The integration of digital tools and multimodal representations in the English classroom has the greatest potential when we define literacy as multiple socially constructed practices. If digital literacies are defined as autonomous tools and isolated symbolic systems, reduced to a set of skills and forms for students to reproduce, then school…

Jane Roland Martin's later work, especially as represented in "The Schoolhome: Rethinking Schools for Changing Families," has been attacked as vague, essentialistic, and a formula for the (re)feminization of education. This paper does not attempt to defend Martin against these criticisms because such a defense seems impossible for…

How do students react to being told that they have failed a test required for high school graduation? In 2000, 7,989 students were wrongly informed that they had failed the Minnesota Basic Standards Test in mathematics. The authors conducted a survey of 911 of these students to assess the psychosocial impact of this event. More than 80% of…

Background: Maturation of prefrontal circuits during adolescence contributes to the development of cognitive processes such as decision-making. Recent theories suggest that these neural changes also play a role in the shift from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) to depression that often occurs during this developmental period. Cognitive models of…

Translation and cultural adaptation of rating scales are two critical components in testing culturally and/or linguistically heterogeneous populations. Despite the proper use of these scales, challenges typically arise from respondents' language, culture, ratiocination, and characteristics of measurement processes. This study investigated factors…

This paper explores the emotional resources generated by working class mothers to support their children at school. Analysis of material from qualitative interview research with a range working class mothers will focus on specific accounts of children's school lives to reveal how situated meanings can clash with institutional expectations. By…

Traditionally campus-based courses rely on student evaluations to provide instructors with feedback about their teaching effectiveness. However, current student evaluations of teaching instruments do not adequately assess many of the essential constructivist-based teaching practices recommended for quality online learning experiences. One of the…

The present study evaluates the relative effectiveness of two types of input-based instruction, structured input instruction (a structured input task only) and structured input instruction with feedback (the structured input task + reactive explicit feedback) for teaching English polite requestive forms, involving 45 Japanese learners of English.…

Faced with the need to teach English to a large number of students, the "Universidad de Concepcion," Chile, has created an innovative Communicative English Program using ICT, which is made up of four modules covered in four academic terms. The English program aims to develop integrated linguistic skills with a focus on learning for…

Responsive Teaching is an early intervention curriculum designed to address the cognitive, language, and social emotional needs of young children with developmental problems. This innovative intervention model was derived from research conducted primarily with children with Down syndrome and their mothers. Results from these studies indicated that…

Objective: This study tested a multilevel biobehavioral family model proposing that negative family emotional climate contributes to child depressive symptoms, which in turn contribute to asthma disease severity. Parent-child relational insecurity is proposed as a mediator. Method: Children with asthma (N = 112; ages 7-18; 55% male) reported…

Western investigators assume that caregiver sensitivity takes similar forms and has similar outcomes in all cultures. However, cultural research suggests that sensitivity in the West has more to do with responsiveness to children's explicit expression of need, and that sensitivity in non-Western communities has more to do with anticipation of…

Alternative mathematical items administered as prototypes at the spring 1989 Field Trials of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) are evaluated for differential item functioning (DIF) and differential speededness. Results for Algebra Placement (AP) and Student Produced Response (SPR) items are presented and contrasted with results obtained on two…

This Yearbook begins with a foreword by Janice F. Almasi that outlines some of the steps that the state of Maryland is taking as a leader in literacy education and literacy assessment, and the eight articles in this edition reflect many of these steps. The articles are: "Three Dialogues about Reading Engagement" (John T. Guthrie);…

Results of surveys completed by students in grades six and nine in the Springfield (Massachusetts) public school system are reported for 1990 through 1995. The report is based on an analysis of responses within user-defined categories of drug use, alcohol use, and nonuse. In 1995, while 72 percent of those in grade 6 responded, only 26 percent of…