Telephone interviews from a random sample of Dutch parents (N = 123 for the pilot study, N = 519 for the main study), provided an opportunity to explore television mediation activities in which parents could engage. From principal components analysis, three reliable styles of television mediation emerged: restrictive mediation, instructive mediation, and social coviewing. In addition to a number of demographic variables, parental concerns about the negative effects of television were significant predictors of style of television mediation.

Developing a scale to assess three styles of television mediation: “Instructive mediation,” “restrictive mediation,” and “social coviewing”

Telephone surveys of single and married mothers of teenagers in public schools, mothers of teenagers in religious schools, and mothers of homeschooled teenagers examined the influence that parenting styles and level of Internet access in the home have on parenting mediation of online content and time spent on the Internet (N =520). Specifically, how authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and neglectful parenting styles as well as home and bedroom Internet access influence the evaluative and restrictive mediation techniques used by parents was investigated. Results indicate that parenting style has a significant effect on almost all mediation techniques studied, whereas increased access only influences time online. Additionally, technological blocking as a restrictive mediation technique was found to be highest among authoritative parents, followed by authoritarian and neglectful.

Parenting the Internet

Research on parental monitoring of children's media use suggests parents can reduce the negative effects of media exposure on children, although this research is rarely conducted with elementary school children and leaves open questions about whether parents or children are better reporters. Participants were 1,323 children, their parents, and teachers. Parents and children reported on four aspects of monitoring for TV and video games: co-using, limit setting on amount, limit setting on content, and active mediation. Parents gave much higher estimates than did children. Monitoring was moderated by child age, child sex, parent marital status, parent education, and parent income. Although parent- and child-reported monitoring correlated rather poorly, both types were almost equally good predictors of children 's screen time, media violence exposure, and teacher reports of school performance. When there were differences, the child reports tended to be slightly better predictors, demonstrating the validity of child reports of parental monitoring.Key Words: active mediation, media effects, middle childhood, parental monitoring.Elementary school children spend a sizable portion of their waking hours in front of a screen, either watching TV or playing video games (Rideout, Foehr, & Roberts, 2010). The typical 8- to 10-year-old watches an average of 3 hours and 41 minutes of television and spends over an hour playing video games every day. Despite parents' concerns about their children's media use, the amount of time children spend with screen media continued to increase dramatically over the last decade (Rideout et al., 2010).The latter part of middle childhood (approximately ages 8- 10) is a critical period of child development in which children's selves begin to emerge (Jellinek, Patel, & Froehle, 2002). Children in this developmental stage begin to make independent choices and to develop and express their personalities. Middle childhood also is characterized by a desire to fit into peer groups, which can include pressures to smoke, drink, use drugs, and have the perfect body. As a result, media consumption may have especially important consequences during this developmental period. Televised content may reinforce messages from peers and provide both potentially positive and negative models of behavior. Video game playing may provide an escape or relief from an increasingly complicated social life and may also provide models for behavior. Indeed, some have suggested that the media act as a type of "super peer," where the media are like powerful best friends who are able to make risky behavior seem normal (Strasburger, Wilson, & Jordan, 2009). Jellinek et al. (2002) have suggested that limits on media violence exposure are especially important during middle childhood because this is a period when norms of behavior are being internalized (see also Gentile & Sesma, 2003). Therefore, parental monitoring of children's media is of potentially great relevance during this period.Parent Monitoring of MediaThree primary forms of parental monitoring have been studied: active mediation, restrictive mediation, and coviewing. Although some research has investigated parental monitoring of the Internet (Lee & Chae, 2007; Livingstone & Helsper, 2008), the majority of work to date has focused on parental monitoring of television. Each form is associated with unique sets of predictors and outcomes. Of the three forms, active mediation has been studied the most frequently. Active mediation involves parent-child conversations about the media and its content (Austin, 1993, 2001; Chakroff & Nathanson, 2008; Nathanson, 2001a), and has been referred to as instructive guidance, discussion, and explanation (Bybee, Robinson, & Turow, 1982; Livingstone & Helsper, 2008; van der Voort, Nikken, & van Lil, 1992). Active mediation can involve educating children about the technical aspects of media programming (Nathanson, 2010) or providing children with opinions about content (Nathanson, 2004). …

