Cross-Language Transfer of Early Literacy Skills: An Examination of Young Learners in a Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Elementary School

The present study investigates the relationship between first-language literacy skills and the acquisition of second-language reading skills for K–2 grade students enrolled in a Spanish–English two-way bilingual immersion program. Students received literacy instruction in their first language and oral language support in their second language. One hundred seventy-four students were administered subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson (Woodcock-Munoz) in English and Spanish. Findings support the theory of cross-linguistic transfer from the first language to the second language across both constrained and unconstrained literacy skills for both monolingual and bilingual students included in this study. However, findings also suggest interesting differences across language groups.     

Children's Understanding of Lies in Elementary School Years

The author examined whether children's understanding of lies exhibits developmental trends in the elementary school years. Four story contexts were presented to 51 first-grade students, 44 fourth-grade students, and 58 adults. These stories represented combinations of a protagonist's intention (truthful or deceptive) and the truth of the protagonist's message (true or false). The results showed that adults judged whether these messages were lies by considering the protagonist's intentions. By contrast, approximately 30% of first-grade students and some fourth-grade students did not consider intentions in making judgments, although they appropriately predicted the outcomes of the messages. These results suggest that children in the early elementary school years have a conception of lies different from that of adults, and their conception of lies becomes more sophisticated after middle childhood.     

师生关系与小学生自我概念的关系研究

本研究采用访谈法与问卷法,选取北京市3所小学的498名三至六年级的小学生(男生255名,女生243名)及其班主任作为被试,考察了小学生的师生关系与自我概念的关系。研究结果发现:(1)师生关系的冲突性、亲密性和反应性与小学生自我概念发展具有显著相关。(2)师生关系对自我概念不同方面的发展的预测不同,师生关系的亲密性、冲突性和反应性对自我概念的各方面具有不同的预测性。(3)亲密型师生关系更有利于小学生自我概念的健康发展,冷漠型师生关系最有碍于小学生的自我概念发展。本研究结果对于教育实践具有重要的指导意义。     

Preferences and Children's Use of Gender-Stereotyped Knowledge About Musical Instruments: Making Judgments About Other Children's Preferences

A developmental model of gender-stereotype acquisition (Martin, 1989) proposes that by the age of 8 years children draw upon information about gender-stereotyped interests as well as other children's sex when deciding how much other children would like different activities; younger children rely on sex only when making such decisions. We examined whether the judgments that children made about other children's preferences were different from those that they made about their own preferences for masculine and feminine musical instruments. Three hundred twelve children aged 8–9 years ranked 6 instruments in order of preference, and rated on a 4-point scale how much they would like to play each one. Children were then asked to decide how much other children would like to play each instrument. Only girls' own preferences for feminine instruments differed according to the gender-stereotyping of their most-preferred instrument. Judgments about how much other children would like masculine and feminine instruments did not differ according to those children's gender-stereotyped interest. Children made stereotypical predictions about the preferences of children of unknown sex who played either a masculine or feminine instrument. Implications for a theoretical account of the development of children's gender-stereotypes are discussed.     

Early Childhood Antecedents of Aggression and Passive-Withdrawal in Early Elementary School

Early childhood antecedents of elementary school aggression and passive-withdrawal were evaluated in a large longitudinal study (N = 191). With teacher ratings as outcome measures, a variety of predictor variables were selected from a comprehensive data base. Predictors were selected to represent several major factors: (a) a developmental history of insecure attachment and poor adjustment; (b) inadequate or hostile parental care; and (c) stressful or chaotic life circumstances. Support was found for the prediction of these behavior problems from early childhood measures (up to one third of the variance), with results varying with sex and outcome measure. Results were stronger for boys than girls, and stronger for aggression than for passive-withdrawal. Boys' outcome was strongly related to attachment classification at 18 months. It is suggested that these findings support Bowlby's view that early acquired "working models" of self and other affect later interpersonal functioning.     

Vocational Concerns of Elementary Teachers: Stress,Job Satisfaction,and Occupational Commitment

This study examines the vocational concerns of 185 elementary teachers. Participants were classified based on their perceptions of the magnitude of their classroom demands and resources. These groupings were then examined for differences in teachers' personal coping resources, job satisfaction, and occupational commitment. Results indicated that teachers classified as perceiving high classroom demand vis‐à‐vis classroom resources reported lower personal coping resources, less job satisfaction, and more plans to leave their current job.     

