Touch your toes! Developing a direct measure of behavioral regulation in early childhood

Behavioral aspects of self-regulation, including controlling and directing actions, paying attention, and remembering instructions, are critical for successful functioning in preschool and elementary school. In recent years, several direct assessments of these skills have appeared, but few studies provide complete psychometric data and many are not easy to administer. We developed a direct measure of children's behavioral regulation, the Head-to-Toes Task, and report performance of participants aged 36–78 months, including a group of Spanish-speaking children, from two different sites (N = 353; N = 92). We examined construct validity, examiner reliability, sources of variation, and associations between task scores and background characteristics. Results showed that the task was valid, reliable, and demonstrated variability in children's scores. A cross-classified hierarchical growth curve analysis indicated that girls, participants assessed in English, and higher-socioeconomic status (SES) children achieved slightly higher average scores than did boys, Spanish-speaking and lower-SES children, but effect sizes were small. Older participants achieved higher scores than did younger children, and there were no effects for site. Results suggest that the Head-to-Toes Task is an informative and easy-to-administer direct assessment of children's behavioral regulation. We discuss implications for its use in early childhood settings.     

Studies on the use of fear appeals: A summary and analysis

While a number of studies have been concerned with the effects of varying intensities of fear appeals on audience response, interpretation of the findings poses a number of problems. The author summarizes some of the major research thus far conducted, analyzes several of the problems involved in interpreting the findings of these studies, and provides some tentative suggestions for fruitful approaches to the study of the effects of fear‐arousing appeals.     

The somatic marker as a “short cut” to verbal immediacy

This study examined the relationships between the somatic‐marker hypothesis, developed by Damasio (1994) as it relates to homophily and verbal immediacy in the classroom. Damasio has hypothesized that when particular events occur in one's life, there is a “memory” of that event in the brain. As a result, when a similar event occurs, the somatic marker recreates that first event. Students were provided three different scenarios about the first day of a communication class. In the scenarios, the instructor presented information about himself. One instructor provided only autobiographical, demographic data (the control). Another provided information hozu he had had difficulty with public speaking (the selfish marker). The third provided information about how the instructor had helped someone else who had difficulty in public speaking (the altruistic marker). The results indicated that while homophily differences were not significant, there was a significant difference between the control group and the altruistic marker.     

All About Demand-Driven Acquisition

This article reports on a talk delivered at the Mississippi State University Libraries eResource & Emerging Technologies Summit. The author introduces the concept of Demand-Driven Acquisition (DDA) for e-books and explains how it works. The author discusses predicting and controlling costs, as well as other implementation decisions. Finally, the author discusses the possibility of removing books from a DDA program and speculates on some of the effects of DDA on libraries and scholarly publishing.     

Connecting to nature at the zoo: implications for responding to climate change

Societal response to climate change has been inadequate. A perception that the issue is both physically and temporally remote may reduce concern; concern may also be affected by the political polarization surrounding the issue in the USA. A feeling of connection to nature or to animals may increase personal relevance, and a supportive social context may counteract political tensions. Zoos may provide opportunities for both sense of connection and social support. We surveyed over 7000 zoo and aquarium visitors to examine the ways in which a feeling of personal connection among zoo visitors may encourage concern about climate change. Results show that feeling connected to animals at the zoo is significantly associated with cognitive and emotional responses to climate change, as well as with other social groupings and social responses. Overall, the zoo seems to present a supportive social context for considering the topic.     

The growing (but still limited) importance of evidence in education policy and practice

The last decade of education change has been characterized by the rise of evidence-based policy and practice agendas. Internationally, we are witnessing efforts to increase and incorporate research use in public services. This article examines efforts in education to address the research–practice gap through an emerging field we term knowledge mobilization (KM). We explore some of the controversy surrounding the use of ‘evidence’, outline national and international KM initiatives and consider some of the issues and challenges that arise from the increased interest in evidence and research use in education. We also assess the current state and desirable future directions of efforts to strengthen the role of research and evidence in education.