Children's perceptions of the effectiveness of techniques to reduce fear from mass media

In two separate studies, children reported on their perceptions of the effectiveness of various strategies for reducing fright reactions to mass media stimuli. Three age groups were involved: preschool, 3 to 5 years; early elementary school, 6 to 7 years; and older elementary school, 9 to 11 years. The studies revealed that the perceived effectiveness of cognitive strategies, such as “tell yourself it's not real,” increased with age, whereas that of noncognitive strategies, such as “get something to eat or drink,” decreased with age. The differential effectiveness of the two types of strategies had been predicted on the basis of cognitive developmental differences among the groups. Specifically, developmental increases were assumed in the ability to distinguish fantasy from reality, in the ability to modify one's own thought processes, and in functional cognitive capacity. Methodological differences between Study 1 and Study 2 demonstrated that younger children's “yea-saying” tendencies can be circumvented by employing forced choices between pairs of alternative strategies. Both studies also revealed that scary television shows and movies are quite popular among children and that fright reactions to such offerings are prevalent.     

Relative consistency and subjects’ “theories” in domains such as naive physics: Common research difficulties illustrated by Cooke and Breedin

While augmenting the literature with data that further exhibit context-specific responding to qualitative motion problems, Cooke and Breedin (1994) exhibit common theoretical and methodological difficulties that undermine their conclusions. Herein these flaws are explicated and con. trasted with features of studies that avoid the pitfalls of (2) theoretical vagueness, (2) overly coarse data aggregation, (3) nondiagnostic, errarful assessment items, and (4) imprecise measures of the variety of (mis/)conceptions (e.g., of “impetus,” or inertia). The difficulties call into question Cooke and Breedin’s claims that impetus ideas play minor roles in performance and that “naive theories” of motion are largely constructed on line. Because each confusion often arises from the polysemy of “theory,” same empirical criteria for “theoryness” are discussed, including subjects’ conceptual, temporal, and coherence-based consistencies (regarding researchers’ models and isomorphs). While naive physics may be idiosyncratic, baroque, context-driven, and apparently inconsistent, it might (additionally) be based upon fairly a priori, systematic, and temporally stable information.     

Guidance and New Education for Schools

A rationale for broad-based school reform is detailed, including a brief examination of the old guidance as separate from the teaching model for school practice. Instead it is now clear that the general curriculum of schools must include psychological growth as a direct object of classroom instruction. To accomplish such “new education,” goals will require a major role shift and commitment on the part of school guidance. There are currently in place a few examples of guidance education in the curriculum at both the elementary and secondary level. These efforts serve only as exemplars of what is possible, namely that an effective guidance role can alter both classroom teaching strategies as well as broaden the curriculum content. It is most strongly suggested that guidance theory and practice take the lead in seeking school reforms.     

How teachers use the group I.Q. test scores

Ninety elementary school teachers, grades 2–6, in two school districts in Ohio were interviewed to obtain information on how they used the results of group IQ tests. Twenty-seven of 90 teachers (30%) reported making “little or no use” of the test scores. Most of these teachers presumably had more faith in their own tools and observations than in the IQ test scores. However, 76 of 90 teachers (84%, including the ones who made little use of the test scores) stated that they used the test scores for one or more purposes. The four most frequently mentioned uses were: (a) “for discussion in parent conferences” (51%); (b) “to know a student's potential and/or determine ability-motivation discrepancy” (42%); (c) “to plan instruction” (39.5%) and (d) “for referral purposes” (29%). The instructional strategies mentioned by the teachers varied and were categorized into 21 categories.     

Pragmatic Unification, Observation and Realism in Astroparticle Physics

Astroparticle physics is a recent sub-discipline of physics that emerged from early cosmic ray studies, astrophysics, and particle physics. Its theoretical foundations range from quantum field theory to general relativity, but the underlying “standard models” of cosmology and particle physics are far from being unified. The paper explores the pragmatic strategies employed in astroparticle physics in order to unify a disunified research field, the concept of observation involved in these strategies, and their relations to scientific realism.     

Inhibition of Threshold Excitation in the Human Eye

Sixty–seven albino rats were tested in a maze situation under five different conditions in an attempt to investigate the presence of “social influences.” One condition was comprised of naive subjects, each run singly. A second condition was comprised of naive subjects run in pairs. A third condition consisted of naive subjects run in squads of three each. A fourth condition consisted of one naive subject run with one trained subject; and the remaining condition consisted of one naive subject run with two trained subjects. The results showed that performance was facilitated by increasing the number of naive subjects in the presence of other naive subjects (“numbers effect”), by the presence of a performing, trained S (“trained effect”), and by increasing the number of trained subjects (“interaction effect”). Inasmuch as these findings are in apparent contradiction to those reported by some previous researchers, an attempt was made to provide an explanation for the differences in experimental findings.     

