This article examines the relationships among adolescent environmental behaviors and self-efficacy, knowledge, and attitudes. It was hypothesized that adolescents who demonstrate more proenvironmental attitudes are more likely to demonstrate proenvironmental behaviors. It was further hypothesized that perceived self-efficacy would have a moderating effect on the environmental attitude-behavior relationship in that the relationship between proenvironmental attitudes and behaviors would be stronger among adolescents with high levels of self-efficacy. Participants were 848 students from three academically achieving high schools on the West coast. Hierarchical regression analyses were used for all subsequent analyses. Results indicated that proenvironmental attitudes significantly predicted proenvironmental behaviors and that environmental knowledge was a significant moderator for the relationship between environmental attitudes and environmental behaviors. This was especially true for males.

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Programwide implementation uses implementation science to provide the supports needed so all practitioners can use DEC recommended practices to improve child outcome. Participants will learn the process of programwide implementation, tools, and strategies they can use and how programwide implementation occurs within classroom and home visiting programs.

Book Summary: The education and care of children under the age of eight has become one of the major focuses of attention in recent education research and policy-making around the world, and it is now widely recognised that investment in provision at this stage can be both cost effective and beneficial to the social fabric of communities. Approaches to education in nurseries, kindergartens and preschools have traditionally been significantly different from those that inform the teaching of older children but, until recently, these approaches have had little impact on education beyond early years settings. This wide-ranging collection of papers provides a valuable resource for scholars who need to ground their own study in wider historical and global discourses concerning the education of children under eight. Including both important historical sources and contemporary analysis of current issues, this fascinating set represents a broad variety of countries, cultures and traditions.

This session will provide practitioners working with children 0-3 information about the importance of and strategies for “bathing” young children in language. Research shows that by age 3 children who live in poverty are likely to have heard 30 million fewer words than their wealthiest peers. For children with disabilities from less affluent homes, this is an important issue. This session will provide practitioners working with these families and/or working directly with these children with strategies demonstrated through video clips on how to envelop these very young children in rich language in order to help close this gap.

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This article explores the problem of textbook aliteracy, i.e. the failure to read assigned texts despite the ability to do so. Constructivism is its theoretical frame. Teacher education students at a medium-sized university in the Southern Appalachian Mountains were surveyed on their textbook reading practices. Ninety percent of the 116 students completing the survey reported studying instructors’ power points in preference to completing assigned readings, at least some of the time. All were readers, though a majority (68%) reported at least some difficulty reading assigned texts. Often, they appeared to be avoiding the challenges posed by demanding text. The authors undertook various strategies to compel and encourage precise reading of informational text, with mixed results.

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Information collected from multiple domain child developmental assessments, known as five area assessments, are being used in early intervention for high stakes purposes such as program monitoring. As a result, it is important to examine variables that may affect test administration fidelity and its impact on obtaining valid data. The purpose of this study was to survey early intervention service providers in the state of Kentucky to determine possible independent variables that may affect their comfort level in administering five-domain tests. Surveys were made available to all early intervention service providers within the Kentucky First Steps early intervention program. Data were analyzed to determine the effect of independent variables such as: amount and format of training in administering assessments, amount and format of training in child development, years of experience, educational degree level, certification in interdisciplinary early childhood education, and discipline area on a provider’s comfort level in administering five area assessments. The results of the study indicated a statistically significant positive relationship between the amount of assessment training a provider received and their self-perceived comfort level in administering assessments.

Poverty is known to affect many areas of life for poor children, particularly young children’s language development. To address language development issues as well as other educational needs, the Head Start Program was created. The purpose of this sequential mixed-methods study was to describe the professional development experiences of Head Start teachers on language modeling. In addition, this study sought to explore teachers’ views on language modeling and the activities they find most effective to support student learning. Analysis of the data revealed that teachers wanted more training and workshops, to be paired with a mentor/coach, pay raises for achieving higher education, strategies for working with children, and encouragement from administration to effectively achieve their professional development plans and goals. Additionally, teachers demonstrated an understanding of the importance of language modeling for children to build vocabulary, to improve school readiness goals, and to communicate and express their needs. Finally, teachers felt very strongly that they use frequent conversations, wait for student responses during conversations, use back and forth conversations, encourage peer conversations, use more than one word as well as a variety of words to support children’s language development. Findings from this study may be utilized to provide the necessary support teachers need to improve their language modeling skills and to help programs in their planning and evaluation of an ongoing professional development model. This study adds to the literature on bridging the gap between learning about practices and using them in the classroom to improve children’s language development by including teacher voices into their professional development and how to effectively implement coaching practices to promote teacher knowledge and skills.