Metacognitive self-knowledge has been identified as a crucial component of effective learning. It entails students recognizing their learning strengths and weaknesses, styles and preferences, and motivational beliefs. The present study explored a method for the development of metacognitive self-knowledge and in doing so, was also a means for discovering what academic experiences students perceive as influential in their development as learners. Twenty-seven college students, all senior psychology majors, produced written narratives in response to a guided reflection activity. A qualitative research approach employing analytic induction was used. Themes of academic experiences as described by participants provided support for neuroscientific findings on learning and active learning pedagogy. In addition, guided reflection was found to be effective for developing metacognitive self-knowledge. However, familiarity with the process of reflection was a crucial factor. This study suggests that educators provide increased opportunities for students to build competency in this regard, referred to as metacognitive literacy.

The effects of parent-delivered instruction on children's phonemic awareness were investigated. Participants were thirty-eight parents and their pre-school children. The purpose of this study was to: (1) investigate whether parents could successfully teach phoneme identification skills to preschool children; (2) assess whether the effects of parent-delivered instruction on phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle could be independent of pretest letter knowledge, child vocabulary and cognitive ability, and SES; (3) determine whether training would generalize to recognition of untrained phonemes; and (4) assess parent satisfaction with the training and instructional program. Children were matched based on vocabulary scores. This measure was also a proxy for SES (Hart & Risley, 1995). Children were then randomly assigned to either treatment or control groups. In addition, pretest letter knowledge was assessed using experimental measures designed by Byrne and Fielding-Barnsley (1991). Parents taught their child to identify initial and ending phonemes and letter-sounds based on the early literacy program Sound Foundations (Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1991), with lesson scripts based on explicit, direct instruction techniques (Kameenui & Carnine,1998; Swanson, Hoskyn & Lee, 1999). The duration of the program was 7 weeks. Children were required to find poster pictures that began or ended with the target sound and to color pictures with the target sound. Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) (Good & Kaminski, 2002) were used to measure Initial Sound Fluency and Letter Naming Fluency. Experimental measures of ending sound fluency, initial phoneme transfer and ending phoneme transfer were also used to measure outcomes. A survey was used to obtain social validity data regarding parent satisfaction with the program. Results indicated that: (a) there was a large, albeit insignificant effect for parent training on children's initial sound fluency (d = 1.1, p < .006); (b) parent training was not predictive of letter naming fluency (p =.07); (c) there were no significant differences on measures of phoneme transfer; and (d) pretest letter knowledge was predictive of outcomes on letter naming fluency (p < .01). Parents reported a high degree of satisfaction with training. The discussion focuses on future research on early literacy instruction and parent-delivered instruction.

This study is part of an action research project designed to model a district-wide early identification and intervention program for Kindergartners at risk for reading failure. The project was designed to model quality professional development in the area of early literacy for Kindergarten teachers, the use of a multi-gating procedure for identifying those children most likely to benefit from extra support, training for paraprofessionals to provide support to identified low performing students, and the use of a “response to intervention” approach for determining level of intensity of intervention. This study evaluates the relative effectiveness of the two research-validated curricula chosen as strategic interventions for improving outcomes on early literacy indicators of at-risk Kindergarten students. Both curricula were delivered in small groups by classroom aides who received brief training. A second part of the study evaluates the effectiveness of individually designed, intensified interventions for those children whose achievement did not improve sufficiently under conditions of small group instruction. A third section examined factors affecting teacher motivation to participate in the project and to embrace new teaching and assessment methods.

Recent investigations of children's arithmetic strategy proficiency have revealed disparate results; some suggest that first grade boys are more accurate math-fact retrievers than are first grade girls, while others suggest first grade girls are the more accurate math-fact retrievers. The present study was designed to assess whether gender differences in math-fact retrieval do exist among kindergarten and first grade students and to assess the circumstances under which those differences might be observed. In two experiments, kindergarten and first grade children were asked to solve a series of simple addition and subtraction problems. Solution strategies were restricted and children were required to use either fact-retrieval or overt counting to solve the problems. Problems were presented in one of two modes, visual or auditory, via a laptop computer; half of the problems in each mode required the fact-retrieval strategy and half required the overt counting strategy. Performance was measured in terms of accuracy and solution time. No female advantages were observed on any of the tasks in either grade. When accuracy and time were collapsed to create composite proficiency scores, male advantages for the fact retrieval strategy and the visual mode of presentation were revealed in both grades.

