A Mixed‐Method Examination of Preschool Teacher Beliefs About Social–Emotional Learning and Relations to Observed Emotional Support

The connections between parents' socialization practices and beliefs about emotions, and children's emotional development have been well studied; however, teachers' impacts on children's social–emotional learning (SEL) remain widely understudied. In the present study, private preschool and Head Start teachers (N = 32) were observed using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System. Comparison groups were created based on their observed emotional support and then compared on their qualitative responses in focus group discussions on beliefs about emotions and SEL strategies. Teachers acknowledged the importance of preparing children emotionally (as well as academically) for kindergarten, but substantial differences emerged between the highly emotionally supportive and moderately emotionally supportive teachers in three areas: (1) teachers' beliefs about emotions and the value of SEL; (2) teachers' socialization behaviours and SEL strategies; and (3) teachers' perceptions of their roles as emotion socializers. Understanding such differences can facilitate the development of intervention programs and in‐service training to help teachers better meet students' SEL needs. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Pathways to Reading Competence: Emotional Self-regulation,Literacy Contexts,and Embodied Learning Processes

Abstract

Reading competence is one of the main gateways to learning and serves as the foundation for nearly all academic subjects, but reading is not a natural skill. For beginning and struggling readers, the process of learning to read is often fraught with frustration. Thus, abilities to manage affect or emotions and maintain attention or focus (i.e. emotional self-regulation processes) are critical for literacy development and reading competence. Building on bio-social-ecological systems and contextual-developmental frameworks, we present a model of reading competence to integrate multidisciplinary empirical research on the fit between children’s emotional self-regulation processes and their literacy contexts and how these person-in-context dynamics influence reading competence through reading motivation and engagement. We present empirical research in support of the pathways in this model of reading competence, and call for increased multidisciplinary research that takes into consideration children’s literacy contexts and their neurobiological and behavioral assets as well as vulnerabilities in order to better understand the dynamical cognitive-emotional-motivational processes that underlie the development of reading competence from early childhood through young adulthood, including the timing and mechanisms of change to target for reading interventions to have optimal impact.     

Emotional Aspects of Learning Problems

Educational and mental health professionals working with children should be familiar with the emotional aspects of learning problems. While such problems are often given recognition as having a contributory role, the nature of that involvement is not always well understood, and too often those engaged in the assessment and treatment of learning problems give only cursory attention to the possible emotional components. This paper presents a discussion of the emotional aspects of learning problems, outlining the dynamics of emotional involvement as seen in 12 scenarios commonly found with clinic-referred children. Implications for assessment and intervention are also presented.     

Higher Processes in Motor Learning

A linear displacement task was used to study the effects of post-KR verbal activity and the time of its introduction in the learning process on the acquisition of a simple discrete motor task. The temporal occurrence of the interpolated act was systematically varied (3 and 10 sec. immediately following KR). Reading polysyllables during the post-KR delay interval interfered with the learning process. Interference occurred whether the post-KR delay interval lasted 3 or 10 sec.     

Analogical Processes in Language Learning

ABSTRACT— The acquisition of language has long stood as a challenge to general learning accounts, leading many theorists to propose domain-specific knowledge and processes to explain language acquisition. Here we review evidence that analogical comparison is instrumental in language learning, suggesting a larger role for general learning processes in the acquisition of language.     

Information Processes in Movement Learning

A series of experiments examined motor learning as an information processing activity occurring within a working short-term memory system and where response-produced feedback and knowledge of results (KR) are used to modify the action plan developed from previous attempts at the movement task. Use of interpolated activities in the KR delay interval allowed inferences to be made regarding the capacity and structural characteristics of these information processes. Results indicated no capacity limitations on the learning process but important structural effects were found. The results supported the idea that response-produced feedback is relatively unimportant as a feedback variable early in learning. Rather, the use of KR at a relatively high level of movement planning appears to be the important information processing activity underlying learning. Finally, the results supported the view that these information processes are related to cognitive problem solving activities.     

典型教育情境中教师的情绪预测准确性

采取师生配对研究设计,选择典型教育情境,系统考察了教师对学生情绪预测的准确性。跨样本、跨情境的三个现场研究结果表明：教师未能准确预测学生情绪,出现了明显的预测偏差。较之基本情绪,教师对学生复杂情绪的预测更不准确;较之低唤醒情绪,教师对高唤醒情绪的预测更不准确;尽管教师预测不准,但并未出现明显的高低估趋势。研究贴近教育实际,具有良好的生态学效度,并在情绪测量方法、准确性统计指标方面进行了新的探索。     

