Transnationalism,parenting, and child disciplinary practices of African immigrants in Alberta,Canada

Child discipline remains a topic of public health interest across the globe. Despite this enduring interest, very little is known about the child disciplinary practices of African immigrants in Canada. This paper explores the disciplinary practices of African immigrant parents in Alberta, a Canadian province with a recent surge in the population of African immigrants. Employing a critical ethnographic methodology, informed by transnational theory, we collected data through in-depth qualitative interviews with a purposive sample of African community leaders (n = 14), African immigrant parents (n = 32), policymakers (n = 2), and health and immigrant settlement workers (n = 10). As members of the African immigrant community, we were deeply immersed in the research settings, which afforded us the opportunity to collect pertinent observational data in the form of reflexive notes. Thematic analysis of the data revealed child disciplinary approaches that incorporate Canadian and African parenting practices, as well as practices that appear somewhat unique to this demographic. We found that African immigrant parents used corporal discipline, persuasive discipline, and a hybrid of the two, as well as emerging practices involving transnational fostering and emotional isolation of children who persistently misbehaved. These practices, in their totality, appeared to be influenced by the transnational experiences of parents and precepts that are traceable to Canada’s legal and educational systems. We present theoretical, policy, and service implications of our findings, including a recommendation to incorporate sociocultural dimensions of child discipline into Canadian child welfare policies and practices.     

Exploring the effectiveness of engagement in a broad range of disciplinary practices on learning of Turkish high-school chemistry students

This study examines the influence of laboratory instruction that engages students in a wide range of the practices of science on Turkish high-school students’ chemistry learning. In this mixed methods study, student learning in two different laboratory settings was compared, one that featured an instruction that engaged students in a wide range of disciplinary practices (through Argument-driven Inquiry – ADI) and similar laboratories in which a more traditional Structured Inquiry (SI) approach was employed. The data sources included a Chemistry Concept test, an Argumentative Writing Assessment, and Semi-structured interviews. After seven weeks of chemistry instruction, students experiencing ADI instruction scored higher on the Chemistry Concept test and the Argumentative Writing Assessment than students experiencing SI instruction. Furthermore, girls who experienced ADI instruction scored higher on the assessments than their majority peers in the same class. The results suggest that Turkish students can substantially improve their chemistry proficiency if they have an opportunity to engage in instruction featuring a broad array of the practices of science.     

Attitudes of Kuwaiti parents toward physical punishment of children

Objective: The major aim was to describe parental attitudes to physical punishments and examine their sociodemographic correlates. A related aim was to assess the association of parents’ own experience of physical punishment with attitudes to punishment of children.Method: A cross-sectional survey was conducted during the second week of December, 1996 in five general clinics covering the major administrative areas of Kuwait: 337 Kuwaiti mothers and fathers with at least one living child were contacted; 95% were successfully interviewed using a structured questionnaire.Results: Eighty-six percent of parents agreed with physical punishment as a means of child disciplining. Agreement with punishment was higher in case of serious misbehaviors such as stealing (63%), sniffing glue and using drugs (77%). Multiple regression results showed that parent’s lower level of education and Bedouin ethnicity were positively associated with agreement on physical punishment. Larger percentages of parents who had experienced physical punishments themselves agreed with such punishment to discipline their children, but this was not statistically significant.Conclusions: In recent years education has become widespread for both sexes. An inverse association between educational level and agreement on physical beating suggest that attitudes to this form of child disciplining are changing. Those with a Bedouin ethnic background still adhere more strictly to the traditional forms of child disciplining including physical beating. There is a need for conducting research on the possible negative psychosocial impacts of physical punishment in view of findings from other countries.     

