Cognitive Style and Problem Behaviour in Boys Referred to Residential Special Schools

The paper considers aberrant behaviour in the context of cognitive style with reference to both diagnosis and treatment.

Aims.

The aims of the study were to investigate whether the style of pupils with behaviour problems was different from that of children with no reported problems, and also to consider how pupils of different style manifested their problem behaviours.

Sample.

The sample comprised 83 male pupils aged 10‐18 years from two residential special schools.

Method.

The sample were given the Cognitive Styles Analysis to assess their positions on the Wholist‐Analytic and Verbal‐Imagery style dimensions. The pupil records of the special school pupils who were at the extreme of the style dimensions were also examined.

Results.

When their style characteristics were contrasted with a Comparison Sample of 413 12‐16‐year‐old males attending 10 secondary schools, the special school pupils had a significantly higher proportion of both Wholists and Verbalisers, than the Comparison Group. Further, the inspection of the records indicated that the types of social behaviour and behaviour problems exhibited varied with style, and particularly on the Wholist‐Analytic dimension.

Conclusion.

The results were considered to have implications for the origins and treatment of problem behaviour.     

Helping Muslim boys succeed: the case for history education

Recent research suggests that Muslim boys have become the ‘New Folk Devils’ of British education, who are characterised by resistance to formal education, especially at secondary level, and under-achievement. Since the 1990s, British Muslim boys would appear to have become increasingly alienated from compulsory schooling, especially in the humanities subjects which lack obvious instrumental value.

This mixed-methods study of the performance of 295 secondary school British Muslim boys in their compulsory school history provides evidence which interrupts this narrative of the academic under-achievement and educational dis-engagement of Muslim boys, especially in the humanities subjects. When viewed through the prism of a laminated, non-reductive model of educational success, this indicative sample of British Muslim boys could be considered to have had significant success at a traditional humanities subject such as history intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, instrumentally and civically.

This paper therefore proposes that history can provide a vital meaning-making tool to generate the success of Muslim boys in a variety of significant dimensions both in and out of school. It suggests how history can be more fully and effectively harnessed by teachers, parents and policy-planners to encourage internal integration and external social engagement in British Muslim pupils.     

The Contributions of Enrichment Activities Towards Science Achievement

This study investigated whether enrichment activities would improve achievement in science.

One hundred and eighty subjects took part in the study. They were assigned to two experimental, two control and one Hawthorne control groups. Experimental subjects participated in enrichment activities held outside the school. Control subjects were not given these activities while the Hawthorne control group was taken out on excursions unrelated to their science lessons.

The Cooperative Science Test (COST) was used to assess the acquisition of science concepts while science achievement was based mainly on school science examination scores.

The results indicated that the experimental subjects showed significantly greater improvement in concept attainment and science achievement. Correlations between science concept attainment and science examination scores were positive and significant.

The study concluded that participation in enrichment activities relevant to school science would improve science achievement.     

Effectiveness of the REACT Strategy on 12th Grade Students’ Understanding of the Alkenes Concept

Background: The context-based approach (CBA) is one of the approaches that allow learning to take place with real and related context, and this has increasingly become more popular.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the REACT strategy of the CBA on remedying 12th grade students’ alternative conceptions of ‘alkenes’ and improving their conceptual understanding.

Sample: The sample of the study consisted of 20 (10 girls and 10 boys – aged 17 to 18 years) 12th grade students who enrolled in the Chemistry course in the 2014–2015 academic year in a public high school.

Design and methods: Since the current study evaluated student gains in conceptual understanding by means of a pre-test, post-test, and delayed-test scores, the study used a single group pre-posttest research design. To gather data, an Alkenes Concept Test (ACT) with 15 multiple choice items and a semi-structured interview protocol with 4 open-ended questions were used. The ACT was administered before and after the intervention as pre- and post-tests. Then, the semi-structured interview protocol was carried out. The ACT was re-administered third time to the students as a delayed-test one month after the intervention.

Results: The results showed that the REACT strategy was effective to remedy the alternative conceptions and helped students to keep new conceptions in their long-term memory one month after the implementation.

