The Elementary school journal /
The Elementary school journal /
Editor, Rebecca Silverman.
- Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press, December 2022.
- 204-361 page ; 26 cm.
- V.123, No.2 .
"It Took Someone Telling Me That I Could Do It": Teacher Perceptions of a Yearlong Literacy Professional Development Program Amy D. Broemmel, Amanda Rigell, and K. Journey Swafford pp. 228-252 Abstract This multicase study seeks to privilege teachers' voices related to their experiences within a year-long job-embedded professional development (PD) program. The district initiated the request for PD, which was negotiated and provided by a literacy educator from a nearby university. Eleven second- and third-grade teachers and the language arts coordinator participated. PD consisted of regular visits to teachers' classrooms and opportunities for weekly individual meetings with each of the teachers, both scheduled by the individual teachers. For data analysis purposes, each teacher's thread was defined as a single case. Process coding served as a mechanism for most accurately describing participants' experiences and resulted in 11 codes: affirming, reflecting, owning, observing, applying, questioning, collaborating, disclaiming, modeling, sharing, and communicating. Overall, nine participants explicitly described the individualized PD as a success. Implications for planning, carrying out, and engaging in PD are discussed. Burned Out and Dissatisfied?: The Relationships between Teacher Dissatisfaction and Burnout and Their Attrition Behavior Tuan D. Nguyen and Kristen P. Kremer pp. 203-227 Abstract The current annual teacher attrition rate is about 16%. This loss of teachers results in reduced student achievement and increased financial costs to school districts. Using repeated cross-sectional nationally representative data, we identify the relationship between teacher dissatisfaction and burnout with attrition and whether certain teachers are at risk for dissatisfaction and burnout. We consistently find dissatisfaction and burnout are higher among teachers in secondary school; teaching a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subject; with more experience; and in low-income schools. Teacher dissatisfaction and burnout are highly associated with teacher intention to leave teaching and their actual attrition behavior. We discuss implications of our findings for policy and practice. Contribution of Physical Education and Recess to Children's Habitual Physical Activity Wesley J. Wilson, Joonkoo Yun, and Ben D. Kern pp. 253-270 Abstract This study explored the contribution of physical education and recess to children's physical activity (PA) behavior and examined whether they compensate for missed PA opportunities. Participants' (N = 115; age: 9.2 ± 0.6 years) PA was measured using accelerometry across multiple time periods, including data from school days and weekends. Data collection occurred over 6-7 weeks, with 2 weeks in between each period. Physical education and recess accounted for 22.98% (SD = 8.32) and 19.71% (SD = 6.87) moderate-to-vigorous PA, and 16.06% (SD = 4.54) and 14.65% (SD = 4.45) total PA, respectively. Analyses revealed differences between physical education and non-physical education days (Wilks's λ = 0.80, p < .001; partial η2 = 0.20) and physical education and weekend days (Wilks's λ = 0.67, p < .001; partial η2 = 0.33). Physical education contributed to habitual PA more than previously thought; schools should be increasing, not reducing, opportunities. Examining Problem-Solving Schemas and Schema Features in Children's Trade Books Elizabeth A. Stevens, Suzanne R. Forsyth, and Sarah R. Powell pp. 318-343 Abstract Teachers and caregivers use children's books (i.e., trade books) to support mathematics learning in school and home settings; shared book reading offers a unique opportunity to support students' understanding of operations and schema development. No prior studies have examined the representations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division schemas in trade books. We coded 88 children's books for additive and multiplicative schemas, the position of the unknown information, and features included in the problem-solving scenarios (e.g., single-step vs. multistep). Of the additive schemas, books most often represented join and separate schemas with an unknown end amount. With multiplicative schemas, the equal groups schema was most often represented. We discuss practical implications for using trade books to support schema development and problem-solving competency, and we provide suggestions for authors to better represent a range of schemas and text features to support students' mathematics understanding with more difficult schema concepts during shared reading. Investigating the Interaction between Teacher Mathematics Content Knowledge and Curriculum on Instructional Behaviors and Student Achievement Marah Sutherland, Ben Clarke, Derek B. Kosty, Scott K. Baker, Christian T. Doabler, Keith Smolkowski, Hank Fien, and Joanna Goode pp. 292-317 Abstract Policy efforts in mathematics have focused on increasing teachers' mathematics content knowledge (MCK), with the goal of increasing teacher quality and in turn increasing student mathematics learning. An alternative approach to increasing student mathematics achievement is to investigate curricula that can be effectively used by teachers with a range of MCK. Drawing from a large-scale study of kindergarten students (n = 2,598) and their teachers (n = 130), the current