Active Instruction for Co-Teachers in a Support Role

One-teach/one-assist and one-teach/one-observe are the two most widely used co-teaching models. Special educators often take on the support role when these models are used. At times, co-teachers in the support role may be unclear about how to implement active instructional practices that engage students and improve student outcomes. In this article, opportunities to respond and contingent support are described as two research-based practices that can be implemented by co-teachers in the support role.

The Epistemology of Skill and Knowledge Development to Teach Portuguese in a Virtual Learning Environment

This article explores the underlying processes involved as two experienced Portuguese as a foreign language instructors, who are novices to 3D technologies, became immersed in the epistemology of teaching in a 3D context. The two instructors undertook a challenging initiative to develop and deliver two sections of oral Portuguese in a 3D environment. Through the contingent support of a European community of practitioners, the two instructors explored how the game-based elements and other semiotic resources of SL could be used to enact affordances for the development of goal-oriented tasks, collaborative activities, and interactions in order to guide students in building their oral proficiency in Portuguese. The skill and knowledge development were examined with the trajectories of Compton's framework and epistemological theory where teaching in virtual contexts is contingent upon the construction of technological, pedagogical, and evaluation skills.

The Epistemology of Skill and Knowledge Development to Teach Portuguese in a Virtual Learning Environment

This article explores the underlying processes involved as two experienced Portuguese as a foreign language instructors, who are novices to 3D technologies, became immersed in the epistemology of teaching in a 3D context. The two instructors undertook a challenging initiative to develop and deliver two sections of oral Portuguese in a 3D environment. Through the contingent support of a European community of practitioners, the two instructors explored how the game-based elements and other semiotic resources of SL could be used to enact affordances for the development of goal-oriented tasks, collaborative activities, and interactions in order to guide students in building their oral proficiency in Portuguese. The skill and knowledge development were examined with the trajectories of Compton's framework and epistemological theory where teaching in virtual contexts is contingent upon the construction of technological, pedagogical, and evaluation skills.

An Observational Study of Antecedents of Locus of Control of Reinforcement

Locus of control of reinforcement refers to a generalised problem-solving expectancy reflecting the degree to which individuals perceive reinforcements as contingent on their own behaviour (internal control) or on some external force such as luck, chance, or fate (external control). The present study tested predictions based on Rotter's social learning theory that mothers of children with internal control expectancies would provide more contingent reinforcement, support, and encouragement of independence than mothers of children with external control expectancies. The interaction of 51 children and their mothers was video-taped while they attempted puzzle-solving tasks of two difficulty levels. No analyses were significant for the easy level task. In contrast, the difficult task produced several significant findings. Mothers of boys with internal control expectancies provided more contingent support in response to their sons' difficulties and were less likely to respond to their son's difficulties by performing the task for their sons or by watching them struggle. Surprisingly, mothers of girls with internal control expectancies were more likely than mothers of girls with external control expectancies to ignore their daughters' accomplishments and difficulties. Thus, the results provided partial support for predictions derived from Rotter's social learning theory for the development of generalised control expectancies.

Fostering Independence in Mother-Child Interactions: Longitudinal Changes in Contingency Patterns as Children Grow Competent in Developmental Tasks

The study attempted to reconstruct changes in naturalistic interactions between mother and child while children gained competence in three basic developmental tasks, namely, while they were learning to walk, eat, and dress themselves alone. Cross-sequentially organised observations focused on independent and dependent child behaviours and corresponding supportive mother reactions. At four measurement points across a period of 100 days, six children, two each at the age of 9, 12, and 21 months, were videotaped at home interacting with their mothers; at each point, mothers were interviewed about children's competencies. Changes in behaviour frequencies and interaction patterns were consistent with hypotheses that mothers adjust their socialising interactions to children's growing competencies in developmental tasks. Before tasks were begun, interactions could be characterised as nurturant (contingent maternal support for dependent behaviour only); when children were actively learning in a task, interactions evolved into complementary patterns (maternal support for both dependent and independent behaviours); and when competence was firmly established, mothers rarely showed contingent support for either dependent or independent task-related behaviours. The discussion contrasts processes of developmental change in socialising contexts with assumptions about the stability of childrearing practices.