Early career teachers’ emotion and emerging teacher identities

The goal of our project was to develop an understanding of the connections among emotional episodes and emerging professional teacher identities of first year teachers. We interviewed eight first year mathematics and science teachers. We asked them to reflect on emotional episodes and talk about how those emotions informed their teaching identities. Our data yielded a model of ‘identity-work’ that reflected the teachers’ engagement in a reflective process of understanding themselves as it related to those emotional episodes. Our model includes four key processes: (1) Teacher incoming identity beliefs; (2) Teacher identity emotional episodes; (3) Teacher attributions and (4)Identity adjustment. All of our teachers exhibited a form of this process with some teachers elaborating on the ways in which pleasant emotional experiences confirmed their identities and others elaborating on the ways in which unpleasant emotional experiences caused them to confront and/or adjust their emergent identities. Implications for future research and teacher education are discussed.     

Tracking of the expected time to reinforcement in temporal conditioning procedures

In one experiment, the rate and pattern of responding (head entry into the food cup) under different distributions of intervals between food deliveries were examined. Separate groups of rats received fixed-time (45, 90, 180, or 360 sec), random-time (45, 90, 180, or 360 sec), or tandem fixed-time (45 or 90 sec) random-time (45 or 90 sec) schedules of reinforcement. Schedule type affected the pattern of responding as a function of time, whereas mean interval duration affected the mean rate of responding. Responses occurred in bouts with characteristics that were invariant across conditions. Packet theory, which assumes that the momentary probability of bout occurrence is negatively related to the conditional expected time remaining until the next reinforcer, accurately predicted global and local measures of responding. The success of the model advances the prediction of multiple measures of responding across different types of time-based schedules.     

Experiences of HIV/AIDS Counselors in Zimbabwe and Their Perceptions on the State of HIV/AIDS Counseling in Zimbabwe

This study investigated Zimbabwean counselors' experiences of providing HIV/AIDS counseling and their perceptions about the state of HIV/AIDS counseling in Zimbabwe. The participants were a diverse group of counselors, 30 through 59 years of age, who provided counseling services to HIV/AIDS clients. Participants thought HIV/AIDS counselors in Zimbabwe received minimal support and supervision and were undertrained. They identified that the first sessions with clients were the most difficult. They also found it problematic to work with couples who were serodiscordant (one partner who is HIV positive and the other HIV negative) and couples wanting children. The later stages of the counseling process were also found to be challenging. Though the participants acknowledged they had negative psychological experiences when counseling HIV/AIDS clients, they also expressed feelings of satisfaction and fulfillment in their work.     

The role of hypothetico-deductive reasoning and physical analogues of molecular interactions in conceptual change

Two hypotheses about theoretical concept acquisition, application, and change were tested. College biology students classified as intuitive, transitional, or reflective (hypothetico-deductive) reasoners were first taught two theoretical concepts (molecular polarity and bonding) to explain the mixing of dye with water, but not with oil, when all three were shaken in a container. The students were then tested in a context in which they misapplied the concepts in an attempt to explain the gradual spread of blue dye in standing water. Next students were taught another theoretical concept (diffusion), with and without the use of physical analogues. They were retested to see which students acquired the concept of diffusion and which students changed from use of the incorrect polarity and bonding concepts (i.e., the misconceptions) to use of the diffusion concept to correctly explain the dye's gradual spread. As predicted, the experimental/analogy group scored significantly higher than the control group on a posttest question that required the definition of diffusion. Also as predicted, hypothetico-deductive reasoning skill was significantly related to correct application of the diffusion concept and to a change from the misapplication of the polarity and bonding concepts to the correct application of the diffusion concept to explain the gradual spread of the blue dye. Thus, the results support the hypotheses that physical analogues are helpful in theoretical concept acquisition and that hypothetico-deductive reasoning is needed for successful concept application and change. Educational implications are drawn.     

