In this chapter, we estimate the feasibility of using the Navy Life Game to teach and assess self-efficacy. The Navy Life Game is intended to stimulate interest in the Navy, increase familiarity with an array of jobs aboard Navy ships, and increase self-efficacy. Thus, two useful goals would be (a) to add instructional features to the game aimed at increasing the player's self-efficacy for accomplishing game tasks, and (b) to measure the player's self-efficacy for performing game tasks. However, the feasibility of these goals must be estimated. This chapter answered three feasibility questions: Is there a theoretical framework that exists that will inform this decision? Are there instructional strategies that are evidence-based to teach self-efficacy? Are there metrics to measure self-efficacy in a game context?

This chapter proposes a framework linking motivational, emotional, and engagement constructs, within serious game and simulation contexts, primarily drawing on the educational psychology literature. It examines characteristics of these games, with special attention to those features that impact motivation. Relevant theories from the motivation literature are briefly reviewed that have relevance for serious games and simulations, major constructs are examined, and a discussion of the linkages and connections among motivation, emotion, and engagement is presented. In addition, a set of motivational principles was developed as a foundation for measurement and assessment. Finally, consideration of the questions of what to assess, when to assess, and how to assess were addressed with suggestions for possible approaches.

In this chapter, we adopt the term emergent bilingual (EB) to more accurately index and designate those whose bilingualism is still emerging. In spite of a significant increase in recent asset-based national policy statements aimed at recognizing the language diversity of young children, much of the language research on emergent bilinguals still emanates from a deficit perspective. Nonetheless, we advance the hypothesis that the reasons for lower performance are less likely to be due to learner-based deficits and more likely to be due to policy, programmatic, and instructional factors. We also suggest that a reconceptualizing of traditional research categories is needed since these categories are socially constructed and descriptive, not theoretical or explanatory of language learning. Similarly, as scholars have identified a "special education symbolism" that is evoked about individuals with various "dis/ability" labels that marginalize them, we suspect there is also an emergent bilingual symbolism or mindset that is evoked about young multi-language learners in schools or research settings, creating an overall negative ideology about their performance outcomes. Finally, we advocate for a "contrapuntal" theoretical approach for studying young emergent bilinguals in hopes of generating improved research designs that result in deeper insights into children's language learning abilities.

Studies of interventions’ impact on reading self-efficacy have been conducted since the 1980s. The purpose of this project was to conduct a systematic review of these studies because the primary studies often yielded divergent results. Included studies entailed an intervention, addressed reading specifically, and reported explicit pre- and postintervention measures of reading self-efficacy. Subjects were students in elementary grades through college. The results of a systematic search and screening procedure found 30 studies in which 2,300 subjects received treatments of various kinds while 1,957 were in control or comparison groups. A meta-analysis of three subsets of study designs revealed that each subset generated a significant effect size: treatment–control (g = 0.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.10, 0.39]); treatment–comparison (g = 0.44, 95% CI [0.04, 0.84]); pretest–posttest (g = 0.36, 95% CI [0.16, 0.57]). Significant heterogeneity was found and modeled using moderator analyses conducted on several variables. The results indicated that significant moderators of effect sizes included grade level, number of sources shaping reading self-efficacy, a reading self-efficacy measurement index, and journal publication. In studies that measured the impact of the intervention on reading comprehension, its relationship with reading self-efficacy was analyzed revealing a strong correlation between the two constructs. Discussion includes an exploration of the importance of these findings to future policy, practice, and research on the design of reading self-efficacy measurement instruments and on interventions that utilize major sources of experiences shaping reading self-efficacy.

This paper explores the issue of social and cultural capital with immigrant students and their families. Drawing on a cultural-historical theoretical framework, the article focuses on that subset related to schooling that we term academic instrumental knowledge (AIK). This article draws from two related projects involving ethnographic work at home and at school with Latino immigrant families to examine the nature of specific examples of how this knowledge is constructed and how it operates in the daily lives of these families. The article argues all families possess cultural and social capital, but it does not always map easily on to that valued by schools. Moreover, that while such knowledge appears to be critical to school success, intervention based on simple transmission of important school-related facts and knowledge, without reference to the specific sociocultural contexts in which these families live, will not be effective

The academic achievement rates of urban Latino students are significantly lower than those of non-minority youth. To date, most of the research on this topic has focused on learning and motivational characteristics of underrepresented youth in elementary and middle school and much less on urban high schools. This study investigated variables related to learning, motivation, and engagement among high school–aged Latino youth. We found that learning and motivational variables were predictive of academic engagement for Latinos, paralleling work with non-minority samples. Motivational variables are seldom given adequate attention when considering interventions for low-achieving students, despite the abundant literature that demonstrates their connection to academic outcomes. Fortunately, the factors examined in the study are amenable to intervention.

