School social climate and teachers’ perceptions of classroom behavior problems: a 10 year longitudinal and multilevel study

Using longitudinal and cross-sectional data, the present research sought to identify school social climate predictors of teachers’ perceptions of classroom behavior problems. The social climate and classroom behavior in 107 public and private French speaking Canadian high schools was evaluated by 1399 teachers. The present analysis is unique in its ability to control for school differences in the enrollment of students with a history of problem behavior. As hypothesized, between-school variation in the proportion of students with histories of disruptive problems predicted high school classroom behavior problems. Moreover, when controlling for these between-school differences, concurrently measured school-level variables (type of school, location of school, and academic emphasis) are found to be significant predictors of classroom behavior problems. The theoretical and practical implications of the present findings are examined and recommendations are made for future research.     

Lost in a sea of subjectivity: the subject position of the researcher in the anthropology of Islam

This paper examines some of the illustrative features of doing participant observation research with Muslims both in the field and back “home.” It is based on my experiences of conducting research in East Java, Indonesia in the classicalist Islamic boarding schools. My religious subjectivity was important to my research in a number of ways including: (1) the ways in which the community tried to define my subjectivity; (2) the nature of my personal religious subjectivity; and (3) academic interpretations of my role and my subject position vis-à-vis Islam and the profession of anthropology.

Observations of families in structured interactions: Parenting therapists provide reliable ratings of mothers' parenting

The reliability of observations of parenting by parenting therapists was assessed. An important predictor of externalizing behavior in children is quality of parenting. Data were videotapes of structured interactions in families with a child age 8–12 years referred to the evidence based Parent Management Training Oregon (PMTO) treatment program for child behavior problems. The therapists had clinical PMTO training but no training in systematic observation. PMTO observational coders with specific coder training were included as a reference for the therapists. Five therapists and two coders observed videotapes of 10 families and performed global evaluations of mothers' parenting skills. They used the coder's impression measure used in PMTO research. Scores were analyzed in a generalizability theory framework for the two groups of observers separately. Both observer types reliably rank‐ordered the mothers and assessed the level of parenting skills. PMTO therapists without coder training provided reliable ratings of parenting constructs relevant to the clinical PMTO program in a manner comparable to that of the trained reference coders.     

Agonistic behavior and social reactivity of LG/J mice in both an arena and a seminatural setting

In order to determine the relatively long-term effects of having been primed for agonistic behaviors in an arena setting, 28 male LG/J mice were observed for these behaviors in a seminatural environment for a period of 5 days following a 20 min arena test. The mice were first placed in an arena in which they were allowed either immediate physical contact with another strain (control condition) or were briefly separated from another strain by a transparent partition before being allowed physical access to them (priming condition). Subjects, recorded as either having fought or not fought in the arena, were then placed in a 101 cm square seminatural setting. Seven trials, using 8 LGs each (4 arenaexperienced males and 4 naive females), were made, and agonistic behaviors were recorded for the priming and control condition subjects. The results showed that the control condition fighters (CF) like the priming condition fighters (PF) fought in the arena situation, but different agonistic patterns in the seminatural setting were noted. While in the seminatural environment, both CF and PF mice were attacked frequently and submitted frequently, but PF mice attacked opponents more frequently than did CF subjects (p < 0.025) and elicited significantly more submissions from opponent mice than did CF mice (p < 0.025). It is concluded that: (1) there are more and different agonistic behavior patterns available in the more natural environment than in the arena setting, and more specifically (2) there is a greater effect on agonistic behaviors in a seminatural environment for mice that fought when exposed to the arena priming procedure as compared with mice having fought in the arena control condition.     

班级欺凌规范对初中生旁观者行为的影响：道德推脱的中介作用

为了探究校园欺凌中班级欺凌规范、道德推脱与旁观者协助欺凌和置身事外行为的关系,研究1对4316名初中生进行问卷调查,研究2选取142名初中生进行实验研究。结果发现：（1）班级欺凌规范、道德推脱正向预测旁观者面对欺凌时的协助欺凌与置身事外行为;（2）道德推脱在班级欺凌规范与旁观者协助欺凌行为、置身事外行为中起中介作用。     

Observed reach trajectory influences executed reach kinematics in prehension

Previous studies have demonstrated that the observation of action can modulate motor performance. This literature has focused on manipulating the observed goal of the action, rather than examining whether action observation effects could be elicited by changing observed kinematics alone. In the study presented here, observed reach trajectory kinematics unrelated to the goal of the action were manipulated in order to examine whether observed movement kinematics alone could influence the action of the observer. Participants observed an experimenter grasp a target object using either a normal or an exaggeratedly high reaching action (as though reaching over an invisible obstacle). When participants observed the experimenter perform actions with a high reach trajectory, their own movements took on aspects of the observed action, showing greater wrist height throughout their reaching trajectory than under conditions in which they observed normal reaching actions. The data are discussed in relation to previous findings which suggest that kinematic aspects of observed movements can prime action through kinematic or intention based matching processes.     

Assessing students' use of optional online lecture reviews

Online practice quizzes can be used to supplement instruction in the classroom. Such quizzes can engage retrieval practice, thereby improving learning and retention. However, despite their potential benefits, recent work suggests that students typically underutilize online practice quizzes. This article reports an observational classroom study, in which students were provided optional online reviews throughout the semester. The reviews could be accessed in test format, in which students were given multiple-choice questions and provided correct answer feedback, or in read format in which students were given the same questions and were shown the correct answers. Students who used the test format performed better on exams than students who used the read format or did not use the reviews. Nevertheless, the massive majority of the online reviews (approximately 88%) were not completed, highlighting the tendency for students to underutilize optional online reviews.     

Doing things differently: an appreciation of Meltzer’s contribution

In this paper I wish to draw attention to aspects of Donald Meltzer’s ways of working which characterised his practice as a psychoanalyst and which I consider important in appreciating his originality. Several central themes are described and elaborated including: the central relevance of child analysis and the unity of child and adult analysis; the value of working in a clinical group with colleagues; the revision of psychoanalytic theory; joint research and writing projects; Meltzer’s recognition of the power of infant observation as a tool for learning; the commitment to a wider psychoanalytic culture; the particular contribution to the Tavistock child psychotherapy training. Examples from Meltzer’s written archive, both his books and papers, are used to demonstrate and illuminate these themes, alongside clinical material from child psychotherapy work brought to the author’s attention in supervision.