9～11岁儿童对失败学习情景的情绪反应和情绪表达研究

本研究对180名9-11岁儿童在失败学习情景下的情绪反应和情绪表达进行了研究。结果表明：(1)儿童在失败学习情景中情绪表达的意愿受年龄影响。(2)儿童在失败学习情景中的情绪表达原因受年龄和观众背景影响。儿童隐藏情绪的原因主要是害怕消极的后果,表达情绪的原因是为了得到积极的结果。(3)儿童在失败学习情景中情绪表达和隐藏的策略受年龄、性别和观众背景的影响。(4)儿童的后继行为受年龄的影响。     

Cognitive,Emotional, and Language Processes in Disclosure

Previous studies have found that writing about upsetting experiences can improve physical health. In an attempt to explain this phenomenon, 72 first-year college students were randomly assigned to write about either their thoughts and feelings about coming to college or about superficial topics for three consecutive days. Measures of language use within the writing samples and cognitive measures of accessibility and schematic organisation were collected in the weeks before and after writing. As in previous studies, writing about college was found to reduce health centre visits for illness and to improve subjects' grade point average. Text analyses indicated that the use of positive emotion words and changes in words suggestive of causal and insightful thinking were linked to health change. Improved grades, although not linked to these language dimensions, were found to correlate with measures of schematic organisation of college-relevant themes. Implications for using written language to understand cognitive and health processes are discussed.     

Abstraction Processes in Artificial Grammar Learning

Four experiments explored the extent to which abstract knowledge may underlie subjects' performance when asked to judge the grammaticality of letter strings generated from an artificial grammar. In Experiments 1 and 2 subjects studied grammatical strings instantiated with one set of letters and were then tested on grammatical and ungrammatical strings formed either from the same or a changedletter-set.Evenwith a change ofletter-set, subjects were found to be sensitive to a variety of violations of the grammar. In Experiments 3 and 4, the critical manipulation involved the way in which the training strings were studied: an incidental learning procedure was used for some subjects, and others engaged in an explicit code-breaking task to try to learn the rules of the grammar. When strings were generated from a biconditional (Experiment 4) but not from a standard finite-state grammar (Experiment 3), grammaticality judgements for test strings were independent of their surface similarity to specific studied strings. Overall, the results suggest that transfer in this simple memory task is mediated at least to some extent by abstract knowledge.     

Church-Based Emotional Support And Self-Forgiveness in Late Life

The purpose of this study is to see whether emotional support from fellow church members is associated with self-forgiveness in late life. The data come from a longitudinal nationwide survey of older adults. An effort is made to contribute to the literature by comparing and contrasting the effects of two church-based support measures: the amount of emotional support that is provided by fellow church members and satisfaction with emotional support from co-religionists. The findings suggest that older study participants who are more satisfied with the emotional support they have received from the members of their church are more likely to forgive themselves than older people who are not satisfied with the emotional support they have received in church. In contrast, significant effects failed to emerge with the measure of the amount of received emotional support.     

Certain Emotional Factors in Learning and Efficiency

A group of measures duplicating the original battery of tests which Halstead used to obtain his four biological intelligence factors were given to a group of subjects with acute lateralized brain lesions. These results were compared to the results of the same battery when administered to subjects with chronic diffuse brain damage. This comparison demonstrated that the factors derived from brain damage testing are affected by (a) the subjects' mental abilities, (b) the sensitivity of the measures to brain damage in general, and (c) the lateralization of the damage.     

Cognitive and Emotional Processes in Individuals and Commercial Web sites

This research reports how banner ads are responded to in Web sites that emphasize either emotion or cognition. It also looks at the moderating effects of individuals’ own levels of need for cognition and need for emotion on banner responsiveness in the two kinds of Web sites. Recall and attitude toward banners are consistently better when their context is an emotion-based Web site. Need for cognition, but not need for emotion moderates this effect. For ad recall, it is better to be lower in need for cognition in a cognitive Web site, but higher in need for cognition on an emotional Web site. For attitude toward the banner and purchase intention, however, it is better to be higher in need for cognition in a cognitive Web site, but lower in need for cognition on an emotional Web site. The results are discussed in terms of advertising context theory that has been developed in applications to the traditional media like print and broadcast, but here is shown to be applicable to the Web.     

高中生自我调节学习与自尊:感知教师支持及性别的调节作用

采用自我调节学习问卷、感知教师支持问卷及自尊问卷,对334名高中生进行测量,探究感知教师支持及性别在自我调节学习与自尊之间的调节作用。结果表明:(1)自我调节学习与自尊呈显著正相关,感知教师支持与自尊及自我调节学习呈显著正相关;(2)感知教师支持及性别在自我调节学习与自尊之间均起调节作用:自我调节学习对自尊的影响在女生中更为明显,感知高水平的教师支持缓解了低自我调节学习对自尊的负面影响。