The core of religious education: Finnish student teachers’ pedagogical aims

This article investigated the core of religious education (RE) by examining Finnish student teachers’ pedagogical aims in the context of Lutheran RE. The data consisted of essays (N=82) analysed in a deductive manner using the main concepts of the didactic triangle together with the aims of the Finnish National Core Curriculum. The student teachers identified familiarising oneself with one’s own and other religions in addition to growing ethically and understanding the religious dimension of life as the core goals of RE. By attaining these goals, pupils may also achieve the higher order aims of RE and cross-curricular goals of the curriculum. A teacher’s pedagogical and moral competence as well as expertise in subject matter was emphasised, and the pedagogical relation with students was also seen as important. A deeper understanding of pupils and the importance of a didactic relation in teaching were identified as pedagogical aims that need to be pursued further.     

Intelligence as the efficiency of cue-driven retrieval from secondary memory

Complex-span (working-memory-capacity) tasks are among the most successful predictors of intelligence. One important contributor to this relationship is the ability to efficiently employ cues for the retrieval from secondary memory. Presumably, intelligent individuals can considerably restrict their memory search sets by using such cues and can thereby improve recall performance. We here test this assumption by experimentally manipulating the validity of retrieval cues. When memoranda are drawn from the same semantic category on two successive trials of a verbal complex-span task, the category is a very strong retrieval cue on its first occurrence (strong-cue trial) but loses some of its validity on its second occurrence (weak-cue trial). If intelligent individuals make better use of semantic categories as retrieval cues, their recall accuracy suffers more from this loss of cue validity. Accordingly, our results show that less variance in intelligence is explained by recall accuracy on weak-cue compared with strong-cue trials.     

The mediating role of self-efficacy between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction of primary school teachers

IntroductionIn this study, it was analyzed whether self-efficacy has a mediating role between the emotional intelligence and job satisfaction of primary school teachers.ObjectiveIt is to test the relationships between primary school teachers job satisfaction, self-efficacy and emotional intelligence levels.MethodA path analysis was performed on a sample of 252 primary school teachers.ResultsIt was found that self-efficacy mediated the relationship between emotional intelligence and job satisfaction.ConclusionBased on the findings of the study, the relationships between emotional intelligence, job satisfaction and self-efficacy were discussed in the literature and various suggestions were made to concerned future researchers and practitioners.     

Evaluating the impact of human rights education on the adjustment of Greek primary school students

Human rights education has an encouraging effect on children's school routine. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of a 12-session transformative human rights education intervention in improving children's school adjustment. Participants were 340 Greek primary school students assigned to intervention group (n = 187) and control group (n = 153). All members completed a written questionnaire 1 week before the implementation of the intervention, measuring their knowledge of human rights, school engagement, perceptions of the school environment, interpersonal relationships, empathy and perceptions, attitudes and feelings towards school. The completion process of the same questionnaire was repeated 1 week after the termination of the intervention and 4 months later. The results showed that the intervention was particularly beneficial as the intervention group members demonstrated a significant increase in their knowledge of human rights, school engagement, perceptions of the school environment, empathy and school liking, while experiencing a significant decrease in school avoidance and loneliness. Members of the control group did not report any significant improvement over time. The study's implications for future research on school-based human rights interventions are discussed.     

The neural basis of syntactic deficits in primary progressive aphasia

Patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) vary considerably in terms of which brain regions are impacted, as well as in the extent to which syntactic processing is impaired. Here we review the literature on the neural basis of syntactic deficits in PPA. Structural and functional imaging studies have most consistently associated syntactic deficits with damage to left inferior frontal cortex. Posterior perisylvian regions have been implicated in some studies. Damage to the superior longitudinal fasciculus, including its arcuate component, has been linked with syntactic deficits, even after gray matter atrophy is taken into account. These findings suggest that syntactic processing depends on left frontal and posterior perisylvian regions, as well as intact connectivity between them. In contrast, anterior temporal regions, and the ventral tracts that link frontal and temporal language regions, appear to be less important for syntax, since they are damaged in many PPA patients with spared syntactic processing.     

