Counterintuitive effects of online feedback in middle school math: results from a randomized controlled trial in ASSISTments

This study compared the effects of three different feedback formats provided to sixth grade mathematics students within a web-based online learning platform, ASSISTments. A sample of 196 students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) text-based feedback; (2) image-based feedback; and (3) correctness only feedback. Regardless of condition, students solved a set of problems pertaining to the division of fractions by fractions. This mathematics content was representative of challenging sixth grade mathematics Common Core State Standard (6.NS.A.1). Students randomly assigned to receive text-based feedback (Condition A) or image-based feedback (Condition B) outperformed those randomly assigned to the correctness only group (Condition C). However, these differences were not statistically significant (F(2,108) = 1.394, p = .25). Results of this study also demonstrated a completion-bias. Students randomly assigned to Condition B were less likely to complete the problem set than those assigned to Conditions A and C. To conclude, we discuss the counterintuitive findings observed in this study and implications related to developing and implementing feedback in online learning environments for middle school mathematics.     

The influence of model infant—toddler group care on parent-child interaction at home

The effects of day care participation on parent-child interaction at home were assessed using a university-based, half-day model infant—toddler program. Hypotheses concerned whether “child-centered” features of the physical and social environment were carried over by parents to the home. Nineteen matched pairs of center and noncenter children (ages 2 to 24 months at start) were followed for 8 months. All had employed student mothers. Methods included brief parent-reported “spot” observations, a videotaped observation of a bathing or feeding routine, and home environment assessments. Parents showed few group differences during the first half of the study period. At study end, however, center homes were more child-centered with respect to play, safety, and dinner arrangements. Center parents scored higher in proximity and warmth and lower in “teacher-avoided” behaviors. Noncenter parents at study end scored higher in authority (limit setting) and communicating values and labels. The findings are interpreted as supporting an ecological model of substantial intersection and cross-influence between home and day care settings.     

Planning in Middle Childhood: Early Predictors and Later Outcomes

Data from 1,364 children and families who participated in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were analyzed to track the early correlates and later academic outcomes of planning during middle childhood. Maternal education, through its effect on parenting quality when children were 54 months old, predicts their concurrent performance on sustained attention, inhibition, and short‐term verbal memory tests. This performance predicts planning in first grade, which predicts third‐grade reading and mathematics attainment, but not the rate of growth in academic skills from first to fifth grades. This path was also found when the same parenting, cognitive, and academic constructs were measured at later time points.     

Parents’ Perceptions of Child Care for Children with Disabilities

Sixteen Minnesota families with children with disabilities participated in a 2-year interview study of their care experiences. Findings show that families developed a network of care providers, struggled to pay additional costs for care, were not informed of community services and programs, and believed that their children received adequate child care. This study highlights the need to provide information to families and providers and to link services in both rural and urban communities.

Benefits of collaborative action research for the beginning teacher

Beginning teachers are confronted with many issues as they begin their teaching careers, issues, such as classroom management, individual differences, behaviour problems, dealing with parents, and so on. Many beginning teachers take professional development seminars in an attempt to deal with these and other issues. Professional development seminars, however, may not address the specific issues faced by beginning teachers but rather focus on approaches that are more global. In this paper, we argue that the best approach to professional development is through a collaborative action research model. By extending the partnerships established between student teachers, mentor teachers and university supervisors during student teaching into the beginning teachers' career, many of the everyday problems can be confronted within a supportive network. Several recommendations are offered for beginning and maintaining productive CAR relationships.     

Analytical research on developmental aspects of metamemory

Some selected pioneering findings in the child-developmental and adulthood-aging literature are reviewed and evaluated within the framework of Nelson and Narens’ (1990) theory of metamemory. Suggestions are made for conceptually-based analytical research to help specify the mechanism(s) that underlie developmental differences in metamemory.