Illuminates teachers' experience of heightened emotionality in response to participation in large-scale reform and its relationship to career discontinuity or career risk. Points to three conditions intensifying emotional responses to reform and resulting in career turning points. Underscores the limitations of viewing "reform" as primarily a…

School-level assessment of student writing ability using a group-level polytomous item response theory (IRT) model was illustrated in this study. Results with approximately 20,000 students support the viability of an IRT-based school assessment as an alternative to the conventional approach based on aggregation of individual scores. (SLD)

Investigated ideas of 50 first-grade children from two different Nepali cultures (Tamang and Chhetri-Brahmin) regarding how they would feel and act in six emotionally challenging situations. Found significant cultural differences. Chhetri-Brahmin children were more likely to endorse negative emotions and to report masking negative emotion. These…

Explores how learning environment dimensions are related to on-task-orientation, and how these relations are mediated by students' perceptions of the meaningfulness of schoolwork. For school psychologists, results seem to imply an increased focus on the learning environment, and particularly on the importance of the social emotional dimensions for…

Introduces the concepts of online and offline sampling and highlights the role of online sampling in agent-based models of learning and development. Compares the strengths of each approach for modeling particular developmental phenomena and research questions. Describes a recent agent-based model of infant causal perception. Discusses limitations…

Studied the effects of teacher knowledge of rubrics on the achievement of high school students. Results favored the achievement of students whose teachers had received rubric training in three of eight comparisons, but the other five comparisons were not significant. Significant results were in algebra for selected response and constructed…

The effects of a presession exposure to attention on responding during subsequent assessment of attention as a reinforcer were evaluated across three behavioral assessments. In each experiment, the children responded differentially within the test condition according to the presence or absence of dense schedule of attention immediately prior to…

Examined association of three maternal regulating behaviors with children's positive and negative behaviors toward siblings in 40 Japanese families. Observed maternal regulating behaviors more frequently when younger sibling was still in early developmental stage. Older siblings' negative behaviors toward younger positively correlated with…

Background noise from loud ventilation systems, outdoor activities, and poor acoustics can lead to voice problems for teachers, worsen hearing-impaired students' listening ability, and create unhealthy learning environments. Solutions include providing teachers with a sound-field amplification system and improving classroom acoustics. (MLH)

Considers the reactions of children to natural disasters and discusses the use of natural disasters in the social studies curriculum. Provides a list of online resources that may assist elementary school teachers in educating their students about natural disasters. (CMK)

Investigates the status of music technology in Illinois public schools (K-12) using a questionnaire. Focuses on (1) the perceived training needs of teachers, (2) ways teachers and students use technology, (3) access to music technology, (4) types of software and hardware, and (5) sources of funding. Addresses the implications. (CMK)

This study found that Nottingham Adjustment Scale items on acceptance of sight loss and attitudes toward blindness were free of response bias. Respondents (n=559) who were given only negative items disagreed significantly more with them than did those given mixed positive and negative statements. Respondents with poor emotional adjustment were…

Based on personal experience and a professional perspective, presents a theory about adult adoptees' reunions with their biological family. Identifies four stages of postreunion emotions: (1) paralysis; (2) eruption; (3) loss and grief; and (4) empowerment. Three factors that impact these stages are reunion success, reunion timing, and the fact…

Twelve hundred teachers answered open-ended questions on the strategies that school principals use to influence them. Data from 836 teachers who described their principals as open and effective suggest that the strategic orientation of effective principals (normative-instrumental leadership) has positive impacts on teacher work involvement.…

Teachers on a high school field trip used quick thinking when rescuing two students trapped in a small bay by a rising tide and a rocky coastline. Emphasizes that teachers should never assume that students will follow rules and must check frequently when supervising student groups. (LP)