Semantic interference during object naming in agrammatic and logopenic primary progressive aphasia (PPA)

This study examined the time course of object naming in 21 individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) (8 agrammatic (PPA-G); 13 logopenic (PPA-L)) and healthy age-matched speakers (n = 17) using a semantic interference paradigm with related and unrelated interfering stimuli presented at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of −1000, −500, −100 and 0 ms. Results showed semantic interference (SI) (i.e. significantly slower RTs in related compared to unrelated conditions) for all groups at −500, −100 and 0 ms, indicating timely spreading activation to semantic competitors. However, both PPA groups showed a greater magnitude of SI than normal across SOAs. The PPA-L group and six PPA-G participants also evinced SI at −1000 ms, suggesting an abnormal time course of semantic interference resolution, and concomitant left hemisphere cortical atrophy in brain regions associated with semantic processing. These subtle semantic mapping impairments in non-semantic variants of PPA may contribute to the anomia of these patients.     

Secondary psychopathy,but not primary psychopathy,is associated with risky decision-making in noninstitutionalized young adults

Although risky decision-making has been posited to contribute to the maladaptive behavior of individuals with psychopathic tendencies, the performance of psychopathic groups on a common task of risky decision-making, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; Bechara, Damasio, Damasio, & Anderson, 1994), has been equivocal. Different aspects of psychopathy (personality traits, antisocial deviance) and/or moderating variables may help to explain these inconsistent findings. In a sample of college students (N = 129, age 18–27), we examined the relationship between primary and secondary psychopathic features and IGT performance. A measure of impulsivity was included to investigate its potential as a moderator. In a joint model including main effects and interactions between primary psychopathy, secondary psychopathy and impulsivity, only secondary psychopathy was significantly related to risky IGT performance, and this effect was not moderated by the other variables. This finding supports the growing literature suggesting that secondary psychopathy is a better predictor of decision-making problems than the primary psychopathic personality traits of lack of empathy and remorselessness.     

The enemy within An exploration of the concept of boundaries in a GP's surgery

Abstract

This paper looks at two GPs' surgeries and the way that they deal with the anxieties aroused when trying to meet patients' needs in primary health care. The practice counsellor is both an observer and a participant in this. The physical surroundings seem to influence the way these anxieties are acted out. Each surgery has to create an enemy in order to live with their anxiety.     

Quality Improvement as a Tool for Translating Evidence Based Interventions Into Practice: What the Youth Violence Prevention Community can Learn from Healthcare

Health care has been working for the past 2 decades to improve the translation of evidence based practice (EBPs) into care. The strategies used to facilitate this, and lessons learned, can provide useful models for similar work taking place in youth violence prevention. This article discusses the history of evidence translation in health care, reviews key strategies used to support translation of evidence based practice into care, and suggests lessons learned that may be useful to similar efforts in youth violence prevention and intervention services.     

中小学教师工作家庭冲突与职业倦怠的关系:自我决定动机的中介作用

以348名中小学教师为被试, 运用《教师工作家庭冲突问卷》、《教师自我决定动机问卷》与《教师职业倦怠问卷》, 探讨了自我决定动机在中小学教师工作家庭冲突与职业倦怠关系中的中介作用。研究发现: (1) 中小学教师自我报告的工作干扰家庭水平高于家庭干扰工作水平;(2)家庭干扰工作、工作干扰家庭与自我决定动机、职业倦怠之间均存在显著的相关关系;(3)自我决定动机在中小学教师工作家庭冲突对职业倦怠的影响过程中所起的中介效应显著, 具体为在家庭干扰工作与职业倦怠的关系中起部分中介作用, 在工作干扰家庭与职业倦怠的关系中起完全中介作用。