Effects of coaching on teacher use of sociocultural instructional practices

This study evaluates a performance-based instructional coaching model intended to improve teacher pedagogy and classroom organization for educating diverse student populations. Elementary teachers (N = 21) participated in a 30-h workshop and seven individual coaching sessions across an academic year. The coaching model promoted use of the Standards for Effective Pedagogy, five research-based practices known to increase student achievement. Findings demonstrate performance-based instructional coaching led to statistically significant (a) improvements in teacher pedagogy, (b) patterns of teacher growth, and (c) changes in classroom organization. Implications for improving teachers’ ultimate achievement, the coaching protocol, and research are addressed.     

Emotional experience, expression, and regulation of high-quality Japanese elementary school teachers

The present study investigates the emotional experience, expression, and regulation processes of high-quality Japanese elementary school teachers while they interact with children, in terms of teachers’ emotional competence. Qualitative analysis of interview data demonstrated that teachers had various emotional experiences including self-elicited negative emotions. The major expression patterns were identified as direct staging and the suppression of emotions. Teachers considered emotion expression in front of children as a skill, and their emotion regulation processes involved considering various purposes, appropriately using emotion expression, and ideal teacher images. The findings suggest that high-quality teachers effectively use emotional competence in teaching.     

Transition to formal schooling: Do transition practices matter for academic performance?

This study examined whether the transition practices implemented in preschool-elementary school pairs contribute to children's academic development during the first year of elementary school. Participants were 398 children who moved from 36 preschools to 22 elementary schools in two Finnish towns. Children were tested in respect to their reading, writing, and math skills in the preschool spring and in the grade 1 spring. The most common practices reported by preschool teachers were discussions about the school entrants and familiarizing preschool children with the school environment and the new teacher. Multilevel latent growth modeling showed that the more the preschool teachers and elementary-school teachers implemented various supportive activities during the preschool year, the faster the children's skills developed from preschool to grade 1 spring. Co-operation over curricula and passing on written information about children between the preschool and the elementary school were the best predictors of the children's skills, although they were the least commonly used practices. The need to restructure the transition to elementary school and the use of multiprofessional resources are discussed.     

Playful structure: a novel image of early years pedagogy for primary school classrooms

Playful structure is a new pedagogic image representing a more balanced and integrated perspective on early years pedagogy, aiming to blend apparent dichotomies and contradictions and to sustain and evolve play-based practice beyond Year 1. Playful structure invites teachers and children to initiate and maintain a degree of playfulness in the child’s whole learning experience, even when the learning intentions demand a supportive structure. Thus, playfulness becomes characteristic of the interaction between adult and the child and not just characteristic of child-initiated versus adult-initiated activities, or of play-time versus task-time. The paper is based on intensive observations and interviews with teachers in Northern Ireland who participated in a play-based and informal curriculum. This paper explains how playful structure rests on complementary processes of infusion of structure into play-based activities and infusion of playfulness into more structured activities, illustrated by cameos. ‘Infusion’ suggests the subtle blending process that allows apparent dichotomies and contradictions to be resolved in practice.     

Academic delay of gratification and children's study time allocation as a function of proximity to consequential academic goals

Students (N = 302) in Chinese elementary schools were assessed regarding their academic delay of gratification (ADOG) and reported the time they devoted to non-school study and playtime during an extended interval prior to taking a high-stakes final exam. Students high compared those low in ADOG were more likely to spend time studying and less time playing several weeks prior to the exam. Growth curve analyses verified, however, that this difference diminished as a function of the temporal proximity to the exam, and that the group differences were non-existent just before the exam. Associations between ADOG and students' academic motivation and use of learning strategies replicated those obtained previously with adults in the USA. Results contribute to the general literatures on volition, homework and the dynamics of conflicting goals and action tendencies.     

