Showing papers on "Primary education published in 1997"

Why Do Parents Become Involved in Their Children’s Education?

Abstract: This article reviews psychological theory and research critical to understanding why parents become involved in their children’s elementary and secondary education. Three major constructs are believed to be central to parents’ basic involvement decisions. First, parents’ role construction defines parents’ beliefs about what they are supposed to do in their children’s education and appears to establish the basic range of activities that parents construe as important, necessary, and permissible for their own actions with and on behalf of children. Second, parents’ sense of efficacy for helping their children succeed in school focuses on the extent to which parents believe that through their involvement they can exert positive influence on their children’s educational outcomes. Third, general invitations, demands, and opportunities for involvement refer to parents’ perceptions that the child and school want them to be involved. Hypotheses concerning the functioning of the three constructs in an additive mode...

Key Characteristics of Effective Schools: a Review of School Effectiveness Research

Abstract: MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. *Academic Achievement; Cognitive Processes; *Educational Environment; Effective Schools Research; Elementary Secondary Education; Foreign Countries; *Institutional Characteristics; Instructional Leadership; Outcomes of Education; *Partnerships in Education; *School Effectiveness; Teaching Methods This review provides an analysis of the key determinants of school effectiveness in elementary and secondary schools. A literature review identified the following key correlates of effectiveness: (1) professional leadership; (2) shared vision and goals; (3) a learning environment; (4) concentration on teaching and learning; (5) purposeful teaching; (6) high expectations; (7) positive reinforcement; (8) monitoring progress; (9) pupil rights and responsibilities; (10) home-school partnership; and (11) a learning organization. The majority of effectiveness studies have focused exclusively on students' cognitive outcomes, but there is less evidence about school and classroom processes that are important in determining schools' success in promoting social or affective outcomes. Because of this focus, the review tells more about the correlates of academic effectiveness. Results of the review did not support the view that any one particular teaching style is more effective than others, but did indicate that flexibility and the ability to adapt teaching approaches are more important than notions of any single style. (Contains 186 references.) (ELD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. * *********************************************************************** OFFICE FOR LTANDARDS IN EDUCATION KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE SCHOOLS A review of school effectiveness research U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION O 710e of Eduesnonal Rasura. and IMMOVefflarII EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) "IrEme dOcurnenl hae Oxen lepreduce as 'Moved from Me person or posnasoon Onpmehrs .1 C Minor cheers& nave peen roads to improve reproduChol quality Pe.nte of 0,se or olannAs shoed rn MX.mem do no! neeesserny rapremor °Mow OEM popoon a ookcv

Caring school communities

Abstract: There recently has been a renewed appreciation of the importance of social context to effective schools. This article describes an ongoing program of research on schools as caring communities. The research spans about a decade and a half and involves a diverse set of elementary schools from across the United States. The findings indicate that sense of school community can be enhanced for both students and teachers, that it is associated with a wide range of positive outcomes for both, and that the potential benefits of enhancing school community may be greatest in schools with large numbers of economically disadvantaged students. At the same time, it is noted that enhancing community has the potential for producing negative as well as positive outcomes, and that the content of the community values is of critical importance. Overall, the concept of school as community appears to provide a powerful framework for looking at educational practice and guiding educational reform efforts.

Professional Community in Chicago Elementary Schools: Facilitating Factors and Organizational Consequences. Revised. Final Deliverable to OERI.

Abstract: Professional community is receiving markedly increased attention as part of both practitioner and scholarly efforts to promote improvements in instruction and student learning. Interest in this area joins two previously distinct literatures, one dealing with the benefits of communal school organization and another with enhanced teacher professionalism, to formulate a theoretical framework for a school-based professional community. Using data from a large urban school district, this article tests the impact of structural, human, and social factors on the emergence of school-based professional community and examines the extent to which such developments in turn promote learning and experimentation among faculty.

Writing Superheroes: Contemporary Childhood, Popular Culture, and Classroom Literacy (Language and Literacy Series)

Abstract: Studying Children's Social and Textual Lives - Appropriated and Disputed Heroes The Blobs and the X-People - New Perspectives on Old Representations The Trials and Tribulations of Emily and Other Media Misses - Text as Dialogic Medium The Coming of Venus Tina - Texts as Markers and Mediators of Tough Talking Kids Transformed and Silenced Lovers - Texts as Sites of Revelation and Circumvention The Negotiating Teachers - On Freeing the Children to Write.

