1. Educating for Democracy in a Partisan Age

Author: Joseph Kahne, Benjamin Bowyer

Source: American Educational Research Journal ( February 1, 2017 ): 3-34.

Abstract:

This article investigates youth judgments of the accuracy of truth claims tied to controversial public issues. In an experiment embedded within a nationally representative survey of youth ages 15 to 27 (N = 2,101), youth were asked to judge the accuracy of one of several simulated online posts. Consistent with research on motivated reasoning, youth assessments depended on (a) the alignment of the claim with one’s prior policy position and to a lesser extent on (b) whether the post included an inaccurate statement. To consider ways educators might improve judgments of accuracy, we also investigated the influence of political knowledge and exposure to media literacy education. We found that political knowledge did not improve judgments of accuracy but that media literacy education did.

 

2.Gender Differences in Students’ Physical Science Motivation

Author: Almut E. Thomas

Source: American Educational Research Journal ( February 1, 2017 ): 35-58.

Abstract:

Implicit stereotypes associating science with male might play a role in the development of gender differences in students’ motivations for physical science. Particularly, the stereotypes of influential adults may induce students’ regulatory foci and subsequently their motivational beliefs. Drawing on expectancy-value theory, this study investigated whether teachers’ implicit science-is-male stereotypes predict between-teacher variation in males’ and females’ motivational beliefs regarding physical science. Results showed that teachers’ implicit science-is-male stereotypes are positively related with males’ self-concept and intrinsic value but negatively associated with females’ motivational beliefs. The findings of this study corroborate the notion that teachers’ implicit stereotypes can contribute to gender differences in motivational beliefs and probably also to gendered educational choices.

 

3.Improved Representation of the Self-Perception Profile for Children Through Bifactor Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling

Author: A. Katrin Arens

Source: American Educational Research Journal ( February 1, 2017 ): 59-87.

Abstract:

This study illustrates an integrative psychometric framework to investigate two sources of construct-relevant multidimensionality in answers to the Self-Perception Profile for Children (SPPC). Using a sample of 2,353 German students attending Grades 3 to 6, we contrasted: (a) first-order versus hierarchical and bifactor models to investigate construct-relevant multidimensionality related to the hierarchical nature of multidimensional self-conceptions and (b) confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and exploratory structural equation models (ESEM) to investigate construct-relevant multidimensionality related to the assessment of conceptually related constructs. The bifactor-ESEM solution provided the best fit, suggesting the presence of both sources of construct-relevant psychometric multidimensionality. The results supported measurement invariance of the SPPC across gender and grade level and showed latent mean differences mostly supporting results from previous research.

 

4.The “Exceptional” Physics Girl

Author: Louise Archer, Julie Moote, Becky Francis, Jennifer DeWitt, Lucy Yeomans

Source: American Educational Research Journal ( February 1, 2017 ): 88-126.

Abstract:

Female underrepresentation in postcompulsory physics is an ongoing issue for science education research, policy, and practice. In this article, we apply Bourdieusian and Butlerian conceptual lenses to qualitative and quantitative data collected as part of a wider longitudinal study of students’ science and career aspirations age 10–16. Drawing on survey data from more than 13,000 year 11 (age 15/16) students and interviews with 70 students (who had been tracked from age 10 to 16), we focus in particular on seven girls who aspired to continue with physics post-16, discussing how the cultural arbitrary of physics requires these girls to be highly “exceptional,” undertaking considerable identity work and deployment of capital in order to “possibilize” a physics identity—an endeavor in which some girls are better positioned to be successful than others.

 

5.The Causal Effects of Cultural Relevance

Author: Thomas S. Dee, Emily K. Penner

Source: American Educational Research Journal ( February 1, 2017 ): 127-166.

Abstract:

An extensive theoretical and qualitative literature stresses the promise of instructional practices and content aligned with minority students’ experiences. Ethnic studies courses provide an example of such “culturally relevant pedagogy” (CRP). Despite theoretical support, quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of these courses is limited. We estimate the causal effects of an ethnic studies curriculum, using a “fuzzy” regression discontinuity design based on the fact that several schools assigned students with eighth-grade GPAs below a threshold to take the course. Assignment to this course increased ninth-grade attendance by 21 percentage points, GPA by 1.4 grade points, and credits earned by 23. These surprisingly large effects suggest that CRP, when implemented in a high-fidelity context, can provide effective support to at-risk students.

 

6.A Multilingual Perspective on Translanguaging

Author: Jeff MacSwan

Source: American Educational Research Journal ( February 1, 2017 ): 167-201.

Abstract:

Translanguaging is a new term in bilingual education; it supports a heteroglossic language ideology, which views bilingualism as valuable in its own right. Some translanguaging scholars have questioned the existence of discrete languages, further concluding that multilingualism does not exist. I argue that the political use of language names can and should be distinguished from the social and structural idealizations used to study linguistic diversity, favoring what I call an integrated multilingual model of individual bilingualism, contrasted with the unitary model and dual competence model. I further distinguish grammars from linguistic repertoires, arguing that bilinguals, like monolinguals, have a single linguistic repertoire but a richly diverse mental grammar. I call the viewpoint developed here a multilingual perspective on translanguaging.