The cross-lagged relations between children’s academic skill development, task-avoidance, and parental beliefs about success

This longitudinal study investigated the cross-lagged associations between children’s academic skill development, task-avoidant behaviour in the context of homework, and parental beliefs about their child’s success from kindergarten to Grade 2. The participants were 1267 children. The children’s pre-skills were assessed at the end of the kindergarten year, and math and reading skills at the end of Grade 1 and Grade 2. Parents provided ratings of their beliefs about their children’s school success and task-avoidant behaviour with regard to homework at the end of Grades 1 and 2. The results showed that children’s math and reading skills predicted children’s task-avoidant behaviour regarding homework as rated by mothers, but not by fathers, when autoregressive effects were taken into account. In addition, task-avoidant behaviour predicted the mothers’ subsequent beliefs about their children’s school success but not vice versa. A reciprocal effect was found between fathers’ beliefs about success and children’s task-avoidance.     

The disease burden of childhood adversities in adults: a population-based study

Objectives

There is much evidence showing that childhood adversities have considerable effects on the mental and physical health of adults. It could be assumed therefore, that the disease burden of childhood adversities is high. It has not yet been examined, however, whether this is true.

Method

We used data of a large representative sample (N = 7,076) of the general population in the Netherlands. We calculated the disability weight (DW) for each respondent. The DW is a weight factor that reflects the severity of a disease or condition on a scale from 0 (perfect health) to 1 (equivalent to death). We used an algorithm based on the SF-6D to estimate DW. Because the DW indicates the proportion of a healthy life year that is reduced by the specific health state of the individual, it also possible to calculate the total number of years lost due to disability (YLD) in the population. We calculated the years lived with disability (YLD) for 9 different childhood adversities (in the areas of parental psychopathology; abuse and neglect; major life events), as well as for major categories of mental disorders and general medical disorders.

Results

All 9 adversities resulted in a significantly increased DW, except death of a parent before the age of 16. Adversities in the category of abuse and neglect are associated with the highest DWs (0.057), followed by parental psychopathology (0.031) and life events during childhood (0.012). All adversities (46.4% of the population reports one or more adversity) are associated with 20.7 YLD/1,000, which is more than all mental disorders together (12.9 YLD/1,000). The category of abuse/neglect has the highest YLD/1,000 (15.8), which is also higher than all mental disorders together. Adjustment for the presence of mental and general medical disorders resulted in comparable outcomes.

Conclusions

Childhood adversities are more important from a public health point of view than all common mental disorders together, and should be a priority for public health interventions.     

胡乔木晚年对中共治史理念的新思考

作为中共党史专家兼领导者,胡乔木对中共党史学科在十年文化大革命中的遭遇有太多的思考。这种思考,带来他治史理念的新变化。针对文化大革命中党史学遭到的破坏,胡乔木科学论证了历史与政治的关系;提出了党史研究要坚持科学性、四面八方、历史主义、学术价值与阅读价值相统一的原则;晚年他还特别强调对中共党史研究要坚持以史实叙史,以及历史要分析等科学的研究方法。他的这些新思考,为中共党史学在文化大革命结束后的拨乱反正作出了贡献,促进了中共党史研究的新发展。     

Issues in the development of children’s centres on nursery and primary school sites

This paper explores the development of children’s centres in England between 2004 and 2008, focusing on the newly created centres that have been located on primary and nursery school sites. Using both an analysis of policy documents and interview data from three urban local authorities, we examine the use of premises and the differing priorities of centre staff and school heads, particularly in relation to the balance of services between early years education, childcare and family support. We also explore governance issues, focusing especially on patterns of accountability. In so doing, we also examine the tensions that exist between children’s centres located on primary and on nursery school sites and the schools themselves.     

优秀短距离游泳运动员余贺新多年训练安排的控制

摘要:我国男子短距离游泳项目近年有了长足进步,但与我国长距离相比离世界最优秀运动员还有相当大的距离,因此,积极探索我国男子短距离游泳项目多年训练安排的规律迫在眉睫。本文主要运用跟踪测试法、数理统计法、文献资料法等,对优秀短距离游泳运动员余贺新多年训练安排成效的揭示,力图从个案剖析中寻找短距离游泳训练规律。结论：余贺新多年训练安排既满足“分期理论”的条件,也符合“板块”理论训练的特点;余贺新多年有氧能力训练贯穿于全程,其他所需各能力则按照“分期”与“板块”的要求安排各异;余贺新多年训练安排除了具有个人训练特点外,也适应世界顶级运动员成才的规律。