第一辑（上）

Selecting and Supporting the Use of Mathematics Curricula at Scale

Author(s): Mary Kay Stein and Julia H. Kaufman

Source: American Educational Research Journal, 2010, 47(3).

Abstract: This article begins to unravel the question, “What curricular materials work best under what kinds of conditions?” The authors address this question from the point of view of teachers and their ability to implement mathematics curricula that place varying demands and provide varying levels of support for their learning. Specifically, the authors focus on how teacher capacity (their level of education, experience, and knowledge) and their use of curriculum influence instruction. The study sample is 48 teachers implementing two standards-based mathematics curricula—Everyday Mathematics and Investigations—in two school districts. The data include interviews and surveys with teachers, as well as observations of instruction, over a 2-year period. Findings indicate that teachers’ implementation of Investigations was considerably better than teachers’ implementation of Everyday Mathematics in terms of maintaining high levels of cognitive demand, attention to student thinking, and mathematical reasoning. These implementation measures were not correlated to measures of teacher capacity across school districts. However, implementation measures were significantly correlated with teachers’ lesson preparation that took into account the big mathematical ideas within curriculum. Further qualitative analysis indicated that the Investigations curriculum provided more support to teachers for locating and understanding the big mathematical ideas within lessons compared to Everyday Mathematics.

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No Small Thing: School District Central Office Bureaucracies and the Implementation of New Small Autonomous Schools Initiatives

Author(s): Meredith I. Honig

Source: American Educational Research Journal, 2009, 46(2).

Abstract: New small autonomous schools initiatives are relatively recent educational change strategies that in some urban districts aim to remake how district central offices function as institutions. In this article, the author draws on theories of organizational innovation and learning to reveal how central office administrators participate in these change processes, what outcomes are associated with their efforts, and the conditions that help or hinder their work. The data came from a 3-year qualitative investigation of these dynamics in two districts. The results show that particular bridging and buffering activities by certain central office administrators were consistent with policy goals and linked to increasing district supports for implementation. Particular dimensions of the institutional environments of central offices shaped central office administrators’ choices and actions.

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How Teachers Respond to Children’s Inquiry

Author(s):Susan Engel and Kellie Randall

Source: American Educational Research Journal, 2009, 46(1).

Abstract: This study examined how teachers respond when children engage in inquiry-based deviations from a planned task. Thirty-one teachers each completed a brief science activity and accompanying worksheet with a student confederate. Teachers were given one of two goals for the study: help the students complete a worksheet or help the students learn more about science. The instructions had a significant effect on the teachers’ responses to students’ deviations. Teachers in the worksheet condition tended to discourage deviation and draw the students back to the task at hand, whereas teachers in the learn more condition were more likely to encourage and expand on the deviation. Apart from their responses to students’ deviations, nearly all teachers were classified as encouraging, suggesting that an articulated goal for the activity has a particular effect on the response to deviations. Implications for the role of teachers in the development of children’s curiosity are considered.

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Sources of Middle School Students’ Self-Efficacy in Mathematics: A Qualitative Investigation

Author(s): Ellen L. Usher

Source: American Educational Research Journal, 2009, 46(1).

Abstract: According to social cognitive theory, individuals form their self-efficacy beliefs by interpreting information from four sources: mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasions, and physiological or affective states. The purpose of this study was to examine the heuristics students use as they form their mathematics self-efficacy from these and other sources. Semistructured interviews were conducted with eight middle school students who reported either high or low self-efficacy and with students’ parents and mathematics teachers. Students relied on information from all four hypothesized sources, which were combined according to various heuristics. Teaching structures, course placement, and students’ self-regulated learning also emerged as important factors related to self-efficacy. Results refine and extend the tenets of social cognitive theory.

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Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect: Generalizability and Moderation—Two Sides of the Same Coin

Author(s): Marjorie Seaton, Herbert W. Marsh, and Rhonda G. Craven

Source: American Educational Research Journal, 2010, 47(2).

