Longitudinal confirmatory factor analysis: Common,time‐specific,item‐specific,and residual‐error components of variance

Following Cronbach (1970) and others, it is useful to decompose test score variation into common factor, time‐specific, item‐specific, and residual components. In the traditional approach to factor analysis, only two sources of variance can be estimated: common factor variance and a uniqueness term that confounds specific sources of variation and residual error. When the same items are measured on different occasions, however, it is possible to separate specific variance and residual error. Two approaches, the first‐order approach described by Raffalovich and Bohrnstedt (1987) and a second‐order approach based on Jöreskog and Sörbom (1989; Jöreskog, 1974) are considered initially. The two approaches, although based on different rationales, both suffer a similar weakness in that two of the four sources of variance are confounded. In the Raffalovich and Bohrnstedt approach, time‐specific variance is confounded with common factor variance that generalizes across items and time. In the second‐order approach based on Jöreskog and Sörbom, time‐specific variance is confounded with residual error. Here we demonstrate that by combining features from both approaches we can eliminate these weaknesses and estimate all four of Cronbach's sources of variance, and that this combined approach is easily generalized to a wide variety of applications.     

Resampling and Distribution of the Product Methods for Testing Indirect Effects in Complex Models

Recent advances in testing mediation have found that certain resampling methods and tests based on the mathematical distribution of 2 normal random variables substantially outperform the traditional z test. However, these studies have primarily focused only on models with a single mediator and 2 component paths. To address this limitation, a simulation was conducted to evaluate these alternative methods in a more complex path model with multiple mediators and indirect paths with 2 and 3 paths. Methods for testing contrasts of 2 effects were evaluated also. The simulation included 1 exogenous independent variable, 3 mediators and 2 outcomes and varied sample size, number of paths in the mediated effects, test used to evaluate effects, effect sizes for each path, and the value of the contrast. Confidence intervals were used to evaluate the power and Type I error rate of each method, and were examined for coverage and bias. The bias-corrected bootstrap had the least biased confidence intervals, greatest power to detect nonzero effects and contrasts, and the most accurate overall Type I error. All tests had less power to detect 3-path effects and more inaccurate Type I error compared to 2-path effects. Confidence intervals were biased for mediated effects, as found in previous studies. Results for contrasts did not vary greatly by test, although resampling approaches had somewhat greater power and might be preferable because of ease of use and flexibility.     

Factor Analysis with Ordinal Indicators: A Monte Carlo Study Comparing DWLS and ULS Estimation

Factor analysis models with ordinal indicators are often estimated using a 3-stage procedure where the last stage involves obtaining parameter estimates by least squares from the sample polychoric correlations. A simulation study involving 324 conditions (1,000 replications per condition) was performed to compare the performance of diagonally weighted least squares (DWLS) and unweighted least squares (ULS) in the procedure's third stage. Overall, both methods provided accurate and similar results. However, ULS was found to provide more accurate and less variable parameter estimates, as well as more precise standard errors and better coverage rates. Nevertheless, convergence rates for DWLS are higher. Our recommendation is therefore to use ULS, and, in the case of nonconvergence, to use DWLS, as this method might converge when ULS does not.     

Orthographic Learning During Oral and Silent Reading

This study examined orthographic learning in oral and silent reading conditions. Dutch third graders read, either aloud or silently, short texts containing novel target (pseudo) words. The acquisition of new word-specific orthographic knowledge was assessed several days later by comparing target spellings with homophonic spellings in tasks requiring orthographic choice, spelling, and naming. It was predicted that orthographic learning would be evident in both oral and silent conditions but stronger in the oral condition. As expected, orthographic learning was evident in both oral and silent conditions. This finding suggests that support for the self-teaching hypothesis of orthographic learning obtained in studies of unassisted oral reading can be generalized to the more common form of independent reading: silent reading. In addition, the results on the naming task provided some evidence for stronger orthographic learning during oral reading, but the two spelling tasks did not.     

