A nationwide study of first grade classrooms finds that while many teachers create positive social environments in the classroom, most provide inadequate instructional support. The report is published in the March issue of The Elementary School Journal.
Authors Megan Stuhlman and Robert Pianta (University of Virginia) used direct observations to assess the social and instructional quality of interactions between teachers and students in 820 first grade classrooms. Previous studies have indicated that the quality of such interactions can have a significant impact on student learning.
The researchers found 23 percent of classrooms to be of “high overall quality,” with teachers getting high marks for creating a positive social climate in the classroom and for providing strong instructional support to students. Twenty-eight percent of classrooms were deemed “mediocre,” with teachers scoring just below the sample mean on all study measures. Seventeen percent were “low overall quality.”
A fourth category of classrooms characterized by “positive emotional climate, low academic demand” accounted for 31 percent of classrooms—the largest category in the sample. In these classrooms, Stuhlman explains, teachers are warm and do not discipline using threats, but they tend not to give constructive feedback that helps students understand concepts.
“We found that quality, particularly instructional features of teacher behavior, was rather low across the sample,” Pianta says. “In other studies we have demonstrated the connection between these observed teacher-child interactions and student learning gains. So what we are seeing here may influence the extent to which children can perform at standards consistent with accountability frameworks such as No Child Left Behind.”
The study also casts doubt on traditional assumptions about the factors that influence educational quality. Class size and teacher credentials, for example, had little impact on quality. And in a finding that may come as a surprise to advocates of private school vouchers, public school classrooms actually fared a bit better than private school classes.
“[M]ore public schools were categorized as high overall quality than would be expected by chance,” the authors write. “Moreover, equal proportions of public and private schools were in the lowest rated classroom type.”
The results suggest that educational opportunity will not be improved simply by shipping students to private schools, Pianta says. “Instead, strong, instructionally-focused, and effective professional development for a large number of teachers is perhaps the most important next step.”
Full report:
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/593936
Lack of ability does not explain women's decisions to opt out of math-intensive science careers
Women don't choose careers in math-intensive fields, such as computer science, physics, technology, engineering, chemistry, and higher mathematics, because they want the flexibility to raise children, or because they prefer other fields of science that are less math-intensive--not because they lack mathematical ability, according to a new study.
The study, an integrative analysis of 35 years of research on sex differences in math, offers explanations for why women are underrepresented in math-intensive science careers. The findings appear in the March issue of Psychological Bulletin, published by the American Psychological Association.
Researchers from Cornell University reviewed more than 400 articles and book chapters to reconcile conflicting evidence on why math-proficient women are underrepresented in math-intensive fields such as engineering, why they choose less math-intensive fields (such as biology, medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine), and why when they do choose math-intensive careers, they are more likely to drop out as they advance.
"Career preferences and lifestyle needs largely dictate why women aren't choosing physics or engineering as their profession," said lead author Stephen J. Ceci, PhD. Women with advanced math abilities choose non-math fields more often than men with advanced math abilities. They also drop out of scientific fields--especially math and physical science--at higher rates than do men, particularly as they advance, said Ceci.
"A major reason explaining why women are underrepresented not only in math-intensive fields but also in senior leadership positions in most fields is that many women choose to have children, and the timing of childrearing coincides with the most demanding periods of their career, such as trying to get tenure or working exorbitant hours to get promoted," Ceci said.
Further, if women enter these fields, they are more likely to drop out before they advance very far due to the need for greater flexibility and the demands of parenting and caregiving, said co-author Wendy M. Williams, PhD. "These are choices that all women, but almost no men, are forced to make."
Women today compose approximately 50 percent of medical school classes; however, despite these gains, women who enter academic medicine are less likely than men to be promoted or serve in leadership posts, the authors said. As of 2005, only 15 percent of full professors and 11 percent of department chairs were women. Non-math fields are also affected: for example, only 19 percent of the tenure track faculty in the top 20 philosophy departments are women.
"Hormonal, brain and other biological sex differences did not emerge as primary factors explaining why women were underrepresented in science careers," said co-author Susan Barnett, PhD. And the authors found studies on social and cultural effects to be inconsistent and inconclusive.
Much of the evidence on discrimination was dated or anecdotal, the authors said, and the effects were not strong enough to explain women's current low numbers in math-intensive fields. "Even though institutional barriers and discrimination exist, these influences still cannot explain why women are not entering or staying in STEM careers," said Ceci. "The evidence did not show that removal of these barriers would equalize the sexes in these fields, especially given that women's career preferences and lifestyle choices tilt them towards other careers such as medicine and biology over mathematics, computer science, physics, and engineering."
Men did outscore women on spatial ability tests, a measure that predicts later mathematics achievement but, said the authors, this still doesn't account for the low numbers of women in the STEM fields. Moreover, studies showing that men's scoring in the top 1 to 0.1 percent on the SAT-M and GRE-Q exams more frequently than women cannot account for the low numbers of women in math-intensive careers.
The evidence shows that if math ability were solely a function of sex, there would be roughly double the number of women in math-intensive careers compared to what exists now, assuming a 2:1 male-female ratio at the top 1 percent in math ability, Ceci said. "Women would comprise 33 percent of the professorships in math-intensive fields if it was based solely on being in the top 1 percent of math ability, but they currently comprise less than 10 percent."
Several large surveys examined in the analysis found that lifestyle choice had the largest influence on career preferences. In a survey of 2,000 33-year-old academic professionals in science careers who were in the top 1 percent of their high school math classes, the men devoted more time to their current job and said they would devote even more time in their dream job compared to the women, suggesting that this could lead to more productivity and promotions.
