Douglas J. Palmer

Identifying Teacher Expertise: An Examination of Researchers' Decision Making

This article reviews indicators used by researchers to select samples of expert teachers. Reflecting initially on the broader expertise literature and then focusing on studies of teaching expertise, the authors identify criteria used to select expert teachers that fall under one or more of the following marker categories: (a) years of experience, (b) social recognition, (c) professional or social group membership, and (d) performance based criteria (including normative and criterion-based selection). Results indicate considerable variability in the selection criteria for identifying expert teachers, even among researchers using the same theoretical construct. Based on this review, a rubric for selecting samples of expert teachers is proposed.

A comparison of depressed and nondepressed disturbed children on measures of attributional style, hopelessness, life stress, and temperament.

Upon admission to a hospital treatment program, clinically depressed and nondepressed children (aged 9–17 years) were assessed on measures of attributional style, hopelessness, depression, life stress, and child temperament. The depressed group tended to attribute positive events to specific and unstable factors when compared with the nondepressed sample. Group differences also were found on child temperament measures. However, no differences were reported between the diagnostic groups on self-reported depression, hopelessness, or life stress. The findings suggested that there may not be a unique constellation of cognitive characteristics in depressed children when compared with a nondepressed clinical sample. For both depressed and nondepressed groups, treatment did appear to affect self-reported depression and overall ratings of depressogenic attributional style.

THE ROLE OF STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF STUDY STRATEGY AND PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES IN STRATEGY USE

ABSTRACT Drawing upon study strategy, metacognition, and attribution research literatures, the present study explored task, person, and strategy variables as determinants of strategy use. College students read and were tested over an expository passage and then were asked to report the strategies they used and their perceptions of themselves and of the strategies. The college students in the present study reported using a large number of strategies, more than eight per student on average. Reported use of skimming, anticipating the test, and selective rereading strategies predicted students’ performance on a short‐answer test. Reported use of each of these strategies was significantly predicted by one or more of the following factors: general knowledge of the strategy, specific strategy attributes, perceived learner attributes, match between strategy and learner attributes, and strategy efficacy.

Latent Partition Analysis of Attributions for Actual Achievement

Two experiments were conducted to examine undergraduate students’ open-ended attributions for their performance on a midterm exam. In Experiment I, 53 different attribution statements were generated from 85 undergraduate students and were categorized by another group of students in a different section of the course. A latent partition analysis (LPA) of subjects’ categories of attribution was performed. Seven interpretable attribution clusters were derived from the LPA. A second-order factor analysis of the seven attribution clusters yielded two factors, success and failure. Experiment II was a cross-validation of Experiment I with different subjects. The findings in Experiment II were, in large part, similar to those reported for Experiment I. The combined attribution clusters reported in the two experiments reflect the locus of control and stability dimensions noted by Weiner. However, the second-order factor patterns in both experiments indicated that “naive psychologist” college students differentiated attribution clusters only into success and failure ascriptions.

A Sociometric Analysis of Between-Group Differences and Within-Group Status Variability of Hispanic Learning Disabled and Nonhandicapped Pupils in Academic and Play Contexts

The purpose of this study was to assess the sociometric status of mainstreamed Hispanic learning disabled (LD) and nonhandicapped pupils. Fourth- and fifth-grade pupils from a small metropolitan school district in the Southwest participated. Sociometric data were collected from 35 classrooms across 10 schools. Hispanic LD pupils received lower sociometric peer ratings than their nonhandicapped peers. However, a peer rating/nomination classification procedure resulted in considerable variability in sociometric status for both LD and nonhandicapped children. Although 30% of the LD sample were in the rejected status group, almost 50% of the LD pupils attained average sociometric status. Sociometric context (i.e., academic and play) also influenced membership in status groups.

Predictive Bias with Referred and Nonreferred Black, Hispanic, and White Pupils

Predictive bias was examined using data obtained from ethnically diverse referred and nonreferred samples. Achievement and intelligence measures included the Wechsler Intelligence Scale-Revised, Kaufman Achievement Battery, Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery and the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery. The sample consisted of 236 subjects selected from a large urban district in Texas. Results revealed evidence of predictive bias in several sets of intelligence-achievement measures. For the most part, intercept bias was more evident than slope bias (differential validity). The need for test developers to assess predictive bias in new or revised tests is emphasized.

Comparison of the Peer Status of Mexican-American Students with Learning Disabilities and Non-Disabled Low-Achieving Students

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of achievement on the peer status of Mexican-American male and female pupils with LD in academic and play contexts in classrooms where all students displayed low achievement. Participants were fourth- and fifth-grade pupils in a metropolitan school district in the Southwest. The sample was obtained from 13 compensatory regular education classrooms across six schools. Mexican-American pupils with LD received significantly lower sociometric scores than their low-achieving nondisabled Mexican-American peers even when the entire class was composed of low-achieving students.

A Classroom Observational Study of Qatar's Independent Schools: Instruction and School Reform.

ABSTRACT Qatar initiated a K–12 national educational reform in 2001. However, there is limited information on the instructional practices of the teachers in the reform schools. This project was an observational study of classrooms with a stratified random sample of the first six cohorts of reform schools. Specifically, 156 classrooms were observed in 29 reform schools. Instructional differences were noted in schools with different gender of students and were moderated by school level. Implications of findings were discussed pertaining to implementation of the Qatar national reform and professional development needs of teachers.

IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH METACOGNITIVE TRAINING

This paper contains a brief review of metacognition and its relationship to reading with emphasis on comprehension monitoring and use of corrective strategies. Implications for classroom instruction will be considered and an approach to teaching comprehension monitoring and corrective strategies are described. Finally, a tutorial illustration in which this instructional procedure is implemented is reported.

Quality Teaching and Teacher Preparation

As noted by a number of chapter authors, quality teachers have been identified as the most consequential in-school resource to support student achievement. Acknowledging the importance of teacher quality, 2002 federal legislation established the standard that all children would be taught in the core academic subjects by “highly qualified” teachers in the 2005-06 academic year (No Child Left Behind Act P.L. 107-110, 2002).