Conclusions: The REACT strategy was effective in enhancing conceptual understanding of ‘alkenes’ and helping 12th grade students to link between the scientific concepts and daily life.     

The Way Men Act: dominant and subordinate male cultures in an inner‐city school

Focusing on sex/gender relations in an inner‐urban single‐sex school, the paper examines the cultural position and development of ‘the three friends’, a group stigmatised as ‘poofs’ and subordinated within a youth cultural hierarchy dominated by the school's sporting heroes, especially ‘the footballers’.

Power relations within the hierarchy are analysed as effects of intercultural articulations between boys’ friendship and ethnic groups and the institutional power of the school mediated through the cultures of teachers and other staff. Dominant views of appropriate male behaviour trade on essentialist, sexualising interpretations of unorthodox male practices, attributing them to homosexuality. More moderate views, represented by ‘the handballers’, offer family misfortunes as explanations for the ‘problems’ of the three. Teachers’ responses vary from support for the dominant view, through sponsorship of psychological therapy to positive intervention on behalf of the three.

The development of a positive and relatively autonomous culture, based on theatrical prowess, illustrates the politics of cultural struggle and suggests strategies for educational intervention in the processes of youth intercultural articulation.     

Teachers’ and principals’ reflections on student participation in a school science and technology competition

Background The European Union asks for renewed pedagogies in schools according to teaching strategies and necessary competences for the twenty-first century, instead of the often-used transmissive pedagogies. The national Swedish competition in science and technology for grade eight, The Technology Eight, provides an opportunity for teachers to work with instructional strategies in line with suggested pedagogies.

Purpose To investigate teachers’ and principals’ reflections on the competition in schools.

Sample Seventeen secondary school teachers and three principals from districts in the south-western part of Sweden participated in the study. All teachers had long experience of the competition, and their classes had reached at least the regional finals during the last year.

Design and methods Semi-structured interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and then analysed using content analysis. Focus was put on why the teachers decided to participate, how the teachers integrated the competition in their education and roles of the principals.

Results There were various reasons for participating in the competition. Teachers reported development of twenty-first-century skills such as better cooperation between the students. They also noticed an increased interest in science and technology and how learning in the subjects was stimulated. Furthermore, the teachers found participation in the competition to be positive for them too. They integrated the competition in ordinary education and gained teaching ideas as well as found connections to the curriculum. Participating in the competition seemed to be a tradition in most of the schools. The principals’ role was to facilitate the organisation around the competition and to provide social support.

Conclusions Participation in a school competition was considered as an instructional strategy with several positive outcomes. Use of this strategy can be supported by earlier suggestions to use pedagogies that are opposite to transmissive methods, enhancing students’ development of important skills for the future.     

Education for the Teaching Profession: Upstart or Start‐up?

Robert Howsam prefaced his paper with the story of The Velveteen Rabbit, a very ordinary, cheap rabbit who was loved by his owner for only an hour on Christmas morning, and spurned by the other toys‐‐those which were expensive, mechanical, very modern, or exquisitely detailed‐‐until he felt very insignificant and commonplace. His only friend was the Skin Horse. The oldest inhabitant of the nursery, he was battered, bald and showed his seams, but he was also wise and experienced.

"What is REAL?”, asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the Nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having that buzz inside you and a stick‐out handle?"

“Real isn't how you are made”, said the Skin Horse. “It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

Rabbit also learned that becoming Real sometimes hurt, and that it takes a long time. “That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.”

Eventually the Boy and the Rabbit became inseparable. One night, when Rabbit was left in the garden, an annoyed Nanny, having had to collect him, chided the Boy for making such a fuss over an old toy.

“You musn't say that’, said the Boy. “He isn't a toy. He's Real.”

And Rabbit was happy.

Real rabbits, who found him one day in the garden, laughed at hint when he said he was Real, but, in time, when he was old and shabby and about to be burned with all the other toys after a scarlet fever infection, the nursery Magic Fairy appeared. She was going to turn him into a Real rabbit.

“Wasn't I Real before?”, asked the little Rabbit.

“You were real to the Boy”, the Fairy said, “because he loved you. Now you shall be Real to everyone.”.     

