bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Teacher Stability From Morning to Afternoon and From Year to Year
Authors: Meyer Linda A. , Linn Robert L. , Hastings C. Nicholas
Published: March 2008

This article presents results of classroom observations of kindergarten and first grade teachers. Nine full days of observations were completed with 25 teachers for 2 consecutive school years. Results are presented in terms of kindergarten teachers’ time allocated to reading and to all instruction as well as their frequency of instructional interactions during reading instruction and while reading stories to their classes. AM to PM results are compared for teachers teaching half-day classes. In addition, year to year comparisons are presented for teachers of half-day and full-day kindergarten classes as well as for first grade teachers’ time allocated to reading and all instruction and for instructional interactions. Correlations for kindergarten and first grade teachers for AM/PM and year to year frequencies of decoding interactions were all above. 88 and significant above .001 level. Discussion focuses upon the greater likelihood of stability for half-day kindergarten teachers than for first grade teachers, the difference in these results in comparison to findings by other researchers that suggest that teachers’ behaviors lack stability, and possible explanations for why some teachers may be somewhat less stable than their peers.
Comparison of Self-Questioning, Summarizing, and Notetaking-Review as Strategies for Learning From Lectures
Authors: King Alison
Published: March 2008

Underprepared college students in three conditions viewed a lecture, took notes, and then engaged in their respective study strategies. Those trained in questioning generated (and answered) their own questions based on the lecture, those trained in summarizing wrote original summaries of the lecture, and those in an untrained control group simply reviewed their lecture notes. At immediate testing, summarizers recalled more of the lecture content than did self-questioners, who in turn outperformed notetaking-reviewers. On a retention test of lecture content one week later, the self-questioners performed somewhat better than the summarizers and significantly better than the notetaking-reviewers. Self questioners’ and summarizers’ lecture notes contained more ideas from the lecture than did those of the notetaking-review students. Use of these generative study strategies appears to enhance learning from lectures by improving encoding both during the lecture and following the lecture; and for long-term retention of lecture material, self-questioning may be a more effective study strategy than summarizing.
Learning to Teach Through Collaborative Conversation: A Feminist Approach
Authors: Hollingsworth Sandra
Published: March 2008

As part of a longitudinal research project on learning to teach literacy and as a personal quest to make her work as a teacher educator more supportive, this researcher arranged an ongoing conversation for members of three cohorts of preservice and beginning elementary teachers. The conversation was prompted by an interest in beginning teachers’ critical responses to the personal support for learning to teach that they receive from their teacher education programs. From the social, collaborative, and nonevaluative conversations, personally and contextually relevant issues in learning to teach emerged, as did the processes of identifying and understanding them. The result was not only a clarification of important relational and political issues that seem prerequisite to issues of academic learning, but also the emergence of a feminist consciousness —in both teachers and researcher. The method of studying the group’s learning, then, became an example of feminist praxis: a willingness to risk and examine personal experiences as women and to be changed by the research process itself. The value of this conversational approach for learning to teach in urban settings becomes clear in the narrative.
The Limits of Expectations: A Case for Case Knowledge About Teacher Expectancy Effects
Authors: Goldenberg Claude
Published: March 2008

Two first-grade Hispanic girls in the same classroom were studied for a year by means of qualitative and naturalistic methods. Paradoxically, the child for whom the teacher held low expectancies did extremely well in her reading achievement; in contrast, the child for whom the teacher held high expectancies did poorly. These paradoxical “effects” are understandable if we consider what the teacher thought and did in a broader context, that is, her overall view of each child and her assessment of what was educationally necessary and appropriate for each. These case studies are used to point out the limits of the classic expectancy theory and to argue for a less reductionistc framework and methodology in studying teacher expectancies. The cases are also used to argue that what a teacher expects matters less for a child’s achievement than what a teacher does.
The Role of Social Representations and National Identities in the Development of Territorial Knowledge: A Study of Political Socialization in Argentina and England
Authors: Dougherty Katharine Cutts , Eisenhart Margaret , Webley Paul
Published: March 2008