Effectiveness of a Violence Prevention Curriculum Among Children in Elementary School: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract: Objective. —To determine if a commonly used violence prevention curriculum, Second Step: A Violence Prevention Curriculum, leads to a reduction in aggressive behavior and an increase in prosocial behavior among elementary school students. Design. —Randomized controlled trial. Setting. —Urban and suburban elementary schools in the state of Washington. Participants. —Six matched pairs of schools with 790 second-grade and third-grade students. The students were 53% male and 79% white. Intervention. —The curriculum uses 30 specific lessons to teach social skills related to anger management, impulse control, and empathy. Main Outcome Measures. —Aggressive and prosocial behavior changes were measured 2 weeks and 6 months after participation in the curriculum by parent and teacher reports (Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher Report Form, the School Social Behavior Scale, and the Parent-Child Rating Scale) and by observation of a random subsample of 588 students in the classroom and playground/ cafeteria settings. Results. —After adjusting for sex, age, socioeconomic status, race, academic performance, household size, and class size, change scores did not differ significantly between the intervention and control schools for any of the parent-reported or teacher-reported behavior scales. However, the behavior observations did reveal an overall decrease 2 weeks after the curriculum in physical aggression ( P =.03) and an increase in neutral/prosocial behavior ( P =.04) in the intervention group compared with the control group. Most effects persisted 6 months later. Conclusions. —The Second Step violence prevention curriculum appears to lead to a moderate observed decrease in physically aggressive behavior and an increase in neutral and prosocial behavior in school.

Transforming schools into communities of thinking and learning about serious matters.

Abstract: In this article, a program of research known as Fostering Communities of Learners is described. This program is in place in several schools and classrooms serving inner-city students from 6 to 12 years of age. Based on theoretical advances in cognitive and developmental psychology, the program is successful at improving both literacy skills and domain-area subject matter knowledge (e.g., environmental science and biology). Building on young children's emergent strategic and metacognitive knowledge, together with their skeletal biological theories, the program leads children to discover the deep principles of the domain and to develop flexible learning and inquiry strategies of wide applicability.

Enacting Project-Based Science

Abstract: Recommendations for reform in science education place a premium on students' understanding of scientific concepts and their ability to identify problems, conduct inquiry, and use information flexibly. They call for an appreciation for how ideas evolve and are validated. In this article we discuss changes in ideas about learning that underpin the reforms. We then describe our experiences with project-based science, a pedagogy that addresses the reform recommendations. Project-based science focuses on student-designed inquiry that is organized by investigations to answer driving questions, includes collaboration among learners and others, the use of new technology, and the creation of authentic artifacts that represent student understanding. Finally, we illustrate the challenges this type of innovation poses for teachers' classroom practice, for professional development, and for policy.

Cognition, Complexity, and Teacher Education

Abstract: Drawing on recent developments in complexity theory, ecology, and hermeneutics, Brent Davis and Dennis Sumara present an "enactivist" model of cognition and contrast it to popular notions of what it means to learn and think that pervade formal education. They illustrate their model by drawing from their experiences during a year-long study in a small, inner-city elementary school. According to this model, cognition does not occur in individual minds or brains, but in the possibility for shared action. An enactivist theory of cognition, the authors suggest, requires teachers and teacher educators to reconceive the practice of teaching by blurring the lines between knower and known, teacher and student, school and community.

Reading Engagement: Motivating Readers through Integrated Instruction.

Abstract: Making students want to read is a top priority for many classroom and reading teachers. Reading Engagement helps educators understand the research on motivation and use it in their efforts to enhance children's literacy development. This book covers such diverse topics as children's motivations for reading, teacher perceptions, reading efficacy, and motivational development and focuses on classroom contexts for promoting reading engagement.

Automaticity and Reading: Perspectives from the Instance Theory of Automatization.

Abstract: The ability to process information automatically is an important aspect of many everyday skills, including reading. This article reviews the literature on automaticity and relates it to issues in reading. The main focus of the review is on the instance theory of automaticity (Logan, 1988b, 1990, 1992), because it offers a unique perspective on automatization and has special relevance to reading.

Primary teachers’ understanding of concepts of science: impact on confidence and teaching

Abstract: The specification of the science to be taught in primary schools has thrown into sharper focus the matter of primary teachers’ own understanding of the subject matter which has, for some time, been an area of concern. Research carried out in Scotland has explored in some depth the problems primary teachers encounter in science and technology and the extent to which these are associated with lack of confidence and/or background knowledge. The findings indicate that there are some ideas which primary teachers can quite quickly come to understand while others require more extensive in‐service attention. Confidence is not only dependent on subject knowledge; teachers with low confidence employ various strategies for coping, some of which when regularly applied have a severely limiting effect on children's learning.

