Predicting Parent-Child Differences in Perceptions of How Children Use the Internet for Help With Homework,Identity Development,and Health Information

Bioecological systems theory provides a framework to understand how factors in the child's environment contribute to parent-child differences in estimations of how often children are helped by their Internet use. A national sample survey of 456 matched parent-child pairs investigated how parents-child relational factors, parental attitudes toward the Internet, and the bio-ecology of the child, are related to differing perceptions of the frequency of using the Internet to seek help with homework assignments, to aid in identity development, and to find health information. While previous research shows that parents underestimate risky online behaviors, we investigate whether parent-child differences will emerge in regards to how often the child engages in the behaviors under investigation here. The findings show that parents overestimate these online activities, suggesting they are biased in their estimations. Parent-child relational factors emerged as predictors of parental overestimation for each of these online activities, with trust perceptions as the most consistent predictor. Parental attitudes toward the Internet predicted parent-child differences in perceptions of how frequently the child used the Internet for help with homework and identity development, while the bioecology of the child was only predictive in the case of using the Internet for help with homework.     

Neuroimaging Studies of Reading Development and Reading Disability

Converging evidence from a number of neuroimaging studies, including our own, suggest that fluent word identification in reading is related to the functional integrity of two left hemisphere posterior systems: a temporo-parietal system and a ventral occipito-temporal system. These posterior systems are functionally disrupted in developmental dyslexia. Reading disabled, relative to nonimpaired, readers demonstrate heightened reliance on both inferior frontal and right hemisphere posterior regions, presumably in compensation for the LH posterior difficulties. We propose a neurobiological account suggesting that for normally developing readers the temporo-parietal system predominates at first, and is associated with aspects of processing critical in learning to integrate orthography with phonological and lexical-semantic features of printed words. The occipito-temporal system, by contrast, constitutes a fast, late-developing, word-identification system that underlies fluent word recognition in skilled readers.     

In the Eye of the Beholder: Motivational Effects of Gender Differences in Perceptions of Teachers

This study investigated whether girls’ and boys’ perceptions of their teacher may explain gender-related difference in academic motivation. One hundred and twenty-nine ninth-grade Israeli students (67 males and 62 females) completed a questionnaire designed to assess their motivation to learn, their affect while studying in school, and their perception of their teachers’ behaviors. The results indicate that girls tend to perceive their teacher as more supportive than do boys and that this perception mediates gender-related differences in motivation and emotional experience. This finding suggests a mechanism to explain gender-related differences in motivation and highlights the importance of investigating those characteristics that can affect student perception of the teacher as supportive. Beyond the known contribution of the need for a supportive environment, knowledge of such characteristics can help promote adaptive motivation.     

The State of the Art

The Blackwell Companion and Blackwell Guide to the philosophy of education, edited respectively by Randall Curren and by Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers, Richard Smith and Paul Standish, are potentially field-defining volumes. The present essay moves back and forth between the two books to assess the overall impression they provide of the 'state of the art'. Whilst both texts can be criticised for failing to engage sufficiently with non-philosophical work on education, these are otherwise estimable volumes, containing many fine essays that can be read with profit.     

Teacher verbal behavior following student success and failure

Undergraduate subjects taught identifying traits of animals (fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals) to a fifth grade student confederate over a microphone. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in which they failed (F) or succeeded (S) in teaching five animal comparison problems. The four conditions were (a) F, S, S, S, S; (b) F, F, F, S, S; (c) S, F, F, F, S; and (d) S, S, S, F, S. The teaching sessions were tape recorded and analyzed for Teaching Time, Word Rate, and Voice Amplitude. Analyses revealed increased Teaching Time and decreased Word Rate following failure. Voice Amplitude increased across teaching sessions independent of success or failure. Findings were interpreted as more consonant with frustration-aggression than frustrative nonreward energizing theory.     

Student cheating and attitude: A function of classroom control technique

The effects of a teacher's classroom utilization of certain means of social influence, i.e., bases of social power (reward, coercive, referent, legitimate, and informational), upon the level of student cheating and attitude of the student toward the teacher are examined. A total of 588 white, middle-class fourth-sixth grade students participated in the study. The findings reveal significant differences in both student cheating and attitude as a function of power base strategy. Coercive power produces both the least cheating and the most favorable attitudes. A significant positive correlation (p < .01) was obtained between the measures of student cheating and attitude for the six treatment groups utilized. Precautions as to the interpretation and possible application of the findings are noted.