Questions and Answers
from the “Academic Learning, Youth Development Learning and Therapeutic Learning” webinar

Questions for Bridget Hamre

Questions for Frank Grijalva

Questions for Bridget Hamre

From your student/teacher closeness graph, are these students ethnic
minorities or all kinds of students?   from ZP

The sample came from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development and included all types of children. Here is a description of the study sample: Forty-nine percent of the children in this study were male. Eleven percent of children were identified by parents as Black, 5.5% as Hispanic, and 4.2% as other race/ethnicity. Maternal education in this sample ranged from 7 to 21 years of school (M = 14.49; SD = 2.41).

There were some concerning findings regarding black children in this sample. Children identified by parents as Black not only started kindergarten with higher average teacher-perceptions of conflict, but the gap between teacher ratings of conflict for these children  and White children became greater toward the middle elementary school years. Although this gap appears to lessen toward middle school, there remains a larger gap between teacher-ratings of conflict for Black and White children in sixth grade than there was in kindergarten. This suggests that, regardless of other controlled variables, such as maternal education, Black children are perceived as having more conflictual relationships with teachers, and may be at greater risk for increasing conflict in their relationships with teachers throughout elementary school and continuing into middle school.

 Do you think that some of the decline in relationship building is related
 to the transition to single subject classes so that teachers have 5
 classes of 30 students?  from HG

This is possible, although it starts declining before students make this transition. We haven't done this but it would be really interesting to look at the pattern of relationships for children who moved to middle schools at different points. In this sample some children started middle school in 6th grade while others started in 7th. If your hypothesis is correct we might expect to see a decline in relationships in 6th grade for those students who started middle school that year, relative to their peers who stayed in an elementary setting.

Could you recommend any empirically based programs designed to promote
positive adult-child relations for afterschool staff? from LK

Great question. I know there are people doing this work now, but I haven't read any empirical papers yet. 

Do you think that My Teaching Partner would be beneficial for youth leaders as well?  Also, have you noticed if teachers who are culturally sensitive have different results? from K

I absolutely think the model is relevant to youth leaders. The basic idea is that anyone who works with children and adolescents can benefit from some stratgies that can help them relfect upon and change the ways they interact with youth. We haven't looked at issues of cultural sensitivity, though it is clearly important. In the MTP study the children were in state-funded preschool and were a very culturally diverse group. As is typical, their teachers were not nearly as culturally diverse so issues of cultural sensitivity are important to consider.

How would you approach a teacher who thinks they are treating students
appropriately but you actually see their harshness is hurting children? from JC

Yes this is a challenge. We worked with a wide range of teachers. Some who were easily able to acknowledge their strengths and challenges in interactions with students and others who really struggled to understand what we were talking about. I think the most important thing is that the consultant, mentor, or whoever is working with the teacher take the time to invest in forming a relationship. Without this most teachers aren't very interested in getting feedback. MTP also really emphasized a strengths-based perspective, so although we talked to teachers about areas of challenge, this came only after talking with them about the things they were doing well. I think this is really important to helping a teacher hear you. In the end some teachers still have different views on what is appropriate or not. Sometime we would ask teachers to watch the video and try to put themselves in the mind of the child and narrate to us what they thought the child was thinking or feeling. This sometimes helped the teacher take a new perspective - but sometimes even that didn't work.

What type of time frame is involved in conducting training to significantly alter teacher relationship behaviors? from DS

The MTP study showed that we could change these types of behaviors in a year. Teachers participated in a 1 day workshop and then, on average, completed 10 cycles of videotaping and getting feedback over the course of the year. Each cycle took about an hour of their time. I think it is important that the feedback is ongoing over a period of time, but it doesn't have to take long each time. One point we try to make is that although this seems like an intensive program, teachers spend lots of time in 1-day workshops that are very unlikely to change behavior. We break that time out across the year and provide feedback in ways that are directly linked to practice.

Can you offer the audience the citation information for the articles you used in your presentation?

Here are citations to the papers I presented:

Jerome, E., Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (in press). Teacher-Child relationships from kindergarten to sixth grade: early childhood predictors of teacher-perceived conflict and closeness. Social Development.

Pianta, R.C., Mashburn, A. J.,  Downer, J. T., Hamre, B. K. & Justice, L. (in press). Effects of web-mediated professional development resources on teacher-child interactions in pre-kindergarten classrooms. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

Hamre, B. K., & Pianta, R. C. (2005). Can instructional and emotional support in the first grade classroom make a difference for children at risk of school failure? Child Development, 76, 949-967.

For the ones in press if people contact me at bkh3d@virginia.edu I can send them copies. 

Questions for Frank Grijalva

We were curious if you had thoughts about creatnig safe environments in a youth development program-- in the event of a fight, how do you balance the need for safety of those who fought against those who witnessed the fight? is there a priority emphasis? Can there be a priority? Can both groups perceive the same environment as safe at that point?  From SLSC

 Dear SLSC, I think this is a matter of context, what was the fight about? Is there opportunity to repair after the fight? I think Diane presented a formula that would work in this type of situation as well. There needs to be a cooling off period without someone continuing to incite the participants. What I mean by this is that when there is that type of emotional contagion, there are some staff or peers who want to hold the participants accountable NOW! This generally keeps the arousal state up and the participants in a defensive posture. This is pretty standard for a threatening event. After the cooling off there needs to be one on one with a trusted authority to examine the event without blame. Let the participants own their actions. By establishing this alternative safe space to process in you can work back to re-establishing safety in the general environment. This may be a long process but it requires an authentic effort, which means that you as a staff group must be clear in your actions and united in your belief about how you want to go about the recovery process. Then you can talk about that type of behavior as unacceptable in a work environment or any other environment.

So the sequence is this. First, you as staff must model a pro-social response and not a jailer response. You must take the time to be clear and mindful of your tone, posture and facial expression as you debrief or examine the event. You control the emotional affect in the room with your affect. Next, you allow the participants to come to a reconciliation plan with multiple choices. Allow processing time in a safe place without intrusions, whatever that takes. This gives the participant time and space to consider the consequences and event in a more integrated way, for some this can be facilitated by movement (walking. shooting baskets, jump rope). Only then bring them back together. Finally, a structured process that returns the violated space back to safety such as a plan by all the students to decide how to protect the space.

Please dont hesitate to contact me if you need further information

frank@socialcapitallogistics.com