Counseling with Elementary School Children: An Experimental Study

An attempt was made to assess results of counseling with fourth-grade students, using sociometric status as the criterion. A sociometric device was administered to four fourth-grade classrooms. Students of low sociometric status were randomly assigned by classrooms to one of three treatment conditions: (1) counseling, (2) teacher guidance, and (3) control. When treatment conditions were compared, the evidence seemed to indicate significant differences in the relative frequency with which subjects increased or decreased in sociometric status, that the differences favored the counseling condition, and that these differences persisted over a period of seven months. The possibility of a temporary teacher influence on the sociometric criterion was indicated.     

Occupational Therapy with Emotionally Disturbed Children in a Public Elementary School

This article describes a model of delivering occupational therapy services to a class of emotionally disturbed children in a public elementary school. It was determined that many of the children were placed in a special class because of inappropriate social skills. A weekly occupational therapy program was developed to address the chi Y dren's lack of age-appropriate social skills. A task-oriented group was chosen as the format, with activities selected based upon the level of the children's group interaction skills. The children exhibited an improvement in their social skills over the course of the school year.     

Communication Media Preferences in Business-To-Business Transactions: An Examination of the Purchase Process

Although communication in marketing has been researched extensively, communication in buyer–seller exchanges during the sales process has received limited attention. This study examines the complexity of information interchange and buyers’ and sellers’ communication preferences for various media types during each stage of the purchase process. Findings reveal that, overall, buyers and sellers prefer face-to-face and telephone communications over other media types. For certain aspects of the sales process, computer-mediated communications, such as e-mail, serve an important role as a lowcost medium, whereas in other phases of the sales process, richer communication media are preferred by both buyers and sellers.     

The Medical School Curate: An Examination of Student Need

The intense and encompassing nature of medical education can be overwhelming at times. The impact that this effect has on a student can be mitigated if adequately trained, spiritually focused advisors are available and present within the campus setting. This article presents real case examples of, and recommendations for, the role of medical school chaplaincies and why those chaplaincies should be a part of the culture of medical education.     

Predictors of Children's Electronic Media Use: An Examination of Three Ethnic Groups

Predictors of media use of children from 1 to 12 years old were examined for 3 ethnic groups (European American, African American, and Hispanic American). Data from the Child Development Supplement to the Panel Study of Income Dynamics representing 1,819 children were used. Models consisting of child characteristics, demographics, family characteristics, and parental well-being predictors accounted for more of the variation in media use (television and video games) by European Americans and Hispanic Americans than they did for African Americans. Generally, variables predicted total use of television similarly for the 3 ethnic groups tested. Parental education predicted use of educational media only for European Americans. Electronic video game use varied almost exclusively by the age and gender of the child. The very different patterns for television and electronic game use suggest that these media may fulfill different functions for children and families.     

假想的道德两难情境下小学儿童对说谎或说真话的抉择

研究探讨了294名7、9、11岁的小学儿童在道德两难情境下对说谎或说真话的道德行为抉择。结果表明,在个人谎故事条件下,随着年龄的增长,儿童越来越倾向于选择说真话;在集体谎故事条件下,11岁儿童比7岁、9岁儿童更倾向于选择说谎。7岁儿童已具有初步的集体观念,随着年龄的增长,小学儿童的集体观念日趋稳定。随着年龄的增长,小学儿童更多地从诚实、为集体或为个人等多个方面来陈述说谎或说真话的理由。     

小学生学校适应的发展特点及其与父母教养方式关系的研究

通过对178名小学生两年的追踪研究,考察小学生学校适应的发展特点,并进一步探讨父母教养方式对学校适应及其发展变化的影响。采用多层线性模型(HLM)方法的分析结果发现:(1)一年级小学生第一学期末(T2)的同伴关系、学校态度和学业行为表现都较好,随着入学时间延长,同伴关系和学业行为呈上升趋势,而学校态度呈下降趋势;(2)父亲学历正向预测T2时的同伴关系和学校态度;家庭收入负向预测T2时的学校态度;权威教养方式正向预测T2时的学业行为;专制教养方式负向预测T2时的同伴关系和学业行为;(3)母亲学历显著正向预测同伴关系随时间变化的速度;权威教养方式显著正向预测同伴关系和学校态度随时间变化的速度。     

Mitigating Gender-typed Occupational Preferences of Zimbabwean Primary School Children: The Use of Biographical Sketches and Portrayals of Female Role Models

The present study was designed to investigate the influence of children’s books in promoting nontraditional career aspirations of primary school girls in Zimbabwe. Children who used specially written readers that contained biographic sketches of women role models in nontraditional careers comprised the treatment group; the control group consisted of non-user children. Survey data were collected from these subgroups using multiple data collection techniques. Analysis indicates that career preferences of the treatment group were not conditional on background characteristics. As expected, analysis of post-treatment perceptions showed that girls had significantly greater interest in the careers of role models than did boys. Finally, the former also expressed more interest in nontraditional occupations during post-test analysis than the control group did.