Extraordinary Animals and Expository Writing: Zoo in the Classroom

A zoo outreach program led to placing animals in classrooms where those animals became foci for numerous learning activities such as writing, observing, and care. Systematic debriefings suggested uniqueness to learning outcomes connected to zoo animals. Subsequent analysis of student writing indicated that students responded to situational interest by recording more observations, made use of more science facts, and used more science vocabulary when writing about unique animals (albino hedgehog, legless lizard) than ‘ordinary’ animals (rabbit, dove). The results are interpreted in terms of motivation, creating situational interest, and the familiarity of the schema available to the students. Policy implications are discussed.     

The roles of teacher–student relationship quality and self-concept of ability in adolescents’ achievement emotions: temperament as a moderator

This study examined to what extent teacher–student conflict and closeness, on the one hand, and students’ self-concepts of ability in literacy and mathematics, on the other, are related to students’ achievement emotions (enjoyment, anxiety and boredom) in mathematics and literacy among Finnish early adolescents (N = 854). We also investigated the extent to which these associations are moderated by student temperament (surgency/extraversion, negative affectivity and effortful control). The results showed, after accounting for relevant covariates, that in both school subjects, teacher–student conflict was negatively related to enjoyment and positively to anxiety and boredom, whereas teacher–student closeness was positively related to enjoyment and negatively to boredom. Self-concepts of ability in both school subjects were positively related to enjoyment and negatively to anxiety, whereas the self-concept of ability was only negatively related to boredom in mathematics. Student temperament also moderated some of the associations in the literacy domain. Lower levels of conflict in the teacher–student relationship were related to higher levels of enjoyment in literacy, particularly among students who had lower levels of surgency/extraversion. Also, a closer relationship with the teacher or a lower self-concept of ability in literacy was related to higher levels of anxiety, particularly among students who had low effortful control. In the mathematics domain, the associations between the self-concept of ability and achievement emotions were somewhat stronger than in literacy, and the domain-specific associations were not dependent on student temperament.

     

Content and impact of articles published by school psychology faculty

School Psychology faculty members are expected to publish articles in peer‐reviewed journals that impact the fields of education and psychology. Both the content and the impact of the articles school psychologists publish may change across time and differ from other disciplines. The current analysis sought to understand average article impact, content, and research focus, and to describe those articles that have the highest impact factor. All of the articles (n = 3670) published by school psychology faculty between January, 2010 and December, 2015 were collected and examined. Three reviewers were trained over 2 hr to read abstracts and to classify the content of those abstracts. The literature was systematically classified into four categories: assessment, consultation, intervention, and professional issues. The title, keywords, and abstract were used to find the category of best fit for each publication. The majority of articles published fall into the broad category of Professional Issues. The average article is cited 17.68 times in Google Scholar and 4.9 times in Web of Science. These data will be useful to understand publication content trends and identify gaps in research.     

Democratic Communities and Business/Education “Partnerships” in Secondary Education

Democratic ideals of equality, freedom, and common problem-solving help ensure that schools are governed as communities, in Dewey's sense of the term, wherein all members share in defining the purposes and processes of the group. In this paper, qualitative case study data of a business–public school partnership is examined in order to describe, analyze, and evaluate this partnership based upon democratic criteria established by Deweyan pragmatism. The analysis of the business/education partnership enables educators to better understand the potential for, and inhibitors of, the kind of genuine social growth among school and corporate partners that can serve public agendas rather than private profits.     

Young Children''s Vulnerability to Self-Blame and Helplessness: Relationship to Beliefs about Goodness

Motivational helplessness, linked to conceptions of intelligence, has been well documented in older children. While some researchers have reported that children just starting school are motivationally invulnerable, others have found evidence of helplessness when these children encounter failure. The present study seeks to determine whether the reactions associated with helplessness can be identified in a new context, that of criticism, and whether any such responses are related to the child's conceptions of goodness. Subjects were 107 5- and 6-year-old children who enacted achievement situations in which teacher criticism was presented. The 39% of children whose own assessments were undermined by criticism exhibited the affect, task choices, and nonconstructive problem-solving strategies characteristic of helplessness. They were also more likely to make global negative self-judgments following criticism, including negative judgments of their goodness. Finally, these children were more likely to endorse stable and global beliefs about goodness.     