Special Rules for the Church: The “Ministerial” Exception under the Americans with Disabilities Act

Abstract : In the Hosanna‐Tabor case, the United States Supreme Court held that there is a broad exception under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for employees who are ministers. A Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod school could fire an elementary school teacher with a disability because she was a “called teacher,” even though the termination would otherwise have violated the ADA. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America supported this decision, but this contradicts the ELCA's position with respect to persons living with disabilities. It also reflects an “idolatry of the call” inconsistent with the priesthood of all believers. A better course for the ELCA is to agree to be bound by those standards that it advocates for the secular world.     

Toward an ecology of student development

A key assumption behind the Cube is that the work of counselors can be more effective as they strive toward the developmental and organizational ends of those dimensions, using whichever methods are appropriate. Blocher fills in some of the detail behind this assumption with his example of life in the elementary school classroom. He posits three subsystems in the classroom ecology. The first he calls “opportunity structure,” the second “support structure,” and the third “reward structure.” The implementation of an ecological approach to student development will require the preparation of a professional with quite different competencies and interests than has been the case. The last section of this issue is addressed to that concern.     

Scientific Writing Between Tabloid Storytelling,Arcane Formulaic Hermetism,and Narrative Knowledge

The present discussion contribution argues that O. Müller not only suppresses Goethe’s declared intentions with regard to the latter’s Theory of Colors and ignores his place in what in any case is a different scientific culture than his (Müller’s) own or Newton’s, namely a premodern culture of “narrative knowledge” in the sense specified by Lyotard. Moreover, Müller entangles himself in the paradox of wanting on the one hand to back up Goethe on the level of fact when the latter opposes the militant selfrighteousness of the Newtonian school, but doing so on the other hand by constructing an epic-heroic narrative of Newtonian militance, not to say eristic belligerence contradictory to Goethe’s own “tolerant enlightenment” in Lakatos’ sense. Thus, we are confronted with one of those cases where, as Paul de Man puts it, a multidimensional critical reading on the semiological as well as rhetorical levels shows “that the text does not practice what it preaches” (1979, 5).     

Philosophical perspectives on ad hoc hypotheses and the Higgs mechanism

We examine physicists’ charge of ad hocness against the Higgs mechanism in the standard model of elementary particle physics. We argue that even though this charge never rested on a clear-cut and well-entrenched definition of “ad hoc”, it is based on conceptual and methodological assumptions and principles that are well-founded elements of the scientific practice of high-energy particle physics. We further evaluate the implications of the recent discovery of a Higgs-like particle at the CERN’s Large Hadron Collider for the charge of ad hocness against the Higgs mechanism.     

Confort des élèves et performance du bâtiment scolaire

Schools today are designed above all as educational tools and do not always take sufficient account of the physical parameters that are nevertheless environmental factors that have an impact on the capacity to read and concentrate. The aim of our study is to compare the comfort perceived by children in two schools, one with traditional design, the other with a modern design. Two types of tool were used: (a) an analytical study of the plans of the two schools, and (b) a survey using questionnaires completed by 232 elementary school children (8-10 years old). We discuss the results showing that the children in the school with a modern design had higher scores on the “Disturbance” dimension, and on “Privacy”.     

No Matter How Hard You Try,Your Feet Still Get Wet: Insider and Outsider Perspectives on Bridging Diversity

Mental health practitioners have offered relatively little in response to the pervasive community violence faced by many children living in impoverished neighborhoods. The “neighborhood club” is a school‐based, short‐term, support group designed to assist children with the psychological impact of exposure to community violence. Ten “neighborhood clubs” were conducted in two public elementary schools in Detroit, Michigan. This paper reviews the implementation of a bilingual “neighborhood club,” undertaken to better serve the Spanish‐speaking Latino students in a school community. We discuss many of the rewards and challenges of conducting a bilingual, multicultural support group for children and conclude that a bilingual support group provides all children with a model that validates ethnic and cultural diversity while also building empathic bonds based on mutually‐reinforcing, common experiences.     

Aggressive behavior among girls and boys during middle childhood: predictors and sequelae of trajectory group membership

