Conflict-Related Emotions During Peer Disputes

The aim of this study was to investigate young children's conflict emotions during peer disputes. Twenty-seven 4- to 5-year-old children participated in four 15- minute sessions in which groups of 3 children played with table toys. Videotapes of these sessions were used to identify all conflicts and conflict roles (initiator, recipient, and observer) and all conflict-related displays of facial emotions (using the AFFEX coding system). Results indicated that initiators', recipients' and observers' emotions differed in the conflict and postconflict periods, but that there were no initial preconflict differences. Overall, conflict initiators almost exclusively expressed happiness, whereas conflict recipients expressed mostly sadness and anger. In addition, children's conflict emotions were related to the frequency with which they initiated and received conflicts. Children who expressed higher percentages of negative emotions as conflict recipients both initiated and received more conflicts, and children who expressed more happiness when initiating conflicts also initiated more conflicts. These findings have implications for how young children develop methods of conflict resolution, and how they form concepts about sociomoral emotions.     

Alternative models of learning disabilities identification: considerations and initial conclusions

The final session of the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities (NRCLD) Responsiveness-to-Intervention (RTI) Symposium, "What are alternative models to LD identification other than RTI?" included four papers that discussed concerns over the exclusive reliance on an RTI approach to learning disability identification, considerations for analyzing proposed LD identification models, and various alternatives to LD identification. The work of the participating panelists is summarized in this discussant paper, and next steps for the NRCLD in light of these presentations are suggested.     

Factors in life science textbooks that may deter girls' interest in science

In order to examine factors that may deter girls' interest in science, five seventh-grade life science textbooks were analyzed for sexism in language, images, and curricular content, and for features of activities that have been found to be useful for motivating girls. Although overt sexism was not apparent, subtle forms of sexism in the selection of language, images, and curricular content were found. Activities had some features useful to girls, but other features were seldom included. Teachers may wish to use differences that were found among texts as one basis for text selection.     

Illuminating and facilitating professional knowledge through case work

In the spring of 2002 the Ontario College of Teachers began a research project in order to foster awareness of the Standards of Practice for the 187 000 teachers in the province. Case work, in which 18 teachers representative of the College's membership wrote narratives describing their professional dilemmas, was the methodology chosen. Through reflection and collaborative group work these practitioners co‐created a set of cases, mapping them back to the standards in order to ascertain how the standards had been embedded or absent from their daily practice. To validate the effectiveness of this method, we used the cases in pre‐service, in‐service, principal and supervisory personnel venues. We also recorded the impact of the ‘case institute’ in a focus group session with the original writers. Augmented by commentaries from internationally known teacher educators, this text will be sent to all provincial school boards as part of a resource kit to educate teachers about the standards of practice.

Au printemps 2002, l'Ordre des enseignantes et des enseignants de l'Ontario amorçait un projet de recherche ayant pour but de sensibiliser les 187 000 enseignants de la province aux normes d'exercice de leur profession. L'étude de cas rédigés par 18 enseignants membres de l'Ordre est la méthode qui allait servir à présenter divers dilemmes professionnels. Ainsi, ces praticiens ont réfléchi et travaillé ensemble pour présenter des cas et les rattacher aux normes afin de déterminer la présence ou l'absence des normes dans leurs pratiques quotidiennes. Pour valider l'efficacité de cette méthode, nous avons mis les cas à l'épreuve lors d'activités organisées pour les étudiants des facultés d'éducation, des enseignants en perfectionnement professionnel, des directeurs d'école et des agents de supervision. Nous avons également réuni les 18 rédacteurs pour discuter de l'impact des ateliers de rédaction de cas. Le texte, auquel s'ajoutent les commentaires d'éducateurs de renommée internationale, fera partie de la trousse de ressources qui sera envoyée à tous les conseils scolaires de la province pour initier les enseignants aux normes d'exercice de la profession.