A meta-analysis of the relationship of child sexual abuse to HIV risk behavior among women

OBJECTIVE: This study is a meta-analysis of the literature exploring the relationship between child sexual abuse (CSA) and HIV risk behavior among women. Four outcome variables were tested: unprotected sex; sex with multiple partners; sex trading; and adult sexual revictimization. METHOD: Forty-six studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the analysis, and separate meta-analyses were performed for each of the four dependent variables described above. RESULTS: Using the correlation coefficient r as an effect size estimate, results indicate an average effect size of .05 for the unprotected sex meta-analysis (N = 16 studies), .13 for the sex with multiple partners meta-analysis (N = 23 studies), .12 for the sex trading meta-analysis (N = 23 studies), and .17 for the adult sexual revictimization meta-analysis (N = 21 studies). We conducted a test of three potential moderator variables (source of sample, definition of CSA based on type of contact, and definition of CSA based on maximum age of victim). Results did not support the hypothesis that these three variables explain a significant amount of variability in effect sizes with one exception: Studies that define CSA more broadly to include adolescent victims (e.g., victims up to 17 years of age) had larger and more homogenous effect sizes for the sex trading meta-analysis than those that defined CSA as having occurred at younger ages. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest a small positive relationship between CSA and subsequent HIV risk behavior among women that varies as a function of how CSA and HIV risk behavior are operationalized.     

One Cow Does Not an Animal Make: Young Children Can Extend Novel Words at the Superordinate Level

Six match-to-sample picture/object selection experiments were designed to explore children's knowledge about superordinate words (e.g., "food") and how they acquire this knowledge. Three factors were found to influence the learning and extension of superordinate words in 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 230): The number of standards (one versus two), the type of standards presented (from different basic-level categories versus from the same basic-level category), and the nature of the object representations used (pictures versus objects). A different pattern of superordinate word acquisition was found between 3-year-olds and 4- and 5-year-olds. Although 4- and 5-year-olds could learn and extend novel words to superordinate categories in the presence of two picture exemplars from different categories or a single three-dimensional (3-D) exemplar, 3-year-olds could do so only in the presence of two 3-D exemplars. These findings indicate that young children's acquisition of superordinate words is influenced by multiple factors and that there is a developmental progression from multiple exemplars to single exemplars in superordinate word learning.     

Profile of Australian preschool children with speech sound disorders at risk for literacy difficulties

Abstract

Speech sound disorders are a common communication difficulty in preschool children. Teachers indicate difficulty identifying and supporting these children. The aim of this research was to describe speech and language characteristics of children identified by their parents and/or teachers as having possible communication concerns. 275 Australian 4- to 5-year-old children from 45 preschools whose parents and teachers were concerned about their talking participated in speech-language pathology assessments to examine speech, language, literacy, non-verbal intelligence, oromotor skills and hearing. The majority (71.3%) of children demonstrated lower consonant accuracy than expected for their age, 63.9% did not pass the language-screening task, 65.5% had not been assessed and 72.4% had not received intervention from a speech-language pathologist. The 132 children who were identified with speech sound disorder (phonological impairment) were more likely to be male (62.9%) who were unintelligible to unfamiliar listeners, and had poor emergent literacy and phonological processing skills, despite having typical hearing, oral structures, and intelligence. Children identified by parents and teachers with concerns may have a range of speech, language and communication needs requiring professional support.     

Student Perspectives on Academic Accommodations

The active involvement of secondary school students with high-incidence disabilities (HI) in instructional accommodations is essential to both enacting the accommodations and to the accommodations effectiveness. Very little is known about students with HI’s knowledge about instructional accommodations, experiences with them, or opinions on effective practices. A focus group study was conducted with 10 high school students with HI. A content analysis (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2009) revealed they are unaware of how their accommodations are identified, and that they typically are not directly taught to use them. The students explained how accommodations are usually provided in the classroom, including the ways they signal need, and offered their suggestions for more effective practices, which included responding to fairness and potential embarrassment. Their comments also revealed their beliefs and practices for self-advocating for accommodations.     

The Role of Non-cognitive Variables in Identifying Community College Students in Need of Targeted Supports

Non-academic characteristics and traits, such as academic self-efficacy and conscientiousness, have maintained the interest of higher education researchers for decades. A considerable amount of research has found that these non-cognitive variables (NCVs) are generally predictive of undergraduate success. However, most prior studies have focused on the use of NCVs in 4-year colleges, and understanding if and how these measures predict the academic trajectories of community college students has received less attention. As past work has indicated that NCVs are differentially predictive for students from different backgrounds, such an examination is needed. Drawing on data from two diverse community colleges, our study addresses this need by exploring if seven popular NCVs predict both short and longer-term student outcomes, how these measures are related to help-seeking behaviors, and their utility in identifying students at risk of serious academic failures. We find statistically significant relationships between NCVs and GPA outcomes but conclude that their practical utility appears trivial.