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Do You See What I See? Parent and Child Reports of Parental Monitoring of Media

Despite decades of research on parents’ or other adults’ mediation of children’s television viewing, we still have a rather limited understanding of its potential to promote positive effects and prevent negative outcomes. One reason for this is that a consensus regarding the proper conceptualization of mediation has not yet been reached. As a result, the term has been used inconsistently and produced a body of literature that is difficult to synthesize. The purpose of this paper is to review how mediation has been regarded in past work and to develop a clear conceptualization of this construct. In addition, previous research on the effects of mediation is synthesized to provide a summary of its potential to affect children’s reactions to television. Common themes, especially those relevant to explaining how mediation influences children, are identified and discussed.

Mediation of children's television viewing: Working toward conceptual clarity and common understanding.

Improving students’ higher-order thinking skills is a collective experience; one teacher of a specific subject cannot alone improve the higher-order thinking skills, and it is a collaborative process between all subjects’ teachers and can be taught for all levels of studying (Lawson, 1993; Shellens, & Valcke, 2005). Moreover, Benjamin (2008) argues that these skills can be developed in a cumulative fashion as students’ progress through their courses and subjects and other experiences they get from their institutions. As well, by including their subjects by problem solving, critical thinking and decision making activities will help students enhance their higher-order thinking skills. In this paper a mathematics test in fractions was constructed and analyzed for both grades 8 and 9 to make sure how teacher-made tests are constructed and how much of them agreed with the Bloom’s Taxonomy levels. The test consists of five sections or content areas the test was analyzed according to the behavior matrix. The results showed that all test items measure the lower three levels in Bloom’s taxonomy which agrees with Stiggins, R. J., Griswold, M. M., and Wikelund, K. R. (1989) results that most of teacher-made tests measure the lower levels in Bloom’s taxonomy. Moreover, 57.14% of the test items are applications and 28.57% are recognition items. These numbers are consistent with Boyd (2008) study, which indicated that the majority of teachers’ assessment items focused on the lower levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Moreover, Boyd concluded that 87% of the teachers’ items that have participated in this study used level 1 of the taxonomy in 2003- 2004, and this percentage increased to 86% in 2005-2006. These numbers reflect the tendency of the assessment methods used in schools to ask students to recall information or to do routine question, which will not help students in improving their higher-order thinking skills.

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Assessment Techniques and Students’ Higher-Order Thinking Skills

The authors review the literature on televiewing mediation from a family-systems perspective. Three types of mediation—restrictive, evaluative, and unfocused—are defined. Four prominent factors inf...

Mediation of Children's Televiewing

The Impact of Portfolio Assessment on Teacher Classroom Activities.

The campus child care center as a professional development school

Research Findings: University-based child development laboratory programs have a long and rich history of supporting teaching, research, and outreach activities in the child development/early childhood education fields. Although these programs were originally developed in order to conduct research on children and families to inform policy and practice, this mission has yet to be fully achieved. Practice or Policy: This paper provides an overview of the potential for 21st-century child development laboratory schools to be places that generate and disseminate new knowledge and understanding of children, families, teachers, curriculum, and classroom processes. An overview of the current context for laboratory schools is presented, outlining the challenges that limit schools’ ability to actively support comprehensive teaching, research, and outreach/engagement activities. An overview of applied developmental science is presented as a framework that can play a critical role in the future as laboratory schools ...

Child Development Laboratory Schools as Generators of Knowledge in Early Childhood Education: New Models and Approaches.

Communities are increasingly faced with an enormous challenge of solving complex child care problems. There is evidence that broad sectors of society are aware of these problems, are deeply concerned, and are searching for effective solutions. Changes in the child care system that will address these problems demand radical changes in attitudes and institutional policies and procedures. Experiences in some communities demonstrate that public/private collaboration among organizations that share a concern about services for children is a logical, desirable, and effective strategy for a community preparing for changes in the child care system. This strategy, however, poses new challenges for local early care and education planners and advocates.

Nancy Barbour

Papers

Mediation of Children's Televiewing

The Impact of Portfolio Assessment on Teacher Classroom Activities.

The campus child care center as a professional development school

Child Development Laboratory Schools as Generators of Knowledge in Early Childhood Education: New Models and Approaches.

Changing child care systems through collaborative efforts: Challenges for the 1990s