Dutch Dyslexia in Adulthood: Core Features and Variety

This study aimed to explore how alphabetic readers learn to read Chinese. First-year Chinese beginning learners who are skilled English readers were tested for their sensitivity to the visual-orthographic structures of Chinese characters. The study also explored the effect of the frequency of the characters in their curriculum on performance of a lexical decision and naming task. The students' linguistic knowledge about the characters was also tested. Results showed that the beginning learners were sensitive to the structural complexity of characters, they accepted simple characters more quickly and more accurately than compound characters, and they responded faster and more accurately to high-frequency than to low-frequency characters. Sensitivity to the structural composition of the character was also revealed: The learners rejected noncharacters containing illegal radical forms faster and more accurately than those containing legal radical forms in illegal positions, which in turn were rejected faster and more accurately than those containing legal radical forms in legal positions. A significant frequency effect was also found in the naming task, though the effect of structural complexity was not significant. These results suggest that perceptual learning plays an important role in early nonalphabetic learning by alphabetic readers. Both cross-writing system differences and second-language status may have an impact on such learning.     

Stories about teaching: Using qualitative data to promote reflective practices

Abstract

In this article two teacher educators describe an approach they have used with preservice early childhood and early childhood special education majors. They explain how the approach that they call “stories about teaching” resembles, yet differs from case study methods. The authors explain the process they used to develop, pilot, and use stories derived from qualitative data that they gathered in various early childhood settings. They explain how discussions based on the stories have provided their students opportunities to explore real‐life teaching situations from multiple perspectives, increase the depth of their reflections, and link theory to practice. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.     

PREDICTING SUCCESS IN EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS

The purpose of this study was to investigate the usefulness of standardized tests (ACT, Preprofessional Skills Test) as predictors of student success in early childhood studies. Success was measured as grade point average at the time of graduation. The sample consisted of students enrolled at a four‐year public institution in the United States (N = 129). Data analysis indicated the standardized measures, including ACT and the Preprofessional Skills Test, were significantly related to success in early childhood studies. In addition, both tests, along with high school rank and student age, were useful in the prediction of grade point average at graduation, but did little to predict success during the student teaching experience.     

Transformative Curriculum: “I Felt like an Artist”

Contemporary early childhood teacher education is situated in a knowledge and policy environment where on the one hand preservice educators have the opportunity to connect with unlimited knowledge sources and, on the other, are expected to conform to standardized outcomes. This situation is compounded by increasingly inequitable learning outcomes for children in many countries. In this paper, we argue that this context demands different ways of teaching and learning in early childhood teacher education and that in order to address increasing inequity, preservice educators must experience a transformative university curriculum. This paper uses the example of an arts topic, with a particular focus on music, to examine ways of positioning preservice educators that open up, rather than restrict opportunities to reconceptualize early childhood curriculum. The authors examine data from curriculum documents and student reflections in order to discuss the intended (planned), enacted (implemented) and experienced university curriculum.     

PREPARING PERSONNEL FOR INTEGRATION: NEEDS AND STRENGTHS OF EARLY INTERVENTION AND EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION PROFESSIONALS

Abstract

One early childhood teacher preparation program includes “Aesthetics As Learning,” a course which emphasizes that aesthetics is another way of knowing—another domain of development. The course has a reading, writing, discussion and experiential component—and all are integrated, but the experiential component (weekly arts activities) is showcased in this article.

One significant and innovative component of the experiential approach is that the students do not react to the use of the arts from a child's perspective but respond as an adult. This provides for an authentic experience with the arts. The college classroom uses a constructivist approach in which students construct their own meaning from their experiences and a feminist pedagogical approach that develops a classroom community of learners. © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.     

NURTURING EARLY CHILDHOOD PROFESSIONALISM: THE RHODE ISLAND EARLY CHILDHOOD SUMMER INSTITUTE

This article describes the independent study project of a student who was a graduate assistant in a child development laboratory preschool when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast area. Through her experiences with “Project Katrina” she deepens her understanding of developmentally appropriate practices as she learns firsthand about the project approach and writing an article for publication in a professional journal.