their personal definition of play or the one that they cite in peer-reviewed literature. Definitions were then reviewed to determine characteristics of play inclusive of all disciplines. The goal of the current study was not to do a literature review on play behavior, but to come up with a list of characteristics across all forms of play that could be used as a common terminology moving forward. Hopefully the results of this workshop and the current article will help to increase cross-disciplinary research in the field of play.     

Supporting Diverse Young Adolescents: Cooperative Grouping in Inclusive Middle-level Settings

The middle level classroom presents unique challenges to educators who strive to provide opportunities that acknowledge learner diversity in terms of social, cognitive, physical, and emotional development. This is confounded even further within inclusive middle-school classrooms where the responsibility to differentiate instruction is even more critical. One way to meet the needs of all students is through cooperative grouping. Through cooperative grouping, middle-level educators can differentiate instruction and promote active learning by leveraging the naturally social nature of young adolescents. In this article, the authors present research on cooperative grouping as well as several considerations for effectively designing and implementing cooperative grouping for middle-level learners in an inclusive setting. Suggestions and examples with regard to group size, membership, group structure and roles, and classroom management and clear expectations are provided. Additionally, the four-clue group strategy is presented as a specific instructional method to support effective group learning experiences in the inclusive middle-level classroom.     

Educational benefits of using game consoles in a primary classroom: A randomised controlled trial

It is known that computer games are motivating for children, but there is limited direct evidence of their effects on classroom learning. The studies that are available tend to be limited in terms of output data reported, or small in scale, or both. The aim of this randomised controlled trial was to upscale a recent study by Miller and Robertson investigating the effects of a commercial off‐the‐shelf computer game on children's mental computation skills and self‐perceptions. A pre‐post design was employed, with 634 primary (elementary) school children (10–11 years old) from 32 schools across Scotland. Schools were randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. In the experimental schools, children used a games console for 20 minutes each day, running a ‘brain training’ game. The controls continued with their normal routine. The treatment period was 9 weeks. Significant pre‐post gains in accuracy and speed of calculations were found in both experimental and control groups over the treatment period. Gains in the experimental group were 50% greater than those of the controls in accuracy, and twice those of the controls in speed. There were no significant changes in two measures of self‐concept for either group. There was a small but statistically significant improvement in attitude towards school among the experimental group but not the controls. When scores were analysed by ability, different patterns were apparent. The design of the study allows a degree of confidence when generalising from these results. Some implications of the findings are discussed.     

A Preliminary Examination of Burnout Among Counselor Trainees Treating Clients With Recent Suicidal Ideation and Borderline Traits

Treating suicidal clients with borderline traits can be conducive to burnout. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) may assuage this burnout in counselors. As part of a DBT treatment outcome study, 6 counselors in training collected their own salivary cortisol samples and completed self‐report measures of burnout and well‐being for 1 year. Findings indicate a significant interaction for cortisol levels by treatment condition, such that DBT counselors experienced less physiological stress over time relative to a control group of counselors. There were no group differences in self‐reported burnout or well‐being. DBT may have a salutary effect on trainees' physiological stress levels over time.     

Promoting effective parenting practices and preventing child behavior problems in school among ethnically diverse families from underserved, urban communities

This study examines the efficacy of ParentCorps among 4-year-old children (N = 171) enrolled in prekindergarten in schools in a large urban school district. ParentCorps includes a series of 13 group sessions for parents and children held at the school during early evening hours and facilitated by teachers and mental health professionals. ParentCorps resulted in significant benefits on effective parenting practices and teacher ratings of child behavior problems in school. Intervention effects were of similar magnitude for families at different levels of risk and for Black and Latino families. The number of sessions attended was related to improvements in parenting. Study findings support investment in and further study of school-based family interventions for children from underserved, urban communities.     

Teacher learning communities and educational change in Scotland: The Highland experience

This article discusses the issue of the sustainability of educational change in the light of findings from research undertaken in tandem with a development project initiated by a Scottish Education Authority, The Highland Council. The paper reviews some of the key themes that have emerged from recent literature on educational change, before drawing on the project data to address two key issues: the factors that have helped to promote and sustain changes within the schools; and the barriers to innovation experienced in these schools. We conclude the article by identifying a range of considerations that should be taken into account by those seeking to innovate and we suggest that, while the Highland model for change has enjoyed a degree of success in inculcating change, more needs to be done to address systemic issues, such as the pervasive influence of a narrow attainment agenda in shaping classroom practice.     

Transnational higher education: offshore campuses in the Middle East

This paper maps the landscape of transnational higher education in the Middle East, focusing in particular on the recent expansion of satellite, branch, and offshore educational institutions and programs that foreign institutions have set up in the region. Of the estimated 100 branch campuses currently operating worldwide, over one-third are in the Arab region and the majority have opened within the last decade; two dozen additional transnational programs and universities exist in the region as well. Very little research has been conducted on these new institutions, however, raising many questions for scholars in education. This paper traces reasons for the rapid growth of the transnational higher education model in the Arab states and discusses the explanatory power for this phenomenon of the two major prevailing theories in comparative and international education. We argue that neither neoinstitutional theories about global norm diffusion nor culturalist theories about the local politics of educational borrowing and transfer sufficiently explain this phenomenon, and call instead for a regional approach. We also raise questions for further inquiry.     

Observed Emotional and Behavioral Indicators of Motivation Predict School Readiness in Head Start Graduates

Emotions and behaviors observed during challenging tasks are hypothesized to be valuable indicators of young children's motivation, the assessment of which may be particularly important for children at risk for school failure. The current study demonstrated reliability and concurrent validity of a new observational assessment of motivation in young children. Head Start graduates completed challenging puzzle and trivia tasks during their kindergarten year. Children's emotion expression and task engagement were assessed based on their observed facial and verbal expressions and behavioral cues. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that observed persistence and shame predicted teacher ratings of children's academic achievement, whereas interest, anxiety, pride, shame, and persistence predicted children's social skills and learning-related behaviors. Children's emotional and behavioral responses to challenge thus appeared to be important indicators of school success. Observation of such responses may be a useful and valid alternative to self-report measures of motivation at this age.     

Bedouin special-education teachers as agents of social change

This study probes the career motives of minority special-education teachers in the Bedouin Arab society of southern Israel. The results, obtained via in-depth interviews of teachers, show that the teachers aspire to become agents of social change in three spheres: In the external sphere, they aim for professional autonomy and independence within the Israeli Arab education system. The internal sphere includes a moral-awareness aspect of their society’s view of special education. The personal sphere includes a practical aspect, in which the teachers wish to upgrade their professional qualifications in order to cope better with challenges that they face in the field.