Search

Schools have become increasingly interested in social-emotional learning (SEL) over the past decade, and that interest has grown due to concern about student well-being resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is confusion around SEL. Christi Bergin, Christina Cipriano, Tia Barnes, Shannon B. Wanless, researchers who have studied and designed SEL for decades, respond to questions frequently asked by educators as they consider an SEL approach for their school. They discuss what SEL is, its benefits, how it aligns with other programs, how to select an SEL program, and where to learn more about SEL programs.

A concerning attribute of teacher evaluations across countries is the systemic leniency of principals during classroom observations. However, little is known about the motivations behind this phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to explore the motivating factors behind principals’ leniency in an authentic teacher evaluation system. In this study, we apply an explanatory-sequential mixed-method design. Using focus groups (qualitative strand; n = 15 principals) and a state-wide survey (quantitative strand; n = 364 principals), we apply goal theory to investigate influences on principals’ ratings in a Midwestern state in the USA. Results suggest that multiple goals may drive principals during observations. These include the following: (1) providing accurate ratings and feedback to teachers, (2) keeping teachers open to growth-promoting feedback, (3) supporting teachers’ morale and fostering positive relationships, (4) avoiding difficult conversations, (5) managing limited time wisely, and (6) maintaining self-efficacy as an instructional leader. Implications are that principals hold beneficial goals that may compete with accuracy when evaluating teachers, and that contextual differences in evaluation systems may influence the way principals act upon these goals. When responding to systemic leniency in teacher evaluations, solutions should increase accuracy in ways that minimally interfere with principals’ other beneficial goals.

Classroom observation is a common approach to teacher evaluation. Yet, concerns about differences in rater judgment are widespread. Despite this concern, few researchers have examined the practical...

Meaningful interpretation of teacher evaluation based on classroom observation depends on the degree to which principals’ judgments are free from errors and systematic bias. Previous researchers have identified factors that may influence classroom observation ratings, including characteristics of students in the classrooms being observed. In this study, we explored the influence of teachers’ and principals’ characteristics on classroom observation ratings. Using data from a statewide teacher evaluation system, we examined whether principals’ ratings systematically varied across teachers’ characteristics, as well as across shared characteristics between principals and teachers. Our results suggested that principals’ ratings varied by teachers’ gender, years of experience, and school level, but not by shared demographic characteristics between principals and teachers. Principals rated female, experienced, and elementary teachers more highly than male, novice, and secondary teachers. We discuss implications for research and practice.

In most U.S. schools, teachers are evaluated using observation of teaching practice (OTP). This study investigates rater effects on OTP ratings among 421 principals in an authentic teacher evaluati...

Teacher evaluation systems commonly rely on observation of teaching practice (OTP) by school principals. However, the value of OTP as evidence of teacher effectiveness depends on its psychometric q...

Teacher evaluation commonly includes classroom observations conducted by principals. Despite widespread use, little is known about the quality of principal ratings. We investigated 1,324 principals’ rating accuracy of six teaching practices at the conclusion of training within an authentic teacher evaluation system. Data are from a video-based exam of four 10-minute classroom observations. Many-Facet Rasch modeling revealed that (1) overall principals had high accuracy, but individuals varied substantially, and (2) some teaching episodes and practices were easier to rate accurately. For example, promotes critical thinking was rated more accurately than uses formative assessment. Because Many-Facet Rasch modeling estimates individuals’ accuracy patterns across teaching episodes and practices, it is a useful tool for identifying areas that individual principals, or groups, may need additional training (e.g., evaluating formative assessment). Implications for improving training of principals to conduct classroom observations for teacher evaluation are discussed.

The purpose of this two-volume handbook is to bring together a variety of school-based interventions and pedagogical approaches all aimed at enhancing prosocial behaviour in students under a single...