study investigated the interaction between teacher MCK and curriculum (Early Learning in Mathematics core kindergarten curriculum vs. business-as-usual curricula) on (a) instructional behaviors and (b) student mathematics achievement gains. Results indicated differential significant interactions across instructional behaviors and a small but negative effect of teacher MCK on student mathematics achievement gains. Implications for future research, policy, and practice are discussed. The Roles of Arithmetic Fluency and Executive Functioning in Mathematical Problem-Solving Jarise Kaskens, Sui Lin Goei, Johannes E. H. Van Luit, Ludo Verhoeven, and Eliane Segers pp. 271-291 Abstract This study is conducted to further understand the direct and indirect contributions of executive functioning (visuospatial updating, verbal updating, inhibition, shifting) and arithmetic fluency to mathematical problem-solving in 458 fourth-grade students. Arithmetic fluency along with visuospatial and verbal updating were significant predictors of mathematical problem-solving at the end of grade 4. When the growth in mathematical problem-solving during grade 4 was analyzed, only arithmetic fluency directly and strongly contributed to students' problem-solving at the end of grade 4. Inhibition and shifting (in combination with inhibition) were indirectly connected to mathematical problem-solving at the end of grade 4 via their arithmetic fluency. Arithmetic fluency plays a critical role and continues to do this in mathematical problem-solving. Furthermore, a decline in importance for visuospatial and verbal updating and increasing importance of inhibition and shifting (combined with inhibition) were found with regard to students' ability to solve mathematical problems during grade 4. Understanding Kindergarten Readiness Kristin Lyn Whyte and Cynthia E. Coburn pp. 344-361 Abstract In this study, we aimed to understand what readiness meant to educators in two districts that were in the midst of developing pre-K-3 initiatives. We examined how readiness was conceptualized by teachers, school leaders, and district leaders as well as what factors influenced their understandings. We found that educators in our study tended to locate readiness within individual children. Although educators did draw from common early childhood ideologies to describe how they understood readiness, district organizational structures and measurement tools also affected their understandings. As public pre-K continues to become part of K-12 systems and districts make choices about how to define readiness, we recommend districts inspect the different messages educators receive about readiness and then align their efforts to ensure their goals are met. We also suggest districts consider employing definitions of readiness that focus on ready schools rather than on unready children.
0013-5984
"It Took Someone Telling Me That I Could Do It": Teacher Perceptions of a Yearlong Literacy Professional Development Program Amy D. Broemmel, Amanda Rigell, and K. Journey Swafford pp. 228-252 Abstract This multicase study seeks to privilege teachers' voices related to their experiences within a year-long job-embedded professional development (PD) program. The district initiated the request for PD, which was negotiated and provided by a literacy educator from a nearby university. Eleven second- and third-grade teachers and the language arts coordinator participated. PD consisted of regular visits to teachers' classrooms and opportunities for weekly individual meetings with each of the teachers, both scheduled by the individual teachers. For data analysis purposes, each teacher's thread was defined as a single case. Process coding served as a mechanism for most accurately describing participants' experiences and resulted in 11 codes: affirming, reflecting, owning, observing, applying, questioning, collaborating, disclaiming, modeling, sharing, and communicating. Overall, nine participants explicitly described the individualized PD as a success. Implications for planning, carrying out, and engaging in PD are discussed. Burned Out and Dissatisfied?: The Relationships between Teacher Dissatisfaction and Burnout and Their Attrition Behavior Tuan D. Nguyen and Kristen P. Kremer pp. 203-227 Abstract The current annual teacher attrition rate is about 16%. This loss of teachers results in reduced student achievement and increased financial costs to school districts. Using repeated cross-sectional nationally representative data, we identify the relationship between teacher dissatisfaction and burnout with attrition and whether certain teachers are at risk for dissatisfaction and burnout. We consistently find dissatisfaction and burnout are higher among teachers in secondary school; teaching a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subject; with more experience; and in low-income schools. Teacher dissatisfaction and burnout are highly associated with teacher intention to leave teaching and their actual attrition behavior. We discuss implications of our findings for policy and practice. Contribution of Physical Education and Recess to Children's Habitual Physical Activity Wesley J. Wilson, Joonkoo Yun, and Ben D. Kern pp. 253-270 Abstract This study explored the contribution of physical education and recess to children's physical activity (PA) behavior and examined whether they compensate for missed PA opportunities. Participants' (N = 115; age: 9.2 ± 0.6 years) PA was measured using accelerometry across multiple time periods, including