Using longitudinal data spanning early elementary through middle school, aggression behavior trajectory groups were identified for boys and girls. Early elementary school predictors of trajectory group membership were examined as well as whether trajectory group predicted physical aggression, covert delinquency, and substance use in 9th grade. Semiparametric group modeling identified aggression behavior trajectory groups. We identified four aggression trajectory groups for both genders described as “not involved,” “low,” “moderate,” and “high.” Attention problems, family conflict, and low school commitment and attachment were predictors of membership in higher aggression groups for both boys and girls. Low family involvement and low parental education predicted membership in higher aggression groups for boys; while depression, low‐income status, and having a single parent predicted higher aggression group membership for girls. For both boys and girls, few risk predictors distinguished between the moderate and high aggression trajectories except that low school commitment and having a teen mother were significant predictors of being in the high group for girls, and low parental education and income were significant predictors of being in the high group for boys. Membership in the higher aggression trajectory groups predicted involvement in violent behaviors, covert delinquency, and substance use in 9th grade. Findings suggest that children who display an early trajectory of high levels of aggressive behavior are more likely to continue involvement in later problem behaviors. Second‐grade predictors suggest commonality of risk across genders and provide evidence of modifiable targets for preventive interventions. Aggr. Behav. 32:1–15. 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

儿童和青少年的空间—时间隐喻图式

研究考察儿童和青少年是否具有“左-右”空间-时间隐喻图式。以泉州市惠安县4所学校小学三年级、小学六年级、初中三年级和高中三年级共100名学生为被试,完成时态-按键匹配任务。结果发现,各年级被试均对“左-过去,右-将来”的按键匹配比对“左-将来,右-过去”的按键匹配反应更快,准确率更高,表明自小学三年级起,儿童和青少年在时间隐喻图式上表现出和成人一致的模式,未发现年龄发展效应。该发现支持隐喻结构观。     

Personality Characteristics of Innovative Physics Teachers

ABSTRACT Innovative physics teachers scored higher on theoretical and aesthetic values than other male high school teachers, but lower on economic, religious, and political values. The innovative teachers scored much higher on a physics achievement test than physics teachers in three summer institutes. While they are close to the norm for male secondary school teachers on teaching attitudes, they have a lower need for affiliation than this group. Compared with other male high-school science teachers, they are less abasing and affiliative, but more autonomous and heterosexual. Because of their relatively high intellectual and artistic values, and needs for autonomy and social independence, their profiles resemble those of creative scientists. Two personality variables suggesting a “warm, outgoing teaching attitude factor” are significantly correlated with the teachers' knowledge of physics. The teachers who have a firm grasp of their subject not only have more positive attitudes toward teaching, but appear to be less intraceptive.     

儿童和青少年的空间—时间隐喻图式

研究考察儿童和青少年是否具有“左-右”空间-时间隐喻图式。以泉州市惠安县4所学校小学三年级、小学六年级、初中三年级和高中三年级共100名学生为被试,完成时态-按键匹配任务。结果发现,各年级被试均对“左-过去,右-将来”的按键匹配比对“左-将来,右-过去”的按键匹配反应更快,准确率更高,表明自小学三年级起,儿童和青少年在时间隐喻图式上表现出和成人一致的模式,未发现年龄发展效应。该发现支持隐喻结构观。     

Cost Effectiveness of Strategies for Recruiting Low-Income Families for Behavioral Parent Training

The goal of this study was to assess cost, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of recruitment strategies used to engage low-income families of young children with disruptive behavior disorder to participate in a Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) program. For this analysis, we used data on labor and non-labor resources associated with 13 recruitment strategies implemented in February 2014 through February 2016. We assessed the effectiveness of each strategy as the number of families that enrolled into the study. Cost-effectiveness of each recruitment strategy was expressed as cost per family enrolled; analysis was conducted in 2016. We calculated the cost of total recruitment effort for 13 strategies during the 2-year period to be $11,496 with an average cost of $885 per recruitment strategy or $255 per enrolled family. Across strategies, total costs ranged from $25 to $2540. “University mass e-mail” and “school flyers” resulted in the most phone screens (34 each); however, only 10% of these families enrolled in the study (three and four families, respectively). “Craigslist” was the most effective strategy with 30 families screened and 11 of them enrolling. Three strategies did not yield any participants. The four strategies with the lowest cost per family enrolled were “Facebook page,” “Craigslist,” “university mass e-mail,” and “organization/agency” (<$90). In conclusion, we found that some recruitment strategies were more successful at engaging low-income families to participate in a BPT program than others. Our results indicate that using a combination of recruitment strategies may be the optimal approach for recruiting low-income families.     

Les attitudes des élèves envers l’école élémentaire et leur évaluation

Two revised versions of the scale “I Like School” of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), were developed in France upon junior high school pupils and upon fourth and fifth grade level pupils (Psychol Psychométrie 15 (1994) 44–64; Can J Behav Sci 35 (2003b) 50–55). This study presents a validation of an adaptation of these versions of the scale to French elementary school pupils, intitled “Échelle des attitudes des élèves envers l’école élémentaire” (ÉAÉE). Four factors still arise, with an improvement of their internal consistency. Fifth factor is also controlled, named “Funny school, distraction place”. The results indicate acceptable fidelity (internal consistency and test–retest reliability), allow to identify the personal factors, which determine the attitudes towards school and support the convergent validity of the scale.