Attitudes of introductory college biology students toward evolution

Introductory college biology students were surveyed to investigate their attitudes toward evolution. Thurstone's Scale No. 30, Form A, Attitudes Toward Evolution was used to survey the sample. Results indicate that the majority of introductory biology students believe in the theory of evolution. Two demographic variables, sex and influence of the church, produced a significant correlation with the attitude scores. There were significant interactions between sex and influence of high school biology teacher and between sex and major. Self rating by the individual students and attitude scores also produced a significant correlation. Construct validity of the attitude scale was supported by the significant correlation between student self rating and scale scores. ANOVA produced a F value significant at the 0.01 probability level, and Spearman's correlation coefficient between the two measures was 0.73. Although the Thurstone Scale No. 30, Form A, is over 45 years old, the results of this study suggest that it is a reliable instrument for use today with modifications in item construction, scaling or adaptation to other scoring methods.     

Attitudes of Alaskan distance education students toward media and instruction

Abstract

This article reports the results of a study to assess the attitudes of distance higher education students in various units of the College of Rural Alaska, University of Alaska, Fairbanks. Emphasis was given to media preferences, the convenience of various media, and overall attitudes toward distance instruction. Results of a mail survey indicated acceptance of a wide variety of media as well as strong general support for distance instruction. Additionally, a large majority of respondents rated distance instruction as equal to or better than face‐to‐face instruction.     

Views of elementary and middle school Turkish students toward environmental issues

This study was conducted in order to identify the intensity of Turkish students’ views with regard to environmental issues presented in the national curriculum and to determine how these views differ by gender, grade level, previous science achievement, socio‐economic status (SES), and school location. For this project, a 51‐item Attitude Toward Environmental Issues Scale (ATEIS) was created and utilized. In total, the scale involved 30 distinct environmental issues. These environmental issues are emphasized in the current Turkish science education curriculum. A total of 458 students in grade 4–8 classrooms completed the scale. Rasch analysis results indicated that, in general, the students felt environmental problems should be confronted in Turkey. But when students were presented with a range of survey items stating that a particular environmental issue should take precedence over economic growth, it was often very difficult for students to agree. On the other hand, when students were simply presented a range of survey issues concerning environmental problems in Turkey, it was easy for them to agree with the presence (or importance) of these environmental issues in Turkey. Subsequent analysis suggested that the set of ATEIS survey items were understood and functioned in a similar measurement manner for male and female students, as well as elementary and middle school students. Results of ANOVA analyses indicated that recent high achievement in science courses resulted in more positive attitudes toward environmental issues. T‐test analyses revealed that the older female students of this data set exhibited more support for environmental issues than did male students. Students with high family income, and those students living in urban areas, displayed more positive attitudes toward environmental issues than did students with low family income, and those living in suburban areas.     

School attainment and gender: Attitudes of Kenyan and Malawian parents toward educating girls

This paper compares the attitudes of Kenyan and Malawian rural parents to educating girls, using perceptions of gender-specific academic potential, educational aspirations and opinions on the gender appropriateness of primary school subjects and various careers. Suggestions are offered as to how these attitudes affect girls' educational attainment. The paper closes with a discussion of the ways that parents' attitudes affect girls' completion of primary school in Malawi and how the high wastage rate might be cut.     

Attitudes of school role groups toward learning needs of gifted students

The cognitive approach to creativity emphasizes the processes involved in producing effective novelty, as well as the control mechanisms that regulate novelty production, and the structures that result. Merely novel structures display surprisingness and incongruity, to be sure, but they must also be meaningful and practicable to be effective. There are no special processes or control mechanisms unique to the production of effective novelty, but metasystematic operations are particularly favorable for it. Effective novelty can be produced at lower levels of cognitive development, but children's creativity is likely to differ qualitatively from that of adults. Although the cognitive approach takes little account of motivation, personality, or the social environment, it provides an operationizable definition of some aspects of creativity, and offers insights into what needs to be fostered to promote it.     

