bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Application of a Conceptual Model of College Withdrawal to Disadvantaged Students
Authors: Fox Richard N.
Published: March 2008

This paper reports a study of retention and attrition after the freshman year among disadvantaged students at an urban, primarily non-residential, university. Economically and academically disadvantaged college students are widely known to be at risk for attrition, which highlights the need to investigate the process among members of this group. Substantial progress has been made developing and testing explanatory models of college student withdrawal, but they have only begun to be directly applied to special groups of students such as the disadvantaged. The study applies a conceptual model developed by Tinto (1975) to a group of students who, through a special program, were admitted to a senior college within The City University of New York. The paper tests the predictive validity of major constructs in the model. It was shown to be sensitive to the dimensions of student-institutional fit operating in the situation, and indicated that academic integration was the most salient aspect of development for this group of students. Social integration had limited influence, especially when considered relative to academic measures. The results were seen as reinforcing the recognition that the acquisition of academic skills and behaviors is paramount for the success of underprepared students.
Using an Advance Organizer to Establish a Subsuming Function Concept for Facilitating Achievement in Remedial College Mathematics
Authors: Doyle William H.
Published: March 2008

The primary purpose was to determine if an advance organizer (AO) could establish a function concept as a subsumer for new concepts. An achievement test was used to identify students who had the subsumer anchored. The secondary purpose was to determine if an established subsumer would facilitate learning, transfer, and retention of concepts on lines and slope. A random half of 36 sections of a remedial college mathematics course studied the AO. All sections took the achievement test. Thirty-five percent of the treatment group and 3% of the control group were identified as having the subsumer anchored. A statistically significant multivariate difference (p <. 001) in performance between students identified as having the subsumer and their control counterparts matched by previous performance in the course was found on the three dependent measures over lines and slope.
Effects of Ability Grouping on Growth in Academic Achievement
Authors: Sørensen Aage B. , Hallinan Maureen T.
Published: March 2008

This paper applies a theory of growth in academic achievement to the study of the effects of ability grouping on reading achievement. The theory sees students’ ability and effort determining how they utilize opportunities for learning provided by instruction. The mathematical specification of the theory allows for the estimation of models that show (a) ability grouping provides fewer opportunities for learning than whole class instruction but greater utilization of those opportunities; (b) high ability groups provide more opportunities than low groups; and (c) small homogeneous groups facilitate reading achievement more than larger, more heterogeneous groups.
A Comparative Examination of Classroom Interactions Between Professors and Minority and Non-Minority College Students
Authors: Trujillo Carla M.
Published: March 2008

Observations were made of instructor-student classroom interactions at the collegiate level. The academic expectations of the instructors, as well as their reported interactions with minority college students, also were assessed. Professors interacted differentially at a significant level with minority versus non-minority students in the majority of the behavioral observations, and the instructors had significantly lower academic expectations of undergraduate minority students compared with non-minority students. This investigation has contributed to the study of teacher-student interaction and has proposed a theoretical link between the behavior teachers exhibit toward low-expectancy children and that received by minority students.
Structuring and Adjusting Content for Students: A Study of Live and Simulated Tutoring of Addition
Authors: Putnam Ralph T.
Published: March 2008

This study examined how six experienced teachers acquired information about students’ knowledge and used that information to adjust their instruction while tutoring. Each teacher tutored five simulated students and one live student in the algorithm for whole number addition. A diagnostic/remedial perspective in which the teacher forms a detailed model of the individual student’s knowledge and misconceptions was assumed in the early stages of the study, but did not describe adequately the tutoring of the teachers. Diagnosis was not their primary goal. Rather, each teacher appeared to move through a curriculum script—a loosely ordered but well defined set of skills and concepts students were expected to learn, along with the activities and strategies for teaching this material.
The Influence of College on Self-Concept: A Consideration of Race and Gender Differences
Authors: Pascarella Ernest T. , Smart John C. , Ethington Corinna A. , Nettles Michael T.
Published: March 2008

This study estimated the influence of college on student academic and social self-concept within the structure of a causal model. The sample was 4,597 students who enrolled in 379 four-year colleges and universities in 1971, and who were followed for 9 years. Separate estimations of the model were conducted for black and white men and women. The findings suggest that academic and social experiences during college have significant direct effects on self-concept development even when precollege traits, the characteristics of the institution attended, and post-collegiate experiences are taken into account. Apart from measures of 1971 self-concept, the major influence of both student precollege characteristics and the structural characteristics of the institution attended was mediated by the student’s collegiate and post-collegiate experiences. With a few exceptions, the factors influencing academic and social self-concept were quite similar for race and gender. What differences did exist, however, were found largely in those variables assessing the academic and social experience of college.
Verbal-Coding Deficits in the Recall of Pictorial Information by Learning Disabled Readers: The Influence of a Lexical System
Authors: Swanson H. Lee
Published: March 2008