This study consisted of a comprehensive review of the consequential aspects of validity of a grade 10 mathematics assessment. This test is part of a larger state-mandated assessment system in which the studied test is one of two assessments that a student must pass in order to graduate from high school in the state of Massachusetts. Validity evidence was collected using three rigorous measurement methods. Qualitative and quantitative procedures were used to ensure a more complete collection and analyses of validity evidence. A survey was developed and administered to all participating high school mathematics teachers and key education personnel. Fifty-six percent of the surveys were completed and analyzed. In addition, focus group and one-on-one interviews were conducted within each participating school district. The results indicated that the Massachusetts' education reform initiative had created significant changes in high school mathematics curriculum and instruction. In addition, many positive and negative intended and unintended consequences connected to this assessment system were identified. The results were discussed based on a classification system in which a representative sample of school districts was selected from the state population. In this study, a comprehensive analysis of a few specific consequential validity questions was addressed using sound quantitative and qualitative research methods. This type of research, examining the consequential aspects of validity of a state mandated test as a component of a larger assessment system, represents a huge undertaking. The social, politic, and educational implications involved in any reform effort are complex and difficult to document. As education reform affects more and more students across this nation, answers to the outlined questions may assist key administrators in the state of Massachusetts, perhaps even other states in the middle of similar reform efforts, in making important mid-course corrections, and/or merely provide needed validity evidence regarding intended and unintended consequences of the program using solid, data-driven information.

Research that has examined the achievement of children with behavior disorders has demonstrated a relationship between externalizing behavior disorders and academic underachievement, particularly in the area of reading. This study compared the early literacy skill development of 10 kindergartners and 10 first graders who were teacher-identified as presenting with difficult classroom behavior to that of 17 typical classroom peers. A systematic diagnostic assessment, using broad and narrow-band rating scales and structured interviews, was completed by parents and teachers to confirm the at-risk status of the identified children. Data were collected on early literacy skill development using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), which provided information on skill development over time. Parents taped home parent-child reading sessions, and tapes were coded to look at specific reading strategies. Parents were interviewed about home literacy factors including amount of time spent in parent-child reading, reading materials in the home, reading strategies used, and parental reading habits. Teachers were interviewed about classroom variables including type of curriculum and time spent on early literacy instruction. Findings included significant differences on oral reading fluency slopes for the first grade at-risk and comparison groups. Limitations of the study, implications for professional practice and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

This collective case study examined students' beliefs and perceptions regarding art education and investigated factors that influence and shape students' art attitudes and their intrinsic valuing of art. The main focus of this investigation was centered on students' voice regarding art education and on the conceptions students hold about the value and significance of art. A phenomenographic orientation guided this research. The study was based on classroom observations, interviews and critiques with 12 highs school art students taking elective art courses. The analysis of data involved a constant comparative method to develop categories and themes. Three major themes were developed to explain and describe the results of this study. 1) Art Attitudes—explored students' beliefs and conceptions about art. A working definition of "art attitude" was developed to serve as a steppingstone in this inquiry. The ABC model, focusing on affective, behavioral, and cognitive modes, was employed to organize data. Students' emotional responses, actions and verbal indications of behavioral tendencies and cognitive evaluations of artistic experiences described their art attitudes. 2) Inspiring Mechanisms—investigated various influences exerting a positive impact on attitude formation. This section was organized into four categories: Introspections, Art Valuing, Consequential Art Experiences, and Family Zone. 3) Inhibiting Mechanisms—examined the negative forces that affect students' art attitudes and their valuation of art. This section was organized into two categories: Disengagement and Creative Trepidations. Study results suggest that the process of attitude formation involves a collection of determinants. Some of them promote increasingly positive attitudes: positive personal experiences, meaningful learning, engagement, self-esteem and nurturing family environment. While other determinants, such as anxiety, boredom, and poor self-perception exert a negative influence. Inspiring and inhibiting mechanisms exert impact on students' perceptions and beliefs about art and their self-concept as artists. These forces shape students' attitudes and affect how they feel, think and respond to artistic experiences. The attitudes that students form consequently determine their willingness or reluctance to expose themselves to new ideas and their eagerness or apathy to learn and experience more about art.