We studied schoolboys aged 7, 10, 12, and 17 years from England and Argentina in an attempt to explore the “social representations” attached to an “English” or “Argentine” national identity. In both countries, such social representations were characterized by geographical, demographical, and ideological dimensions, with differential emphasis placed on each dimension by the Argentines relative to their English counterparts. These differences were then reflected in the way English and Argentines perceived the Falklands/Malvinas conflict, as well as how they learned territorial concepts of their country. Our research was framed by social identity/social representation theory. The theory posits that individuals belong to many different social groups, and because they identify and categorize themselves in terms of a specific group, a ‘‘social identity” evolves. Beyond simple group membership, a social identity evokes a corresponding social representation that contains the beliefs, values, and “facts” about the group that are recognized by all those who identify with the group. When thinking in terms of a specific identity, the associated social representation serves to mediate and channel the content of what is learned, that is, the meaning of the identity. When individuals categorize themselves as members of a particular country, a “national identity” is formed. This national identity, in turn, evokes an associated social representation that gives meanings, values, and beliefs to the national identity. When thinking in terms of a national identity, the associated shared social representation mediates the way subsequent knowledge is acquired about one’s country. Our findings suggest the potential of socially oriented theoretical frameworks for future research on political socialization. In particular, they point to the critical role played by social identities and social representations in the acquisition of knowledge.
Predictors of High School Academic Course Offerings: The Role of School Size
Authors: Monk David H. , Haller Emil J.
Published: March 2008

Relationships between high school structural characteristics and curricular offerings are examined in this study using survey data from High School and Beyond. Emphasis is placed on the role played by high school size. The study’s central thesis is that the effects of school size on the curriculum will vary depending on subject area, the character of the course being offered (e.g., advanced versus remedial), and the setting in which the school is located. The influence of other structural features, most notably socioeconomic status (SES), unionization, urban location, and grade configuration, are also examined. Findings are consistent with the basic proposition that the effects of size are differentiated within high schools. The findings have implications for assessments of equality of educational opportunity as well as for the renewed debate over optimal high school size.
The Transformation of Work and Educational Reform Policy
Authors: Johnston Bill J.
Published: March 2008

Attempts to respond to economic crisis associated with declining competitiveness and productivity have driven the development of educational reform during the 1980s. Meliorative strategies have centered on human capital development of the labor force. Review of industrial, occupational, and organizational restructuring reveals, however, that general attributes of the labor force have little direct influence on economic outcomes. The primary difficulty is one of structural and ideological discontinuity associated with transformation to a service-based society. School policy development is thus located within the broader arena of cultural politics, in which the power to define the meaning of social events is at stake. Emerging school policy needs to place examination of structures of accumulation and legitimation at the center of curricular and pedagogical reform and to prepare all students to participate in the social reconstruction of the social and economic life-world.
Professionalism, Democracy, and Discursive Communities: Normative Reflections on Restructuring
Authors: Strike Kenneth A.
Published: March 2008

This paper examines two normative interpretations, professionalism and democracy, for recent work that argues against bureaucratic control of schooling and in favor of such reforms as decentralized management, a team approach to school operation, and more autonomy for teachers. It argues that a democratic conception is both distinguishable from and preferable to a conception of teachers as professionals. However, this view can only be sustained by an understanding of democracy that emphasizes discursive decision making in local educational communities and deemphasizes the location of political sovereignty in legislative bodies.
Effects of Two-Group and Whole-Class Teaching on Regrouped Elementary Students’ Mathematics Achievement
Authors: Mason DeWayne A. , Good Thomas L.
Published: March 2008

The effects of two models of active teaching and active learning on the mathematics achievement of 1,736fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students in 81 classrooms in which teachers used within-grade regrouping were compared: a whole-class model that provided for student diversity through ad hoc remediation and enrichment on a daily basis with small groups (referred to as whole-class ad hoc teaching) and a two-group model that accommodated diversity through fixed within-class ability groups. Nine schools from a midwestern district were matched and randomly assigned to treatment conditions. Treatment teachers received three 90-minute workshops on an active teaching and active learning model consisting of 16 key instructional behaviors. Dependent variables consisted of computation, concepts, problem-solving, and mental mathematics measures. Results showed that students in whole-class ad hoc classes scored significantly higher in mathematics computation than control-group students taught using within-class ability grouping. Observational data explaining these differential effects are presented and discussed.
Situated Actions During Reading Lessons: A Microanalysis of Oral Reading Error Episodes
Authors: Chinn Clark A. , Waggoner Martha A. , Anderson Richard C. , Schommer Marlene , Wilkinson Ian A. G.
Published: March 2008

