Teaching Artistry and Workplace Wellness

How can Applied Theatre impact office productivity and employee well-being? A pilot program in NYC presents its discoveries.     

Specific Reading Comprehension Disability: Major Problem,Myth, or Misnomer?

The goal of the present study was to test three competing hypotheses about the nature of comprehension problems of students who are poor in reading comprehension. Participants in the study were first, second, and third graders, totaling nine cohorts and over 425,000 participants in all. The pattern of results was consistent across all cohorts: Less than 1 percent of first‐ through third‐grade students who scored as poor in reading comprehension were adequate in both decoding and vocabulary. Although poor reading comprehension certainly qualifies as a major problem rather than a myth, the term specific reading comprehension disability is a misnomer: Individuals with problems in reading comprehension that are not attributable to poor word recognition have comprehension problems that are general to language comprehension rather than specific to reading. Implications for assessment and intervention are discussed.     

MyTeachingPartner-Math/Science pre-kindergarten curricula and teacher supports: Associations with children's mathematics and science learning

MyTeachingPartner-Math/Science (MTP-MS) is a system of two curricula (math and science) plus teacher supports designed to improve the quality of instructional interactions in pre-kindergarten classrooms and to scaffold children's development in mathematics and science. The program includes year-long curricula in these domains, and a teacher support system (web-based supports and in-person workshops) designed to foster high-quality curricular implementation. This study examined the impacts of the intervention on the development of mathematics and science skills of 444 children during pre-kindergarten, via school-level random assignment to two intervention conditions (Basic: MTP-M/S mathematics and science curricula, and Plus: MTP-M/S mathematics and science curricula plus related teacher support system) and a Business-As-Usual control condition (BaU). There were intervention effects for children's knowledge and skills in geometry and measurement as well as number sense and place value: Children in Plus classrooms made greater gains in geometry and measurement, compared with those in BaU classrooms. Children in Plus classrooms also performed better on the number sense and place value assessment than did those in Basic or BaU classrooms. We describe the implications of these results for supporting the development of children's knowledge and skills in early childhood and for developing and providing teachers with professional development to support these outcomes.     

Activity Structures and the Unfolding of Problem-Solving Actions in High-School Chemistry Classrooms

In this paper, we argue for a more systematic approach for studying the relationship between classroom practices and scientific practices—an approach that will likely better support the systemic reforms being promoted in the Next Generation Science Standards in the USA and similar efforts in other countries. One component of that approach is looking at how the nature of the activity structure may influence the relative alignment between classroom and scientific practices. To that end, we build on previously published research related to the practices utilized by five high-school chemistry teachers as they enacted problem-solving activities in which students were likely to generate proposals that were not aligned with normative scientific understandings. In that prior work, our analysis had emphasized micro-level features of the talk interactions and how they related to the way students’ ideas were explored; in the current paper, the analysis zooms out to consider the macro-level nature of the enactments associated with the activity structure of each lesson examined. Our data show that there were two general patterns to the activity structure across the 14 lessons scrutinized, and that each pattern had associated with it a constellation of features that impinged on the way the problem space was navigated. A key finding is that both activity structures (the expansive and the open) had features that aligned with scientific practices espoused in the Next Generation Science Standards—and both had features that were not aligned with those practices. We discuss the nature of these two structures, evidence of the relationship of each structure to key features of how the lessons unfolded, and the implications of these findings for both future research and the training of teachers.     

Higher Education Rankings: Evolution,Acceptance, and Dialogue

Departing from the usual ‘From the Editors' piece, Jamie Merisotis, President of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, and Jan Sadlak, Director of UNESCO‐CEPES, reflect on the content of this issue of the review. At the same time, they outline the essential developments affecting ranking systems and methodologies in higher education. These developments made up the main topic of the meeting jointly organized by the Institute for Higher Education Policy and UNESCO‐CEPES for the project “Higher Education Ranking Systems and Methodologies: How They Work, What They Do”, and held in Washington D.C., USA on 10–11 December 2004. Most of the articles presented in this issue relate to the context of the above‐mentioned meeting.     

Examining How and Why Children in My Transitional Kindergarten Classroom Engage in Pretend Gunplay

This self-study of pretend gunplay in my Transitional Kindergarten (TK) classroom was designed to guide me in not only improving my practice within the classroom, but also informing the development of sound classroom policies related to pretend gun-and-weapons play that balance children's developmental needs with my commitment to peace and conflict resolution. The participants in this study include 17 children in my TK classroom in Northern California, but the focus is on 8 students. Data for this study were collected through brief student interviews, audio-recorded classroom discussions, videotaped play, observations, and photographs, which were then analyzed through first and second cycle coding and grouped into significant patterns and common themes. This study allowed me to recognize the different types of pretend gunplay in my classroom, the types of play that induce conflict versus cooperative play, and the specific social needs of my students that are being met through their pretend gunplay. These findings allow me to respond effectively and critically to the developmental needs of my students while being able to recognize the topics that typically occur in pretend gunplay.     

Instructional Rounds as a professional learning model for systemic implementation of Assessment for Learning

The purpose of this research was to examine the implementation of a professional learning project aimed at building educators’ knowledge and skills in assessment for learning (AfL) within two school districts in Ontario, Canada. Specifically, the research examined the value of a two-tier Instructional Rounds (IR) professional learning model. This professional learning model was unique because it engaged both teachers and principals in collaboratively learning and implementing AfL strategies in order to develop systemic capacity in assessment. In total, 12 principals, 48 teachers, two superintendents and two school district assessment consultants participated in the study. Data were collected through observations of IR sessions, classroom observations, interviews, IR session reflections and a post-project survey. Findings from this study report on positive changes in teachers’ and principals’ conceptions and implementation of AfL as well as on the value and challenges of IR as a professional learning model. The paper concludes with a discussion on developing systemic capacity in AfL through an IR model of professional learning.     

The Doctoral Portfolio: Centerpiece of a Comprehensive System of Evaluation

The authors describe the process used to revise a traditional doctoral student evaluation system from one that consisted of written comprehensive and final oral examinations to one that features portfolio development. Student competence, expected student outcomes in each competency area, procedures for portfolio development, and documents and procedures for faculty review of the portfolios are described. Recommendations for implementing such a system and implications for counselor education programs are discussed.