Based on a three-stage model of memory coding, comparisons were made between reading ability groups on their serial recall of pictorial information. In Experiment 1, learning disabled and skilled readers viewed pictures of low and high verbal codable shapes without names or with names either “matched” or “mismatched” with respect to the shape’s form. Regardless of the shape codability, both types of name-training conditions improved skilled readers’ recall, whereas disabled readers exhibited better recall for unnamed shapes. Experiment 2 compared the two ability groups on recall of shapes when name-training conditions involved labels low in meaningfulness. No ability group differences emerged. Taken together, the two experiments suggest that skilled readers’ interdependent coding operations are related to the activation of a semantic system from long-term memory. In contrast, disabled readers’ multiple coding operations represent difficulties in coordinating verbal information between two independent memory storages (i.e., short-term and long-term) as well as a bias for processing information through a visual route. In Experiment 3, learning disabled readers were divided into high (LD-HV) and low (LD-LV) vocabulary (lexical) subgroups. No significant difference in recall was found between skilled and LD-HV readers on the name-training condition. Both ability groups were superior in recall to the LD-L V readers. In contrast, the LD-L V readers were superior on the unnamed conditions when compared to the other ability groups. The results suggest that interdependent coding operations in disabled readers occur when their semantic memory system has access to highly developed lexical codes.
Teacher Evaluation With Multiple and Variable Lines of Evidence
Authors: Peterson Kenneth D.
Published: March 2008

Teacher evaluation is key to understanding effective teacher practice, rewarding excellent performance, and improving training programs. Yet the current practice of principal visits and reports does not promise to promote reforms for teachers or teacher educators. In this study six lines of evidence of teaching impact or value were developed and tested with 281 K-12 classroom teachers. Teachers selected a minimum of four lines for promotion in a career ladder system. Administrator reports showed low variation and correlations with other measures. Student reports, parent surveys, and teacher tests produced sufficient variance for decisionmaking and moderate correlations with other measures. Professional activity and years of experience showed erratic relations. In general, the lines of evidence showed independence, suggesting that multiple measures may have tapped different constructs of quality.
Children’s Mathematics Achievement in Hawaii: Sex Differences Favoring Girls
Authors: Brandon Paul R. , Newton Barbara J. , Hammond Ormond W.
Published: March 2008

Most reviews of the literature have concluded that boys have surpassed girls in mathematics achievement at some point in their schooling. In Hawaii, however, some studies have suggested that sex differences in mathematics achievement have favored girls. In this paper, norm-referenced mathematics achievement test results for Hawaii public school students in four ethnic groups and four grades are examined for sex differences. Results are examined for sex differences varying by mathematical skill, among high-achieving students, and among ethnic groups. The findings show that the Hawaii public school girls have higher achievement levels than the boys. The boys achieve their highest scores in mathematical reasoning, and the girls achieve their highest scores in computation. High-achieving girls outperform high-achieving boys. Sex differences favoring girls among Caucasian students are less than they are among Japanese-American, Filipino-American, and Hawaiian students. The relationship of the sex differences to sociocultural factors is examined, and the practical consequences of the differences are discussed.
A Career Ladder’s Effect on Teacher Career and Work Attitudes
Authors: Hart Ann Weaver
Published: March 2008

Interest in teaching career attractiveness and school effectiveness has spawned a variety of incentive packages across the country. Career ladders are part of this move to reform teaching. Though career ladders can be a significant change in the way teaching work and careers are organized, they take a variety of forms. A study of a career ladder designed to affect the work structure and career opportunities of teachers was designed to examine the redesign effect on teacher attitudes about their work and careers. Factors associated with teacher attitudes were examined, as well as differences in attitudes between teachers at various career stages, level of participation in the change, and level of teaching. Teachers were found to differ in their responses to career ladder work efforts, the impact of the reform on the work of schools, peer supervision, career growth opportunities, and the stability of career opportunities. The implications of the research for the future structure and assessment of teacher career ladder job redesign efforts and the target populations they are aimed at are discussed.
The Skill of Learning From Classroom Lessons
Authors: Leinhardt Gaea , Putnam Ralph T.
Published: March 2008