Inhibitory Control as a Contributor to Conscience in Childhood: From Toddler to Early School Age

In this article we report a longitudinal extension of previous findings about the critical role of temperamental inhibitory or effortful control as the contributor to developing conscience in young children. A comprehensive observational battery, highly internally consistent, was developed to measure inhibitory control in 83 children at early school age who had been followed since toddlerhood and had been assessed using similar batteries at toddler and preschool age. We again confirmed the findings of robust longitudinal stability of inhibitory or effortful control, now from toddler to early school age, the increase with age, and gender differences, with girls outperforming boys. We also reaffirmed strong links, both contemporaneous and in the longitudinal sense, between in hibitory control and multiple, diverse measures of children's conscience at early school age, including observations of moral conduct, moral cognition, and moral self. The findings are discussed in view of the increasingly appreciated importance of temperament for critical aspects of socialization.     

Heroes of resiliency and reciprocity: teachers’ supporting role for reconceptualizing superhero play in early childhood settings

Superhero play is a specialised form of fantasy play with considerable appeal to young children. During superhero play, children have opportunities to pretend and often to play different types of roles within a safe and caring environment. When guided appropriately in an early childhood classroom, superhero play gives young children opportunities to gain a sense of mastery and empowerment as well as developmentally appropriate benefits by improving language skills, problem-solving and cooperation with peers. By recognising and modelling the characteristics of resiliency and promoting kindness with peers during superhero play, teachers can encourage children to be kind and resilient heroes to classroom friends. As today’s classrooms increasingly include diverse members, it is important for young children to understand and appreciate the peers they play and learn with at school. The result may be a richer learning experience and may break down barriers that can produce unfairness, bullying and aggressive behaviours. This article explores the essence of superhero fantasy play along with its benefits for young children. In addition, the article examines the challenge of superhero play in classrooms for early childhood educators by exploring teachers’ roles in play. A new pedagogy for supporting superhero play is introduced, addressing spiritual and educational concerns by suggesting ways in which teachers can increase resiliency, encourage new friendships and build classroom community among peers during play and classroom activities.     

Double jeopardy: poorer social-emotional outcomes for children in the NICHD SECCYD experiencing home and child-care environments that confer risk

Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network (NICHD SECCYD), the authors examined whether interactions between home and child-care quality affect children's social-emotional adjustment at 24, 36, and 54 months (N = 771). Triadic splits on quality of home and child care were used to examine children in specific ecological niches, with a focus on those who experience the double jeopardy of poor quality home and child-care environments. Children in this niche exhibited the highest levels of mother-reported problem behavior and the lowest levels of prosocial behavior. However, there was evidence that children from lower quality home environments were able to benefit from the compensatory influence of high-quality child care. These results suggest policies aimed at the cross-context influences of protective and risky settings.     

If You Build It and They Still Don't Come: Effective versus Successful Alternative Teacher Preparation

The continuing shortage of special education teachers, combined with increased ideological critiques of teacher education programs, has spurred the growth of alternative models of teacher preparation. Only recently have professional standards for alternative models been proposed. This paper summarizes two years of a program based on professional standards. External influences, internal design, and implementation elements are presented. Results suggest that there is value in distinguishing between the effectiveness of alternative programs and their success.     

Personality Ability and Achievement in Primary School Children

This study investigated the relationship of personality, ability and school achievement. The findings here were that:

1. intelligence is the major determinant of school achievement;

2. bright children tend to come from smaller families than dull children;

3. relatively unstable children have a better level of school achievement than stable children;

4. extraversion‐introversion had no effect on school achievement.