Mary Lee Smith

Meta-Analysis of Psychotherapy Outcome Studies

Results of nearly 400 controlled evalua- tions of psychotherapy and counseling were coded and integrated statistically. The findings provide convincing evidence of the efficacy of psychotherapy. On the average, the typical therapy client is better off than 75% of untreated individuals. Few important differ- ences in effectiveness could be established among many quite different types of psychotherapy . More generally, virtually no difference in effectiveness was observed be- tween the class of all behavioral therapies (systematic desensitization, behavior modification) and the nonbe- havioral therapies (Rogerian, psychodynamic, rational- emotive, transactional analysis, etc.).

Put to the Test: The Effects of External Testing on Teachers

Evidence from an extensive qualitative study of the role of external testing in elementary schools led to propositions about the effects of such tests on teachers. Data from interviews revealed that teachers experience negative emotions as a result of the publication of test scores and determine to do what is necessary to avoid low scores. Teachers believe that scores are used against them, despite the perceived invalidity of the tests themselves. From classroom observations it was concluded that testing programs substantially reduce the time available for instruction, narrow curricular offerings and modes of instruction, and potentially reduce the capacities of teachers to teach content and to use methods and materials that are incompatible with standardized testing formats.

Meta-Analysis of Research on Class Size and Achievement

THERE IS No POINT IN RECORDING THE obvious about class size: that teachers worry about it more than nearly anything else, that administrators want to increase it, that it is economically important, and the like. The problem with class size is the research. It is unclear. It has variously been read as supporting larger classes, supporting smaller classes, and supporting nothing but the need for better research. Review after review of the topic has dissolved into cynical despair or epistemological confusion. The notion is wide-spread among educators and researchers that class size bears no relationship to achievement. It is a dead issue in the minds of most instructional researchers. To return to the class-size literature in search of defensible interpretations and conclusions strikes many as fruitless. The endeavor is surrounded by a faint aroma of Chippendale, which it resembles in other respects: unwieldy and antique. One could document the confusion in previous reviews of research on the class-

Kindergarten Readiness and Retention: A Qualitative Study of Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices

The issues concerning teachers’ beliefs about and use of retention were explored in a qualitative study. Clinical interviews with teachers, participant observation in kindergarten classes, analysis of documents, and interviews with parents revealed that teachers’ beliefs about the development of school readiness could be described and ordered along a dimension of nativism, that these beliefs relate to their use of retention as a solution to unreadiness or incompetence, and that elements of the organization of the schools in which they teach may also account for beliefs and practices. Teachers’ endorsement of retention diverges both from extant propositional knowledge and from the perceptions of other interested groups.

The Construction Zone Literary Elements in Narrative Research

Narrative research has become part of the landscape of education inquiry, yet its theory and practice are still debated and evolving. This article addresses the construction of narratives using literary elements common to nonfiction and fiction writings. The authors discuss these elements and use four narratives to illustrate them. They address how literary elements intersect with more familiar practices of generating and analyzing evidence to reveal themes, and they relate these intersections with wider issues about what can be known from research and how it can be learned.

Constructions of survival and coping by women who have survived childhood sexual abuse.

This qualitative study investigated personal constructs of survival and coping by 11 women who have survived childhood sexual abuse. In-depth interviews, a 10-week focus group, documentary evidence, and follow-up participant checks and collaborative analysis were used. Over 160 individual strategies were coded and analyzed, and a theoretical model was developed describing (a) causal conditions that underlie the development of survival and coping strategies, (b) phenomena that arose from those causal conditions, (c) context that influenced strategy development, (d) intervening conditions that influenced strategy development, (e) actual survival and coping strategies, and (f) consequences of those strategies. Subcategories of each component of the theoretical model were identified and are illustrated by narrative data. Implications for counseling psychology research and practice are addressed

