Learning from what? A question of subject focus in religious education in England and Wales

The terms learning about and learning from religion have now become firmly established in the lexicon of religious education (RE). The publication of a national Non‐statutory Framework for RE in October 2004 gave them official status. But what is actually meant by these terms? Certainly teachers have been less confident when attempting to put learning from religion into practice. This article takes the view that a clear articulation of what and how pupils should learn from religion depends on being clear about what it is they should learn about religion in the first place. It goes on to argue that what pupils learn about religion is often not reflective of anything distinctive that distinguishes religious education from other humanities subjects. This is due to the dominance of a naturalistic understanding of religion in religious education, based on disciplines such as sociology and anthropology.

This article seeks to redress the balance by attempting to outline a second order interpretative framework that is more truly reflective of religious life than the naturalistic disciplines yet less narrow than a tradition bound theological framework. The latter part of the article offers an example of how this might be reflected in taking pupils to visit various places of worship.     

A role for ERK MAP kinase in physiologic temporal integration in hippocampal area CA1

Recent studies demonstrate a requirement for the Extracellular signal Regulated Kinase (ERK) mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade in both the induction of long-lasting forms of hippocampal synaptic plasticity and in hippocampus-dependent associative and spatial learning. In the present studies, we investigated mechanisms by which ERK might contribute to synaptic plasticity at Schaffer collateral synapses in hippocampal slices. We found that long-term potentiation (LTP) induced with a pair of 100-Hz tetani does not require ERK activation in mice whereas it does in rats. However, in mice, inhibition of ERK activation blocked LTP induced by two LTP induction paradigms that mimicked the endogenous θ rhythm. In an additional series of studies, we found that mice specifically deficient in the ERK1 isoform of MAPK showed no impairments in tests of hippocampal physiology. To investigate ERK-dependent mechanisms operating during LTP-inducing stimulation paradigms, we monitored spike production in the cell body layer of the hippocampus during the period of θ-like LTP-inducing stimulation. θ-burst stimulation (TBS) produced a significant amount of postsynaptic spiking, and the likelihood of spike production increased progressively over the course of the three trains of TBS independent of any apparent increase in Excitatory Post-Synaptic Potential (EPSP) magnitude. Inhibition of ERK activation dampened this TBS-associated increase in spiking. These data indicate that, for specific patterns of stimulation, ERK may function in the regulation of neuronal excitability in hippocampal area CA1. Overall, our data indicate that the progressive increase in spiking observed during TBS represents a form of physiologic temporal integration that is dependent on ERK MAPK activity.     

How do children coordinate simultaneous upper and lower extremity tasks? The development of dual motor task coordination

When performing simultaneous clapping with walking or galloping, adults adopt coupled, consistent and stable dual motor task coordination; do developmental trends in this coordination exist? In this study, we measured and compared coupling characteristics, consistency across trials and variability of phasing in 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-year-olds (n=44) as they also performed the same dual motor task. For walk/clap, children adopted specific coupling patterns like adults by 8 years and with the same consistency by 10 years. Across age, children became less variable in clap and step movements separately and as coupled together. In the gallop/clap, children did not resemble adults in coupling patterns by 10 years but all measures were becoming more consistent across age. We discuss dual motor task coordination as a function of age and task complexity using a "dynamic" perspective within a developmental context.     

Eating disorders and obesity

The majority of patients with eating disorders are female. Most of those seeking treatment for weight loss are also women. Our culture views slenderness as beautiful, creating pressure to be thin. For some, however, the pursuit of thinness may be a way to avoid difficult developmental tasks, increase self-acceptance or get approval from others. Whatever its purpose, seeking slimness can lead to health problems as a result of starvation, binging and purging, or rapid cycles of weight loss and gain. Starvation and the binge-purge cycle themselves also create psychological problems. In this article, the etiology, maintenance and treatment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia are discussed from a cognitive-behavioral perspective. Attention is given to the interplay of physical, psychological and behavioral aspects of these disorders. Although obesity is a physical condition, not an emotional disorder, many women are distressed over their size due to the influence of cultural demands for thinness. The psychotherapist working with weight control may face the dilemma of whether to help a woman accept herself at her size or lose weight. Some guidelines for making a decision are discussed. Cognitions impeding weight loss are identified, and advances in cognitive-behavioral weight loss treatment are discussed.Jill Bresler is a psychologist in private practice and is on staff at the Institute for Rational-Emotive Therapy, New York City     

Race Relations on Prime Time Television Reconsidered: Patterns of Continuity and Change

This study was designed to assess the changes that have occurred in the portrayals of black people and cross-racial relationships in prime-time television broadcasting during the past decade. By replicating the content analysis procedures used by Weigel, Loomis, and Soja (1980), this investigation provided a consistent basis for comparing two similar samples of television content drawn, respectively, from 1978 and 1989. Results of this comparison indicated that, although black appearances and cross-racial interactions were no more frequent in the 1989 sample of product commercials, the black presence in prime-time programming had increased substantially. As compared to 1978, the proportion of time that one or more black characters were on the screen more than doubled, while the frequency of cross-racial interactions more than tripled in the 1989 sample. Nevertheless, ratings of qualitative dimensions of these cross-racial interactions suggested that relationships between blacks and whites on television continued to be portrayed as cooperative but emotionally detached, particularly when the relationships occurred outside of the work place.     

Genetic counseling after abnormal prenatal diagnosis: Facilitating coping in families who continue their pregnancies

Families continuing a pregnancy after abnormal prenatal diagnosis face a unique crisis. Case examples are combined with clinical observations and a review of selected literature to define the elements of this crisis. Counseling strategies are discussed that may facilitate coping. Further research is needed to define the experience, as well as to identify effective coping strategies and successful counseling approaches.     

GENERALIZED IMITATION AND RESPONSE-CLASS FORMATION IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

An experimental analysis of imitation was conducted to examine the influence of response topography on generalization of imitation across three response types. Four children with autism were presented with both reinforced training trials and nonreinforced probe trials of models from vocal, toy-play, and pantomime response types. The probe trials were used to examine generalization within each response type. A multiple baseline design was used to analyze percentage of matching and nonmatching responses to models across response types. This study, the first to analyze imitative response classes in children with autism, showed that imitation generalized from reinforced training models to nonreinforced probe models within a response type, but it did not generalize across response types. Thus, functional response classes determined by topographical boundaries were exhibited within generalized imitation.