A microanalysis was completed of 3,003 oral reading error episodes during 72 small-group reading lessons involving 116 students in three second-grade and three third-grade classrooms. Factors were investigated that influenced (a) oral reading errors made by readers, (b) the readers’ reactions to their own errors, and (c) the teachers’ feedback following errors. Characteristics of errors were influenced by such factors as the individual reader’s comprehension ability, the difficulty of the text, and teacher rates of feedback. Readers’ reactions were generally influenced by the same set of factors, together with the characteristics of the errors themselves. The patterns of teachers’ feedback suggested that they were juggling several goals: maintaining pace, preserving meaning, and helping students who were having difficulty with decoding. One way in which teachers appeared to reach a compromise among these aims was to employ stereotyped feedback routines. The results support the idea that the actions of students and teachers during error episodes are situated in social contexts, emerging in response to a dynamic interplay of factors that converge at particular moments.
Instructional Tasks, Classroom Discourse, and Students’ Learning in Second-Grade Arithmetic
Authors: Hiebert James , Wearne Diana
Published: March 2008

To investigate relationships between teaching and learning mathematics, the six second-grade classrooms in one school were observed regularly during the 12 weeks of instruction on place value and multidigit addition and subtraction. Two classrooms implemented an alternative to the more conventional textbook approach. The alternative approach emphasized constructing relationships between place value and computation strategies rather than practicing prescribed procedures. Students were assessed at the beginning and the end of the year on place value understanding, routine computation, and novel computation. Students in the alternative classrooms, compared with their more traditionally taught peers, received fewer problems and spent more time with each problem, were asked more questions requesting them to describe and explain alternative strategies, talked more using longer responses, and showed higher levels of performance or gained more by the end of the year on most types of items. The results suggest that relationships between teaching and learning are a function of the instructional environment; different relationships emerged in the alternative classrooms than those that have been reported for more traditional classrooms.
Patterns of Aggregate Grade-Retention Rates
Authors: Morris Don R.
Published: March 2008

Aggregate data on grade-retention rates in 1st through 12th grades, from 12 American states for the year 1979–80, and 11 for 1985–86, were examined for across-grade patterns. The results were as follows: (a) The pattern of the rate magnitude distribution in the first six grades strongly suggests a negative growth exponential function as the target population of potential retainees is ‘‘depleted” across the grades; (b) the retention rate magnitudes show a pronounced tendency to peak at the beginning of each level of schooling (elementary, middle or junior high, high school); (c) shifts in the magnitude of the peaks following the change from a junior high to a middle school configuration support the preceding finding; and (d) both logically and empirically, a rather simple mathematical model fits the patterns quite well.
Predicting Learning From Student Experience of Teaching: A Theory of Student Knowledge Construction in Classrooms
Authors: Nuthall Graham , Alton-Lee Adrienne
Published: March 2008

This article describes the development of a model of student learning based on analyses of detailed continuous observations and recordings of the classroom experience of individual students in three separate studies of curriculum units in science and social studies in elementary and middle-school classes. The model describes student learning as the creation of specific knowledge constructs. It defines the number of instances and types of relevant experience required for construct generation and the time intervals within which the experiences must occur. Data analysis rules developed from this model were applied to the student experience data and predicted student learning of the individual outcome test items across the three studies involving different curriculum areas, with 80–85% success. Data from interviews and recordings of spontaneous student talk are used to identify the cognitive processing that leads to construct generation.
Teaching Is Performance: Reconceptualizing a Problematic Metaphor
Authors: Pineau Elyse Lamm
Published: March 2008

Analogies between teaching and performance have recently emerged in educational literature, but with a reductive, actor-centered perspective that diminishes the complexity of both performative and instructional phenomena. This article reconceptualizes performance as a generative metaphor for educational research based on theoretical and methodological points of contact between instructional communication and performance studies. It asks which aspects of educational experience open themselves up to performance-centered research and explores issues around which new research agendas can be developed in both disciplines.
Antipolitics, Education, and Institutional Choice: The Flight From Democracy
Authors: Plank David N. , Boyd William Lowe
Published: March 2008

Schools are expected to accomplish a variety of goals in modern societies, ranging from enhancing economic competitiveness to ensuring equality of opportunity to protecting students from AIDS. Increasing numbers of education policy analysts of divergent political and scholarly persuasions agree that under present arrangements for educational governance schools have failed to achieve crucial public purposes. Agreement that present arrangements have failed is inevitably accompanied by intense disagreement about how schools should be governed, and it is therefore in the antipolitics of institutional choice that the main conflicts now emerge in the politics of education. Antipolitics is often associated with a willingness to dispense with democratic governance, in order to accomplish one or another of the public purposes to which schools are dedicated.
The “Grammar” of Schooling: Why Has it Been so Hard to Change?
Authors: Tyack David , Tobin William
Published: March 2008