Abstract: Research evidence for the big-fish-little-pond effect (BFLPE) has demonstrated that attending high-ability schools has a negative effect on academic self-concept. Utilizing multilevel modeling with the 2003 Program for International Student Assessment database, the present investigation evaluated the generalizability and robustness of the BFLPE across 16 individual student characteristics. The constructs examined covered two broad areas: academic self-regulation based on a theoretical framework proposed by Zimmerman and socioeconomic status. Statistically significant moderating effects emerged in both areas; however, in relation to the large sample (N = 265,180), many were considered small. It was concluded that the BFLPE was an extremely robust effect given that it was reasonably consistent across the specific constructs examined.

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Principal's Time Use and School Effectiveness

What Are the Long-Term Effects of Small Classes on the Achievement Gap? Evidence from the Lasting Benefits Study

Author(s): Spyros Konstantopoulos

Source: American Journal of Education, 2009, 116(1).

Abstract: The findings on the social distribution of the immediate and lasting benefits of small classes have been mixed. We used data from Project STAR and the Lasting Benefits Study to examine the long-term effects of small classes on the achievement gap in mathematics, reading, and science scores (Stanford Achievement Test). The results consistently indicated that all types of students benefit more in later grades from being in small classes in early grades. These positive effects are significant through grade 8. Longer periods in small classes produced higher increases in achievement in later grades for all types of students. For certain grades, in reading and science, low achievers seem to benefit more from being in small classes for longer periods. It appears that the lasting benefits of the cumulative effects of small classes may reduce the achievement gap in reading and science in some of the later grades.

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Rites to Reform: The Cultural Production of the Reformer in Urban Schools

Author(s): K. Wayne Yang

Source: Anthropology & Education Quarterly.June,2010,41(2)

Abstract: As neoliberal reformers are appointed to manage the “crisis” of U.S. public schools, their power has become a pressing reality for grassroots movements in education. I examine how the Small Schools movement in Oakland, California—just as the school district fell under state administrative control—employed rites of passage to socialize a grassroots identity: the reform officer. These rites represent a form of grassroots cultural power that disrupts the conditions of neoliberal domination.

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Making Meaning of Everyday Practices: Parents' Attitudes toward Children's Extracurricular Activities in the United States and in Italy

Author(s): Tamar Kremer-Sadlik, Carolina Izquierdo, Marilena Fatigante

Source: Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 2010,41(2)

Abstract: This article focuses on children's engagement in extracurricular activities from the perspective of middle-class parents in Rome, Italy, and Los Angeles, California. Analysis of parents' accounts captured in interviews and ethnographic fieldwork reveals that both sets of parents perceive activities as important for children's success. Yet Roman parents consider activities as part of “children's world,” downplaying intense involvement and performance. Conversely, L.A. parents view activities as preparing children for adult life, emphasizing competition and accomplishment.

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Influence of Taoism on teachers' definitions of guidance and discipline in Hong Kong secondary schools 

Author(s): Ming Tak Hue

Source: British Educational Research Journal, 2010, 36(4).

Abstract: This article examines how Hong Kong secondary school teachers define caring and the strategies they adopt for behaviour management. The influence of Taoism, emerging as a theme from the data, was prominent, as its principles were incorporated into the teachers' knowledge of caring. The findings illuminate the influence of Taoism in local schools. Implications for the promotion of culturally responsive programmes of caring are drawn.

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'We are the professionals': a study of teachers' views on parental involvement in school

Author(s): Unn-Doris Karlsen B ck

Source: British Journal of Sociology of Education, 2010, 31(3).

Abstract: The study examines teachers' attitudes and experiences regarding home-school cooperation. Teachers constitute a powerful group in school compared with parents, and this relationship is interpreted through Bourdieu's concept of social field, as a power relation. The empirical analyses are based on a mixed-methods approach with survey and qualitative interviews among teachers in Norway. The results show that while teachers experience the interaction in a positive way, they try to limit parents' influence through emphasising their own professionalism, thus leaving parents with the role as supporters. Teachers who relate to well-educated parents are especially conscious of maintaining a distance towards the parents in order to keep them in their place.