Can the prospect of public performance motivate student learning? One school found that it did. Learning requires effort. One of the most challenging questions educators face is how to motivate students to put forth adequate effort. A potent source of such motivation is performing for an audience. Observant teachers and parents know that students put in substantial effort to master a skill or increase their knowledge in preparation for a performance. Young thespians stay up late and practice obsessively as opening day approaches. Budding scientists spend scores of hours perfecting their experiments before a science fair. Child musicians who seldom practice their instruments suddenly start practicing intensely before a recital. Consider one author's daughter who wanted to play the piano, but did not want to practice. During practice, she rushed through pieces, not bothering to stop and correct passages; she played badly and sighed and rolled her eyes if parents made her rework a section. She was content with slipshod work. However, a radical transformation occurred near recital time. She suddenly practiced intensely. She got up early to practice before school and practiced multiple times after school. She paid closer attention to her teacher. In every recital, she surprised her parents with how well she played. This same motivation for performance applies to adults. For example, we know a former concert pianist who immigrated to the United States and no longer has a venue for performance. She occasionally rents a music hall and invites friends and neighbors to a self-hosted performance. She says she does this because she is motivated to practice more deliberately for a performance than when she is playing only for herself. These observations raise several questions: Would the prospect of performance motivate children to in crease their effort in learning? If so, how might this be implemented and sustained in school settings? We were able to explore these questions through a natural experiment at an elementary school that devised and implemented the Above and Beyond program. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Going above and beyond Above and Beyond was a program for K-5 students at a Missouri inner city, art-oriented elementary school. Half (54%) of the students receive free/reduced-price lunches, many live in Section 8 housing, and 20% are black. The program derives its name from students going "above and beyond" the school curriculum. Students conducted creative learning projects of their own choosing, on their own time outside of school, following their own schedule. Teachers and administrators were concerned that students were acting out themes of violence and sex on the playground, on buses, in the cafeteria, and in classrooms, mimicking what they saw watching TV and playing video games after school. In addition, the school was under pressure to increase state proficiency test scores, particularly in writing. In response to those concerns, the school developed Above and Beyond to: * Reduce excessive time that students spent using media, much of it inappropriate, while increasing opportunities to learn outside of school; * Increase writing skills; and * Increase motivation at school so students would begin to feel ownership for their learning. Participation was voluntary. Students could do as many or few projects as they wanted, but averaged three per year. Students generated project ideas themselves, but teachers could help students by providing examples. Each student had an adult mentor, a parent, other relative, teacher, or adult volunteer from the community. Students could choose learning projects based their (or their family's) personal interests. Projects included writing components, such as a proposal and a personal reflection after the project was completed. Teachers encouraged students to explore their interests through various media, including art, music, movement, and technology. …

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of 2003 requires states to develop procedures to notify child protective services of newborns prenatally exposed to illegal substances and develop plans of safe care. In 2005 the Administration for Children and Families awarded grants to four programs to develop models for implementing these CAPTA requirements. Although the programs were quite varied, they encountered similar challenges collaborating across agencies, developing effective protocols for identifying exposed newborns, and engaging families in services. This article describes the programs, discusses how they implemented CAPTA requirements, and presents recommendations for other communities.

Prenatal substance exposure is linked to adverse outcomes in children. Some adverse outcomes may result from insecure attachment and low-quality caregiving rather than from substance exposure. Little is known about the caregiving of polysubstance-using mothers. To address this, low-income mothers (n = 41) with their substance-exposed 12-month-olds were compared with a nonexposed group case-matched for other risk factors. Maternal sensitivity and involvement were analyzed from 2 hr of videotaped interaction. Attachment was assessed using the Attachment Q-Set. Attachment security and quality of caregiving were quite low for both groups, with no significant differences. In addition, regression analyses revealed that quality of caregiving predicted attachment, but amount of alcohol and cocaine exposure did not. These results suggest that among toddlers with social risk, substance exposure may not predict insecure attachment. Previous research linking attachment to exposure may be better explained by low-quality caregiving. Implications are that substance-exposed children, and nonexposed children with comparable social risk, are likely to need intervention to enhance maternal sensitivity and involvement to improve psychiatric outcomes.

Teachers were trained to use reinforcement and induction to increase prosocial behavior in a sample of 98 children in Head Start-affiliated preschools, using a peer coaching model. There was one control group and three intervention groups: reinforcement-only, induction-only, and reinforcement-and-induction. Results indicated that the intervention groups showed a significant increase in total classroom prosocial behavior compared to the control group. The induction-only group increased dramatically in affection. The reinforcement-only group increased more in helping, sharing, and cooperation than in affection and comforting. Teacher behaviors in the classroom did not reflect conclusively that they were using the intervention strategies, possibly due to inadequate measurement.

Attachment influences students’ school success. This is true of students’ attachment to their parents, as well as to their teachers. Secure attachment is associated with higher grades and standardized test scores compared to insecure attachment. Secure attachment is also associated with greater emotional regulation, social competence, and willingness to take on challenges, and with lower levels of ADHD and delinquency, each of which in turn is associated with higher achievement. These effects tend to be stronger for high-risk students. In this era of accountability, enhancing teacher–student relationships is not merely an add-on, but rather is fundamental to raising achievement. Understanding the role of attachment in the classroom will help educators be more effective, particularly with challenging students. Twelve suggestions to improve teacher–student relationships and school bonding are provided.

This article describes EXCEL, a program that encourages youth underrepresented in higher education to enroll in higher education, specifically at the sponsoring university. Eighty-three eighth grade students with GPA of B and above and standardized test scores at grade level or above were randomly assigned to the program or to a control group. The program guaranteed a scholarship to the sponsoring university and provided enrichment activities throughout high school. Program students were more likely to enroll at the sponsoring university than were control students. However, program and control students enrolled in higher education at rates that did not differ significantly. No differences were detected in self-esteem or high school GPA. Program students desired more education than control students. The results suggest that scholarship incentive and support programs that target average to above average achieving students in the eighth grade may not raise the overall number of aspiring minority youth attending college, but may be useful to specific universities to raise their minority enrollment.

This study investigated young adolescents' perceptions of their peers' prosocial behaviours. In eight focus groups, 53 11- to 13-year olds described specific prosocial acts of their peers. Results suggest that traditional research has not addressed the diversity of prosocial behaviours that youth enact, nor emphasized behaviours that are salient to young adolescents. Such behaviours included standing up for others, encouraging others, helping others develop skills, including others who are left out, and being humorous. Facilitating emotional regulation of others emerged as an important component of prosocial behaviour. These data can help guide future research on prosocial development to include a broader array of authentic behaviours of young adolescents.