Why have the established institutional forms of schooling been so stable and why did most challenges fade or become marginalized? We approach these questions by probing a few case studies of reform, some that lasted to become part of the grammar of schooling and some that did not. We begin by exploring the origins of two enduring institutional forms, the graded school and the Carnegie unit. Next we analyze the history of three transient attacks on the grammar of schooling: the Dalton Plan, the Eight-Year Study, and the new model flexible high school of the 1960s. In each case political and institutional perspectives inform our interpretations. Finally, we reflect on what the case studies suggest about the nature of institutional continuity and change and offer some policy implications for reform today.
Burnout: Testing for the Validity, Replication, and Invariance of Causal Structure Across Elementary, Intermediate, and Secondary Teachers
Authors: Byrne Barbara M.
Published: March 2008

The study investigated the impact of organizational (role ambiguity, role conflict, work overload, classroom climate, decision making, superior support,’ peer support) and personality (self-esteem, external locus of control) factors on three facets of burnout—Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and reduced Personal Accomplishment within one conceptual framework. Participants were full-time elementary (n = 1203), intermediate (n = 410), and secondary teachers (n = 1431). A hypothesized model of burnout was first tested and crossvalidated for each teaching panel; common causal paths were then tested for group-invariance. Results were consistent across groups in revealing the importance of (a) role conflict, work overload, classroom climate, decision making, and peer support as organizational determinants of teacher burnout, (b) self-esteem and external locus of control as important mediators of teacher burnout, and (c) the absence of role ambiguity and superior support in the causal process. Findings demonstrated that interpretations of burnout as a undimensional construct are not meaningful.
Influences of Gender Stereotypes on Adolescents’ Perceptions of Their Own Achievement
Authors: Bornholt Laurel J. , Goodnow Jacqueline J. , Cooney George H.
Published: March 2008

This study of Australian students’ perceptions of achievement argues for flexibility in gender stereotypes, varying with the frame of reference, and the multidimensionality of self-concepts. Students in the first 4 years of high school (N = 663) completed tests and questionnaires about mathematics and English. The systematic patterns of their responses depended on contrasting subject domains and the specific or general nature of aspects of their achievement. Gender differences in how well students thought they performed were at odds with similar performances on standardized tests. Two sources of gender stereotypes explain complex interactions of gender and subject domain for interrelated aspects of achievement—a tendency by males to overestimate specific task performance across domains, and traditional gender stereotypes about “natural talent” for females in English and for males in mathematics. The broad implications for ways we think about mathematics and gender require an understanding of discrete notions of ability and performance, and an acknowledgment of students’ flexible self-categorizations.
Context, Cognition, and Culture: A Case Analysis of Collegiate Leadership and Cultural Change
Authors: Neumann Anna
Published: March 2008

This article, presented as an interpretive case study, examines how members of an established college culture experienced change related to the entry of a new college president and how the new president changed as a result of his entry experience. The study analyzes the evolving relationship between the new president and campus participants in five phases: (a) the president entering and making sense of the new setting, (b) the president selectively adjusting the setting, (c) the president stirring the setting, (d) campus participants discovering and responding to changes the president makes in their shared setting, and (e) the president addressing these responses, including their effects on him.
The Cooperative Elementary School: Effects on Students’ Achievement, Attitudes, and Social Relations
Authors: Stevens Robert J. , Slavin Robert E.
Published: March 2008

This article reports the results of a 2-year study of the cooperative elementary school model which used cooperation as an overarching philosophy to change school and classroom organization and instructional processes. The components of the model include: using cooperative learning across a variety of content areas, full-scale mainstreaming of academically handicapped students, teachers using peer coaching, teachers planning cooperatively, and parent involvement in the school. After the first year of implementation, students in cooperative elementary schools had significantly higher achievement in reading vocabulary. After the second year, students had significantly higher achievement in reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, language expression, and math computation than did their peers in traditional schools. After 2 years, academically handicapped students in cooperative elementary schools had significantly higher achievement in reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, language expression, math computation, and math application in comparison with similar students in comparison schools. There also were better social relations in cooperative elementary schools, and handicapped students were more accepted socially by their nonhandicapped peers than were similar students in traditional schools with pull-out remedial programs. The results also suggest that gifted students in heterogeneous cooperative learning classes had significantly higher achievement than their peers in enrichment programs without cooperative learning.
Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
Authors: Ladson-Billings Gloria
Published: March 2008