Escalating Academic Demand in Kindergarten: Counterproductive Policies

Academic demands in kindergarten and first grade are considerably higher today than 20 years ago and continue to escalate. Downward shifts of what were next-grade expectations into the earliest grades are the result of large-scale social trends, for example, the universality of kindergartens, as well as day-to-day pressures felt by teachers, from accountability gates and demands for acceleration from middle-class parents. Narrow emphasis on isolated reading and numeracy skills is detrimental even to the children who succeed and is especially harmful to children labeled as failures. Policies such as raising the entrance age, readiness screening; and kindergarten retention are intended to solve the problem of inappropriate academic demand by removing younger or unready children. Research evidence does not support the efficacy of these policies. Rather, these practices contribute to the continued escalation of curriculum as teachers adjust their teaching to an older and more able group.

Meta-analysis of Research on Class Size and Its Relationship to Attitudes and Instruction

Features of 59 studies of this relationship were coded and quantified and 371 findings were transformed into a common metric for statistical integration. Analysis, based on a logarithmic model, revealed a substantial relationship between class size and teacher and pupil attitudes as well as instruction. Favorable teacher effects (workload, morale, attitudes toward students) are associated with smaller classes as are favorable effects on students (self-concept, interest in school, participation). Smaller classes are associated with greater attempts to individualize instruction and better classroom climate. The results complement those of a previous meta-analysis that showed positive effects of class size on achievement.

Publishing Qualitative Research

This paper constitutes a slight departure from editorial policy for AERJ. Far from contributing to general knowledge through empirical analysis, the paper is meant to serve a self-referent and practical purpose. It is meant to signify to the discipline that manuscripts based on qualitative research are being welcomed by AERJ editors. It is also meant to assist the editors in recognizing instances of qualitative research and choosing those manuscripts with the greatest relevance and scholarly merit. The author was asked to define qualitative research in education, describe what form an AERJ article based on qualitative research might take, and state some criteria that can be used by the editors and referees to judge the merit of such studies. Seemingly straightforward, the task could hardly be more daunting. The body of work labeled qualitative is richly variegated and its theories of method diverse to the point of disorderliness. Qualitative research is vexed by the problem of different labels. One sees terms such as naturalistic research, participant observation, case study, and ethnography, as well as qualitative research, used interchangeably. If the terms and the work described can be distinguished, it would be a task that requires a separate paper, and, for the present purposes, I will treat them as a package. In addition to the diversity of labels, the field has grown out of diverse disciplines (anthropology, sociology, psychology). Qualitative research is further divided by differing views of the nature of reality (whether there is a world of social objects and forces separate from the observers perception of them), of object fields judged to be appropriate for study (from whole institutions or communities to brief encounters), of beliefs about the merits of different research methods and ways of representing findings, and of criteria for judging studies. These divisions have created socially bounded territories, acrimonious exchanges among adherents, and institutionalized schools of thought. How then should the editors judge and select manuscripts when such different ways of thinking about and doing qualitative

Characteristics of Pupils Identified as Learning Disabled

This study was aimed at describing the characteristics of school-aged children whom educators had identified as learning disabled (LD). A probability sample of 800 was selected from the population of all children served as learning disabled in the state of Colorado. A coding form was used by trained coders to extract relevant features from the case files of the children. The sample was characterized by (1) distributions of single variables (e.g., below grade level achievement, discrepancy between IQ and achievement, medical indicators), and (2) hierarchical classification creating clusters or subgroups within the LD sample. Fewer than half the sample exhibited characteristics consistent with definitions of LD in federal regulations and professional literature. Included in this group were subgroups of hyperactive, brain-injured children, children with significant discrepancies between IQ and achievement and those with signs of perceptual processing disorders. Slightly more than half the sample did not match conventional definitions of LD but exhibited learning problems such as language interference, emotional disorders, or mild retardation. The inclusion of the latter groups among the learning disabled is a particular problem in the validation of the construct and will confound research on prevalence rates and treatment efficacy.