Attitudes toward computers: A study of post-secondary students in Singapore

Research has found that computer attitudes not only play an influential role in determining the extent to which students accept the computer as a learning tool but also future behaviours towards the computer such as using it for further study and vocational purposes. A sample of 183 post-secondary students was assessed for their computer attitudes using a Likert-type questionnaire with three subscales, Computer Importance, Computer Enjoyment, and Computer Anxiety. Additionally, the effects of gender and computer ownership at home were also examined. One-way MANOVA revealed no significant differences in computer attitudes by gender although male students reported more positive attitudes towards the computer than female students. Significant differences in computer attitudes were found between students who own computers at home and those who do not. Students who own a computer at home also reported a lower level of computer anxiety compared to those who do not.     

Attitudes of counseling students in the United States toward minority clients

One hundred and twenty counseling students representing 10 programs across the United States were administered the Purdue Master Attitude Scale, the Defining Issues Test, the Index of Homophobia and a demographic questionnaire in an effort to identify attitudes of students to ward minority groups. A demographic profile of these counselors in traning presents a picture of the typical American. They are fairly young, mostly caucasian, middle class and were raised in traditional two-parent families.The results of the instruments administered indicate that counseling students appear to reflect the dominant culture attitude with respect to homophobia by demonstrating average to high homophobia, while the Purdue Master Attitude Scale reflects a somewhat overall positive attitude toward ethnic minorities.In terms of statistical analyses, level of moral judgment, as measured by the Defining Issues Test, was significantly related to attitude to ward ethnic and sexual preference minorities. Individuals with more favorable attitudes demonstrated higher levels of moral reasoning and vice versa. Higher frequency of experience with minorities was significantly related to lower homophobia scores and demonstrated a trend in the direction of better attitude scores. Quality of experience, while not achieving significance, showed a trend with better quality ratings being related to better attitude toward ethnic minorities and lower homophobia scores.Paper presented to the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling, Utrecht, the Netherlands July 15, 1985.     

Attitudes toward science and science knowledge of intellectually gifted and average students in third,seventh, and eleventh grades

A questionnaire regarding attitudes toward science and scientific knowledge (Yager & Yager, 1985b) was administered to 143 intellectually gifted (IQ > 130) and intellectually average third-, seventh-, and eleventh-grade students. Measures of internal reliability on four attitude subscales and a content knowledge subscale are reported. Three-way ANOVAs comparing grade, sex, and ability revealed significant differences between average and gifted students in attitudes toward being a scientist, usefulness of science, and, as might be expected, in knowledge of science. Similarly, there were significant differences between grades on attitudes toward teachers and toward science classes, with the most favorable attitudes expressed in third grade, next most favorable in eleventh grade, and clearly more negative attitudes expressed by students in seventh grade. There also was a significant interaction between grade level and ability regarding attitudes toward science classes. In contrast to what might be expected from reported differences between males and females in attitudes toward science, gender as a separate variable did not have a significant main effect in any of the comparisons.     

A retrospective study with ICAST-R (ispcan child abuse screening tools-retrospective) questionnaire for determination of child abuse in first year medical students in Turkish population

Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) is an important problem both in Turkey and worldwide. Unfortunately, we still don’t have enough and reliable data on this important subject. In this study, we aimed to investigate the prevalence of childhood maltreatment in a population of first year medical students in a Turkish university using the retrospective version of the ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool (ICAST-R). One hundred seventy three first year medical students, aged between 18 and 24 years, who agreed to complete the ICAST-R questionnaire, were recruited in our study. Of 173 students who completed the survey, 51.4% are found to be subjected to at least one type of child abuse (physical, emotional or sexual). The prevalence is higher in male gender and the difference is statistically significant. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse exposure rates are found to be 23.1%, 40.5% and 11% respectively. Physical and emotional abuse rates are higher in male gender and the difference is statistically significant. We did not find any statistically significant association between gender and sexual abuse. Efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect are growing in our country, as they are worldwide. However, child abuse is still common and a problematic issue. It is important to determine the prevalence of child abuse in order to raise awareness. We need further studies investigating not only prevalence but also risk factors to have reliable data for our country.