In the midst of discussions about improving education, teacher education, equity, and diversity, little has been done to make pedagogy a central area of investigation. This article attempts to challenge notions about the intersection of culture and teaching that rely solely on microanalytic or macroanalytic perspectives. Rather, the article attempts to build on the work done in both of these areas and proposes a culturally relevant theory of education. By raising questions about the location of the researcher in pedagogical research, the article attempts to explicate the theoretical framework of the author in the nexus of collaborative and reflexive research. The pedagogical practices of eight exemplary teachers of African-American students serve as the investigative “site.” Their practices and reflections on those practices provide a way to define and recognize culturally relevant pedagogy.
Integrity in Teaching: Recognizing the Fusion of the Moral and Intellectual
Authors: Ball Deborah Loewenberg , Wilson Suzanne M.
Published: March 2008

In this article we examine the relationship between teaching as a knowledge endeavor and teaching as a moral enterprise, using episodes from our own elementary school teaching as sites for our analysis. One episode concerns the teaching of social studies, the second the teaching of mathematics. We first describe the episodes themselves, highlighting the ways in which they shed light on issues of pedagogical content knowledge and reasoning. We then revisit each episode with a different lens: that of teaching as moral work. Our framework consists of two essential components: concerns for subject matter and for students. This analysis is meant to be neither a complete delineation of teaching as a moral enterprise nor an exhaustive analysis of pedagogical content knowledge. It is meant to show that, in teaching, concerns for the intellectual and the moral are ultimately inseparable.
Collaboration as Dialogue: Teachers and Researchers Engaged in Conversation and Professional Development
Authors: Clark Caroline , Moss Pamela A. , Goering Susan , Herter Roberta J. , Lamar Bertha , Leonard Doug , Robbins Sarah , Russell Margaret , Templin Mark , Wascha Kathy
Published: March 2008

This article, in both form and substance, seeks to reconceptualize the role of collaboration in professional development. The nature of collaboration and collaborative relationships in professional development research is reviewed, and an alternative conceptualization is offered. Because our work spans multiple sites, we are able to highlight the particularities of our experiences across sites and to contrast the individual stories of each teacher and researcher as opposed to essentializing our story into generalities about these groups. Writing about this work together required the construction of a narrative form that could incorporate and honor the voices of everyone. The story/data is presented as a Readers Theatre—a written script, based on meeting dialogues and interactions. This format highlights the problem of writing in collaborative research, as well as the differences in collaborative experiences among teachers and researchers. It also seeks to challenge traditional conceptions of the roles of teachers and researchers as theorizers about and disseminators of knowledge.
The Culture of Sexual Harassment in Secondary Schools
Authors: Lee Valerie E. , Croninger Robert G. , Linn Eleanor , Chen Xianglei
Published: March 2008

This study investigates the frequency, severity, and consequences of sexual harassment in American secondary schools, using 1993 survey data from a nationally representative sample of 1,203 8th to 11th graders in 79 public schools. We found that 83% of girls and 60% of boys receive unwanted sexual attention in school. Except for gender, social background is unrelated to either the probability or the severity of sexual harassment. However, factors characterizing the context of harassment are strongly associated with both occurrence and severity, the harassment experiences of friends, perceptions of the school environment for harassment, and whether the student has himself/herself harassed others. Our results led us to question the simple perpetrator-victim model, as over half of these students reported both harassing and being harassed by their classmates. Considering the many theories posed to explain sexual harassment, we recommend a culturally based theory as most consistent with our results and most helpful for schools in designing appropriate responses. We provide several policy recommendations for secondary schools to address this important and widespread phenomenon.
Schoolbook Simplification and Its Relation to the Decline in SAT-Verbal Scores
Authors: Hayes Donald P. , Wolfer Loreen T. , Wolfe Michael F.
Published: March 2008

The 50+ point decline in mean SAT-verbal scores between 1963 and 1979 is widely attributed to changes in the composition of the test-takers. Several inconsistencies in that explanation are identified. That explanation also ignores the pervasive decline in the difficulty of schoolbooks found by analyzing the texts of 800 elementary, middle, and high school books published between 1919–1991. When this text simplification series is linked to the SAT-verbal series, there is a general fit for the three major periods: before, during, and after the decline. Long-term exposure to simpler texts may induce a cumulating deficit in the breadth and depth of domain-specific knowledge, lowering reading comprehension and verbal achievement. The two time series are so sufficiently linked that the cumulating knowledge deficit hypothesis may be a major explanation for the changes in verbal achievement. Only an experiment can establish whether this is causal, so we describe a simple, low-cost experiment schools can use to test how schoolbook difficulty affects their students’ verbal achievement levels.
Learning to Teach Mathematics in the Context of Systemic Reform
Authors: Grant S. G. , Peterson Penelope L. , Angela  , Shojgreen-Downer
Published: March 2008

