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by Gregory Camilli, Sadako Vargas, Sharon Ryan & W. Steven Barnett There is much current interest in the impact of early childhood education programs on preschoolers and, in particular, on the magnitude of cognitive and affective gains. To address this issue comprehensively, a meta-analysis was conducted for the purpose of synthesizing the outcomes of comparative studies in this area. Consistent with the accrued research base on the effects of preschool education, significant effects were found in this study for children who attend a preschool program prior to entering kindergarten. Although the largest effect sizes were observed for cognitive outcomes, a preschool education was also found to impact children�s social skills and school progress. Specific aspects of the treatments that positively correlated with gains included teacher-directed instruction and small-group instruction; provision of additional services tended to be associated with smaller gains.
by Rhoda Cummings, Cleborne D. Maddux, Aaron Richmond & Antonia Cladianos Although concerns about the moral dimension of teaching have been raised for decades, little attention has been given to empirical research on moral reasoning in preservice teacher education students. Results of only a few previous studies indicate that moral reasoning may be less advanced in education students than in college students majoring in other disciplines. This study (a) compared preintervention levels of moral reasoning in undergraduate elementary and secondary education students and in undergraduates enrolled in courses in philosophy and English literature; (b) implemented an intervention program (classroom instruction in moral development theory and dilemma discussion via online bulletin boards) to advance moral reasoning in undergraduate elementary and secondary education students; and (c) compared pre-/postintervention moral reasoning scores of the intervention group with those of control groups (elementary and secondary education students and students enrolled in philosophy and English literature courses). Results indicate that direct instruction in moral development theory and dilemma discussion advanced students’ moral reasoning scores. These results are preliminary and provide only partial information. To address this limitation, suggestions for future research are provided.
by Carol Rinke & Linda Valli This article examines the delivery of school-based professional development in three elementary schools with varying levels of pressure to make adequate yearly progress.
by Denise E. Armstrong This article examines the socialization rites that newly appointed secondary school vice-principals experienced as they negotiated the passage between teaching and administration.
by Jamal Abedi & Joan Herman This study explores the relationship between students’ English language learner (ELL) status and their level of opportunity to learn (OTL) as a factor that may explain performance difference between ELL and non-ELL students. Results indicate that measures of classroom OTL are associated with student performance. Further, ELL students report a lower level of OTL as compared with non-ELLs. Such differential levels of OTL may indeed play a role in the lower performance of ELLs.
by William H. Jeynes This article asserts that some of the most subtle aspects of parental involvement are those that most impact student academic achievement. The article examines the evidence for this relationship and the extent to which school-based programs designed to foster parental involvement may be able to encourage these expressions of engagement.
by Robert V. Bullough, Jr. Framed by the assumptions of ethnomethodology and drawing on methods of conversational analysis, the author analyzed a set of 10 transcripts of Teacher Work Sample scoring conversations to identify patterns in scorer interaction. Interactive rules and strategies are identified and implications and cautions offered for the use of work samples, particularly for high-stakes assessment.
by Samuel D. Museus, Shaun R. Harper & Andrew H. Nichols This article is aimed at studying the factors that shape students’ educational expectations during the high school years.
by Julie E. Redline & James E. Rosenbaum This is a study of job placement at a two-year occupational college. It examines how institutional job placement works, which students are served by it, and how successful and equitable it is.
by Timothy Reese Cain This article examines the efforts to unionize college faculty in the years immediately after World War I. It demonstrates that despite some educators’ beliefs that professorial unionization offered the possibility of real change for faculty members and larger society, external opposition, internal divisions, and faculty apathy ultimately doomed these early efforts to organize American Federation of Teachers locals on college campuses.
by Douglas N. Harris & Stacey A. Rutledge This study compares research on the theoretical models and predictors of teacher effectiveness with those of other occupations. We start by defining models of worker effectiveness as theory-driven relationships between organizational objectives and worker characteristics (predictors) and then review evidence on four specific predictors. We find that in research on other workers, experience is a strong predictor, but that cognitive ability appears to be the best predictor, particularly in complex jobs. In research on teaching, we find that teacher experience is the best predictor of effectiveness and that cognitive ability is rarely considered. However, because teaching is complex, the evidence on other workers implies that cognitive ability probably is a strong predictor of teacher effectiveness. Worker personality and education do not appear to be strong predictors in either occupational category. More broadly, we find that empirical research on other workers is more tightly linked to theories of effectiveness than in teacher studies. Theoretical models from other occupations, such as person-job fit, hold promise for understanding teaching, given the role of the school as an organization. While we advocate no particular theoretical model of teacher effectiveness, these findings inform the various conceptions of teaching and suggest a need to more clearly define models of teacher effectiveness and test these models with empirical evidence.
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