Research on factors that may promote engagement is hampered by the absence of a measure of classroom-level engagement. Literature has suggested that engagement may have 3 dimensions--affective, behavioral, and cognitive. No existing engagement scales measure all 3 dimensions at the classroom level. The Classroom Engagement Inventory (CEI) was developed to fill this gap. In Study 1, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on data from 3,481 students from the 4th to 12th grade. The results suggested a 4-factor model of the CEI. Using these results, in Study 2 several items were revised and data were collected 1 year later from 4th to 12th grade students in the same school district as Study 1. Analyses were conducted on data from 3,560 students after data cleaning. A series of potential models was tested. The final results suggest a 5-factor 24-item CEI: (1) Affective Engagement, (2) Behavioral Engagement-Compliance, (3) Behavioral Engagement-Effortful Class Participation, (4) Cognitive Engagement, and (5) Disengagement. Results advance understanding of the construct of classroom engagement. The CEI fills a significant gap in measurement of engagement. The CEI is classroom level, measures multiple dimensions of engagement, uses self-report, is relatively short, and can be readily administered in classrooms from the 4th to 12th grade.

This article addresses the affective quality of the parent-child relationship during shared book reading with kindergarten and first-grade children. Research has emphasized the frequency, rather than quality, of parent-child reading with beginning readers. However, frequent shared reading may not be beneficial if parents are hostile and critical as their child struggles to read. Thirty-two parent-child dyads were videotaped reading to each other. Interaction was coded for several affective dimensions: praise, hostility, criticism, support, positive affect, emotional spontaneity, physical proximity, and affection. manova analyses indicated that there was a significant difference in the affective quality of the parent-child relationship related to both the child's attitude toward readingand the child's reading fluency. Dyads who were affectionate during shared reading had children who were less frustrated with and more engaged in reading and who read more words per minute earlier, than less affectionate dyads. Educators may need to help parents make joint reading a pleasurable experience rather than just encouraging them to engage in more frequent joint book reading.

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychological well-being and attachment behavior of nonoffending mothers of child sexual abuse victims (CSAVs). This topic is significant because it is the mothers who most often provide support for young child victims. Two sets of data on maternal depression, state and trait anxiety, and Ainsworth's maternal attachment behaviors were analyzed. First, 38 mothers of CSAVs were compared based on the presence or absence of maternal history of abuse. Second, from the original 38 mothers of CSAVs, 27 mothers were compared to a matched group of mothers of nonabused children. Children in both data sets were 6 to 48 months. In the first data set, there were no significant differences in depression, anxiety, and attachment behaviors based on mothers' personal history of abuse. However, in the second data set, mothers of CSAVs had heightened levels of depression and anxiety and diminished maternal attachment behaviors.

In this article the authors distill principles of effective classroom discipline from the extensive literature on parent–child interaction and on motivation of behavior. Although there are many books and articles on classroom management, there is little empirical research on the topic, and even less that stresses management that aims to preserve children's perceptions of autonomy and to foster self-control. Research and theory make many recommendations regarding autonomy, control, internalization, and so forth, but they tend to be abstract. Based on that literature, the authors suggest a concrete approach to discipline that they call persistent persuasion. Persistent persuasion involves the adult continually restating a command until the child complies, but without increasing the level of power or using coercive threats so that the development of self-control is not undermined.

Two cross-sectional developmental studies of prosocial behaviors displayed in natural settings by 2- and 5-year-olds using a prototype approach are reported. In the first study, caretakers described the most prosocial child they knew, resulting in 20 attributes for 2-year-olds and 24 attributes for 5-year-olds. In the second study, parents rated the relative importance of each attribute in defining a child as prosocial. Results indicated more similarities than differences between the two age groups and that research has underrepresented the rich repertoire of naturally occurring prosocial behavior in young children, ignoring behaviors salient and important to parents (e.g., being cheerful, sensitive, affectionate, friendly, and praising others) in favor of less typical behaviors (e.g., donation of commodities to charity). Broader and more relevant indices of prosocial behavior are needed. Results provide researchers with a data base which enables them to make informed decisions about the assessment of prosocial behavior.

Prenatal drug exposure is an important pediatric health issue. However, the effects on children are not clear because of limitations in the way drug exposure is typically measured. For example, one cannot say cocaine causes a specific outcome if cocaine exposure is not measured accurately. Before we can determine the developmental outcomes associated with drug exposure, 4 measurement issues must be considered: (1) the amount of exposure varies greatly, such as from 1 to 709 g of crack per month; (2) exposure may vary by trimester; (3) exposure could be to one drug or multiple drugs; and (4) different sources of exposure data can be inconsistent (e.g., toxicology and maternal self-report). We use data from 248 families participating in an ongoing longitudinal study to provide concrete examples of these measurement issues. Both nursing researchers and practitioners must carefully attend to measurement issues when interpreting research on the effects of prenatal drug exposure.