A student trying to learn from classroom instruction is confronted with a complex task. The successful student must determine what actions are expected by the teacher and must grasp the intended content of the lesson, connecting and integrating that content with prior knowledge. This paper presents a model of the skills a student needs to have to make sense of a mathematics lesson taught by a good teacher. The model of the learner contains a variety of cognitive competencies: an action system, a lesson parser, an information gatherer, a knowledge generator, and an evaluator. A description of how the model functions during a 2-day lesson sequence provides an empirical example.
Dimensions of Effective School Leadership: The Teacher’s Perspective
Authors: Blase Joseph J.
Published: March 2008

The study reported in this paper examines teachers’ perspectives on effective school leadership. Formal interviews, both unstructured and structured, and informal interviews were used to collect data from teachers in one urban high school in the southeastern United States. Data were collected and analyzed according to guidelines for grounded theory research. This article describes factors teachers identified with effective school principals and the impact of these factors on the teachers and their relationships with other faculty, students, and parents. The research data are discussed briefly in terms of their implications for leadership training and research.
Instruction Addressing the Components of Scientific Literacy and Its Relation to Student Outcomes
Authors: Mitman Alexis L. , Mergendoller John R. , Marchman Virginia A. , Packer Martin J.
Published: March 2008

The instruction of 11 seventh-grade life science teachers was observed to determine the extent to which they made linkages between science content and its societal, reasoning, historical, or attitudinal implications. Such linkages were hypothesized to facilitate students’ scientific literacy. Data on students’ perceptions of teacher instruction and scientific literacy outcomes were also gathered. Results showed that (a) teachers rarely or never addressed the noncontent components of science in their presentations and academic work assignments; (b) students perceived content as the prominent focus of their teachers’ instruction; and (c) teachers’ references to the noncontent components were unrelated to growth on all but one student outcome, where the association was negative. Altogether, the results indicate a large gap between scientific literacy as a normative goal of science instruction and current teaching practice. Furthermore, natural levels of reference to the noncontent components may be of such low frequency and quality as to preclude empirical tests of their effectiveness.
Social and Cognitive Interactions in Educational Computer Environments
Authors: Clements Douglas H. , Nastasi Bonnie K.
Published: March 2008

The present study utilized a naturalistic observational procedure to investigate the occurrence of behaviors that reflect social competence components and information-processing components of problem solving within educational computing environments. Following 14 weeks of training in either Logo programming or computer-assisted instruction— drill and practice, 48 children were observed working in pairs on the computer. The Logo group exhibited a significantly higher percentage of three social behaviors that have cognitive underpinnings and/or would be expected to occur in problem-solving situations—conflict resolution, rule determination, and self-directed work. The Logo group also exhibited a significantly higher frequency of behaviors indicative of meta-cognitive (metacomponential) functioning. Theoretical and educational implications are discussed within the study’s social-cognitive and information-processing framework. Findings substantiate the hypothesis that the Logo environment facilitates peer interaction in the aid of social problem solving and metacognitive processing.
Sociocultural Correlates of Achievement Among Three Generations of Mexican American High School Seniors
Authors: Buriel Raymond , Cardoza Desdemona
Published: March 2008

The present investigation examines the relationship of Spanish language background to achievement among first-, second-, and third-generation Mexican American high school seniors. The effects of students’ and mothers’ aspirations were also examined. The data used in this study were from the first phase of the High School and Beyond ( Jones et al., 1982 ) study. Achievement measures included standardized tests of math, reading, and English vocabulary. Four Spanish language variables were also included. These were as follows: mother tongue, home language, oral proficiency in Spanish, and Spanish literacy. Socioeconomic background variables included both father’s and mother’s education and family income. Consistent with previous research, students’ aspirations showed the strongest positive relationship to achievement for all generational groups. Although Spanish language background showed practically no relationship to achievement for first- and second-generation students, the linguistic variables showed mixed effects for third-generation students. In general, Spanish language effects on achievement were minimal, thus arguing against the position that Spanish impedes the academic achievement of Hispanic students.
Achievements and Aspirations Among Boys and Girls in High School: A Comparison of Two Israeli Ethnic Groups
Authors: Kfir Drora
Published: March 2008

Two important attributes that tend to interact with achievement in determining an individual’s status are sex and ethnic group affiliations. Accordingly, it was hypothesized that achievement and aspiration differences would be found between the sexes within different ethnic groups in society and that in some cases there would be a sex–ethnic origin interaction, meaning that gender differences would vary by ethnic group. After controlling for socioeconomic status (SES) and ability, social sex roles and the process of identifying with them were expected to explain the differences between boys and girls in achievements and aspirations. Such differences were found in the discontinuity of girls’ achievements in high school (teacher evaluations, grouping and tracking, getting into the academic track, number of school years—all girls’ advantages) and their early status attainment as it is expressed in cognitive achievement and educational and occupational aspirations at age 17–18.
Effects of Instructional Variables on Language Ability of Preschool Children
Authors: Lane Suzanne , Bergan John R.
Published: March 2008

