The relationship between gender role orientation and perceived self-competency in male and female adolescents

Sex Roles - Relationships among gender, gender role orientation, grade, and perceived self-competency were examined in this study. Subjects were almost entirely Caucasian and included one hundred...     

Teachers With Linguistically Informed Knowledge of Reading Subskills are Associated with a Matthew Effect in Reading Comprehension for Monolingual and Bilingual Students

A longitudinal investigation determined the growth of reading comprehension from third to fifth grades in a cohort of students who received Language Enrichment (LE), an Orton-Gillingham–based literacy program, during first and second grades. The LE instruction was provided by regular education teachers who received comprehensive training in linguistically informed content pertaining to reading subskills. All students were traditionally instructed in kindergarten, third, fourth, and fifth grades. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) confirmed that mono- and bilingual students had significantly advantaged individual growth in reading comprehension as measured on the state-mandated Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) when their teachers had more experience implementing LE over students whose teachers had less experience implementing LE, or students whose teachers had no LE training. Findings showed a fan-shaped spread in achievement from third to fifth grades for all students in the cohort. The significance of the spread was confirmed by reliable covariance between the initial reading level and the growth in reading across grade levels. This fan-shaped growth pattern is often referred to as a Matthew effect in reading comprehension (Stanovich, 1986 Stanovich, K. E. 1986. Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4): 360–407. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). These results provide evidence that the Matthew effect may be associated with specific teaching pedagogies, especially early direct implementation of multisensory linguistically informed language arts instruction. LE instruction emphasizes phonemic awareness, symbol–sound correspondences, morphology, and vocabulary to develop phonological decoding strategies, word recognition accuracy, and comprehension of words in text.     

Asian-Indian Parents’ Attributions About the Causes of Child Behavior: A Replication and Extension With Parents From Chennai,India

Using hypothetical vignettes, 152 parents of children 10–17 years old living in Chennai, India, made attributions about whether the origins of 2 positive and 2 negative behaviors performed by their own child or another child were due to the child's personality or the situation, or to parenting or nonparenting influences based on the frequency, intensity, and cross-situational consistency of the behavior. Parents attributed the positive behaviors of all children to the personality of the child and to parenting. Parents attributed negative behavior of their own children to situational influences and nonparenting effects, but attributed the negative behavior of other children to their personality and to parenting, a pattern that enhances and reinforces parent self-esteem. Results were discussed in terms of the self-serving bias and the actor–observer bias, cognitive distortions that protect and enhance parents’ views of themselves and their children.     

Situation or Person? Contrasting the Effects of Budget Constraints and Individual Values on Pay-for-Performance Norms

In this study, the effects of autonomy values and funding constraints on individual norms concerning merit pay decisions were examined. Policy-capturing regressions were performed on 72 students' answers to a pay-planning exercise. These regressions produced coefficients that described the participants' norms concerning the allocation of merit pay raises. Hierarchical analyses of variance showed that autonomy values had a significant and sizable effect on individual pay-for-performance norms. Results suggest that the administration of merit pay systems and future field studies should recognize that measuring individual values will help to explain the diversity of individual responses to the same merit pay system.     

Language Enrichment Teacher Preparation and Practice Predicts Third Grade Reading Comprehension

First and second grade public school teachers were trained through interactive video-conferencing to implement Language Enrichment, an Orton-Gillingham-based literacy instruction. The effectiveness of the linguistically informed training was demonstrated by documenting the longitudinal third grade reading comprehension achievement of their students. Student achievement was measured on the state-mandated achievement test, Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS). Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) showed that students whose teachers were trained in Language Enrichment instruction had higher third grade reading comprehension achievement than students whose teachers were not trained. Additionally, a significant effect of the length of Language Enrichment teaching experience of the second grade teacher on third grade reading comprehension was found. Earlier occurring second grade teacher training was associated with higher reading scores than later training. Based on these findings it is suggested that teachers who have content-rich knowledge known to support literacy acquisition can provide reading instruction that results in a level of reading comprehension that is significantly higher than that resulting from teachers who do not have a well-developed domain of knowledge concerning the reading process. This study also indicates that teacher competence was enhanced through practice because student reading achievement of the more-experienced Language Enrichment teachers was higher than that of the less-experienced Language Enrichment teachers.