Electronic Roads in Historical Documents: A Student Oriented Approach

The new educational approaches, as far as teaching of history in secondary education is concerned, are characterized by a shift away from sterile memorization and towards a critical approach of historical facts and phenomena; the aim is to contribute to both the development of students' historical concept and conscience and the promotion of critical thought. These teaching goals are pursued by promoting initiative of the students through self study assignments in the form of projects; students can be greatly supported in such tasks by computer-based applications, which can offer access to vast amounts of historical texts and data to be used next to the main scholar textbook and be analyzed by students. Still, existing applications seem to be quite inadequate for this purpose, as they require that the student be already informed on a matter, before the initiation of a quest for data. In this paper, we describe an intelligent information system that is designed to facilitate browsing of educational material and historical sources, thus allowing students to efficiently retrieve information on topics that are not yet known to them and expand in this way their historical knowledge. This can help in fulfilling the aforementioned teaching goals. Our system relies on the notion of the Electronic Road.     

Impact of a Mentoring Experience on College Students’ Beliefs about Early Childhood Development

With the increasing demands placed on working families and the push downward of academics from the K-12 system, there is a critical need to provide high-quality early childhood programming for our nation’s children, particularly those considered at risk for academic failure. This study attempts to (a) understand the beliefs of college students about early childhood development and developmentally appropriate practices, and (b) determine if these beliefs change after their yearlong involvement in Jumpstart, a national intensive mentoring program for academically at-risk preschoolers. Surveys from this national program investigated college students’ beliefs about early childhood development and developmentally appropriate practices. Results indicate that a yearlong mentoring program positively impacts college students’ beliefs. These beliefs become less skills-based more and child-centered and constructivist.     

The effects of using graphing calculators to enhance college students' performance in precalculus

This study extended through three academic semesters and involved 710 subjects. It compared the performance of college students taught precalculus using a graphing calculator and a textbook written to be used with a graphing utility, to the performance of students using the traditional approach, a regular textbook, and a scientific calculator. On a comprehensive common final exam, students who were taught precalculus using the graphing calculator had significantly higher scores than those taught by traditional methods.PosthumousPreliminary partial results of this experiment were presented at the Fourth Annual International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics, Portland, Oregon, November 15–17,1991.     

Illuminating growth and struggles using mixed methods: Practice-based professional development and coaching for differentiating SRSD instruction in writing

In this mixed methods study, qualitative, quantitative, and single-case methods were combined to provide a comprehensive investigation of teacher and student outcomes following practice-based professional development (PBPD) for self-regulated strategy development (SRSD) in writing. Qualitative observations were used to determine outcomes among the three-fourth grade teachers involved, a nested quantitative model was used to analyze classwide student writing outcomes across 53 students in the three classes, and single case design was used to determine differential outcomes among randomly selected struggling and average writers in each class. PBPD was followed by coaching for differentiation based on student performance and fidelity as teachers taught their students strategies for writing timed imaginary stories (with self as main character), as required by the state writing test. Qualitative results indicated two teachers did not differentiate writing instruction without coaching; one teacher was unresponsive to coaching and did not differentiate instruction. Classwide analysis demonstrated significant growth in writing at the class level for students from baseline to posttesting. Single case design results indicated mixed outcomes among struggling and average writers and instances where instruction was not effective. Teachers indicated high social validity for PBPD and for SRSD; students indicated high social validity for SRSD. Results across the multiple methods illuminate growth and struggles often disguised in group data and are addressed to aid in understanding and enhancing PBPD as well as instruction in SRSD and other evidence-based practices. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.     

Behavioral problems among children whose mothers are abused by an intimate partner

OBJECTIVES: To determine the association between children's exposure to maternal intimate partner violence (IPV) and behavior problems as measured by the parent report version of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). METHODS: The study population was comprised of 167 2- to 17-year-old children of Seattle women with police-reported or court-reported intimate partner abuse. The CBCL normative population served as the comparison group. Risk of behavior problems was calculated among the exposed children, in the presence and absence of a history of reported child maltreatment, relative to the normative population. Multiple logistic regression served as the primary method of analysis. RESULTS: Children exposed to maternal IPV were more likely to have borderline to clinical level scores on externalizing (i.e., aggressive, delinquent) behavior (RR=1.6, 95% CI: 1.2, 2.1) and total behavioral problems (RR=1.4, 95% CI: 1.1, 1.9) compared to the CBCL normative sample after adjusting for age and sex. Children who were exposed to maternal IPV and were victims of child maltreatment were more likely to receive borderline to clinical level scores on internalizing (i.e., anxious, depressed) behaviors (RR=2.6, 95% CI: 1.5, 3.6), externalizing (i.e., aggressive, delinquent) behaviors (RR=3.0, 95% CI: 1.9, 4.0) and total behavioral problems (RR=2.1, 95% CI: 1.2, 3.2) compared to the CBCL normative sample after adjusting for age and sex. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to maternal IPV is significantly associated with child behavioral problems both in the presence and absence of co-occurring child maltreatment. Appropriate attention to the mental health of children living in households with IPV is needed.     

Professional Development Schools: New Opportunities for Training School Counselors

The authors examine how counselor educators can become involved in professional development schools to create enhanced training opportunities for school counseling internship students. The benefits of collaboration between university and public school faculties are explored, and research opportunities are discussed. Counselor educators' expertise in research and program evaluation, combined with school counselors' pragmatic experience in dealing with real‐life issues, may promote best practices in the schools and improved training for school counselors and can set the stage for collaboration as an educational team at the preservice level.     

Unpacking the career aspirations of Australian school students: towards an evidence base for university equity initiatives in schools

Demand for higher education in Australia has doubled since 1989, increasing the number of students from diverse social, economic and academic backgrounds. Equity targets have seen a proliferation of programs and interventions aimed at encouraging school students, particularly those from low socio-economic status backgrounds, to participate in higher education. However, little is known about the specific occupational interests of school students upon which targeted strategies might effectively be designed and implemented. This paper examines school students’ aspirations for specific careers that require a university education, in relation to student background and school-related variables. The analysis draws from a study of 6492 students from Years 3 to 12 in 64 New South Wales public schools. We found a complex array of factors relating to interest in different careers. Year level at school, gender and prior achievement were stronger predictors across many careers than factors such as SES, Indigenous status and school location. We argue that rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach to encouraging participation in higher education, outreach activities should be targeted to take account of student diversity and inequalities that foster differing aspirations.