The Home Environment Shapes Emotional Eating

Emotional overeating (EOE) is the tendency to eat more in response to negative emotions; its etiology in early life is unknown. We established the relative genetic and environmental influences on EOE in toddlerhood and early childhood. Data were from Gemini, a population‐based cohort of 2,402 British twins born in 2007. EOE was measured using the “emotional overeating” scale of the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ) at 16 months and 5 years. A longitudinal quantitative genetic model established that genetic influences on EOE were minimal; on the other hand, shared environmental influences explained most of the variance. EOE was moderately stable from 16 months to 5 years and continuing environmental factors shared by twin pairs at both ages explained the longitudinal association.     

Academics' perceptions of their professional development needs related to leadership and management: What can we learn?

Enquiries into the governance, structure and management of higher education institutions across the globe have stimulated changes to the legislative and policy frameworks within which universities operate and to their organizational structures and processes. These changes have subsequently brought into question the proper role of academics in relation to the leadership and management of their departments/institutions. While mainstream academic staff conceive of academic leadership as being strictly associated with teaching, research and community outreach, university administrators and policy makers conceptualize it more broadly. Their definitions often include the management of change, quality, information, finance, and physical and human resources - functions that many mainstream academics perceive as being the responsibility of departmental/institutional administrative or support staff. Such differences create major challenges for academic development units. What type of training should they provide? Should they embrace activities that support these new conceptions of leadership and management? These are among the central issues explored in this paper.     

Explaining Constrains Causal Learning in Childhood

Three experiments investigate how self‐generated explanation influences children's causal learning. Five‐year‐olds (N = 114) observed data consistent with two hypotheses and were prompted to explain or to report each observation. In Study 1, when making novel generalizations, explainers were more likely to favor the hypothesis that accounted for more observations. In Study 2, explainers favored a hypothesis that was consistent with prior knowledge. Study 3 pitted a hypothesis that accounted for more observations against a hypothesis consistent with prior knowledge. Explainers were more likely to base generalizations on prior knowledge. Findings suggest that attempts to explain drive children to evaluate hypotheses using features of “good” explanations, or those supporting generalizations with broad scope, as informed by children's prior knowledge and observations.     

Returning to the mirror: reflections on promoting constructivism in three educational contexts

Since the early 1980s educators have argued that reflection is an essential dimension of good pedagogical practice. This discussion of my attempt to support a constructivist approach to learning for three different groups of learners illustrates one effort to engage in such reflection. I analyze several assignments I have designed for differently positioned learners, all within the context of a liberal arts college in northeastern USA. Referring to the assignments I have developed in each context, I analyze the particular kinds of structures, challenges and supports I try to provide to learners, with the goal of surfacing the convictions I hold about learners' identities and capabilities. My intention is to identify underlying pedagogical principles that inform my practice across contexts, not only to make it clearer for myself and others what guides that practice but also, in an effort to acknowledge the evolving and interdependent nature of this work, to articulate the new challenges this analysis poses for me.     

A dynamic approximation of balanced gymnastics landings

A gymnast can balance after an uneven parallel bar dismount by contacting the ground with an appropriate body position and angular velocity. Balanceable gymnastics landings were predicted by dividing landing into two parts: a short duration impact phase when foot-mat contact forces are high, and a subsequent longer balancing phase during which the gymnast exerts active control at the joints to attenuate the resulting post-impact velocities and achieve a desired motionless terminal configuration. This paper identifies controllable sets of pre-impact landing positions and velocities for a typical female collegiate gymnast that are feasible targets for the end of flight following a single- and double-backward somersault uneven bar dismount with forward mass centre (CM) velocity. Simple algebraic impulse-momentum models for the impact phase determine impulses necessary to stop the feet and slow angular velocity. After impact, a dynamic analysis is needed to determine stability because non-negligible post-impact angular and linear velocities are possible. For almost all successfully balanced landings, ground contact occurs with the CM positioned above the feet and between the toe and heel, because the linear impact impulses that stop the feet also contribute to an angular impulse that slows angular momentum. Only at the largest pre-impact angular velocities following a double-somersault dismount can contact occur with the CM in front of the toe. The gymnast is in balanceable preimpact orientations longer when rotating more slowly and with a smaller angular momentum; therefore balance may be more likely after performing a single-somersault dismount with a large moment of inertia.     

Staff Preferences in Children with Mental Retardation

Staff at a residential facility for children with mental retardation rated their most‐preferred and least‐preferred children on a list of child characteristics. Staff‐perceived characteristics that differed significantly between the most‐ and least‐preferred children were subjective traits involving physical attributes, mood, behaviour, and social qualities. The remaining characteristics comprised objective developmental traits that did not differentiate the two groups. Small children were more likely to be rated most‐preferred, and large children least‐preferred. Staff tended to discount positive traits in their least‐preferred children and tolerate negative attributes in their most‐preferred children. Some children were rated as both most‐ and least‐preferred by different caregivers. These findings add to the understanding of staff perceptions and attitudes and have implications for intervention.     

A survey of pre-service primary teachers' experiences of science in schools

In 1990, a large proportion of third year primary trainee teachers at Victoria College had observed or taught very few or no science lessons during the first two years of their course. The students felt that a lack of content knowledge, a crowded school curriculum, and problems associated with managing resources and equipment, were the main factors contributing to the low level of science being taught in schools. By the end of their third year significantly more students had taught science than after the second year. There was also a change in approach to teaching science with more practical activities being included than previously. The science method unit taught to the students in the third year of their course contributed to this increase. The students considered the hands-on activities in class to have been the most effective aspect of the unit in their preparation for the teaching of primary science. Specializations: children's learning in science, primary teacher education. Specializations: student understanding of biology, evaluation of formal and informal educational settings. Specializations: gender, science and technology, environmental education. Specializations: children's learning in science, language and science.