No abstract

The purpose of this research was to systematically review the effects of repeated reading (RR) interventions on reading fluency to provide instructional strategies for students with reading disabilities (RD). Correct words per minute were coded as an outcome variable in a search that yielded 34 RR intervention studies from 1990 to 2014 for students with RD in K-12. The estimated overall Hedges' g of the 39 independent effect sizes indicated the positive effects of RR on gains in reading fluency for students with RD, especially at the elementary grade level. The current findings also suggested that a combination of RR and a listening passage preview would be the most effective method for students with RD.

The Elementary and Secondary School Survey data and Civil Rights Data Collection of the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) were analyzed to describe the issue of overrepresentation of gifted Asian American students in gifted education programs in the United States. Nationally, Asian and Whites have been overrepresented in gifted education since 1978, whereas, students from other ethnic backgrounds, such as those from American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic, and African American groups, have been underrepresented with gradual increases in this underrepresentation since 1994. When the data were disaggregated by state for the period from 2002 to 2006, each racial and ethnic group displayed varied ranges of representation. Those varied distributions can be attributed to each state's unique demographic profile, varied definitions of giftedness, identification procedures, and identification policies. By focusing on Asian American students, this study addressed some difficulties that gifted Asian American students may face concerning the image of model minority and through the acculturation processes as immigrants or descendents of immigrants. Furthermore, this study suggests a need for disaggregated data collection and more research concerning gifted Asian American students from various ethnic Asian groups. Putting the Research to Use: Findings from this study highlight the need for carefully collected data in the field of gifted education concerning race and ethnicity of students in programs and provide the reader with a picture of both underrepresentation and overrepresentation of students by state and ethnic group. Attention needs to be paid to sub-groups within categories of race and ethnicity to understand representation. By considering the issue of Asian Americans and their overrepresentation, this research has raised awareness about factors, such as identification processes, acculturation, and academic motivation that might promote recognition of giftedness among some ethnic groups. Finally, this research offers readers with a new, multiple-year, current, analysis of the representation in gifted programs nationally and by state for racial/ethnic groups, an area of continued concern to those in the field of gifted education.

Background Teacher self‐efficacy has received attention because of its direct relationship with teachers' classroom behaviors. Since engineering has been increasingly introduced in K‐12 (precollege) education, development of an instrument to measure teachers' self‐efficacy in the context of teaching engineering has been needed. Purpose (Hypothesis) This study reports the development and validation of the Teaching Engineering Self‐Efficacy Scale (TESS) for K‐12 teachers. Design/Method The items for the TESS were constructed through a comprehensive review of the literature regarding K‐12 engineering education, the development of teachers' self‐efficacy instruments in STEM areas, and K‐12 teachers' reflections on integrating engineering into their classrooms. During the content and face validity process, we used structural equation modeling to identify and confirm the factor structure of the TESS, and used item‐analyses for reliability evidence. Results With data from 434 teachers in 19 states, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using structural equation modeling resulted in the TESS consisting of 23 items loading across four factors: engineering pedagogical content knowledge, engineering engagement, engineering disciplinary self‐efficacy, and outcome expectancy. Cronbach's α ranged from 0.89 to 0.96 and exhibited high internal consistency reliability coefficients for the TESS. Conclusions Teacher self‐efficacy is a situation‐specific construct because teachers' efficacy beliefs depend on the content area and teaching environment. Use of the TESS, as an instrument tailored for the engineering teaching context, can contribute to the literature on K‐12 engineering education and improve the teaching of precollege engineering.

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>The ultimate objective of teacher professional development (TPD) is to deliver a positive impact </span><span>on students’ </span><span>engagement and performance in class through teacher practice via improving their content and pedagogical content knowledge and changing their attitudes toward the subject being taught. However, compared to other content areas, such as mathematics and science, relatively few engineering TPD programs have been developed, and there has been a lack of research on the effective practice of TPD for K-12 engineering education. As a part of a five-year longitudinal project, this study reports the first-year effect of TPD offered by the Institute for P-12 Engineering Research and Learning (INSPIRE) at Purdue University on elementary teachers integrating engineering. Thirty-two teachers of second through fourth grade from seven schools attended a one-week intensive Summer Academy and integrated engineering lessons throughout the year. Based on a pre- and post-test research design, multiple measures were utilized to examine </span><span>changes in teachers’ knowledge and perceptions </span><span>of engineering and their variations in knowledge and perceptions by school and teacher characteristics. Overall, teachers were satisfied with the engineering TPD program, significantly increased their engineering design process knowledge, </span><span>and became more familiar with engineering. While teachers’ knowledge about engineering did not vary by school and teacher characteristics, some aspects of teachers’ percepti</span><span>ons regarding engineering integration and their practice differed by school and teacher characteristics. </span></p></div></div></div>

This study examines the effects of integrated science, technology, and engineering (STE) education on second-, third-, and fourth-grade students' STE content knowledge and aspirations concerning engineering after validation of the measures. During the 2009-2010 school year, 59 elementary school teachers, who attended a week-long engineering teacher professional development (TPD) program, implemented STE integrated lessons in schools in a large, southcentral U.S. school district. At the beginning and end of the school year, the Student Knowledge Tests (SKTs) and the Engineering Identity Development Scale (EIDS) were administered to 831 students either in classrooms with the STE integrated lessons (treatment) or without (control). Item and confirmatory factor analyses provided sufficient reliability and validity evidence of the SKTs. Significant differences between treatment and control groups for all three grades on the post-SKTs indicate the impact of STE integration on students' content knowledge. The EIDS showed no significant group differences on the academic subscale, while the engineering career subscale showed that treatment group students scored significantly higher than control group students in all three grades. Those significant changes in the treatment group in knowledge and aspirations are strong evidence for the potential impact of STE integration. 380 Volume 114 (8) Effects of Integrated STEM Education on Students School Science and Mathematics 381 Effects of Integrated STEM Education on Students

No abstract

Spatial ability has been valued as a talent domain and as an assessment form that reduces cultural, linguistic, and socioeconomic status biases, yet little is known of the spatial ability of students in gifted programs compared with those in general education. Spatial ability is considered an important indicator of potential talent in the domains of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study explored undergraduate students’ spatial ability, focusing on mental rotation, by investigating the relationships of three variables with performance on a spatial ability test, in terms of test scores and test completion time. A three-way analysis of variance revealed statistically significant main effects of gifted program participation, choice of academic major, and gender, suggesting that students who participated in a gifted program, who majored in a STEM discipline, or who were male outperformed their counterparts on a measure of spatial ability when the other conditions were equivalent. No interaction effects existed among the three variables, indicating that none of them functioned as a moderator of students’ performance on the spatial ability assessment. However, when spatial ability was considered as a mediating variable in a path model, gender had the largest total effect on the probability of students majoring in a STEM area. In addition, the more time students spent on the spatial ability test, the better they tended to perform, which is a finding inconsistent with current literature.