Scaffolding speech and writing in the primary classroom: a consideration of work with literature and science pupil groups in the USA and UK

In considering scaffolding as it is enacted across two disciplines – literacy and science – the focus of this paper is specifically on issues related to teacher scaffolding of pupils' learning in these areas. Features of scaffolding in action are drawn out that reflect a concern with developing a principled approach to instruction and learning. The three notions around which the paper pivots are: scaffolding the processes of learning in classroom; the importance of this type of scaffolding for independent learning; and the idea of appropriateness as it relates to the level of scaffolding employed by the teacher. The strategies used by teachers to encourage groups of pupils to adopt and use ways of thinking appropriate to the subject context are explored, and this is linked to Mercer's (2000) conception of the Intermental Developmental Zone, which explored how the concepts of scaffolding and the Zone of Proximal Development ( Vygotsky, 1978 ) might be extended to group contexts, rather than dyadic ones. Some consideration is given to how individual pupils may conceive of the teacher's structuring of thinking as scaffold or straitjacket.     

Genetic and environmental influences in adolescent peer socialization: evidence from two genetically sensitive designs

Harris argues that peer relationships are the chief determinants of personality development. Harris's thesis makes the behavioral genetic investigation of peer groups particularly timely. The present study examined genetic and environmental contribution to self-reported peer-group characteristics in two samples of adolescent siblings: 180 adoptive and nonadoptive sibling pairs from the Colorado Adoption Project, and 386 sibling pairs from the Nonshared Environment and Adolescent Development Study. Substantial genetic influence emerged for college orientation, with the remaining variance accounted for by nonshared environment. For delinquency, however, the majority of the variance was explained by nonshared environment. Although genetic influence was implicated for peer popularity in twin analyses, genetic factors were not important in explaining individual differences in nontwin siblings. These results suggest that although some dimensions of peers are somewhat mediated by genetic factors, nonshared environmental influence is substantial.     

Identity Politics and the Queering of Art Education: Inclusion and the Confessional Route to Salvation

In this article I discuss the relationship between theories of identity and making practices in secondary art and design. Of particular interest is the way students are invited to explore identities in relation to a sense of self and the extent to which this is informed by schools' concern to make diversity visible through multicultural celebration, thus framing and possibly limiting exploration. It is notable that non‐heternormative sexual identities remain largely invisible in the official curriculum and I examine the disjunction between this absence and their hypervisibilty in the mass media and its culture of confession/exposure. I revisit Michel Foucault's discussion of the history of sexuality as a way to understand the development of confessional discourses in modern culture and to provide an alternative and ambivalent reading of the power relations implicit in work exploring identities by art and design students. Specifically, I look at the position of gay and lesbian students and teachers, and ask whether their sexuality can figure within the injunction ‘explore your identity’. Given the heteronormative culture of schooling, I end by recommending that individuals should be wary of outing themselves in the name of self‐expression but that art teachers could use strategies of distancing to engage students with issues of sexuality and join with others to counter homophobia by queering the curriculum.     

Parental abusive versus supportive behaviors and their relation to hostility and aggression in young adults

The relation of parental support to abuse has rarely been considered in research on the sequelae of childhood abuse in adulthood. In this study, using the Exposure to Abusive and Supportive Environments Parenting Inventory (EASE-PI), young adults who reported higher emotionally abusive parenting (EA) consistently reported significantly lower love and support from both parents. The relation between physically abusive parenting (PA) and love/support depended upon gender of parent and child. EA was significantly related to higher hostility and higher aggression, as measured by the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, for both men and women, and to reports of physical fights within the family, for women only. PA was significantly related to higher aggression but not higher hostility. Lower support by fathers, but not by mothers, was significantly related to higher hostility. However, lower support of daughters by mothers was significantly related to increased physical fights in the family. Results indicate that less severe abusive behaviors, especially EA, may have detrimental outcomes of hostility and aggression and that supportive behaviors by both mothers and fathers may be important factors in the outcome.     

