Educational practitioners’ beliefs and conceptualisation about the cause of ADHD: A qualitative study

Objectives: Educational practitioners play an important role in the referral and treatment of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This study aimed to explore how educational practitioners conceptualise their beliefs about the causes of symptoms of ADHD. Method: Forty-one educational practitioners from schools in the United Kingdom participated in focus groups or individual interviews. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Practitioners’ beliefs fell into two categories: biological and environmental. Practitioners conceptualised the causes of ADHD in lay-theoretical models: a ‘True’ ADHD model considered that symptoms of ADHD in many cases were due to adverse environments; and a model whereby a biological predisposition is the root of the cause of the child’s symptoms. Conclusion: Differential beliefs about the causes of ADHD may lead to practitioners blaming parents for a child’s behaviour and discounting ADHD as a valid condition. This has implications for the effective support of children with ADHD in schools.     

An Ordinal Pattern Analysis of Four Hypotheses Describing the Interactions between Drug-addicted, Chronically Disadvantaged, and Middle-Class Mother-Infant Dyads

This study investigated mother-infant interactions in 18 dyads. All participants were African American and enrolled in an early intervention program because the infants (2–26 months of age) had developmental disabilities or were at high risk for developmental disability. Some mothers had used drugs during their pregnancy, and all mothers were of low or middle socioeconomic status. Dyads were videotaped interacting at 4 different times, separated by at least 5 months in time. Videotapes were rated in terms of infant involvement and maternal responsivity in the interaction. 4 hypotheses concerning the pattern of maternal interaction across time were tested using ordinal pattern analysis. The hypothesis that mothers would become less responsive to infants over time (H_D) as a function of drug addiction, poverty, or serious developmental delay was supported for only 4 of the 18 dyads. There was support for the hypothesis (H_j) that mothers naturally increase their responsivity over time ( N = 6) and support for the hypothesis (H_T) that mothers' interactive sensitivity fluctuates in relation to infants' involvement in the interaction over time ( N = 7). Ordinal pattern analysis has advantages in determining how well competing hypotheses describe individuals within populations relative to approaches that identify differences that apply to entire populations.     

Private versus public financing of higher education: U.S. policy in comparative perspective

Funding policies for higher education differ greatly from nation to nation and one of the major debates concerns the private-public mix. Five principal patterns emerge from the following variables: whether the system is comprised of just one sector or dual private-public sectors, the size of each sector (if there are dual sectors), the contribution of private funds to each sector, and the contribution of public funds to each sector. Beyond their defining empirical characteristics, each pattern is based on distinctive historical and normative rationales. Each therefore faces different policy choices within the more general private-public debate, although certain basic value questions commonly arise. Seen in comparative perspective, the United States continues to stand out for its significant dependence on private finance. This is because, compared to other developed nations, the United States still has an exceptionally large private sector with relatively great private finance and because, compared to almost all countries, the U.S. public sector also attracts substantial private income. There is great variation, however, and individual U.S. state systems may find useful counterparts to their empirical realities and policy dilemmas in certain foreign (national) systems.     

The decline of Latin American student activism

If Latin America once represented a worldwide reference point for potent student activism, the region now stands out for the decline of activism. While other regions experience new forms and impacts of activism, Latin America's decline should be understood within two broad contexts: macropolitical and higher educational.The macropolitical context subsumes at least three major causal factors. One is the role of authoritarian rule, especially powerful in the 1970s but leaving a legacy that itself works against activism. Second, we must consider the more complex and mixed impacts of the redemocratization that has swept the region. The third factor is the general decline of the left both domestically and internationally.On the higher education side, decades of unprecedented growth in student numbers have fragmented the student body, especially as growth is accompanied by extraordinary institutional proliferation. Many of the newer institutions are inhospitable for student activism. Privatization has had an especially strong demobilizing effect. The institutional changes are accompanied by a changing profile of fields of study, away from some most associated with student politics. Finally, the concentration of top social scientists in research centers apart from the universities - and from the students - is also crucial.     

Note-Taking Instruction for College Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Using a multiple baseline across participants design, this study examines the functional relationship between instruction in note-taking skills and the ability of young adults with autism spectrum disorder to take notes on college lectures. The three participants were enrolled in a program aligned with the Higher Education Opportunity Act (Public Law 110-315) to support students with significant cognitive disabilities in attending community college classes. All had graduated high school on a special diploma status and had mild cognitive disabilities. Despite some variability in performance during baseline (when only the note-taking template was introduced), all three students demonstrated increased performance during intervention when they were taught skills such as distinguishing between subtopics and details, paraphrasing, and using abbreviations and symbols. Participants’ improvements were maintained after the intervention instruction stopped. Participant Tau-U effect sizes ranged from 0.67 to 1.00, and the weighted average Tau-U effect size was 0.88 (CI₉₅ = 0.53 to 1.24). The discussion addresses implications for the postsecondary participation of students with autism spectrum disorder as well as possible changes needed in their secondary education.     