This research looks at the effects of learning environments on the creative process of learning. The literature search addresses fundamentals of, and relationships between learning, creative process and art-making through neurophysiological, aesthetic, and psychobiological theory. These three things are further tied together through a movement analysis tool—the Kestenberg Movement Profile (KMP)—which underscores the common tie between the three: bodily movement in the forces of space, weight, and time of the three-dimensional world in which we live. The Kestenberg Movement Profile was used to analyze the movement of preschool children in three activity categories of movement: formal activities, improvisational dance, and art-making. A gestalt notation of group movement was done; the notation was scored and plotted separately for each activity category. An interpretation of each activity profile was done for KMP factors related to the creative process of learning. These factors were: developmental age being expressed in each activity, as well as affect, self-esteem, learning styles and structures, creative and social intelligence, and agreement between internal states and the effective communication of those states. Results showed formal activities as hindering the creative process of learning. Formal activities required highly controlled bodily movement of the children. This research study indicates, as the literature suggests, that children of this age group—ages three-and-a-half to five years—develop a healthy self-identify and intelligence through bodily movement and creative spontaneity.

Developmental psychology suggests that children are incapable of experiencing, perceiving or thinking as mature adults. But the first systematic study of religious experience, conducted in Great Britain, revealed evidence of profound levels of spiritual awareness in childhood which continued to be of significance in later adult understanding. The purpose of this study was to answer the following questions: (1) What is the nature of this 'unlearned' or 'direct' knowledge in childhood? (2) How is it related to 'learned' forms of knowledge, both in the short and the long-term? (3) How do individuals integrate/synthesize these two forms (and how do they fail)? (4) How does education assist or made difficult this integration? (5) How is this 'direct' knowledge related to other talents? Qualitative research methods were used. In-depth phenomenological interviewing was chosen as the methodology best suited to this subject. Eight adults participated in the study. A broad range of spiritual experiences and insights in childhood were described. These were unique, yet had many similar elements. The similarities were found to exist in the kinds of 'a priori' knowledge they described, and in the difficulties this knowledge created for them in environments which denied its existence. The educational process, (public school), was seen as destructive of their need to comprehend and integrate their insights. Involvement in imaginative activities was described as the primary means in which an integration of 'learned' and 'unlearned' knowledge could take place. All of the participants described this integration as a life-long process, and they described their early spiritual awareness as having on-going relevance to that process. These findings suggest that the developmental model is inadequate to explain the nature of personal 'maturity'. A 'visional', as opposed to a 'juridical', model is proposed. The need for a rapprochement between 'objective' and 'participant' ways of knowing is discussed as one of the most important issues for education that this study reveals.

The purpose of this research was two-fold: to describe ways that therapists are consciously incorporating a spiritual dimension into their practice, and to identify the connection between the developmental level of the therapists and techniques, interventions, rituals, and inner attitudes (TIRIA) used in their incorporation of the spiritual into psychotherapy. The methodology had three phases. In Phase One, 215 questionnaires were mailed, of which 140 were returned. The responses indicated a variety of educational experience, professional trainings, religious backgrounds, spiritual experiences, and clientele. Thirty-five respondents were selected for a Phase Two phone call, which had two purposes: to select the sample for Phase Three interviewing, and to gather a description of TIRIA by asking for vignettes. Sixteen calls were half-hour interviews, while appointments were made with 12 others for a Phase Three two-hour interview. The interviews were divided into two parts, one to administer the Fowler Faith Development Interview (Fowler, 1982), and one to ask for vignettes. After administering the interviews, the analyses revealed that ten face-to-face interviewees scored at Stage Five or above. Fowler was sent two interviews, but he could not corroborate these scores, because of inadequate probing. Sixty-five techniques were classified as humanistic, bodywork, transpersonal, psychic, or unique. Eight interventions and twenty-one rituals emerged. Inner attitudes proved to be the key to the transpersonal psychotherapist. Each of them had a spiritual awakening, which shifted how they perceive themselves and their clients. All practice spiritual disciplines, meditation in particular. Six interviewees were profiled to show their personal and professional evolution. The conclusions are that spirituality can be incorporated into psychotherapy through a variety of TIRIA. Therapists can learn new transpersonal TIRIA and can learn to adapt traditional techniques to include the spiritual component. Such therapists are enthusiastic about their practice, indicating an absence of evidence of burnout. More significantly, it appears that a prerequisite for any incorporation of spirituality is the choice of a spiritual path, the practice of meditation and/or work with a spiritual director. Eventually the therapist's inner spiritual Self becomes more important than any TIRIA.