The effects of instructional level, teacher’s knowledge of children’s ability, amount of teacher-initiated activity, and age on language ability were investigated. The subjects were 597 Head Start children ranging from 3 years to 6 years, 5 months. Instructional level and language ability were measured on the same scale using the two-parameter Item Response Model. This made it possible to compare directly the child’s ability level and the instructional level. The relationship between the instructional variables and language ability was examined by using multiple regression equations in a structural equation model. The results indicate that instructional level, accuracy of teacher’s knowledge of children’s skills, amount of teacher-initiated activity, and age have a direct effect on children’s language ability.
The Nature of Response Errors for Good and Poor Readers When Permitted to Reinspect Text During Question-Answering
Authors: Davey Beth
Published: March 2008

This study assessed strategy differences between good and poor readers during reading comprehension assessments employing a text-lookback condition. Sixty good and 60 poor readers read expository passages and responded to free-response items tapping text-explicit information (stated directly in the passage) and text-implicit information (implied but not directly stated in the passage). Subjects were permitted to look back to the passages during question-answering. Responses were analyzed according to the following types of errors: text-based language, reader-based knowledge, and no-response. Several statistically significant effects were noted using both absolute and relative error rates in analyses. Poor readers tended to use strategies related to text-language or would not respond, whereas good readers tended to be more effective overall and to use more reader-based knowledge in responses. Implications are drawn for the characterization of important differences between good and poor readers and for the assessment of reading comprehension processes for different types of readers.
An Investigation of Children’s Ability to Comprehend Character Motives
Authors: Shannon Patrick , Kameenui Edward J. , Baumann James F.
Published: March 2008

This study examined second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children’s abilities to recall and to answer questions concerning character motives after listening to or reading nine fables that were divided equally, according to the explicitness of the character motive, into three categories: textually explicit, textually implicit, and scriptally implicit. Separate 3×2×3 ANOVAs with repeated measures for each of four dependent measures (recall of character motives, recall of important details, questions concerning character motives, and questions concerning important details) revealed no statistically significant difference for mode of input across dependent measures, a statistically significant difference for grade level (6 > 4 > 2) on questions concerning character motives, and a statistically significant difference among text types (TE > TI or SI). A descriptive analysis of students’ overall performance revealed that elementary grade students had considerable difficulty comprehending character motives in fables, suggesting that character motives may not be central to young children’s understanding of stories. A discussion is offered to explain these results within the context of other research and to make suggestions for further research.
Informational and Controlling Language in Simulated Supervisory Conferences
Authors: Pajak Edward , Glickman Carl D.
Published: March 2008

Two studies are reported that were designed to determine if teachers and supervisors discriminate among three different types of direct supervisory communication (information only, information with suggestions, and information with directives) in instructional improvement conferences. Thirty teachers in the first study and 133 supervisors in the second study were randomly assigned to three experimental groups according to the Latin Squares design. Each experimental group viewed videotapes that simulated supervisory conferences. Each conference differed according to degree of informational versus controlling language. Subjects’ perceptions of supportiveness, authenticity, loyalty, trust, and productivity were measured after each conference. Data were analyzed using a repeated measures analysis of covariance with a priori orthogonal comparisons. Differences in perceptions toward the three conferences were found for every measure among both teachers and supervisors. The order of preference for both groups was as follows: the conference offering information with suggestions was rated highest, information only was favored next, and information with directives was favored least. Findings are discussed in terms of communication theory along with implications for supervision and future research.
Motivation, Academic and Social Integration, and the Early Dropout
Authors: Stage Frances K.
Published: March 2008

This study employed a measure of Motivational Orientation as a blocking factor in an analysis of college withdrawal within the Tinto framework. To identify early dropouts, college records and surveys completed by first-year university students at the beginning of and 10 weeks into, the semester were used to operationalize key constructs within the Tinto model. The sample of 316 students was divided into three Motivational Orientation subgroups. The three largest, Certification, Cognitive, and Community Service, were used for analysis. Significant influential factors within the final empirical models differed among the three subgroups providing “persistencepatterns” that varied by motivational type.
Ontogeny of School Failure: Classification of First-Grade Children
Authors: Speece Deborah L , Cooper David H
Published: March 2008