This article looks at how teachers understand recent mathematics reforms. Case studies of three California teachers in a disadvantaged, urban elementary school are presented. Framing the study are issues of teacher learning and systemic reform. These teachers have access to multiple opportunities to learn about reforms. But access guarantees no common understandings. Teachers’ understandings are influenced by the kinds of students they have, their prior knowledge and experience, their views of mathematics, textbooks, and tests. If teachers understand reforms in different ways, this raises questions about systemic reform and the notion of alignment. But there are other problems as well. Questions about what it means to be aligned, how all students’ needs might be considered, and what the multiple goals of a decentralized system mean for teachers suggest that efforts at systemic reform will be challenged on several fronts.
Self-interest and Liberal Educational Discourse: How Ideology Works for Middle-Class Mothers
Authors: Brantlinger Ellen , Majd-Jabbari Massoumeh , Guskin Samuel L.
Published: March 2008

Middle-class mothers typically are viewed as ideal models in terms of their values and goals related to education, participation in their children’s education, and professional involvement in schooling. Yet, the results of this study indicate that educated, middle-class mothers, perceived as liberals who believe in integrated and inclusive education, still support segregated and stratified school structures that mainly benefit students of the middle class. Thompson’s (1990) modes of operation of ideology and strategies of symbolic construction shed light on the ways ideology works to establish and sustain high-income parents’ self-interested educational choices while, at the same time, allowing them to maintain a liberal image. The study illustrates how ideology allows parents to bridge disparate streams of thought and salve the dissonance that results from the contradiction between their desired liberal identity and class positionality.
Cultural Perspectives on School Motivation: The Relevance and Application of Goal Theory
Authors: McInerney Dennis M. , Roche Lawrence A. , McInerney Valentina , Marsh Herbert W.
Published: March 2008

The aim of this research was to determine whether the goals held by students from diverse cultural backgrounds differ and to determine the relationship of these goals to school motivation and achievement. Participants completed a self-report instrument (the Inventory of School Motivation) based on goal theory. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to establish the adequacy of the instrument for use across the selected groups. Group differences were analyzed through the application of ANOVA. Finally, multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the relationship between the goals held by the participants and school achievement criteria.
From the Summit of Truth to Its Slippery Slopes: Science Education's Journey Through Positivist-Postmodern Territory
Authors: Loving Cathleen C.
Published: March 2008

This research seeks to justify the development of informed, balanced views regarding the positivist-postmodernist debate in science education. This is accomplished by clarifying origins and offering details on the current status of these two distinct positions. I attempt to illuminate what is an intense debate—but one often lacking focus and clear definitions. This is done by discussing (a) the origins of important stances, (b) problems with simplistic reductions to two extremes, (c) dubious extrapolations, and (d) perspectives for science education that strive for an even-handed approach to positions on the nature of science and the nature of learning in a multicultural society. Using both historical and philosophical interpretations of the issues, I conclude that current conceptions are oversimplified by some who promote extremes of both relativistic and strict hypothetico-deductive or inductive models related to what should be learned and what counts as science.
Child Maltreatment and School Performance Declines: An Event-History Analysis
Authors: Leiter Jeffrey , Johnsen Matthew C.
Published: March 2008

This article presents a longitudinal analysis of school performance declines among abused and neglected children. The analysis is based on the maltreatment and school histories of a large random sample of maltreated children from one North Carolina county. The analysis finds a significant relationship between maltreatment and declines in a diverse set of school outcomes, including falling grades, increasing absenteeism, worsening elementary school deportment, retention in grade, and involvement in special education programs. Early onset and recent maltreatment each are related to these school performance declines. Differences in the relationships of abuse and neglect to school performance declines and the importance of accumulated maltreatment are unclear.
High-Achieving Students’ Interactions and Performance on Complex Mathematical Tasks as a Function of Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Pairings
Authors: Fuchs Lynn S. , Fuchs Douglas , Hamlett Carol L. , Karns Kathy
Published: March 2008

The purpose of this study was to examine high-achieving students’ interactions and performances on complex mathematics tasks as a function of homogeneous versus heterogeneous pairings. Participants were third and fourth graders who had been trained in, and had routinely practiced, constructive peer-tutoring interactions and had experience working individually on performance assessments. We videotaped 10 high achievers working with a high-achieving and with a low-achieving classmate on performance assessments. Results indicated that homogeneous dyads operated more collaboratively, generated greater cognitive conflict and resolution, and produced better quality work. Implications are discussed in terms of optimizing grouping arrangements during collaborative learning activities and preparing students to work productively together on complex tasks.
Children’s Categorization With Varying Adult Support
Authors: Göncü Artin , Rogoff Barbara
Published: March 2008

