Dianne M. Gut

Implications of Social Development Research for School-Based Interventions for Aggressive Youth with EBD.

Current views of the role of social relations in the development of aggressive and disruptive behavior are presented, and advances in social development research are summarized. The primary points of the articles in this special issue are considered against this backdrop and synthesized with regard to implications for the development of preventative interventions and positive behavioral supports for aggressive youth with or at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders. Together these articles suggest that the social growth of such youth is highly complex and involves multiple factors, including the social goals and characteristics of the student, the affiliative patterns and social roles of the student, and the interactional dynamics among students and between students and teachers. School-based interventions should focus not only on the behavior of the student, but also on social-cognitive processes and social contextual factors that support aggressive and disruptive behavior.

Bringing schools into the 21st century

Introduction: Why This Book? Time Has Changed but School Has Not, Guofang Wan, Dianne Gut.- 1. Whatever Happened?, Mark Treadwell.- 2. 21st Century Students Need 21st Century Skills, Ken Kay, Valerie Greenhill.- 3. Educational Reform: What Have Federal and State Policy-Makers Done?, Rosalyn Anstine Templeton, Karen Huffman, Celia E. Johnson.- 4. A Needs Assessment - Reforming the U.S. School Curriculum, Guofang Wan.- 5. Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century - A Renaissance, Celia Johnson, Rosalyn Templeton.- 6. Integrating 21st Century skills into the Curriculum, Dianne Gut.- 7. Reading, Writing, and Deconstructing: Media Literacy in the School Curriculum, Jessica Collins, Denis Doyon, Christie McAuley, Andrea Quijada.- 8. The Mobile School / Digital Communities Created by Mobile Learners, Teresa Franklin.- 9. Online learning: A 21st Century Approach to Education, John Watson, L. Kay Johnson.- 10. A Collaborative Model: Changing Teacher Education from the Ground Up, Renee Middleton, Bonnie Prince.- Index.

Integrating 21st Century Skills into the Curriculum

This chapter stresses the importance of imbedding 21st century skills within content area instruction. It provides a review of the 21st century skills that have been incorporated into lessons created by preservice and inservice teachers, as well as specific recommendations and resources for P–12 educators that can be utilized to incorporate the teaching of 21st century skills as identified by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21) into content area lessons. Focus is on integrating in existing curriculum the instruction of 21st century content and themes (global awareness, financial, economic, business, entrepreneurial, and civic literacy, and health and wellness); learning and thinking skills (critical-thinking and problem-solving, communication and collaboration, and creativity and innovation); information, media and technology skills (information literacy, media literacy, and ICT literacy); and life and career skills (flexibility and adaptability, initiative and self-direction, social and cross-cultural interaction, productivity and accountability, and leadership and responsibility).

The School Engagement Project: Academic Engagement Enhancement

The Academic Engagement Enhancement (AEE) model provides a framework for improving skills of older students who struggle with the acquisition and development of reading. This model was developed as part of a broader intervention program aimed at promoting academic and social competence of youth who were at risk of school failure. The strategies are based on best practice and are designed to actively engage students in the development of reading skills. The AEE model requires no special materials, is highly flexible, and can be adapted to any content area curriculum.

Media Use by Chinese and U.S. Secondary Students: Implications for Media Literacy Education.

This article examines how children currently use media, the influence of media in their lives, and implications for media literacy education. Trends in the use of media (TV, radio, computer, videogames, Internet) by Chinese and American secondary students are presented, drawn from major national studies on American and Chinese childrens media use. It shows what and how students use new media at home and in schools, and demonstrates the important role of modern technology in childrens lives. We underscore the importance of media literacy education. Even though media literacy education is not systematically taught as part of the formal school curriculum, it can be integrated into school curriculum with specific strategies by educators, parents, and adolescents.

Teachers’ Perceptions of their Mentoring Role in Three Different Clinical Settings: Student Teaching, Early Field Experiences, and Entry Year Teaching

The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in mentoring across three different clinical settings: student teaching, early field experiences, and entry year teachers. Eighteen teachers with mentoring experience in all three clinical settings were selected and interviewed. The teachers’ expectations for teacher development, mentoring relationships, and mentoring strategies differed across all three clinical settings. In addition, their confidence, their relationship with mentees, and their mentoring strategies were influenced by two features of the clinical setting: (a) the amount of time for mentoring interactions, and (b) the expectations for the mentee. To improve mentoring, the authors recommend (a) lengthening clinical experiences, (b) providing support for creating positive relationships, and (c) providing professional development specific to each of the three clinical settings.

Designing and Implementing a Mentoring Program to Support Clinically-Based Teacher Education

This article describes one teacher preparation programs approach to designing and implementing a mentoring program to support clinically-based teacher education. The design for the program is based on an interview study that compared the mentoring experiences of 18 teachers across three different contexts: student teaching, early field experiences, and entry year teaching. The findings were used to extend field experiences, to develop a clinical curriculum that clearly articulated university expectations, and to create a series of three mentoring workshops. In the description of the mentoring workshops, we show how we developed a curriculum for professional development of mentor teachers that includes a clear articulation of teacher candidate activities, co-teaching approaches, and mentoring strategies needed at different levels of teacher candidate development.

Literacy and digital problem-solving skills in the 21st century: What PIAAC says about educators in the United States, Canada, Finland, and Japan

ABSTRACT The purpose of our study is to delve into the education gap between the United States and some countries by examining the literacy and digital problem-solving skills of American educators, and comparing their performance with that of their peers from Canada, Finland, and Japan. We use PIAAC data collected by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and define educators as professionals with the highest level of qualification in the area of teacher training and education science. Our findings show that, internationally, U.S. educators are at a great disadvantage vis a vis their peers in Finland and Japan in terms of literacy, and they rank the lowest in digital problem-solving skills among the four studied countries. Other key findings include (a) in Canada and Finland, educators perform significantly higher in literacy than non-educators in their respective countries; (b) young educators in the United States (under age 35) lag far behind the same age group in Finland, Japan, and Canada; and (c) in all four countries, digital problem-solving skills of educators tend to decrease as their age increases. All statistical analyses are based on regression using sampling weights.