The ontogeny of school failure was addressed by examining the characteristics of 112 first-grade children, 63 of whom were considered at risk for school failure. Measures of achievement, intelligence, behavior, language, and learning potential were used with cluster analysis techniques to identify six empirically derived clusters that were replicated across two samples. Three profiles represented variations of normal performance, and three represented atypical patterns suggestive of learning disabilities, mild mental retardation, and language problems. These interpretations were validated by cluster differences on the degree of risk for referral, observed classroom behavior, and achievement variables not used in the cluster analysis. The variability of skills evident across the clusters, in addition to the composition of the clusters, suggested that teachers cope with a high degree of heterogeneity in their classrooms, that their referrals are not based solely on one dimension of children’s psychometric performance, and that certain multivariate profiles are associated with higher risk of referral. By capturing this variability it may be possible to design interventions that ameliorate the risk of failure for some groups of children.
Teachers and Students: Two Different Perspectives?! Measuring Social Climate in the Classroom
Authors: Raviv Amiram , Raviv Alona , Reisel Ellen
Published: March 2008

This study compared teachers’ and classes’ perceptions of the actual and preferred classroom environment in 78 sixth grade classes in Israel. The Classroom Environment Scale (CES) ( Moos & Trickett, 1974 ) was administered, and similarities between the perceptions of teachers and classes were found, particularly pertaining to the preferred or ideal classroom. The teachers and classes differed most in their respective perceptions of the real classroom. The validity of the CES and the relationship between the organizational factor of classroom seating arrangement and the environment perceptions were explored. The results of this study were discussed in relation to previous research conducted in different cultural settings. Implications of the consistent finding of teacher and student agreement on the characteristics of the ideal setting and means of implementing the comparison of teachers’ and classes’ perceptions of the classroom environment were suggested.
The Prediction of College Course Performance From Reading Comprehension Performance: Evidence for General and Specific Prediction Factors
Authors: Royer James M , Marchant Horace G , Sinatra Gale M , Lovejoy David A
Published: March 2008

Recent theories of comprehension and learning have grown so similar that it is difficult to tell one from another. An implication of this similarity is that it should be possible to devise one type of comprehension test that can predict learning performance in general and another type of comprehension test that can predict specific types of learning. Two experiments are reported that confirm these implications. In Experiment 1, comprehension tests accounted for up to 36% of the variance in overall college performance and up to 30% of the variance in specific course performance. Experiment 2, which used a different type of comprehension test, showed that the test predicted performance in a specific course but did not predict overall college performance. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
A Psycholinguistic Analysis of the Reading Behavior of EFL-Proficient Readers Using Culturally Familiar and Culturally Nonfamiliar Expository Texts
Authors: Malik Ali Asghar
Published: March 2008

In this study, the oral reading behavior of 15 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) proficient readers was psycholinguistically analyzed using culturally familiar and culturally nonfamiliar expository texts. The subjects’ reading comprehension was determined on the basis of the recalled idea units. The reading strategies (predicting, confirming/correcting and integrating) were determined using Miscue Analysis Profile (MAPro) ( Altwerger & Resta, 1985 ), a revised version of Reading Miscue Inventory ( Goodman & Burke, 1972 ). The results showed that cultural schemata significantly affected the reading comprehension and strategies of EFL proficient readers reading expository texts. The subjects’ reading was relatively accurate (both syntactically and semantically) yet involved little integration of the nonfamiliar text. The familiarity of the text had no significant effect on subjects’ reading speed.
“You Don’t Have to Be a Teacher to Teach This Unit:” Teaching, Technology, and Gender in the Classroom
Authors: Apple Michael W. , Jungck Susan
Published: March 2008

Given the increasing power of conservative movements in the larger society, there is considerable pressure currently not only to redefine the manner in which education is carried out, but to redefine what education is actually for This has had a major impact on teachers’ autonomy and the definition of what counts as a skill. We argue that teaching is a specific kind of labor process, one that is currently being subject to rationalization, deskilling and intensification. Since teaching has historically been seen as largely “women’s paid work,” the gender implications of such tendencies are crucial. By interpreting teaching in gender and labor process terms, we report data from an ethnographic study of the use of a computer literacy curriculum to illuminate the effects of these tendencies on teachers’ daily lives. In this context, teachers often employed a prepackaged curriculum that deskilled them and frequently left them bored and reliant on outside experts and purchased material. Yet they also employed the curriculum for their own purposes, using it to partly solve the problems caused by their intense schedule and work load. This pragmatic response cannot be understood unless the gendered realities of teachers’ work inside and outside of the school are recognized.
An Information Processing Analysis of Expert and Novice Teachers’ Problem Solving
Authors: Swanson H. Lee , O’Connor James E. , Cooney John B.
Published: March 2008