Undergraduate students’ achievement goals for conducting research: examining the motivational benefits of laboratory classroom affiliation

Rooted in achievement goal theory, the buffering hypothesis posits that contextual factors serve to moderate the deleterious effects of personal achievement goals on relevant outcomes. The present study sought to test this hypothesis by examining the interactive effects of classroom affiliation perceptions and personal achievement goals for conducting research on participants’ goal strivings within physics, biology and chemistry laboratory classes. Participants consisted of 185 undergraduate students voluntarily engaged in faculty-led research. Results indicated that affiliation strengthened the positive association between research mastery goals and class-based mastery approach goals. In contrast, perceptions of affiliation in the laboratory environment weakened the relationship between research mastery goals and performance approach goals. The importance of academic climates as facilitators of goal striving in classrooms designed to cultivate research skill development is discussed.     

Gender Composition of Editors and Editorial Boards in Seven Top Criminal Justice and Criminology Journals from 1985 to 2017

This paper examines the gender composition of editors and editorial board members of seven top criminal justice and criminology (CCJ) journals from 1985 through 2017. The findings indicate that women have historically been, and continue to be, underrepresented in these positions. From 1985 through 2017, women comprised 14% of all Editors-in-Chief, 27% of all Associate Editors, and 22% of all Editorial Board members. While there was a period during the early 2000s when Justice Quarterly and Criminology achieved gender parity in representation across all of the editorial roles, this equality was short lived. The other journals have never achieved gender parity, and, on average, women have comprised 3.8% to 35.2% of the editorial positions at each of the journals. The implications of this imbalance for women’s scholarship and professional success are discussed, and recommendations for changes to CCJ journal policies and practices to ensure more equity are provided.     

Impact of Structured Movement Time on Preschoolers’ Physical Activity Engagement

Preschool-aged children are not meeting national physical activity recommendations. This study compares preschoolers’ physical activity engagement during two different physical activity opportunities: outdoor free play or a structured movement session. Eighty-seven children served as participants: 40 children participated in outdoor free play and another 47 children participated in a planned movement session. Children in the movement program replaced their outdoor free play with a structured movement session on 2 days each week. All movement opportunities were 30-min in duration. Physical activity was objectively measured using accelerometers. Results show that, compared to children on the playground, children in the movement program engaged in less sedentary behaviors and more light, moderate, vigorous and moderate to vigorous physical activity. In total, children in the movement program engaged in 15.5 min of healthier physical activity behaviors as compared with children in the outdoor free play. Structured movement time appears to afford children an opportunity to engage in more physical activity than outdoor time alone. Findings support that preschool centers should provide children with a daily structured movement time that includes formalized instruction in addition to regularly scheduled outdoor free play.     

Traditional and Evaluative Aspects of Flexibility in Gender Roles, Social Conventions, Moral Rules, and Physical Laws

Traditional and evaluative aspects of flexibility regarding transgressions across several domains (masculine and feminine gender roles, moral rules, social etiquette, and physical law) were assessed in 24 4-year-olds, 40 8-year-olds, and 46 college undergraduates. Traditional and evaluative aspects of flexibility yielded distinctly different patterns of response. Data indicated an age-related increase in flexibility on traditional measures (i.e., traditional rule flexibility, cultural relativity) for transgressions in all domains, except physical laws. In contrast, subjects in all age groups were consistently negative in their evaluations of transgressions in moral rules, etiquette, and masculine gender roles. Female subjects viewed masculine gender role transgressions with greater flexibility and less negativity than did male subjects. Results demonstrate the multidimensional character of flexibility development in different social and physical domains. Results suggest that masculine and feminine gender roles and social etiquette may not fall within a common domain of social convention.     

Fearfulness in female and male cats

Cats were observed in four moderately frightening novel situations. One of 12 response measures indicated that females are more fearful than males, 1 indicated that males are more fearful than females, and the remaining 10 measures revealed no significant difference between males and females. The results thus yield no evidence of any large and consistent difference in fear between female and male cats. Gonadal hormones do not determine any single pattern of sex difference in fearfulness in different species of mammals. Species-specific patterns of social organization may predict sex differences in fear in studied species more accurately than endocrine factors.