Two studies investigated children’s involvement in shared thinking with varying adult support and children’s later performance on the categorization task. In the two studies, an adult followed one of several scripts that systematically varied the provision of adult support and the involvement requested of the children, middle-class U.S. 5-year-olds. Children who received minimal support for determining the categorization system categorized fewer items correctly, when later asked to sort some of the same and some new items, than children with whom the adult had articulated the categorization system or children whom the adult had induced to determine the categorization system. If the adult provided little assistance in determining the categorization system, children requested greater assistance from the adult. There were no differences in children’s later performance among the scripts which varied whether the adult or the child was responsible for articulating the category system, suggesting that, as long as there was adult support and child involvement in following the thinking, the particular balance of responsibility for making decisions did not matter.
Boys and Girls in the Performance-Based Science Classroom: Who’s Doing the Performing?
Authors: Jovanovic Jasna , King Sally Steinbach
Published: March 2008

The aim of this study was to examine whether over the school year boys and girls equally share in performing the behaviors required of hands-on activities (e.g., manipulating the equipment, directing the activity, observing) in the performance-based science classroom. In addition, we examined whether these performance behaviors accounted for changes in boys’ and girls’ science attitudes (i.e., ability perceptions and task value beliefs) at the end of the school year. The sample included 165 students (53% female, mean age = 12.21) in six Grade 5-Grade 8 performance-based science classrooms where the teachers associated with these classrooms were identified not only as exemplary hands-on science instructors but also instructors sensitive to increasing girls’ participation in science. Our results indicated that being actively involved in the performance-based science classroom predicted students’ end-of-the year science attitudes. However, boys and girls did not participate equally in these classrooms. Moreover, we found that for girls, but not boys, there was a decrease in science ability perceptions over the school year, suggesting that boys and girls experienced these classrooms differently.
Equity Issues in Collaborative Group Assessment: Group Composition and Performance
Authors: Webb Noreen M. , Nemer Kariane M. , Chizhik Alexander W. , Sugrue Brenda
Published: March 2008

This study investigated the effects of group ability composition on group processes and outcomes in science performance assessments. Students in 21 eighth-grade science classes worked on science assessments first individually, then in groups, and finally individually again. Group composition had a major impact on group discussion quality and on student achievement. Groups with above-average students produced more accurate and high-quality answers and explanations about how to solve the test problems than groups without above-average students. As a result, below-average students who worked with above-average students showed higher achievement than did below-average students who worked without above-average students. High-ability students generally performed better when they worked in homogeneous groups than when they worked in heterogeneous groups. The fact that heterogeneous groups provide a greater benefit for below-average students than they impose a detriment on high-ability students is discussed.
Longitudinal Structural Equation Models of Academic Self-Concept and Achievement: Gender Differences in the Development of Math and English Constructs
Authors: Marsh Herbert W. , Yeung Alexander Seeshing
Published: March 2008

Longitudinal causal models of growth in math and English constructs (school grades, standardized tests, academic self-concept, affect and coursework selection) were based on three waves of data from the large (N = 24,599), nationally representative National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Math and English self-concepts had significant path coefficients leading to subsequent school grades, coursework selection, and standardized test scores. Unlike previous studies that did not consider math and English constructs in the same model, we found these relations to be very domain specific (e.g., there were significant positive paths from math self concept to subsequent math outcomes but not to subsequent English outcomes). Girls had higher scores for all English constructs and math school grades, but they had lower math self-concepts. Whereas similar studies conducted over the past 20 years found diminishing gender differences, these data show relative gains for girls in achievement and coursework selection for both mathematics and English. Path coefficients relating prior math and English constructs to subsequent outcomes, however, were similar for boys and girls. Hence, the extreme domain specificity of relations between prior self-concept and subsequent outcomes was similar for boys and girls.
Research news and Comment: The Learning Connection: AERA’s Annual Meeting as a Catalyst
Authors: Parker Gale , Cole Donna , Fetter Bill , Hollier David , Munselle Lillian , Murphy Tim , Raji Ola , Smithwick Carol , Wright Lilly
Published: March 2008

The article that follows was written by a group of graduate students. They tell us about their experiences reading research, then meeting the investigators and discussing their work with them at AERA. Their story teaches us much about the relationship between our work and the work of the teachers that populate our graduate programs.