The present study examines the possible qualitative differences between expert and novice teachers in their think aloud protocols related to solving classroom discipline problems. Expert and novice teachers were presented vignettes, under two instructional conditions—directive and nondirective—and were asked to “think aloud” as they were solving problems. Data from the think aloud protocols indicated that, in the absence of directive instructions, expert teachers formed more elaborate heuristic and strategy statements, whereas under directive instructions their statements about mental processes were similar to novices. In terms of solutions, expert teachers were more likely to rely on environment interventions when compared to novice teachers. Although instructional conditions influenced expert teachers’ solutions, these effects were isolated to certain problems. The results clearly suggest that expert and novice teachers differ in terms of their solutions and statements about mental processes related to classroom discipline problems. Expert teachers are characterized as placing a priority on defining and representing the problem, whereas novice teachers tend to represent problems in terms of possible solutions. Expert teachers’ solutions to discipline problems appear to be independent of how they represent the problem. The results were discussed in terms of the distinction between procedural and declarative knowledge.
Inviting Conversations: The Holmes Group andTomorrow’s Schools
Authors: Johnson William R.
Published: March 2008

The Holmes Group’s second major report, Tomorrow’s Schools, offers a radically different perspective on teachers and the role they might play in school reform than that put forth in their first report, Tomorrow’s Teachers (1986). In 1986 the university was considered the sole source of educational wisdom and teachers were expected to become conventional educational researchers in order to improve educational practice. In 1990 teachers are viewed with greater respect and as potential colleagues in educational research, now redefined to include teacher-centered inquiry. These new views of the teacher and research suggest necessary structural changes in graduate education programs in order to promote professional conversations between professors and practitioners.
The Assessment and Characterization of Young Learners’ Knowledge of a Topic in History
Authors: McKeown Margaret G. , Beck Isabel L.
Published: March 2008

Current research on learners’ background knowledge has demonstrated how variations in the extent and quality of that knowledge affect learning. This paper focuses on the background knowledge that young learners bring to their study of history by characterizing students’ knowledge of events leading to the American Revolution just before and a year after they study the topic in school. The characterization of student knowledge is based on patterns of responses to interviews and on the construction of semantic nets that illustrate patterns of individual students. Results suggest that knowledge of students both before and after instruction is characterized by simple associations and a lack of connected structures.
Some Negative Effects of Principals’ Control-Oriented and Protective Political Behavior
Authors: Blase Joseph J
Published: March 2008

Although the micropolitics of organizations has received increased attention in recent years, few empirical studies of this phenomenon have actually been produced, particularly with regard to educational settings. The study discussed in this article examined politics in schools from the perspectives of teachers. An open-ended instrument was used to collect data, which were analyzed according to general principles for inductive analysis and qualitative inquiry. Of the 902 teachers who participated in the study, 276 chose (without any direction from the questionnaire) to describe specifically what are referred to in this article as control-oriented (manipulative) and protective political strategies used by principals. This article examines only this portion of the data and only these types of political strategies and tactics and their consequences for teacher work involvement and performance. Descriptive statements and conceptual understandings derived from the data argue that the use of control and protective strategies by principals has a negative impact on fundamental aspects of teachers' work in schools. The research data are discussed in terms of Etzioni’s compliance theory (1961 (1975) and Barnard's theory of authority (1948). The significance of the data is also discussed with regard to current reform efforts in American public school education.
What Is the Condition of American Research Universities?
Authors: Goodchild Lester F.
Published: March 2008

Bruce Wilshire’s The Moral Collapse of the University: Professionalism, Purity, and Alienation challenges the internal constituencies of research universities to assess the moral condition of their institutions. His critique emanates from a university apocalyptic literature which has been most prolific during the three undergraduate curricular crises of this century. The proponents of this genre often create negative caricatures in their desire to right perceived injustices. Although Wilshire falls victim to the myopia of absolutism, he calls attention to ethical problems and issues. His thesis centers on restoring the intergenerational task of teaching to undergraduate studies within a professoriate wedded to a research production ethos. His moral argument centers on the redefinition of education against the inroads of professionalism, specialism, and careerism. His quintessential plea is to restore the moral integrity of the mentor-learner relationship. Only with such a restoration may the university revive from its moral collapse. While the author finds both Wilshire’s metaethical discussion and descriptive ethical demonstrations weak, he supports the idea of a new professional ethic for the professoriate.
Expertise and the Teacher as Expert: Rethinking a Questionable Metaphor
Authors: Welker Robert
Published: March 2008

