A qualitative study of the interdisciplinary approaches to adolescent spirituality in Australian government schools

Abstract

The growing body of evidence in education reveals that ‘spirituality’ as an aspect of learning is largely overlooked in government schools in Australia and consequently, there is a paucity of research investigating whether young people consider spirituality to be an important and worthwhile component of their educational experience. This paper will report on some findings of a PhD study which investigates the spiritual lived experiences of secondary school students. As an interdisciplinary approach to spirituality for adolescents, this paper represents the different ways spirituality is understood across the disciplines and whether young people view themselves to be ‘spiritual’. In sharing some of the student narratives, this paper will explore what spirituality means in the context of young peoples’ everyday lives. It will also address how schools can play a central role in students’ quest for a sense of meaning; and the important role of teachers in this process will also be explored.     

Judicial Responses to Civil Disobedience: A Comparative Approach

In this paper, I compare the extent of Anglo-American judicial engagement in response to civil disobedience with that of the French judiciary. I begin by examining what the civil disobedient can realistically expect to achieve in a court of law. I shall argue that his priority should be to require the judge, acting as a mouthpiece for the law, to respond to his complaints. To do this, the civil disobedient must be able to deny liability for the offence he has allegedly committed by urging a different interpretation of the law on the basis of an alternative -- but plausible -- reading of constitutional or human rights. If the civil disobedient can do this, he can claim a victory of sorts, even if his claims are ultimately unsuccessful. But legal culture can present a further barrier. Judges have different roles in different jurisdictions and therein lie further difficulties for the French civil disobedient.     

现代人群的体质病理学特征:气虚血瘀

气虚血瘀倾向是现代人群一个突出的体质病理学特征.原因是稳定的遗传和已经变化的自然及社会环境的矛盾.这一特征是顽固的,完全克服是困难的.明确这一特征,有利于贯彻中医学"治未病"的思想和促进对相关疾病和人群的"三级预防".     

Indirect Communication as an Insight-Oriented Technique with the Resistant and Intellectually Limited

A proactive cognitive–behavioral approach that presents interpretative options indirectly to children is introduced as a method to promote insight in psychotherapy. The treatment of a resistant, intellectually limited Hasidic 10-year-old child, with secondary personality disorder features, is described. By talking to himself and musing out loud, the therapist resorted to vocalized guesswork when frequent impasses occurred during sessions. As different options were verbalized in interpreting the child's affect, his reactions were monitored by the therapist and elaborated upon. In an approach akin to shaping in the conditioning literature, dynamics of behavior and acting out were uncovered, allowing social adjustment and promoting adaptive behavioral development. The intervention is conceptualized within the framework of cognitive behaviorism, and informed by insight-oriented dynamics as adapted for the resistant and intellectually limited.     

Limited‐information goodness‐of‐fit testing of diagnostic classification item response models

Despite the growing popularity of diagnostic classification models (e.g., Rupp et al., 2010, Diagnostic measurement: theory, methods, and applications, Guilford Press, New York, NY) in educational and psychological measurement, methods for testing their absolute goodness of fit to real data remain relatively underdeveloped. For tests of reasonable length and for realistic sample size, full‐information test statistics such as Pearson's X² and the likelihood ratio statistic G² suffer from sparseness in the underlying contingency table from which they are computed. Recently, limited‐information fit statistics such as Maydeu‐Olivares and Joe's (2006, Psychometrika, 71, 713) M₂ have been found to be quite useful in testing the overall goodness of fit of item response theory models. In this study, we applied Maydeu‐Olivares and Joe's (2006, Psychometrika, 71, 713) M₂ statistic to diagnostic classification models. Through a series of simulation studies, we found that M₂ is well calibrated across a wide range of diagnostic model structures and was sensitive to certain misspecifications of the item model (e.g., fitting disjunctive models to data generated according to a conjunctive model), errors in the Q‐matrix (adding or omitting paths, omitting a latent variable), and violations of local item independence due to unmodelled testlet effects. On the other hand, M₂ was largely insensitive to misspecifications in the distribution of higher‐order latent dimensions and to the specification of an extraneous attribute. To complement the analyses of the overall model goodness of fit using M₂, we investigated the utility of the Chen and Thissen (1997, J. Educ. Behav. Stat., 22, 265) local dependence statistic $X_{\mathrm{LD}}^2$ for characterizing sources of misfit, an important aspect of model appraisal often overlooked in favour of overall statements. The $X_{\mathrm{LD}}^2$ statistic was found to be slightly conservative (with Type I error rates consistently below the nominal level) but still useful in pinpointing the sources of misfit. Patterns of local dependence arising due to specific model misspecifications are illustrated. Finally, we used the M₂ and $X_{\mathrm{LD}}^2$ statistics to evaluate a diagnostic model fit to data from the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study, drawing upon analyses previously conducted by Lee et al., (2011, IJT, 11, 144).     