The role of perceived classroom goal structures,self-efficacy,and engagement in student science achievement

Background: Numerous studies have been conducted to investigate the factors related to science achievement. In these studies, the classroom goal structure perceptions, engagement, and self-efficacy of the students have emerged as important factors to be examined in relation to students’ science achievement.

Purpose: This study examines the relationships between classroom goal structure perception variables (motivating tasks, autonomy support, and mastery evaluation), engagement (behavioral, emotional, cognitive, and agentic engagement), self-efficacy, and science achievement.

Sample: The study participants included 744 seventh-grade students from 9 public schools in two districts of Gaziantep in Turkey.

Design and methods: Data were collected through the administration of four instruments: Survey of Classroom Goals Structures, Engagement Questionnaire, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, and Science Achievement Test. The obtained data were subjected to path analysis to test the proposed model.

Results: Students’ perceptions of classroom goal structures (i.e. motivating tasks, autonomy support, and mastery evaluation) were found to be significant predictors of their self-efficacy. Autonomy support was observed to be positively linked to all aspects of engagement, while motivating tasks were found to be related only to cognitive engagement. In addition, mastery evaluation was shown to be positively linked to engagement variables, except for cognitive engagement, and self-efficacy and engagement (i.e. behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement) were observed to be significant predictors of science achievement. Finally, results revealed reciprocal relations among engagement variables, except for agentic engagement.

Conclusions: Students who perceive mastery goal structures tend to show higher levels of engagement and self-efficacy in science classes. The study found that students who have high self-efficacy and who are behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively engaged are more successful in science classes. Accordingly, it is recommended that science teachers utilize inquiry-based and hands-on science activities in science classes and focus on the personal improvement of the students. Furthermore, it is also recommended that they provide students with opportunities to make their own choices and decisions and to control their own actions in science classes.     

Between Tradition and Progress: Oldenburg University's Model Plan for Comprehensive Teacher Training

Since early 1974, a pilot project for integrated teacher training has been in progress at Oldenburg University. This is currently the only extensive teacher training reform which exist in the German Federal Republic.

All plans for this integrated training program are designed to provide training normally encompassed by the traditional two‐stage programm.

The integrated training program includes:

- studies in the areas of education and social science;

- studies in two major subjects which are later to be taught at school;

- practical studies and activities.

The new model leads to the following degrees:

- nine semesters of study for a Certificate of Qualification for primary and lower‐level secondary school;

- eleven semesters for a Certificate of Qualification for higher‐level secon dary school and the education of exceptional children.

Theoretic training in major subject areas and related didactic training as well as education and social studies take place chiefly in the form of projects. A basic assumption is that interdisciplinary projects which are practice‐ and problemoriented permit a highly desirable integration of theory and practice on the whole.

In the project, contact teachers are an essential link between field practice at school and academic training at the university. Contact teachers are under contact to the university for an extended period of time (generally three years). In place of remunation, their teaching loads are reduced by ten hours per week.

In 1978/79 the project will be put to the test as the first generation of students prepares for State Board Examinations.     

Agricultural information and knowledge network in rural India: a case of Bihar

Purpose: The key informants in a village setup were studied to understand the existing social and knowledge systems of farmers, their structure, and relationships between different actors. The purpose is to identify different channels of information and use them as a means to disseminate agricultural technologies and related information to farmers.

Design: We use the network map analysis in a case study approach as a tool to demonstrate the linkages between the key actors and stakeholders in the information network of farmers.

Findings: The government institutions are well networked among themselves but have limited interactions with non-government sources. Farmers in Bihar have strong linkages with few network actors, who are important nodes in the social knowledge network. The study showed heterogeneity and complexity in the network shape and structure across different districts.

Practical Implications: Knowledge networks and social networks are the drivers of information sharing and play a significant role in the diffusion of agricultural technology and related knowledge. Understanding these networks provides a platform for introducing the agricultural technologies and getting connected to a wider group of farming communities.

Theoretical Implications: The study shows that the network is formed by different actors and their role determine the nature and shape of the network. Knowledge of this heterogeneity is important in designing or revamping agricultural information systems.