The unique contribution of home literacy environment to differences in early literacy skills.

Abstract: The psychometric utility of a home literacy environment measure is evaluated and its unique contribution to predicting literacy skills is examined. The scale is derived from information provided by parents of kindergarten children about the amount of reading materials in the home, and the frequency of library visits, adult literacy‐related behaviors, adult‐child reading, and television viewing. Measures of language, reading, general knowledge and math were collected from 295 children in fall of kindergarten and spring of second grade. The home literacy environment scale predicts unique variance in kindergarten and second grade language‐based, but not number‐based, literacy skills. Hence, the simple and easily administered measure of the home literacy environment proves to be psychometrically strong and uniquely predictive of differences in early literacy skills. †This research was supported by a grant from National Institute of Child Health and Human , Development (HD27176). ∗ Correspondence concerning th...

Increasing African Americans' Participation in Higher Education: African American High-School Students' Perspectives

Abstract: (1997). Increasing African Americans' Participation in Higher Education. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 68, No. 5, pp. 523-550.

Teacher use of interventions in general education settings: measurement and analysis of the independent variable

Abstract: This study examined the integrity with which 4 general education teachers implemented an intervention designed to improve the academic performance of elementary school students. Treatment integrity was measured daily using permanent products. The results showed that the 4 teachers markedly increased the integrity of the delivered treatment when they were provided with performance feedback. The results suggest that academic performance improved for the group of students as integrity improved. DESCRIPTORS: performance feedback, teachers, treatment integrity, education, academic behavior, permanent products, treatment compliance

Long-Term Effects of a Physical Education Curriculum and Staff Development Program: SPARK

Abstract: This 4-year study, conducted in seven elementary schools assigned to three conditions—Physical Education Specialists (PES), Trained Classroom Teachers (TT), and Controls (CO)—had two parts. The first investigated effects of a health-related physical education program on quantity and quality of lessons. Specialists produced the best outcomes, and TT were significantly better than nontrained peers. Part Two assessed maintenance effects approximately 1.5 years after intervention termination. Withdrawal of specialists significantly reduced the quantity and quality of physical education. TT maintained PES frequency but with a loss in lesson quality and a decline in student activity to 88% of intervention levels. Results support employing specialists and demonstrate the need for extensive professional development for classroom teachers responsible for physical education.

Culturally Relevant Mathematics Teaching in a Mexican American Context

Abstract: This article examines mathematics instruction and its intersection with culturally relevant teaching in an elementary/middle school in a Mexican American community. The findings are based on a collaborative-research and school-change project involving university researchers, teachers, and the school’s principal. On the basis of ethnographic data and an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, we propose a three-part model of culturally relevant mathematics instruction. The 3 components are (a) building on students’ informal mathematical knowledge and building on students’ cultural and experiential knowledge, (b) developing tools of critical mathematical thinking and critical thinking about knowledge in general, and (c) orientations to students’ culture and experience. I was 15 [when I came to the U.S.] The first thing I learned was that I was different. Even with my Latino peers. There are levels of being Mexican. I didn’t know how bad it was to be who I was. There were so many pressures from name calling, insults in the street, said aloud because I was so Mexican … I had a lot of anger. It was this anger, and anger at the experiences of my brother in school. We all did not do as well because of the school experiences. That made me want to be a teacher. —Ms. Salinas, a sixth-grade teacher in the school In this article, we hope to contribute to a theory of culturally relevant teaching (Ladson-Billings, 1995) of mathematics in a Mexican immigrant community. Our analysis is based on the ideas and practices of five teachers. The teachers are participating in a school-change project in a public school located in a low-income Mexican American community in a large midwestern U.S. city. The purpose of the project is to help teachers use what they know about their students’ culture to improve students’ learning of mathematics, and of other subjects as well, and to help students develop critical approaches to knowledge and the tools they will need to be agents

Primary Teachers' Understanding in Science and Its Impact in the Classroom.

Abstract: Research carried out over a period of two years into primary teachers' understanding of concepts in science and technology provided information about teachers' confidence in teaching science, their understanding of a range of key ideas and their background of science in their own education. The early part of the paper describes how these data were collected, noting that the method of interviewing used to explore teachers' understanding served as an opportunity for the advancement of their understanding. The relationships among the variables of confidence, understanding and background in science are then explored. Although teachers expressed low confidence in teaching science, which was linked to a lack of understanding of scientific ideas, they also claimed not to find great difficulty in using certain teaching skills required for science, including those which would appear to demand content knowledge. This apparent anomaly is discussed and linked to the strategies used by teachers to cope with low confidence and understanding. The paper ends by considering briefly the role of content knowledge in teaching science.