The metaphor of the teacher as expert is gaining saliency. This article reassesses the appropriateness of that metaphor through a theoretical and historical critique which points out that expertise has been used to buttress professional privilege and to widen the distance between those who know and those who do not. The article examines expertise as a general social phenomenon and then analyzes the appropriateness of the conception of the expert teacher. The author concludes that the metaphor is questionable because it diminishes the moral and social responsibilities of teachers and tends to turn students and the wider public into passive receivers of expert service.
Differences Among Teachers in a Task Characterized by Simultaneity, Multidimensional, and Immediacy
Authors: Sabers Donna S. , Cushing Katherine S. , Berliner David C.
Published: March 2008

Expert, beginning, and novice teachers viewed three television monitors, each focusing on a work group of a junior high science class, simultaneously. Participants expressed their thoughts as they viewed the monitors, indicated the monitor to which they were referring, and answered questions about classroom management and instruction. Differences among the groups were found in their perceptions, monitoring, and understanding of classroom events characterized by simultaneity, multidimensionality, and immediacy. This study illustrates how more than content knowledge is required for successful teaching, and that learning to teach requires a great deal of time. Findings from this study have implications for the development of preservice and inservice training programs, which may require redesign to facilitate the development of pedagogical expertise.
A Twelve-Year Longitudinal Study of Science Concept Learning
Authors: Novak Joseph D. , Musonda Dismas
Published: March 2008

Audio-tutorial science lessons were provided to 191 first and second grade children (instructed), and interviews were conducted periodically to assess changes in science concept under standing from grades one through twelve. A similar sample (n = 48) not receiving audio-tutorial lessons in grades one and two (uninstructed) was also interviewed periodically from grades one through twelve. Instructed students showed substantially more valid concept understandings and fewer invalid concepts (misconceptions) than uninstructed students in grades two, seven, ten, and twelve. Concept maps prepared from interview transcripts showed wide variation in knowledge for both groups, and concept maps scored using a scoring algorithm also showed significant differences favoring instructed students. The data show the lasting impact of early instruction in science and the value of concept maps as a representational tool for cognitive developmental changes.
A Test of a Model of Achievement Behaviors
Authors: Ethington Corinna A.
Published: March 2008

Drawing on the theoretical and empirical work of decision making, achievement, and attribution theorists, Eccles and colleagues (1983) proposed an integrative theoretical model of achievement behaviors (e.g., persistence, choice, and performance). Defining achievement behavior as the intention to study more mathematics, the present study sought to determine the extent to which the key constructs within the psychological component of the model—expectations for success and task value—directly influence intention and serve as mediators for indirect influence of prior constructs. For males, expectations and value were the dominant influences and mediated the indirect influence of other variables. For females, expectations did not influence intention; dominant effects came from value, goals, and self-concept with value and goals serving as mediators of indirect influences.
Enhancement of Creativity in Computer Environments
Authors: Clements Douglas H.
Published: March 2008

This study investigated the effects of a theoretically based Logo environment on creativity. Seventy-three eight-year-old children were tested to assess pretreatment level of creativity and achievement and were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Logo computer programming, comparison (nonLogo creativity treatment), or nontreatment control. After 25 weeks of treatment, the Logo programming group had significantly higher scores than either of the other groups on the total assessment of figural creativity, and both the Logo and comparison group had significantly higher scores than the control group on verbal creativity. Certain aspects of both figural and verbal creativity (e.g., originality) were more strongly affected than other aspects (e.g., fluency). This extends previous research by indicating that certain Logo environments can enhance creativity in verbal, as well as figural, domains. These results militate against the sole acceptance of a domain-specific hypothesis of Logo’s influence on creative performance (i.e., enhancement of figural associative networks); instead, both this domain-specific hypothesis and a process-based hypothesis (i. e., metacomponential enhancement) received some support. An implication is that certain computer environments may offer unique opportunities for the enhancement of both figural and verbal creativity.
Economic Underdevelopment and Its Effects on Formal Schooling in Southern Appalachia
Authors: DeYoung Alan J.
Published: March 2008