Another survey of almost 5,000 tenure-track faculty at nine California universities revealed that family issues affected women's success and satisfaction more than it affected men's. And a National Science Foundation survey of doctoral recipients in scientific and engineering fields found that women with children under 18 worked and published less than the men.
Science, technology, engineering and math are not the only professions affected by women's career choices, said the authors. Several studies showed that while women are well-represented in less math-intensive fields, such as medicine, law, biology, psychology, dentistry, and veterinary science, they are still underrepresented in the top positions of these fields. They are either not on tenure track, drop off tenure track or opt for part-time positions until their children get older, the researchers found.
"It appears that the family-career trade-offs constitute a major factor in the dearth of women in fields such as engineering, physics, computer science and in higher-level positions in non math-related fields," said Ceci. "Women who are good in math seem to have more career options. Those who are highly competent in math are more likely than men to have high verbal competence, too, thus opening up the option of going into the humanities or law, which may offer more flexibility in their career tracks."
There are ways to remedy the situation, the authors said. They suggest that universities, other institutions and companies create options for women with math talents who want to pursue math-intensive careers. These could include deferred start-up of tenure-track positions and part-time work that segues to full-time tenure-track work for women who are raising children, and courtesy appointments for women unable to work full-time but who would benefit from use of university resources (e-mail, library resources, grant support) to continue their research from home.
Full text of the article is available at:http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/bul1352218.pdf
Talent Development Middle Grades Program
What Works Clearinghouse intervention report on this a whole school reform approach for large middle schools that face serious problems with student attendance, discipline, and academic achievement. The program includes both structural and curriculum reforms:
Effectiveness
No studies of the Talent Development Middle Grades Program (TDMG) that fall within the scope of the Dropout Prevention review protocol meet What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards. The lack of studies meeting WWC evidence standards means that, at this time, the WWC is unable to draw any conclusions based on research about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of TDMG.
Program Description
TDMG is a whole school reform approach for large middle schools that face serious problems with student attendance, discipline, and academic achievement. The program includes both structural and curriculum reforms. It calls for schools to reorganize into small “learning communities” of 200 to 300 students who attend classes in distinct areas of the school and stay together throughout their time in middle school. In addition to structural changes, schools adopting the program purchase one or more curricula that are intended to be developmentally appropriate and to engage students with culturally relevant content. For students who are behind in reading and math, the program provides additional periods devoted to these subjects that include group activities and computer-based lessons. To improve implementation, each school is assigned a team of “curriculum coaches” trained by the developer to work with school staff on a weekly basis to implement the program. In addition, teachers are offered professional development training, including monthly sessions designed to familiarize them with the program and demonstrate effective instructional approaches.
Three studies are within the scope of the review protocol and have an eligible design, but do not meet WWC evidence standards.
• One study does not establish that the comparison group was comparable to the treatment group prior to the start of the intervention._
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• One study does not include any outcomes that are defined for students who have dropped out of school. The Dropout Prevention protocol requires that study outcomes be defined for all students, including those who have dropped out of school._
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• One study has only one school assigned to each research group, so that the effect of TDMG cannot be separated from the effect of the school.
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Fourteen studies are out of the scope of the review, as defined by the Dropout Prevention protocol. Two of these studies do not present primary research, and 12 do not examine outcomes within a domain specified in the protocol.
Complete report:
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/wwc_tdmg_030309.pdf
Coming of Age on the Internet
In the mid-90s, the Internet seemed like a dark place. Indeed, scientific studies from that time were documenting some real risks for teenagers, including fewer close friendships and more tenuous connections with family. It appeared that teens were sacrificing real relationships for superficial cyber-relationships with total strangers.
Is this still true? Social scientists are revisiting those early concerns, and some are coming to believe that the psychological benefits may now outweigh the detrimental effects. In a new report in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Patti Valkenburg and Jochen Peter of the University of Amsterdam took a look at a decade of research on these questions, and they believe two important historical changes have altered the psychological landscape.
First, the sheer number of teenagers now using the Internet has transformed the technology into a true social networking tool. Even in the late 90s, only about one in ten adolescents were online, which meant that kids actually had to choose between online relationships and real relationships. There was very little overlap, so it was very difficult to maintain flesh-and-blood relations while exploring cyberspace. Today, Valkenburg and Peter say, the vast majority of teenagers in Western countries have access to the Internet, and most appear to use the technology to nurture their existing relationships rather than to forge new ones.
Second, the newer communication tools also encourage building on existing relationships rather than isolating. In the 90s, the few teens who did spend time on the Internet tended to hang out with strangers in public chat rooms and so-called MUDS, multi-user dungeons. The appearance of instant messaging and social networks like Facebook has changed all that, according to the psychologists. Today, more than eight in ten teenagers use IM to connect with the same friends they see at school and work.
Recent studies document the positive effects of these technological changes. But what exactly is going on in the minds of the teenagers to produce this greater sense of well-being? Valkenburg and Peter believe that the 21st century Internet encourages honest talking about very personal issues - feelings, worries, vulnerabilities - that are difficult for many self-conscious teens to talk about. When they communicate through the Internet, they have fewer sounds and sights and social cues to distract them, so they become less concerned with how others perceive them. This in turn reduces inhibition, leading to unusually intimate talk.
The psychologists have also shown that "hyperpersonal" Internet talk leads to higher quality friendships, and that these quality friendships buffer teenagers against stress and lead to greater happiness. However, solitary "surfing" of the Internet has no positive effects on connectedness or well-being, and hanging around public chat rooms - though much rarer - still appears psychologically risky.
Wray Herbert discusses this study in his blog, "We're Only Human..." (http://www.psychologicalscience.org/onlyhuman/)
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