American Educational Research Journal 52卷2期

1. Making Sense of Student Performance Data: Data Use Logics and Mathematics Teachers’ Learning Opportunities

Author: Ilana Seidel Horn, Britnie Delinger Kane, and Jonee Wilson

Source: American Educational Research Journal 52.2(Apr. 2015): 208-242.

Abstract: In the accountability era, educators are pressed to use evidence-based practice. In this comparative case study, we examine the learning opportunities afforded by teachers’ data use conversations. Using situated discourse analysis, we compare two middle school mathematics teacher workgroups interpreting data from the same district assessment. Despite similarities in their contexts, the workgroups invoked different data use logics that shaped teachers’ learning opportunities. The first workgroup’s instructional management logic linked increasing student achievement to individualization. The second workgroup’s instructional improvement logic focused on students’ thinking and linked it to instructional changes but was limited by broader instructional management logics. Evidence-based practice cannot be understood apart from the data use logics in teachers’ communities, which are shaped by policy constraints.

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2. Teacher Placement Into Immigrant English Learner Classrooms: Limiting Access in Comprehensive High Schools

Author: Dafney Blanca Dabach

Source: American Educational Research Journal 52.2(Apr. 2015): 243-274.

Abstract: This qualitative study examined how secondary teachers were assigned to teach courses intended to expand English learners’ (ELs’) access to academic subjects. Theoretically, this research extends the “contexts of reception” framework from immigration studies into the educational realm by investigating how teachers—as one important contextual variable—entered into settings designed for immigrant-origin ELs. Analysis examined institutional processes, norms, and policies as well as participants’ practices. Findings suggest that novice teachers were most likely to be placed into separate EL content-area classrooms, unless more senior teachers requested these assignments or administrators intervened. Ultimately, this article uses teacher assignment processes to illustrate how contexts for immigrant-origin youth are constructed and contested and how ELs’ opportunities to learn were jeopardized in local settings.

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3. “If We Can’t Do It, Our Children Will Do It One Day”: A Qualitative Study of West African Immigrant Parents’ Losses and Educational Aspirations for Their Children

Author: Sonia Roubeni, Lucia De Haene, Eva Keatley, Nira Shah, and Andrew Rasmussen

Source: American Educational Research Journal 52.2(Apr. 2015): 275-305.

Abstract: This study examined migration narratives of West African immigrants for the connections between experiences of loss and educational aspirations for their children. The qualitative design consisted of three interviews per family in which parents (N = 20, 12 families) were asked to narrate their families’ migration histories. Transcripts were analyzed using grounded theory followed by thematic coding. Discussions of loss were markedly proximal to discussions of children’s education. Schooling was described as providing upward mobility but conflicting with education at home, which was seen as fostering traditional values. Discussion contextualizes findings using Hobfoll’s conservation of resources theory and Kagitçibasi’s family change theory. Implications include salience of loss to educational aspirations and school-family partnerships for immigrants.

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4. Learning Geometry Problem Solving by Studying Worked Examples:Effects of Learner Guidance and Expertise

Author: Sahar Bokosmaty, John Sweller, and Slava Kalyuga

Source: American Educational Research Journal 52.2(Apr. 2015): 307-333.

Abstract: Research has demonstrated that instruction that relies heavily on studying worked examples is more effective for less experienced learners compared to instruction emphasizing problem solving. However, the guidance associated with studying some worked examples may reduce the performance of more experienced learners. This study investigated categories of guidance using geometry worked examples. Three conditions were used. In the theorem and step guidance condition, students were provided with the solution steps required to reach the answer and the theorems used to justify the steps. In the step guidance condition, learners were only provided with the sequence of steps needed to reach the answer but not with the theorems explaining the steps. The problem-solving condition required learners to solve problems without any guidance. It was hypothesized that for students who had already learned the relevant theorems, the major task was to learn to recognize problem states and their associated solution moves. The step guidance condition should best facilitate such knowledge, compared to a problem-solving or a theorem and step guidance approach. For students who had not yet fully learned the theorems, the theorem and step guidance approach should be superior. Two geometry instruction experiments supported these hypotheses. Information concerning theorems should only be provided if students have yet to learn and automate theorem schemas.

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5. Faculty Mentors’, Graduate Students’, and Performance-Based Assessments of Students’ Research Skill Development

Author: David F. Feldon, Michelle A. Maher, Melissa Hurst, and Briana Timmerman

Source: American Educational Research Journal 52.2(Apr. 2015): 334-370.

Abstract: Faculty mentorship is thought to be a linchpin of graduate education in STEM disciplines. This mixed-method study investigates agreement between student mentees’ and their faculty mentors’ perceptions of the students’ developing research knowledge and skills in STEM. We also compare both assessments against independent ratings of the students’ written research proposals. In most cases, students and their mentors identified divergent strengths and weaknesses. However, when mentor-mentee pairs did identify the same characteristics, mentors and mentees disagreed about the mentee’s abilities in 44% of cases in the Fall semester and 75% of cases in the Spring semester. When compared against performance-based assessments of mentees’ work, neither faculty mentors’ nor their mentees’ perceptions aligned with rubric scores at rates greater than chance in most categories.

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6. Directionality of the Associations of High School Expectancy-Value, Aspirations, and Attainment: A Longitudinal Study

Author: Jiesi Guo, Herbert W. Marsh, Alexandre J. S. Morin, Philip D. Parker, and Gurvinder Kaur

Source: American Educational Research Journal 52.2(Apr. 2015): 371-402.

Abstract: (This study examines the directionality of the associations among cognitive assets (IQ, academic achievement), motivational beliefs (academic self-concept, task values), and educational and occupational aspirations over time from late adolescence (Grade 10) into early adulthood (5 years post high school). Participants were from a nationally representative sample of U.S. boys N = 2,213). The results suggest that (a) self-concept and intrinsic value have reciprocal effects with academic achievement and predict educational attainment, (b) self-concept is consistently found to predict occupational aspirations, (c) the associations between achievement and aspirations are partially mediated by motivational beliefs, and (d) academic self-concept in high school had stronger long-term indirect effects on future occupational aspirations and educational attainment than task values and IQ.