The Determinants of Students' Perceived Learning Outcomes and Satisfaction in University Online Education: An Empirical Investigation*

In this study, structural equation modeling is applied to examine the determinants of students' satisfaction and their perceived learning outcomes in the context of university online courses. Independent variables included in the study are course structure, instructor feedback, self‐motivation, learning style, interaction, and instructor facilitation as potential determinants of online learning. A total of 397 valid unduplicated responses from students who have completed at least one online course at a university in the Midwest were used to examine the structural model. The results indicated that all of the antecedent variables significantly affect students' satisfaction. Of the six antecedent variables hypothesized to affect the perceived learning outcomes, only instructor feedback and learning style are significant. The structural model results also reveal that user satisfaction is a significant predictor of learning outcomes. The findings suggest online education can be a superior mode of instruction if it is targeted to learners with specific learning styles (visual and read/write learning styles) and with timely, meaningful instructor feedback of various types.     

Progress report on the development of child abuse prevention, identification, and treatment systems in Eastern Europe

PROBLEM: After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1989, it became apparent that there was little recognition of the problems of child abuse and neglect, professionally, legally, or societally. There were no effective systems or laws in place to deal with these problems. METHOD: Beginning in 1995 the Children's Mental Health Alliance, in conjunction with the Open Society Institute began conducting trainings in Eastern Europe [Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 39 (2000) 660]. Originally 18 countries from the Baltics to the Balkans participated. A program was elaborated which would proceed in several stages: (1) training mental health professionals to deal with child abuse and neglect (CAN); (2) teaching multidisciplinary team work and fostering the development of multidisciplinary NGOs focused on CAN; (3) promoting the self-sufficiency of these NGO's which would then facilitate social and legal reform and increase public awareness of the problem. Specific methods included multi-national trainings, assignment of mentors to the developing teams who maintained weekly contact with the teams and made yearly site visits to their countries, and overseeing project grants from OSI. RESULTS: NGO's had been established and registered in 11 countries, many establishing a network of programs within their countries. By 2000, over 3800 mental health professional had been trained, either directly by the program or by the trainees of the program. By the end of 2000, over 17,000 other professionals (lawyers, police, judges, educators, other physicians, etc.) had been trained by the network. CONCLUSION: While more work needs to be in this region, the teams in 11 countries have made solid starts.     

True and false memories in maltreated children

Differences in basic memory processes between maltreated and nonmaltreated children were examined in an experiment in which middle-socioeconomic-status (SES; N = 60), low-SES maltreated (N = 48), and low-SES nonmaltreated (N = 51) children (ages 5-7, 8-9, and 10-12 years) studied 12 Deese-Roediger-McDermott lists. Using recall and recognition measures, the results showed that both true and false memories increased with age and, contrary to some speculation, these trends did not differ as a function of maltreatment status. However, there were differences in overall memory performance as a function of SES. These results are discussed in the broader framework of children's memory development and the effects of the chronic stress associated with child maltreatment on basic memory processes.     

Psychosocial Dynamics of College Students' Use of Mental Health Services

The authors present and empirically test a multivariate model of the use of mental health counseling services. Use of such services by 1st‐year college students is directly a result of need for these services and willingness to use them. Beliefs about mental health services and demographic characteristics are not directly related to use, but indirectly affect use by influencing willingness to use. Implications for college counseling programs are discussed.     

Poverty Experiences of Young Children and the Quality of Their Home Environments

This paper assesses the relative contribution of maternal, household, child, and poverty characteristics to the quality of the home environment. The sample consists of 1,887 children birth to 4 years old from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY). Ordinary least-squares regression is used to explore conceptually distinct aspects of children's poverty experiences. Poverty variables are found to have a statistically significant effect on the quality of the home environment, after controlling for the effects of other variables in the models. Statistically significant interactions among poverty variables are identified. A major finding is that improvements in family income have the strongest effects on the quality of the home environment for children who were born poor or lived much of their lives in poverty. The conclusion emphasizes implications for future research.