Sustainable Environmental Development: The Moderating Role of Environmental Identity

This study develops and tests a model of Chinese residents' evaluation of government developmental activities based on identity theory and social exchange theory. The study proposes hypotheses regarding the influences of perceived benefits and environmental identity on residents' satisfaction with the government, the moderating role of environmental identity in the relationship between perceived benefits and satisfaction, and the effect of satisfaction on residents' support intentions. The model is tested with data collected from 474 residents of four cities in China. Results show environmental identity, along with perceived economic and environmental benefits, plays a very important role in residents' satisfaction with the government. The significant moderating role of environmental identity suggests differential effects of perceived benefits on satisfaction are observed based on the level of environmental identity. Satisfaction is found to be important for obtaining residents' support for the government and future environmental development. Implications of the study are discussed.     

Asians as the model minority: Implications for US Government's policies

Asian Americans are often perceived as a 'model minority'– an ethnic minority that are high achieving, hardworking, self-reliant, law-abiding, as well as having few social and mental health problems. Although the impact of the model minority image on the US government's redistributive policies is a widely contested topic in public discourses, there has been little research on the association between the model minority image, people's worldviews, and attitudes towards the US government's redistributive policies. In an experiment that measured American participants' worldviews and manipulated the salience of the model minority image, we have demonstrated that those who believed in a malleable social reality were relatively unsupportive of government policies that help the Asian American ( vs African American) communities. Theoretical and practical implications of this finding are discussed.     

Measuring Long‐Term Patterns of Political Secularization and Desecularization: Did They Happen or Not?

Political secularization theories have predicted religion's decline in public and political life, and desecularization theories have predicted the reverse trend. However, there is little agreement on the timing of either phenomenon or even their existence. Until now, deep empirical tests of any of these were hampered by lack of historical country‐level data on religious preferences of governments (previously used data sets go back only to 1990). However, the new Government Religious Preference data set (GRP) measures state religion from 2015 back to the 1800s. Using GRP data, this article offers the first long‐term quantitative measurement of political secularization and in doing so, weighs in on competing claims regarding its timing. This article finds strong support that political secularization happened gradually over the long 19th century, accelerated after World War II, and peaked in the 1970s or 1980s. In contrast, the article finds only tepid support for the existence of political desecularization overall.     

闯入性思维对网络成瘾的影响:一个有调节的中介模型

本研究基于有限自制力理论考察闯入性思维对网络成瘾的影响及自我控制的中介作用和认知重评的调节作用。以371名大学生为被试,采用闯入性思维量表、自我控制量表、认知重评量表和网络成瘾量表进行测试,结果发现:(1)闯入性思维和自我控制呈显著负相关,与网络成瘾呈显著正相关;自我控制与网络成瘾呈显著负相关。(2)闯入性思维通过自我控制的中介作用对网络成瘾产生影响。(3)“闯入性思维—自我控制—网络成瘾”这一中介效应的前半段受到认知重评的影响;与低认知重评的个体相比,闯入性思维对高认知重评个体自我控制的影响更小。表达抑制不能调节闯入性思维对自我控制的影响。本研究的结果表明,闯入性思维会通过降低自我控制来增加网络成瘾的风险,而且认知重评会削弱闯入性思维对自我控制的影响。