The tension between practitioners and researchers is often a topic of discussion at our professional meetings. Many of us have complained about the supposed lack of interest practitioners have for the research task and its product. The enthusiasm of the signatories to this article suggests that we must take some responsibility for that communication gap. The resistance we complain about has more to do with the ways in which we invite our students to join us in the appreciation of research than with their interest in it.

As researchers in education, we must join hands with those who, unlike us, are in daily touch with the realities of the classroom. We need to learn from them and share our ideas with them. It is only by working together as educators with a common goal that we can improve the educational experience for children. The authors of this article describe one professor's way of accomplishing this objective.
Research news and Comment: Semantics, Psychometrics, and Assessment Reform: A Close Look at “Authentic” Assessments
Authors: Terwilliger James
Published: March 2008

School reform advocates have argued that “authentic” classroom assessments are complex performances or exhibitions that “are designed to be truly representative of performance in the field.” The use of “authentic” implies that such assessments are superior to more conventional assessments. However, proponents of “authentic” assessment rarely present data, evidential or consequential, in support of the validity of “authentic” assessments. Further, as typically conceived, “authenticity” denigrates the importance of knowledge and basic skills as legitimate educational outcomes despite substantial evidence to the contrary. It is suggested that “authentic” be discontinued in future scholarly discussions of classroom assessment.
Research News And Comment: The Changing Nature of Educational Research and a Critique of Postmodernism
Authors: Constas Mark A.
Published: March 2008

Although there are many innovations that affect the field of educational inquiry, it appears that postmodernism provides educational researchers with the most destabilizing and profound set of challenges. The overall purpose of this commentary is to describe and to critique the recent changes in educational inquiry by outlining the themes and the implications associated with the current interest in postmodernism. Specifically, three types of changes are examined. A discussion of methodological patterns focuses on the heightened interest in narrative inquiry. A discussion of summative content examines the manner in which those working within a postmodern framework attempt to draw conclusions from the complex style of writing that is characteristic of postmodernism. Consideration of disciplinary foundations examines the recent shift of interest toward humanities-based research. For each of these changes, I consider implications related to how educational researchers communicate with the larger educational community. Additionally, I examine the way current changes in educational inquiry may affect the publication process that regulates the discourse of educational research. Finally, I provide a few recommendations for how we might develop initiatives for the academic preparation of educational researchers, given some of the changes introduced here.
Research News And Comment: A Woman’s Name: Implications for Publication, Citation, and Tenure
Authors: Tescione Susan M.
Published: March 2008

Women researchers sometimes use their birth names as middle names or employ hyphenation of the birth name and the married surname in their professional lives. However, this practice, when combined with other factors, can inhibit dissemination of their published work. These factors include ERIC’s policy of listing writers by “first author and others” and the APA policy of listing cited references by last name and first initials. The Institute for Scientific Information’s citation software uses “first author only” by last name and initials to locate citations. Because published articles and citation counts are used as indicators of the caliber of candidates, these established policies can be detrimental to tenure and promotion decisions for women researchers. A reexamination of these database policies can benefit women researchers. Recommendations include steps that women can take to improve the indexing of their work.
The Preschool: Setting for Applied Behavior Analysis Research
Authors: Essa Eva L.
Published: March 2008

The nursery school . . . is a school serving the needs of two-, three-, and four-year-old children in today’s world by offering them experiences adapted to what is now known about growth needs of these age levels. It shares with parents the responsibility for promoting sound growth and learning in a period when growth is rapid and significant. Respect for the individual child and his needs is the basis for a good nursery school program.

—Read, The Nursery School, p. 24—

[ There are] four functions of the teacher of young children: care-taking, providing emotional support and guidance, instructing, and facilitating.

—Almy, The Early Childhood Educator at Work, p. 21—

We in child development and early childhood education [have as] our goal ... to develop optimum personal competence in all children.

—Hildebrand, Guiding Young Children, p. 15—

[ T] he teacher must attempt to build an educational climate that enhances the children’s development and whets their appetite for further learning. The milieu must also nourish and sustain emotional health, encourage physical growth and muscular prowess, foster satisfying social interactions, enhance creativity, develop language skills, and promote the development of mental ability. Moreover, this must all be garbed in an aura of happiness and affection in order to establish that basic feeling of well-being, which is essential to successful learning.

—Hendrick, The Whole Child, p. 4—
The Changing Politics of Curriculum Policy-Making for American Schools
Authors: Boyd William Lowe
Published: March 2008

Today, when we think we wish to free the mind so it will soar, we are still, nevertheless, bound by [an] ancient paradox, for we must hold our culture together through clinging to old ideas lest, in adopting new ones, we literally cease to exist.

—Jules Henry (1963)—