The Role of Maternal Beliefs in Predicting Home Learning Activities in Head Start Families Family Relations

150 TESOL QUARTERLY The Role of Maternal Beliefs in Predicting Home Learning Activities in Head Start Families.. What infl uences do a mother, child, and family have on learning acti vi

150 TESOL QUARTERLY

The Role of Maternal Beliefs in Predicting Home Learning

Activities in Head Start Families Family Relations ,

51, 2, 176–184 Sandra Machida, Angela R Taylor,

and Juhu Kim, 2002

What infl uences do a mother, child, and family have on learning

acti vities in low-income homes? What factors best predict parental

invol vement in home learning activities? The researchers examine

the mediational role of parental beliefs, such as self-effi cacy (“a parent’s

belief that he or she possesses the required parenting skills to meet

specifi c childrearing challenges”) and perceived control (a parent’s

per-ception of personal control in determining their child’s personality and

development), on their child’s home experience in 306 Head Start

chil-dren and their mothers The sample was 51% Mexican American

Machida et al interviewed the mothers in the fall and spring of the Head

Start program’s academic year During the fall interviews, mothers were

asked to respond to survey items, and in the spring they were asked to

complete a home learning environment profi le The survey and profi le

allowed the researchers to measure maternal education, family stress,

child temperament, maternal beliefs, and home learning activities

Interviews were conducted one-on-one in either the mother’s home or at

the Head Start center Machida et al.’s research partially confi rmed the

belief that parent self-effi cacy mediates the effect of child temperament

that will then impact the family’s home learning activities Another fi

nd-ing is that family stress has an indirect impact on the home learnnd-ing

envi-ronment through the mother’s self-effi cacy This research fails to confi rm

the role of perceived control in predicting home learning activities The

fi ndings in this study help educators understand how people and families

in different situations deal with parenting and the unique situations that

arise in their homes

GENNA GURKOFF

The Dalton School and New York University

New York, New York, United States

Interactional Differentiation in the Mixed-Ability Group:

A Situated View of Two Struggling Readers Reading Research

Quarterly , 43, 228–250 Deborah Poole, 2008

Do homogenous or heterogeneous grouping make a difference for

struggling readers in late elementary school? Grouping has been a

con-troversial topic in a number of school districts in the United States