Patricia T. Ashton

Teacher Efficacy: A Motivational Paradigm for Effective Teacher Education

A powerful paradigm for teacher educa tion can be developed on the basis of the construct of teacher efficacy. Ashton as serts that no other teacher characteris tic has demonstrated such a consistent relationship to student achievement. A teacher education program that has as its aim the development of teacher effi cacy, and which includes the essential components of a motivation change pro gram, should develop teachers who possess the motivation essential for ef fective classroom performance.

Systematic Study of Planned Variations: The Essential Focus of Teacher Education Reform

Systematic study of planned variations should be the focus in teacher education reform rather than development of a common model. A review of research comparing professional and academic education is presented to illustrate the lack of support for a specific teacher edu cation model.

Improving Educational Research Through the Development of Educational Paradigms

Several educational scholars have suggested that educational research is ineffective because educational scientists do not understand the nature of scientific inquiry (Popkewitz, Tabachnick, & Zeichner, 1979). In this paper we describe an approach to educational science that is based on an analysis of the nature of science and which we believe has the potential to improve the effectiveness of educational science and practice.

Middle Childhood: Period of Latency or Context of Development?

Reviews the book, Developmental Contexts in Middle Childhood: Bridges to Adolescence and Adulthood edited by Aletha C. Huston and Marika N. Ripke (see record 2006-04652-000). The purpose of Aletha C. Huston and Marika N. Ripkes edited volume, Developmental Contexts in Middle Childhood: Bridges to Adolescence and Adulthood, is to present what the networks researchers have learned since 1981 about “how childrens environments in middle childhood influence development” (p. 1). To achieve this goal, the editors compiled chapters based on 15 longitudinal studies of middle childhood spanning either early childhood or adolescence or both from diverse populations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand (p. 1). Four developmental contexts are explored in the studies: (a) family and peers, (b) schools, (c) out-of-school activities, and (d) economic and public policy contexts. Quantitative methods of analysis, including structural equation modeling (Collins and van Dulmen, Chapter 3), adoptive sibling design (Wadsworth, Corley, Plomin, Hewitt, and DeFries, Chapter 5), modeling of developmental trajectories using semiparametric mixture modeling (Pagani et al., Chapter 7), hierarchical linear modeling (Hauser-Cram, Warfield, Stadler, and Sirin, Chapter 10), and regression analyses are used to attempt to isolate unique effects of middle childhood. By showcasing “cutting-edge research” (p. 2), Huston and Ripke hope to advance theory and knowledge about middle childhood and to inform policymakers and practitioners about how childrens environmental contexts can be used to promote optimal development. The editors are successful in creating cohesive chapters by organizing the content around two central questions: (a) “How do developmental patterns, both stability and change, in middle childhood relate to developments in adolescence and adulthood?” and (b) “What do environmental contexts in middle childhood contribute to long-term developmental patterns?” (p. 2). They achieve further consistency by highlighting major themes--the developmental importance of middle childhood, the contexts that promote positive and negative outcomes, continuity and discontinuity in developmental patterns, individual and group differences due to culture, race, socioeconomic background, gender, and temperament--and an emphasis on a wide range of interdependent domains of successful development. In addition to presenting an overview of the chapters in the volume in their introductory chapter, the editors begin with a brief but informative overview of demographic trends in middle childhood, a rationale for why the study of middle childhood is important, and a description of how children spend their time that challenges popular beliefs about child neglect on the one hand and excessive programming of structured activities in childrens lives on the other. In their concluding chapter, the editors offer important recommendations for improving future research on middle childhood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)

Humanistic Education, Visions and Realities Richard Weller (Ed.). Berkeley: McCutchan, 1977. 377 pp

to think seriously about a career in teaching.&dquo; The goal of Introduction to American Education is to supply the reader with &dquo;a multitude of general concepts about American Education.&dquo; Chapter headings include: &dquo;What Teaching Is,&dquo; &dquo;Current Status of Schools and Education,&dquo; &dquo;Aims in Education,&dquo; &dquo;Organization of Schools,&dquo; &dquo;Legal Bases for Schools,&dquo; &dquo;Financing Schools,&dquo; &dquo;General Curriculum,&dquo; &dquo;Elementary and Secondary School Curriculum,&dquo; &dquo;The Community and Schools,&dquo; &dquo;Moral Values and Schools,&dquo; &dquo;Planning a Career,&dquo; and &dquo;The Effective Teacher.&dquo;