The theoretically powerful relationships between education and economic development have of late completely transformed public discourse on educational practice and educational policy. Following in the wake of human capital and modernization theories, which were fully articulated in the 1960s and 1970s, recent calls to “make schools excellent” increasingly and explicitly argue that school improvements and enhanced educational outcomes produce worker skills and individual character traits responsible for economic growth and social progress. Yet, there also exist powerful counterarguments and examples, both domestically and internationally, which challenge beliefs that educational improvements independently cause or precede economic and social development. The following article seeks to briefly overview the ‘‘education brings about social and economic development” debate. Following this, a case study is presented which attempts to concretize the contextual difficulties of “school improvement” efforts in one East Tennessee school district. Both the school district and the county in which it exists have been economically “underdeveloped” throughout the twentieth century.
Pitfalls of Using SAT Results to Compare Schools
Authors: Fetler Mark E.
Published: March 2008

Public reports and comparisons of school SAT results are on the rise. This study uses a simple model of schooling to address two questions which are raised by school SAT comparisons. How are the demographic and academic characteristics of the student population in schools related to participation in the SAT? How are participation rates and the demographic characteristics of the sample of test-takers and of their schools related to SAT performance? School participation was associated with parent education, achievement, and English language fluency. The relationship between participation and parent education was curvilinear. School SAT scores were positively correlated with participation and parent education of the test-takers as well as with overall twelfth-grade school-average achievement and demographic characteristics. After adjustment for school demographic characteristics, participation rates were negatively associated with scores. School-average achievement was associated with SAT performance even after adjusting for demographic characteristics. These findings illustrate some of the complex relationships between the demographic characteristics of students and performance on the SAT which should be considered when making school comparisons.
Change in Teaching Mathematics: A Case Study
Authors: Wood Terry , Cobb Paul , Yackel Erna
Published: March 2008

The purpose of this case study was to examine teacher’s learning in the setting of the classroom. In an ongoing mathematics research project based on constructivist views of learning and set in a second-grade classroom, the teacher changed in her beliefs about learning and teaching. These alterations occurred as she resolved conflicts and dilemmas that arose between her previously established form of practice and the emphasis of the project on children’s construction of mathematical meaning. The changes that occurred as the teacher reorganized her practice were analyzed and interpreted by using selected daily video recordings of mathematics lessons along with field notes, open-ended interviews, and notes from project meetings. The analyses indicated that changes occurred in her beliefs about the nature of (a) mathematics from rules and procedures to meaningful activity, (b) learning from passivity to interacting and communicating, and (c) teaching from transmitting information to initiating and guiding students’ development of knowledge.
What Have 17-Year-Olds Known in the Past?
Authors: Whittington Dale
Published: March 2008

Calls by many for excellence in the 1980s were predicated upon and reinforced the perception that American education has declined; these calls stimulated the use of testing to assess the nation’s students. The results of a national test on American history and literature, reported in 1987 by Diane Ravitch and Chester Finn in What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know?, seem to support a view of decline. This study attempts to determine how much American history high school students knew in the past and how this compares with Ravitch and Finn’s results. Several bases for comparison are reported: results of the earliest large-scale history test administrations, the content and difficulty of past nationally administered tests, and past student performance on individual test questions similar in content to questions in Ravitch and Finn’s test. The results suggest that students of the 1980s may not be demonstrably different from students in the past.
Persistence of Reading Disabilities: The Voices of Four Middle School Students
Authors: Kos Raylene
Published: March 2008

This multiple case study explored the perceptions of four reading-disabled middle school students for the purpose of uncovering factors that may have prevented these students from progressing in their reading development. Results identified a) students’ lack of effective use of reading strategies, b) students’ perceptions of their reading instruction, c) students’ stress related to reading, and d) aspects of students’ educational histories as contributing in varying degrees to their lack of reading progress.
Reconsidering the Power of the Superintendent in the Progressive Period
Authors: Thomas William B. , Moran Kevin J.
Published: March 2008

Raymond E. Callahan’s Education and the Cult of Efficiency advanced the widely accepted notion about superintendents being extremely vulnerable to myriad pressures and criticisms of various special interest groups. To test this vulnerability thesis, we followed the career path of a single school executive in three cities between 1914–1922. As an active and long-time influential member of the Department of Superintendence of the National Education Association, Ernest Clark Hartwell typified a stalwart, modern-day, career-bound superintendent who consistently controlled school affairs during his administration. More than merely surviving as a school executive, he built an educational empire by aligning himself with managerial elites and fellow career-bound superintendents. In our study of this first-generation progressive, we show how he won the right to dominate the affairs of schools, systematically applied a business ethos to his work, adopted antilabor practices to dash militant teachers’ hopes for democratic control, and enlarged a state-sanctioned school bureaucracy to shield himself from public criticism in different institutional settings.