Problem Identification and Task Engagement Using the LIBRE Problem Solving Tool: A Case Study of Three Bilingual Teacher Candidates

Bilingual Latino students engage multiple languages, cultures and environments as they pursue educational and professional goals. For this underrepresented group, pursuing a post-secondary degree is a “lucha” (fight) to negotiate the complex interplay of historical, educational, and cultural variables and achieve academic success. Because Bilingual Latino teacher success is incumbent upon successfully negotiating and overcoming linguistic, cultural and educational challenges, examination of problem solving and goal setting is necessary to provide insight into the types of barriers and facilitators that this group experiences and the ways in which they overcome obstacles. An in-depth case study of three bilingual teacher candidates illustrates the use of the LIBRE problem-solving tool as a culturally responsive activity involving a sequence of problem identification, analysis, solution generation, and evaluation to facilitate problem resolution. The case studies examined herein illuminate self-reported social-cultural contextual challenges, solutions, goals, and engagement through explicit problem solving and shows the primacy of familia and cultura in these women’s lives, problem-solving, and decision making. Implications for teacher educators and bilingual Latino teacher candidates are discussed

Models of pre-service teachers' academic achievement: The influence of cognitive motivational variables

Theoretical models were tested using structural equation modeling to evaluate the interrelations among cognitive motivational variables and academic achievement using a sample of 128 predominately Hispanic pre-service teachers enrolled in two undergraduate educational psychology classes. Data were gathered using: (1) a quantitative questionnaire to assess personal control, internal causality, self-efficacy, mastery goal orientation, and final course grade and (2) a problem-solving activity to identify engagement style: action- or process-oriented. The proposed theoretical model produced a poor model fit and thus a modified model was forwarded that directly linked self-efficacy with final course grade rather then mediated by mastery goal orientation. Results supported the modified model and suggested that the cognitive motivational variables under investigation played important roles in predicting students’ grades, with self-efficacy acting as the mediator between both internal causality and personal control and students’ final course grade. This study also demonstrated that the modified model was relatively invariant across gender, ethnicity, and engagement style. Implications for both teacher educators and teachers for understanding the complex links between cognitive motivational variables and academic achievement with a predominately Hispanic sample are discussed

Effects of a school-based prevention program on academic outcomes

A total of 100 de-identified student records were obtained for analysis. Of the 100 participants, 70 were enrolled in the Reconnecting Youth program (treatment group) during the spring 2005 semester. The 70 students enrolled in RY (treatment group) were selected as follows: One hundred students in the high school were randomly selected and placed in the Reconnecting Youth program as an elective course. Of the 100 students, 72 signed consent forms and agreed to participate in the `Project Respect' program evaluation. Drawn from the 72 students who participated in the Reconnecting Youth Program and Project Respect Study, 70 de-identified student records were available for inclusion in the study. A comparison group of 30 students subsequently was selected at random from among those students enrolled in the school during the 2004-2005 school year but who did not participate in the Reconnecting Youth Program or Project Respect Study. A repeated measures analysis of variance showed that overall, the treatment andSchool of Teaching and Curriculum Leadershi