Im Frühjahr 2002, unternahm das Ontario College of Teachers einen Forschungsprojekt mit dem Ziel, das Bewußtsein der Normen der Praxis unter den 187,000 Lehrer des Bundeslandes Ontario zu fördern. Die gewählte Methodologie war die Untersuchung von spezifischen Fallberichten, in denen 18 Lehrer, die repräsentativ für die Mitglieder der Organisation dastehen, ihre Entscheidungen im beruflichen Alltag begründeten. In einem von Überlegung, Zusammenarbeit und Gruppenarbeit geprägten Verfahren schufen diese Lehrer und Lehrerinnen einen Korpus der Fälle, die sie anschließend zu den Berufsnormen zurückverfolgten, um festzustellen, wie die Normen sich in der täglichen Praxis eingebettet hatten oder das Gegenteil. Um die Wirksamkeit der Methode zu bestätigen, wurden Einzelfälle in vorberuflichen, beruflichen, Direktor‐ und Aufsichtsstellen‐bezogenen Umgebungen ausgesucht. Die Wirkung der Falluntersuchungen wurde auch in einer Diskussionsrunde mit den Autoren aufgenommen. Dieser Text, bereichert durch Kommentare von Lehrerausbildern von internationalem Ruf, wird an alle Schulverwaltungen im Bundesland Ontario als Bestandteil eines Ressourcen‐Compendiums versandt, mit dem Ziel, Lehrer über die Normen der Berufspraxis weiterzubilden.

En la primavera del 2002, el Colegio de Profesores de Ontario inició un proyecto de investigación para crear conciencia entre los 187,000 maestros en la provincia sobre los estándares de práctica profesional. La metodología elegida fue el ‘Estudio de antecedentes’ en la que un grupo representativo de la membresía del Colegio, conformado por 18 maestros, redactó historias contando sus dilemas profesionales. Tras mucha reflexión y trabajo mancomunado de equipo, estos profesores crearon colectivamente un conjunto de casos, trazando un mapa vinculándolos a los estándares y así poder determinar de qué manera estos estándares habían estado arraigados en su práctica profesional cotidiana o si los habían dejado de lado. Para validar la eficacia de este método, aplicamos los casos en varios contextos docentes: estudiantes de la facultad de educación, capacitación profesional para docentes, directores de plantel y superintendentes de las juntas directivas escolares. También tomamos nota del impacto del ‘Taller para la redacción de casos’ en una sesión de enfoque grupal con los propios autores. Este texto, que ha sido complementado con comentarios de capacitadores de maestros conocidos internacionalmente, será enviado a todas las Juntas Directivas de las escuelas provinciales como parte del kit de recursos para educar a los profesores sobre los estándares de práctica profesional.     

The relation of parenting style to adolescent school performance

This article develops and tests a reformation of Baumrind's typology of authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative parenting styles in the context of adolescent school performance. Using a large and diverse sample of San Francisco Bay Area high school students (N = 7,836), we found that both authoritarian and permissive parenting styles were negatively associated with grades, and authoritative parenting was positively associated with grades. Parenting styles generally showed the expected relation to grades across gender, age, parental education, ethnic, and family structure categories. Authoritarian parenting tended to have a stronger association with grades than did the other 2 parenting styles, except among Hispanic males. The full typology best predicted grades among white students. Pure authoritative families (high on authoritative but not high on the other 2 indices) had the highest mean grades, while inconsistent families that combine authoritarian parenting with other parenting styles had the lowest grades.     

Early transition into adult roles: some antecedents and some outcomes

The transition to adult roles usually occurs within a normative age span. By focusing on preadolescence to late adolescence using 2-wave panel data, this research seeks to develop a more informed picture of how "early" exit from the student role and "early" entry into the adult role of parent or spouse reflect factors operating prior to adolescence. The short term consequences of adult role transition on teenage status aspirations, life plans, other psychological orientations, and parental influence are also examined. Even though multiple role transition is frequently observed, only leaving school early appears to be related to preadolescent career decisions and academic performance in high school. The determinants of early transition to the role of parent or spouse do not appear to be socioeconomic origins, parental child rearing techniques or other specific influences, academic ability or performance, or preadolescent aspirations, as has generally been hypothesized in the literature. Research dilemmas and policy implications are discussed.     

Teaching the design and interpretation of graphs through computer-aided graphical data analysis

Graphs are one of the primary means of exploration and communication in the practice of science, but students in science laboratories are customarily taught only the low-level mechanics of constructing a single kind of graph when given a table of information. The use of a microcomputer can relieve the drudgery of plotting, allowing students to pursue higher-level issues in the design and interpretation of graphs through repeated “thought experiments.” We introduced computer-assisted graphical data analysis to inner-city high school students with weak math and science backgrounds, emphasizing the dynamic manipulation of various kinds of graphs to answer specific questions. Drawing on extensive recordings and classroom observations, we describe examples of the performance of these students on open-ended problem-solving tasks in which graphs can be used to arrive at meaningful answers to applied data analysis problems.