Understanding Engagement in Mental Health Services for Preschool Children: An Analysis of Teacher,Clinician, and Parent Perspectives

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of mental health clinicians in providing services in the preschool setting. Clinicians provided services for 3 years in urban, northern New Jersey preschools, in order to expand access to mental health services for vulnerable children. At the conclusion of the three-year period, focus groups were conducted with clinicians and teachers, and interviews were conducted with parents to gain their perspectives on the approaches used. Data were coded for emergent themes and a number of themes developed around aspects of engagement, including engaging the community, teachers, other professionals, and parents in order to effectively provide the service to the target population. The data provide insight into techniques that may increase comfort levels for seeking and accepting treatment.     

Beginning secondary science teacher induction: A two‐year mixed methods study

Those who study secondary science teachers are often concerned with preservice or in‐service teacher development. Science teacher educators have acknowledged that this focus is limited, as the induction years of beginning teachers are an important component of teacher development. This mixed methods study focuses on the induction years of beginning content specialists, with the intention of adding to the literature in this underexamined area. The secondary science teachers in this study were followed during their first and second year of teaching in order to understand the changes in their beliefs, pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and practices as a group, and as they participated in different induction programs. Analysis by induction program revealed that first year teachers who participated in science specific induction programs strengthened their beliefs, PCK, and practices. By the end of the second year, regardless of program, most of the teachers shared similar beliefs and PCK. However, the teachers in the science specific induction programs continued to enact more interactive learning environments that had more investigations and laboratories than did their peers in the other induction programs. For those who work with beginning science teachers, this study suggests that the induction of science specialists is an important area of work. It also explores the complex process of induction, and calls for more research into how beginning secondary science teachers learn and what types of induction experiences can best support beginning science teachers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 1199–1224, 2011     

Novice Counselors’ Conceptualizations and Experiences of Therapeutic Relationships

This qualitative study investigated three novice counselors’ experiences and characterizations of therapeutic relationships. Thematic analyses of interviews and diaries revealed six common themes: (a) the centrality of supervision and training experiences to navigating interpersonal experiences with clients; (b) anxiety about counselors’ roles in therapeutic relationships; (c) the perception of the therapeutic relationship as less directive than outside (lay) helping relationships; (d) experimentation with different interpersonal styles; (e) awareness of countertransference; and, (f) impact of therapeutic relationships on outside relationships. Findings expand upon the therapeutic relationship as a focal point for the training and supervision of novice counselors.     

Turning collegial governance on its head: symbolic violence,hegemony and the academic board

This article draws on Bourdieu’s theorisation of domination and Gramsci’s notions of hegemony within the context of a larger empirical study of Australian university academic governance, and of academic boards (also known as academic senates or faculty senates) in particular. Reporting data that suggest a continued but radically altered form of collegial governance in which hegemony is exercised by management rather than by the professor, it theorises the domination of academic boards within western democratic universities. However, traditional collegial governance is also dependent upon a community of scholars, a role historically played by the academic board. In view of the suggested transition in collegial governance and the resultant convergence of academic work and management, the article concludes with questions about whether academic boards can continue to serve as communities of scholars in future.     

Mothers' Acculturation and Beliefs About Emotions,Mother–Child Emotion Discourse,and Children's Emotion Understanding in Latino Families

Research Findings: We examined associations among Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, maternal beliefs, mother–child emotion talk, and emotion understanding in 40 Latino preschool-age children and their mothers. Mothers self-reported Anglo acculturation, Latino enculturation, and beliefs about the value/danger of children's emotions and parent/child roles in emotion socialization. Mother–child emotion talk was observed during a Lego storytelling task. Children's emotion understanding was measured using 2 age-appropriate tasks. Correlations showed that mothers' Latino enculturation was associated with mothers' stronger belief in guiding children's emotions and children's lower emotion understanding. Anglo acculturation was associated with mothers' lower belief that emotions can be dangerous and children's better emotion understanding. Mothers with a stronger belief in guiding children's emotions more frequently labeled emotions. Mothers with a stronger belief that emotions can be dangerous less frequently explained emotions. Regressions controlling for child age and maternal education demonstrated that mothers with a stronger belief that children can learn about emotions on their own and mothers with greater Latino enculturation had children with lower emotion understanding, whereas mothers with greater Anglo acculturation had children with better emotion understanding. Practice or Policy: Results suggest that understanding both family acculturation and family enculturation will be helpful for early childhood researchers and educators seeking to assess and promote children's socioemotional development.     

Science Teachers’ Beliefs about the Influence of their Summer Research Experiences on their Pedagogical Practices

This study sought to determine the beliefs that tenured, in-service high school science teachers hold about how their participation in a large mid-Atlantic university’s 6-week summer research experiences for teachers (RET) program might influence their pedagogical practices. The findings show a number of factors that teachers believed helped them to be successful during their summer RET program that center on science content knowledge, laboratory experiences, cognitive skills, and mentor dispositions. Teachers further believed that the successes they experienced during their summer RET program influenced how they would plan to teach their own students science. The findings suggest that having science teachers conduct research might help to facilitate changes in their beliefs about their pedagogical practices.     

MOVING DOWN THE ROAD: COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AT THE UNIVERSITY

This study examines the relationship between 34 personal, demographic, and environmental characteristics of community college transfer students and their academic performance over a 2‐year period. The subjects for the study were 267 transfer students admitted to a research university during a fall semester. Data on the characteristics were collected through a survey and analyzed in relation to first and second semester GPAs and second year GPAs. Five characteristics showed a consistent statistical relationship with three or more GPA measures. A multiple regression analysis was used to identify which of these characteristics were useful in predicting the GPAs of the transfer students based on their previous backgrounds and attitudes.