Mentoring “Inside” and “Outside” the Action of Teaching: A Professional Framework for Mentoring

This study seeks to contribute to the research on mentored induction by investigating the practices mentors employ in their work with new teachers in two high-need, high-poverty urban elementary schools. Informed by Schwille’s (2008) temporal framework of “educative” mentoring practices occurring “inside” and “outside” the action of teaching, this study investigated the range of practices mentors employed, new teachers’ perceptions of the practices, and if the practices contributed to new teachers’ professional learning. Participants included six new teachers and two induction mentors. Results indicate that “inside” and “outside” mentoring practices are complementary and should be conceived as assisted performance and judiciously selected to promote productive changes in new teachers’ practice. Recommendations for mentoring programs are provided.     

Assessing the relative performance of U.K. university technology transfer offices: parametric and non-parametric evidence

We present evidence on the relative performance of U.K. university technology transfer offices (TTOs) using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and stochastic frontier estimation (SFE). U.K. TTOs are found to exhibit low-levels of absolute efficiency. There also appear to be decreasing returns to scale, implying that TTOs may need to be reconfigured into smaller units. The development of regionally-based sector focused TTOs is also advised. Consistent with qualitative evidence from U.S. TTOs, we find that there is a need to upgrade the business skills and capabilities of U.K. TTO managers and licensing officers.     

How Two- and Four-Year-Old Children Interpret Adjectives and Count Nouns

We examined the role of object kind familiarity (i.e., knowledge of a count noun for an object) on preschoolers' sensitivity to the relation between a novel word's form class (adjective or count noun) and its reference (to a material kind-property or to an object kind). We used a forced-choice match-to-target task, in which children learned a word for one object (e.g., a metal cup), and then chose between 2 other objects. One was from the same object kind but a different material kind (with different related properties, such as color and texture; e.g., a white plastic cup); the other was from a different object kind but the same material kind (with the same related properties; e.g., a metal spoon). In Experiment 1, children learned either a count noun (e.g., "This is a zav") or an adjective (e.g., "This is a zav one"). Within each form class, we crossed the familiarity of the referent object kind (familiar and unfamiliar) with the age of the children (2- and 4-year-olds). The principal finding was that in interpreting an adjective, 4-year-olds were more likely to choose the object sharing material kind with the target if the target was familiar than if it was unfamiliar. No such familiarity effect was evident among 2-year-olds. In Experiment 2, we employed a more unambiguously adjectival frame (e.g., "This is a very zav-ish one"), and replicated the results of Experiment 1. We interpret the results in terms of 2 proposed word learning biases: one that learners initially expect any word applied to an unfamiliar object to refer to a (basic-level) kind of object, and a second that learners prefer words to contrast in meaning. We consider several interpretations of the observed age difference.     

Assessing the self‐esteem of female undergraduate students: an issue of methodology

For many students, embarking on higher education can pose particular threats and challenges, not only to academic identity, but also to fundamental, personal aspects of the self. This paper reports a methodological study that employed quantitative and qualitative research methods to explore the impact on the sense of self and self‐esteem of a group of female first‐year undergraduates. Results from a Self‐esteem inventory, a variation on Q Methodology, an Ideal‐self inventory and a semi‐structured interview revealed different but complementary aspects of the self and indicated that participants’ self‐esteem increased over the duration of the study, as recorded on all four measures. It is suggested that the most appropriate way of uncovering and understanding mediators of self‐esteem may be through a mixed‐method approach.     

Developmental Attainment of Infants and Young Children with Down Syndrome

INFANTS and young children with Down syndrome who were living at home and attending exemplary early intervention programs were assessed by trained examiners in the five domains of the Battelle Developmental Inventory. Data was compared to the 50th percentile attainment and found that infants and young children with Down syndrome are more similar to other children in Personal Social and Adaptive Domains and less similar in Communication and Cognitive Domains. These differences begin to show more dramatically as the child reaches the age of 36 months. The older the child the greater the measured differences. Documenting and understanding this uneven developmental path is significant in program planning.     

The Scaling of Mixed-Item-Format Tests With the One-Parameter and Two-Parameter Partial Credit Models

Item response theory scalings were conducted for six tests with mixed item formats. These tests differed in their proportions of constructed response (c.r.) and multiple choice (m.c.) items and in overall difficulty. The scalings included those based on scores for the c.r. items that had maintained the number of levels as the item rubrics, either produced from single ratings or multiple ratings that were averaged and rounded to the nearest integer, as well as scalings for a single form of c.r. items obtained by summing multiple ratings. A one-parameter (IPPC) or two-parameter (2PPC) partial credit model was used for the c.r. items and the one-parameter logistic (IPL) or three-parameter logistic (3PL) model for the m.c. items, ltem fit was substantially worse with the combination IPL/IPPC model than the 3PL/2PPC model due to the former's restrictive assumptions that there would be no guessing on the m.c. items and equal item discrimination across items and item types. The presence of varying item discriminations resulted in the IPL/IPPC model producing estimates of item information that could be spuriously inflated for c.r. items that had three or more score levels. Information for some items with summed ratings were usually overestimated by 300% or more for the IPL/IPPC model. These inflated information values resulted in under-estbnated standard errors of ability estimates. The constraints posed by the restricted model suggests limitations on the testing contexts in which the IPL/IPPC model can be accurately applied.     

The Effects of Writing Workshop on Abilities of First Grade Students to Become Confident and Independent Writers

Writing Workshop is an interactive approach to teaching writing as students learn and practice the importance of rehearsal, drafting/revising, and editing their pieces of writing (Calkins, 1986; Graves, 1983). This study implemented a mixed methodology design incorporating qualitative and quantitative analysis (Mills, 2007) by administering a pre survey to each child before he/she began the Writing Workshop and a post survey after the intervention; systematic observational research as a checklist (Glanz, 2003) to record observed practices of students during peer revising conferences; portfolios to assess student writing and graded via a rubric; and lastly interview of students regarding confidence and ability in writing. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the writing processes of drafting/revising and editing to support first grade students to become independent writers.     

Attachment and Emotion Regulation during Mother-Teen Problem Solving: A Control Theory Analysis

We present a control theory analysis of adolescents' attachment strategies in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). In Study 1, Q-sort prototypes for secure/anxious and deactivating/hyperactivating strategies were used to differentiate between Main and Goldwyn's AAI classifications. In Study 2, we examined how AAI strategies were associated with emotion regulation during mother-teen problem solving. 4 aspects of mother-teen problem solving (dysfunctional anger, support/validation, avoidance of problem solving, and maternal dominance) were used to predict teens' AAI strategies. Teens with secure strategies engaged in problem-solving discussions characterized by less dysfunctional anger and less avoidance of problem solving. In addition, attachment security showed a curvilinear relation with maternal dominance, indicating that secure teens maintained balanced assertiveness with their mothers. Teens with deactivating strategies engaged in problem-solving interactions characterized by higher levels of maternal dominance and dysfunctional anger. The contribution of attachment strategies to teens' autonomy and to transformations in mother-teen relationships is discussed.