Claude Goldenberg

The social construction and subjective reality of activity settings: Implications for community psychology

A major focus of the article is the idea that activity settings are in part social constructions of the participants. The socially constructed “meaning” of an activity setting is a complex mix of ecological, cultural, interactional, and psychological features. These features may be observed and assessed, directly and indirectly, in terms of personnel, cultural values, tasks, scripts for conduct, and motives and purposes of actors. Empirical illustrations and extensions to community psychology are drawn from research with different populations: Native Hawaiian children and families, Spanish-speaking children and Mexican and Central American immigrant parents, Euro-American families with a developmentally delayed child, and Euro-American families who intentionally adopted nonconventional child-rearing values and practices.

Local Knowledge, Research Knowledge, and Educational Change: A Case Study of Early Spanish Reading Improvement

Reforming schools depends on the interplay between research and local knowledge. This article uses examples from a multiyear project to improve reading achievement of Spanish-speaking children. Achieving changes was partially dependent on local action and understanding of the local school culture. It could not be done exclusively through reference to research knowledge, no matter how compellingly documented in the national literature.

Instructional conversations beget instructional conversations

Abstract Calls for changes in teaching are as old as public education. Currently, we are in the midst of another cycle of attempted reforms, this one based upon the view that learning should be an active and constructive process. Reformers face, however, two formidable challenges: (1) conceptualizing appropriate instructional practices and (2) assisting teachers to develop the skills needed to implement them. Working with a small group of teachers, our work has sought to address both challenges. First, we have attempted to conceptualize and articulate a mode of instruction (“instructional conversation”) that emphasizes active student involvement in goal- and meaning-oriented discussions. Second, in carrying out this work, we have found that the principles underlying instructional conversations might also point to fruitful strategies for helping teachers master the professional knowledge and skills required to conduct this type of instruction. “Instructional conversation,” in other words, might constitute a valid means of staff development as well as one of its goals. To demonstrate the potential of instructional conversations as vehicle for staff development, this paper uses Conversational Analysis (CA) to analyze segments of two meetings between a consultant and a small group of teachers learning to conceptualize and implement instructional conversations in their classrooms.

The Limits of Expectations: A Case for Case Knowledge About Teacher Expectancy Effects

Two first-grade Hispanic girls in the same classroom were studied for a year by means of qualitative and naturalistic methods. Paradoxically, the child for whom the teacher held low expectancies did extremely well in her reading achievement; in contrast, the child for whom the teacher held high expectancies did poorly. These paradoxical “effects” are understandable if we consider what the teacher thought and did in a broader context, that is, her overall view of each child and her assessment of what was educationally necessary and appropriate for each. These case studies are used to point out the limits of the classic expectancy theory and to argue for a less reductionistc framework and methodology in studying teacher expectancies. The cases are also used to argue that what a teacher expects matters less for a child’s achievement than what a teacher does.

Parents’ Effects on Academic Grouping for Reading: Three Case Studies

This paper examines parents’ effects on children’s academic group placement. It suggests that parental involvement might affect children’s reading achievement through its effect on a child’s academic grouping. Naturalistic case studies of three Hispanic first graders at risk for reading failure are presented. In two cases, parents facilitated the children’s reading achievement in one, or both, of two ways: through home teaching of the school reading curriculum and behavioral cuing for appropriate classroom behaviors. Observations and interviews suggested that parents’ actions increased children’s reading skill acquisition or motivation, which, in turn, resulted in higher group placement for the children. In the case of the third child, there were no comparable actions by the parents, and the child was placed and kept in a very low reading group. The paper concludes with a consideration of the theoretical and practical implications for the study of home effects on school achievement and the academic achievement of children at risk for failure.

Reflections on the relationship between language, curriculum content and instruction 1

In a ‘formative experiment’ (following Newman et ah, 1989), twenty‐seven 4th‐grade students transitioning from Spanish to English read a short story (in English) about two mischievous friends and then participated in one of two video‐taped lessons by the same teacher: (1) a theme‐based discussion following a format called Instructional Conversation, or (2) a more conventional ‘basal‐like’ reading comprehension lesson. The same content was thus approached via different instructional paths, allowing for an examination of the interaction between content and instructional mode in content‐based language arts instruction. The students’ understanding of the material was subsequently gauged by a short answer comprehension test and an essay on friendship. While students in both conditions achieved equivalent levels of literal comprehension (76%), essays of students who had discussed the reading demonstrated a more complex and differentiated conceptualisation of friendship. These results suggest that the quality of...