Originality: Information and knowledge networks are least explored in the agricultural information dissemination process. Some studies have shown the role of actors and social networks, but this study uniquely explores and presents the heterogeneity of these networks.     

Knowledge systems and value chain integration: the case of linseed production in Ethiopia

Purpose: This study uses data from a sample of 150 oilseed farming households from Arsi Robe, Ethiopia, to assess the impact of different knowledge bases (education, training and experience) and their interactions on linseed productivity.

Methodology: A multiple regression analysis was employed to assess the combined effect of the knowledge bases, factors such as age of the household head, land size, marketing channels and geophysical factors (such as land slope) on linseed productivity.

Findings: The findings reveal no differences in productivity between trained and untrained farmers. They further show that training and the interaction between training and experience positively influence productivity. Our findings, however, reveal farmer education to have an inverse yet insignificant effect on productivity. Furthermore, we found that factors such as the slope of the land and the choice of marketing channel also play an important role in influencing productivity.

Practical implications: Moving away from the traditional top-down approach could be the answer to avoid a mismatch between the information given by trainers and what the farmers actually need.

Theoretical implications: The study used interaction variables of knowledge bases, and attempted to demonstrate the importance of a tacit knowledge base, which is often not well documented and therefore neglected in research.

Originality/value: The research demonstrates the combined effects that interactions between several knowledge bases have on the productivity of linseed farmers.     

Group Process and Emotional Education: Can the group process as described by Louis R. Ormont be effective in modifying the behavior of young children? (A retrospective study)

Several years ago I began to see children in my classroom who did not respond to the techniques I had used for many years to develop behavioural adjustment.

While searching for a new method that would be more effective, I was introduced to Louis Ormont's theories regarding the Group Experience involving adults.

Immediately I began to see the possibility of adjusting the adult Group Process to address the needs of the 5‐6‐year‐olds in my kindergarten class.

In my presentation I will discuss Dr Ormont's theory as I see it relating to my classroom and describe how I implement the Group Process and the results that were achieved over three years’ time with several classes of children.

My presentation will give new meaning to the terms ‘Group Meeting’ and ‘Behavioural Modification’ in the kindergarten classroom. In my mind the results are enormously positive. Children learn to take charge of their own behaviour and are strengthened by the feelings of group membership and personal empowerment.     

Beyond Sensitivity. LGBT Healthcare Training in U.S. Medical Schools: A Review of the Literature

Purpose: Training future physicians to address the health needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population can potentially decrease health disparities faced by such individuals. In this literature review, we examine the characteristics and impact of current LGBT healthcare training at U.S. medical schools.

Methods: We performed a comprehensive literature search to identify studies on LGBT healthcare training in U.S. medical schools. Studies published between January 2000 and September 2016 that described the program and reported on at least one quantitative evaluative measure were included in our review.

Results: We found 13 studies meeting our inclusion criteria. The programs had high levels of variability in curricular content, educational strategies used, duration, and evaluation methods. Many programs utilized an interactive experience involving a standardized patient. The majority of participants in such programs felt this approach was an effective learning strategy. All programs reported that participants felt the training improved their ability to provide more effective healthcare to LGBT patients.

Conclusion: Despite wide variability in their training approaches, the 13 programs we reviewed provided data suggesting a positive impact of LGBT healthcare training.     

Loneliness,fear of falling,and quality of life in community-dwelling older women who live alone and live with others

Background: One of the health indexes is living arrangement and nowadays has tended toward living alone which has terrible negative impacts on the elderly’s social health in Asia. About 62.2% of lonely older adults are afraid of falling. In addition, the activity level of them is much more limited.

Aim: The aim of this article is to compare loneliness, fear of falling, and quality of life in older women who live alone and live with others.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 218 accessible elderly women (116 live alone, 102 live with others) to compare loneliness, fear of falling, and quality of life by using the Farsi versions of UCLA-LS, falls efficacy scale-international (FES-I), and SF12 questionnaires, respectively.

Results: Linear regression was used to compare the means of continuous outcomes between the two groups by adjustment on probable confounder’s age and falling history.

Conclusion: Fears of falling and physical aspect of life quality in the lonely older adults were considerably higher than other group.