Using Active Supervision and Precorrection to Improve Transition Behaviors in an Elementary School

Abstract: Schools often identify settings in which transitions occur, such as hallways and cafeteria, as major problem behavior areas. School psychologists may be called on to assist in bringing problem behaviors during transitions under control as a consulting resource for general education, or as a form of behavioral support for students with behavior problems in special education. This study was designed to investigate the effect of a school-wide intervention plan, consisting of precorrection and active supervision strategies, on the social behavior of elementary students in major transition settings. Three transition settings were targeted in an elementary school: (a) entering the school building, (b) moving to the cafeteria for lunch, and (c) exiting the school building. A multiple baseline design across the three transition settings was used. An analysis of baseline data indicated high rates of student problem behavior, especially running, hitting, and yelling, and low rates of precorrection and active supervision behaviors by staff. Results showed increases in precorrection and active supervision behaviors by staff with concomitant, substantial reductions in student problem behavior. Details of the methodology and results, and practical implications and directions for future research are described and discussed. The need for school psychologists to assist in the development and evaluation of school-wide behavior support systems is derived from two concerns. First, consistent with their traditional role as consulting resources for special educators, school psychologists consult with educators regarding the behavioral supports necessary to improve the participation of students with social, emotional, or behavioral

Aligned Instructional Policy and Ambitious Pedagogy: Exploring Instructional Reform from the Classroom Perspective

Abstract: In recent years national, state, and local education reformers have paid increasing attention to two ideas about school reform. The first centers on ensuring more ambitious instruction for all students. The second has to do with crafting more coherent and closely aligned policies to support this ambitious instruction. This article explores these two popular reform ideas from the perspective of classroom teaching. We examine nine elementary school teachers’ responses to their local school district's efforts to press more ambitious ideas about literacy instruction. We argue that although the policy alignment strategy may be effective in changing surface-level aspects of teaching, it may be considerably less effective in reforming other difficult-to-reach dimensions of classroom practice (i.e., task and discourse). Further, we highlight the difficulties involved in figuring out the extent to which these recent reforms find their way into classroom practice.

A Meta-Analysis of the Rossell and Baker Review of Bilingual Education Research

Abstract: In 1996, Christine Rossell and Keith Baker conducted a review of the literature on the effectiveness of bilingual education and concluded that the majority of 75 methodologically acceptable studies showed that bilingual education was not beneficial. This study re-examines their literature review to verify the Rossell and Baker list of methodologically acceptable studies. After identifying only 11 studies that actually meet the standards for being methodologically acceptable, this study aggregates the results of those studies by a technique known as meta-analysis. The conclusion of the meta-analysis is that the use of at least some native language in the instruction of limited English proficient children has moderate beneficial effects on those children relative to their being taught only in English.

Effects of Negotiation on Language Learners' Output

Abstract: This quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of various types of negotiation on learners' output. Three groups of 16 child learners of Dutch (NSs and NNSs) participated in the study, which asked them to orally describe a series of pictures to a partner in a communicative context. The results showed that the extent to which, and the ways in which, the participants interactionally modified their output during negotiations were determined by the type of negative feedback they received. The negotiations also had significant delayed effects: Performing the same communicative task with another partner in a posttest, the language learners who had been pushed in preceding negotiations produced a significantly greater quantity of output, provided more essential information, and displayed a greater range of vocabulary than language learners in a comparison group who had not been pushed. On the other hand, the negotiations had no significant effects on the syntactic complexity nor on the grammatical correctness of the learners' output during the posttest.

Enhancing Students' Helping Behavior during Peer-Mediated Instruction with Conceptual Mathematical Explanations

Abstract: The purpose of this classroom-based experiment was to explore methods for helping students generate conceptual mathematical explanations during peer-mediated learning activities. Participants were 40 general education classrooms in grades 2, 3, and 4, which were assigned randomly to 3 treatments: peer-mediated instruction (PMI) with training in how to offer and receive elaborated help (PMI-Elaborated); PMI with training in elaborated help and in methods for providing conceptual mathematical explanations (PMI-Elaborated + Conceptual); and contrast (i.e., no PMI). Teachers implemented PMI treatments for 18 weeks with their naturally constituted mathematics classes. From each of the 40 classes, we pre- and posttested the mathematics achievement of 4 students who represented 4 points on the achievement continuum. We also coded student interactions from tutoring generalization sessions videotaped 10 weeks after all training had been completed. Analyses revealed that PMI-Elaborated + Conceptual tutors asked mor...