data from school days and weekends. Data collection occurred over 6-7 weeks, with 2 weeks in between each period. Physical education and recess accounted for 22.98% (SD = 8.32) and 19.71% (SD = 6.87) moderate-to-vigorous PA, and 16.06% (SD = 4.54) and 14.65% (SD = 4.45) total PA, respectively. Analyses revealed differences between physical education and non-physical education days (Wilks's λ = 0.80, p < .001; partial η2 = 0.20) and physical education and weekend days (Wilks's λ = 0.67, p < .001; partial η2 = 0.33). Physical education contributed to habitual PA more than previously thought; schools should be increasing, not reducing, opportunities. Examining Problem-Solving Schemas and Schema Features in Children's Trade Books Elizabeth A. Stevens, Suzanne R. Forsyth, and Sarah R. Powell pp. 318-343 Abstract Teachers and caregivers use children's books (i.e., trade books) to support mathematics learning in school and home settings; shared book reading offers a unique opportunity to support students' understanding of operations and schema development. No prior studies have examined the representations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division schemas in trade books. We coded 88 children's books for additive and multiplicative schemas, the position of the unknown information, and features included in the problem-solving scenarios (e.g., single-step vs. multistep). Of the additive schemas, books most often represented join and separate schemas with an unknown end amount. With multiplicative schemas, the equal groups schema was most often represented. We discuss practical implications for using trade books to support schema development and problem-solving competency, and we provide suggestions for authors to better represent a range of schemas and text features to support students' mathematics understanding with more difficult schema concepts during shared reading. Investigating the Interaction between Teacher Mathematics Content Knowledge and Curriculum on Instructional Behaviors and Student Achievement Marah Sutherland, Ben Clarke, Derek B. Kosty, Scott K. Baker, Christian T. Doabler, Keith Smolkowski, Hank Fien, and Joanna Goode pp. 292-317 Abstract Policy efforts in mathematics have focused on increasing teachers' mathematics content knowledge (MCK), with the goal of increasing teacher quality and in turn increasing student mathematics learning. An alternative approach to increasing student mathematics achievement is to investigate curricula that can be effectively used by teachers with a range of MCK. Drawing from a large-scale study of kindergarten students (n = 2,598) and their teachers (n = 130), the current study investigated the interaction between teacher MCK and curriculum (Early Learning in Mathematics core kindergarten curriculum vs. business-as-usual curricula) on (a) instructional behaviors and (b) student mathematics achievement gains. Results indicated differential significant interactions across instructional behaviors and a small but negative effect of teacher MCK on student mathematics achievement gains. Implications for future research, policy, and practice are discussed. The Roles of Arithmetic Fluency and Executive Functioning in Mathematical Problem-Solving Jarise Kaskens, Sui Lin Goei, Johannes E. H. Van Luit, Ludo Verhoeven, and Eliane Segers pp. 271-291 Abstract This study is conducted to further understand the direct and indirect contributions of executive functioning (visuospatial updating, verbal updating, inhibition, shifting) and arithmetic fluency to mathematical problem-solving in 458 fourth-grade students. Arithmetic fluency along with visuospatial and verbal updating were significant predictors of mathematical problem-solving at the end of grade 4. When the growth in mathematical problem-solving during grade 4 was analyzed, only arithmetic fluency directly and strongly contributed to students' problem-solving at the end of grade 4. Inhibition and shifting (in combination with inhibition) were indirectly connected to mathematical problem-solving at the end of grade 4 via their arithmetic fluency. Arithmetic fluency plays a critical role and continues to do this in mathematical problem-solving. Furthermore, a decline in importance for visuospatial and verbal updating and increasing importance of inhibition and shifting (combined with inhibition) were found with regard to students' ability to solve mathematical problems during grade 4. Understanding Kindergarten Readiness Kristin Lyn Whyte and Cynthia E. Coburn pp. 344-361 Abstract In this study, we aimed to understand what readiness meant to educators in two districts that were in the midst of developing pre-K-3 initiatives. We examined how readiness was conceptualized by teachers, school leaders, and district leaders as well as what factors influenced their understandings. We found that educators in our study tended to locate readiness within individual children. Although educators did draw from common early childhood ideologies to describe how they understood readiness, district organizational structures and measurement tools also affected their understandings. As public pre-K continues to become part of K-12 systems and districts make choices about how to define readiness, we recommend districts inspect the different messages educators receive about readiness and then align their efforts to ensure their goals are met. We also suggest districts consider employing definitions of readiness that focus on ready schools rather than on unready children.
0013-5984