Assessing Quality in Toddler Classrooms Using the CLASS-Toddler and the ITERS-R

Many very young children attend early care and education programs, but current information about the quality of center-based care for toddlers is scarce. Using 2 observation instruments, the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale–Revised (ITERS-R) and the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, Toddler Version (CLASS-Toddler), 93 child care classrooms for toddlers across the state of North Carolina, representing a range of quality, were assessed to determine overall quality, and associations between observed quality and teachers' ratings of child behavior problems and competence outcomes using the Brief Infant Toddler Social Emotional Assessment. Research Findings: Findings indicated that overall, toddler classrooms were rated as being of moderate quality. Associations between observed quality and teacher-reported child behavior problems and competence outcomes indicated that CLASS-Toddler ratings were positively associated with fewer behavior problems; specifically, children in classrooms with higher levels on the CLASS-Toddler domains of Emotional and Behavioral Support as well as Engaged Support for Learning were reported to have fewer behavior problems. Similarly, the ITERS-R subscales of Interaction and Listening and Talking were positively related to fewer reported behavior problems. Regression models showed that the CLASS-Toddler Emotional and Behavioral Support domain predicted differences in child behavior problems. Practice or Policy: Findings suggest the need for additional research related to very young children's experiences in center-based child care to examine associations between quality and child experiences and outcomes. Children's experiences over time need to be examined to understand how these early child care experiences are related to children's later school adjustment and performance. On a related note, professional development for teachers in toddler classrooms needs to be addressed in terms of preparing effective teachers for young children during the toddler developmental period.     

Selection methods for undergraduate admissions in Australia. Does the Australian predominate entry scheme the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) have a future?

This article considers the Australian entry score system, the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR), and its usage as a selection mechanism for undergraduate places in Australian higher education institutions and asks whether its role as the main selection criterion will continue with the introduction of demand driven funding in 2012. Admission strategies for undergraduate places in Australian universities have remained unchanged for many years. The author concludes that the current entry scheme, the ATAR, will continue as a dominant selection criterion particularly for courses where demand exceeds supply, but ATAR-based selection will be insufficient to meet the participation targets set by the federal government. There is now an opportunity for universities to differentiate themselves by their admission strategies and to improve participation of equity groups through the normalisation of alternative entry mechanisms.     

Significance: recognizing the value of research across national and linguistic boundaries

Internationalization of educational publishing promises fresh perspectives and new solutions—but not if US-based editors, reviewers, and readers fail to recognize the significance of research conducted outside the USA. This essay explores the concept of “significance” in the context of peer review of journal articles, and explains why US-based reviewers easily miss the social importance and the intellectual interest of research conducted elsewhere. It points to several steps that can be taken to increase publication of the full global range of educational scholarship.     

Jane Butler Kahle: passion,determination, and vision

In this article, I describe how Jane Butler Kahle’s intellectual curiosity, commitment to equity and her ability to use various research approaches, to establish research and networking groups comprised of scholars from diverse backgrounds, theoretical perspectives and geographic locations, to disseminate research outcomes and findings through scholarly publications, service on policy committees and mentoring of other scholars framed a career in science education that has impacted students, teachers, and researchers. Jane synergistically and tirelessly combined her research, teaching, and service to identify, challenge and reduce inequities in science education in the US and throughout the world because for her it was important that all students have access to quality science education.     

The Dominance Concept Inventory: A Tool for Assessing Undergraduate Student Alternative Conceptions about Dominance in Mendelian and Population Genetics

Despite the impact of genetics on daily life, biology undergraduates understand some key genetics concepts poorly. One concept requiring attention is dominance, which many students understand as a fixed property of an allele or trait and regularly conflate with frequency in a population or selective advantage. We present the Dominance Concept Inventory (DCI), an instrument to gather data on selected alternative conceptions about dominance. During development of the 16-item test, we used expert surveys (n = 12), student interviews (n = 42), and field tests (n = 1763) from introductory and advanced biology undergraduates at public and private, majority- and minority-serving, 2- and 4-yr institutions in the United States. In the final field test across all subject populations (n = 709), item difficulty ranged from 0.08 to 0.84 (0.51 ± 0.049 SEM), while item discrimination ranged from 0.11 to 0.82 (0.50 ± 0.048 SEM). Internal reliability (Cronbach''s alpha) was 0.77, while test–retest reliability values were 0.74 (product moment correlation) and 0.77 (intraclass correlation). The prevalence of alternative conceptions in the field tests shows that introductory and advanced students retain confusion about dominance after instruction. All measures support the DCI as a useful instrument for measuring undergraduate biology student understanding and alternative conceptions about dominance.     

Teaching: getting it right

This autobiographical article explores the way one North American high school teacher's intuitive teaching principles developed over time. The author uses tennis as a metaphor to try to describe her feelings about the teaching process.