In this article, the authors focus on the disciplinary divides between multicultural, bilingual, and special education. Existing issues that inhibit closer integration of these areas are highlighted, and a focus on the issue of culture is examined. Problematic ways that this key area has been treated in the past are described, and a proposal for a cultural focus on all students is described.

DOCUMENT RESUME

This paper examines what researchers have learned from teachers about high quality instruction for poor second language learners. It begins by describing the Vygotskian notion of responsivity. Next, it describes specific practices and guidelines, focusing on: differentiating instruction; understanding teachers' responsibility for knowing about students' lives; expecting the most and avoiding the deficit model; implementing curriculum that is meaningful to all students; recognizing knowledge of two languages and cultures; and being aware of default curriculum. The third section explains how to look beyond reading instruction, explaining that while differentiating instruction can improve the chances for all children to succeed, there are some larger societal issues that need to be part of the conversation (poverty, anti-immigrant and anti-bilingualism sentiments, lack of resources, and environmental hazards). The paper asserts that support networks of teachers and administrators are critical for rethinking curriculum and the role of teachers and administrators in larger,community issues to best serve the needs of poor, inner city, second language learners. (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the ori inal document. 7r LISTENING TO INNER CITY TEACHERS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE oo c:s LEARNERS: DIFFERENTIATING LITERACY INSTRUCTION' r-Laurie MacGillivray W Robert Rueda University of Southern California

In this article, the authors focus on the disciplinary divides between multicultural, bilingual, and special education. Existing issues that inhibit closer integration of these areas are highlighted, and a focus on the issue of culture is examined. Problematic ways that this key area has been treated in the past are described, and a proposal for a cultural focus on all students is described.

This study investigates possible relationships among motivational and learning variables (interest, self-efficacy and self-regulation) and three types of student engagement (behavioural engagement, emotional engagement and cognitive engagement) in a distance education setting. Participants were 203 students enrolled in online classes in the fall semester of 2008 in the Schools of Gerontology and Engineering at a large research university in the south-western USA, who completed an online survey assessing their levels of situational interest, computer self-efficacy, self-regulation and engagement in distance education. Situational interest and self-regulation were found to be significantly correlated with three types of engagement (behavioural, emotional and cognitive), while computer self-efficacy did not appear to be associated with any of those engagement variables. Results suggested that online activities and tools such as multimedia and discussion boards may increase emotional engagement in online learning, although they do not necessarily increase behavioural or cognitive engagement, that educators should identify students who are taking online courses for the first time and provide necessary technical help to increase their emotional engagement, and that it is important for educators to offer students strategies for increasing their self-regulation in distance education environments.

This paper first reviews the research on the influence of culture, notably differences in discourse and interaction characteristics between children’s homes and classrooms (Au, 1980; Au & Mason, 1981; McCarty, Wallace, Lynch, & Benally, 1991) on the academic engagement and performance of Native American children. It then turns to an examination of instructional approaches to promote literacy that have been used with Native American children (Anderson & Watts, 1996; Au & Carroll, 1997; Bacon, Kidd & Seaberg, 1982; Doebler & Mardis, 1980-81; Fayden, 1997; McCarty, 1993; Rosier & Holm, 1980; Tharp, 1982). With regard to the research on discourse and interaction characteristics, the descriptive studies provide evidence that norms and expectations for social interaction differ between the home and conventional school environments of Native American children. Further, one study (Au & Mason, 1981) indicates that culturally compatible instruction had positive effects on native Hawaiian speakers’ level of engagement and participation during reading lessons. The few programs that examine instruction suggest that Native American children benefit from culturally-based instructional approaches designed to align schooling with students’ cultural background, but additional research is needed. Many of the programs reviewed combine many elements, some of which are not culturallyrooted, so it is difficult to determine exactly what it is about the programs that made them effective. Moreover, most of the studies are case studies or nonexperimental comparative studies and thus the findings about effective practice are suggestive only.