Do less-advantaged students avoid prestigious universities? An applicant-centred approach to understanding UCAS decision-making

Less-advantaged students are under-represented at prestigious universities, but can we infer that they actively avoid them? This research measured university applicants’ knowledge of 115 UK universities. Using card-sort tasks within an interview format, 56 Year 13 students from different types of 16–19 education described how they chose five courses for their application form. Significant cross-cohort trends in knowledge and understanding demonstrated the influence of different educational environments, but within-cohort variation showed that applicant characteristics could over-ride environmental factors. The only cohort where every student understood relative status was an independent school providing individual, career-focused guidance. Limited resources in state-sector schools and colleges necessitated ‘opt-in’ models of guidance, meaning that only highly motivated students were well-informed. When students knew that universities are ranked by national league tables, this informed their decision-making strategy, but reliance on word-of-mouth rather than fact-based information resulted in some students over-estimating status and graduate outcomes. A new conceptual framework blending developmental and cognitive psychology explained persistent class-based progression trends whilst demonstrating how personal agency or educational interventions enabled some less-advantaged students to enter prestigious universities. There was no evidence that prestigious universities were actively avoided, but some students had insufficient knowledge or understanding to make status-based distinctions.     

PARENTING PROGRAMMES: Do generalist parenting programmes improve children's behaviour and attendance at school? The parents’ perspective

Previous research has demonstrated that parenting programmes can be an effective intervention in changing behaviour and parent/child interactions. However, less attention has been given to the impact of these programmes in relation to improving attendance and behaviour at school. Lynne Rogers, lecturer in teacher education specialising in the post-14 sector, Susan Hallam, Professor of Education and Dean of the Faculty of Policy and Society, and Jacquelene Shaw, educational psychologist, all working in the University of London, set their debate in this article in the context of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 and the Respect Action Plan 2006. These authors use their article in order to describe parents' perceptions of the impact of parenting programmes on their own and their children's behaviour, with particular reference to behaviour at home and at school. The perceptions reported here, and enlivened with direct quotes from parents, are based on questionnaire data from 142 parents and interviews with a sample of parents and teachers. Parents were broadly positive about the benefits of parenting programmes. However, where the child's problem was rooted in school-related issues, some concerns about behaviour and attendance remained. Lynne Rogers, Susan Hallam and Jacquelene Shaw close their article with a call for parenting programmes to be more closely aligned with activities in school and with educational processes.     

Prolonged exposure to conspecific and predator odors reduces fear reactions to these odors during subsequent prod-shock tests

In Experiment 1, four groups of male rats were given a session as an intruder in either aggressive (i.e., alpha) or nonaggressive colonies of conspecifics and later received either a 2-h exposure to the odors of the alpha colonies or an exposure-control session with the odors of a nonalpha colony. Two additional groups of rats that had been attacked and defeated by alpha residents were later given a 12-h exposure session with alpha-colony odors or nonaipha-control odors. Twenty-four h after the colony-intruder session, all subjects were given a single 6.5-mA shock from a prod with alpha-colony odors present in the bedding of the test chamber. Attacked rats that had been given exposure-control sessions showed significantly less prod burying and greater freezing than nondefeated subjects. This implies that the alpha-colony odors elicited conditioned fear. In contrast, the attacked subjects that had been given a pretest exposure session with alpha-colony odors showed significantly more prod burying and significantly less freezing. This suggests that the alpha-odor exposure resulted in the extinction of fear to these odors. Furthermore, the 12-h exposure to alpha-colony odors was found to be more effective in reducing fear-mediated responses than was the 2-h exposure. In Experiment 2, three groups of rats were exposed to a cat while they were in a protective cage; later they were given a 12-h exposure session with cat odors, a 12-h exposure-control session with no cat odors, or no exposure treatment. Compared with the two control groups, the subjects that were exposed to cat odors showed less freezing during subsequent prod-shock tests in the presence of cat odors, but they did not show prod burying. The reported changes in fear-mediated reactions to the odors of conspecifics and a predator are discussed in terms of both associative and nonassociative processes.     

Some factors in problem solving: The name of the concept,specific instructions,and the ability to verbalize

Three extrinsic factors were manipulated in a problem-solving task performed by 80 10-year-old children of IQ 90–110. The factors were: The presence or absence of the name of the concept given in feedback, specific instructions, and whether the child was allowed to verbalize. The task was a modification of Vygotsky's experiment on concept formation using concrete material. The performance criteria were: time taken to solution, number of moves, and amount of verbalization. The presence of the name of the concept given in feedback speeded the time to solution and reduced the number of moves required. Specific instruction speeded the solution but did not reduce the number of moves; whereas verbalization reduced the number of moves but increased the time of solution.     

Signs of resilience: assets that support deaf adults' success in bridging the deaf and hearing worlds

A multiple-case exploratory study is used to describe intrapersonal, behavioral, and environmental assets that may build bridges for Deaf adults between the Deaf and hearing worlds. A study of three exemplary former community college students provides new information about internal resources that may empower Deaf individuals to achieve work and social success in interaction with environmental support, despite the vulnerabilities associated with their deafness. This study identifies 15 assets that may support resilience in Deaf adults, including authenticity and comfort with solitude. The authors hypothesize that social authenticity and comfort with solitude may be resilience-fostering intrapersonal assets of unique importance in the Deaf community. From the positive psychology perspective of recognizing and building on human strengths, the authors suggest that support of mutual asset-building with learning partners in the classroom is one way professors might promote optimal student achievement and life success for all students.     

Encouraging science through playful discovery

Children are natural investigators. Their innate curiosity and interest in objects, coupled with adult encouragement for them to mess about with these materials, helps, ...children make discoveries that provide a base for scientific conceptual development on which they build for the rest of their lives (McIntyre, 1984, p. 25).Dwight L. Rogers is an assistant professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ralph E. Martin is an associate professor in the College of Education at Ohio University in Athens. Sharon Kousaleos is a kindergarten teacher at River Valley Community School in Athens, Ohio.     

MEDLARS operating experience: addendum

This brief note supplements the article which appeared in the BULLETIN in the January 1966 issue (vol. 54, p. 1-10). Data for six additional months of operation are given, representing 192 additional searches. Original personnel costs are confirmed; machine costs are considerably lower than during the earlier period. It is estimated that, under the conditions indicated, the cost of a search per year searched is about $66.00.     

What's got two heads and no nose? Young British and Chinese children's representations of unreality

In this study, two samples of 4‐year‐old Chinese children were given two drawing tasks, one very familiar task and one novel and challenging task. The first sample was drawn from a nursery that taught art in a similar way to that widely used in the West, with an emphasis on individual expression. The second sample was from a nursery where drawing was taught explicitly and directly in the traditional Chinese way. Results were compared between the two groups and with a British sample given the same task. Some very significant differences were found with both tasks, and these are discussed in the context of different ideas about young children's drawing and art education.