Children's Memory for Traumatic Injury

Children between 2 and 13 years who suffered traumatic injury necessitating hospital emergency room treatment were recruited as subjects. They (and adult witnesses) were interviewed a few days and 6 months later, using free and probed recall, about both injury and hospital treatment. Children at all ages were able to provide considerable information about both stressful events, although the amount of detail increased with age. They also made few commission errors. Surprisingly, children's distress at time of injury did not affect the amount or accuracy of their recall of that event, whereas distress during hospital treatment did decrease recall. A tripartite classification into 3 categories of detail was used: central, peripheral-inside the emotional events, or peripheral-outside those events. Children's recall differed depending upon detail category. Implications for children's testimony are discussed.     

“I like group reading because we can share ideas”: the role of talk within the Literature Circle

Drawing on research into the use of Literature Circles carried out at the University of Brighton, this paper discusses the role of talk as a way of developing children’s meaningful interactions with literary texts. It argues that where children are engaged in small group unstructured expressive talk, they are able to articulate affective responses to their reading which would otherwise remain dormant, yet which contribute to a richer understanding both of the texts they read and themselves as readers. Using the Literature Circle as a model, this paper suggests that, from reception onwards, guided reading can provide an ideal opportunity for the development of such text‐related talk. The teacher needs firstly to scaffold guided reading to enable children to learn how to respond and secondly, to transfer control of the talk to the group. The teacher should not be seen as the expert reader having all the right answers, but should lead by following. The conclusion stresses the way that guided reading can encourage children as readers, by enabling them to recognise reading as an active and desirable social process rather than as an essentially private activity.     

The use of minimization to form comparison groups in educational research

Randomized controlled trials in educational research tend to be small. Small trials can have large, chance, imbalances in important covariates. For studies with sample sizes greater than 50, chance imbalances can be corrected using analysis of covariance; for small trials, however, statistical power is maximized if the trial is balanced and analysis of covariance is used in the analysis. The aim of the present study was to discuss methods of improving covariate balance in trial design and to demonstrate the method of minimization. Using an exemplar of a cluster or class‐randomized trial with 29 classes, we employed minimization to achieve covariate balance. Minimization achieved good balance on four prognostic variables. Many trialists in education use restricted forms of allocation, including pairing or stratified randomization. These approaches have disadvantages. Another approach rarely used in educational research is minimization. Minimization uses a simple arithmetic algorithm to produce balanced groups across a number of important covariates and should be more widely used in educational and psychological research.     

Mothers' and Child-Care Providers' Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Responses to Children's Misbehavior

This study compared mothers' and caregivers' attributions for children's misconduct and their corresponding affective and behavioral responses. Forty mothers of 4-year-olds and 40 caregivers employed in childcare settings responded to a series of hypothetical incidents in which a 4-year-old child engaged in a norm violation such as aggression or failed to be altruistic. ANCOVA analyses indicated that mothers and caregivers differed in their causal attributions for children's misbehavior. Mothers and caregivers also differed in their affective and behavioral responses to children's failures to be altruistic, but not in their responses to children's norm violations. Regression analyses performed on the combined scores of mothers and caregivers found that attributions to the stability of the behavior predicted use of induction and a greater emphasis on responding to the misbehavior. A power assertive response was particularly likely if a respondent believed that a behavior was caused by stable personality factors. The documentation of linkage between causal attributions and socialization behavior has implications for parent training and early childhood education. Increasing parents' awareness of developmental processes and external factors that affect a child's behavior may result in a less punitive approach to discipline. Early childhood curricula that encourages examination of adult biases in analyzing children's behavior may assist caregivers to become more reflective and self-aware in interactions with young children.     

The Dynamics of Picturebook Communication

This article offers new perspectives and theoretical tools to interpret and appreciate the complex relationships that can exist between words and pictures. The spectrum of text/image interaction is laid out and analyzed, and several picturebooks from different countries are explored to uncover a number of intriguing dynamics ranging from the simple to the highly elaborate. Text/image interaction may give rise to significant ambiguity, and the article points to future opportunities for dual audience research in this field. The article offers a taste of Nikolajeva and Scott's How Picturebooks Work (Garland, 2000).     

The Implementation of a Positive Behaviour Management Programme in a Primary Classroom: a case study

This paper will both describe and discuss the application of stimulus and contingency control methods (positive behaviour management) in an attempt to elicit more socially and academically positive behaviour from the class of children in the case study. The programme was preceded by a comprehensive cognitive, behavioural and social assessment of the class, undertaken in the first term of the school year, which determined the nature of the intervention. The quantitative results of the positive behaviour management programme are analysed and discussed as well as the more qualitative data gained from children, parents and teachers.     

Good practice for enhancing the engagement and success of commencing students

There is widespread recognition that higher education institutions (HEIs) must actively support commencing students to ensure equity in access to the opportunities afforded by higher education. This role is particularly critical for students who because of educational, cultural or financial disadvantage or because they are members of social groups currently under-represented in higher education, may require additional transitional support to “level the playing field.” The challenge faced by HEIs is to provide this “support” in a way that is integrated into regular teaching and learning practices and reaches all commencing students. The Student Success Program (SSP) is an intervention in operation at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) designed to identify and support those students deemed to be at risk of disengaging from their learning and their institution. Two sets of evidence of the impact of the SSP are presented: First, its expansion (a) from a one-faculty pilot project (Nelson et al. in Stud Learn Eval Innov Dev 6:1–15, 2009) to all faculties and (b) into a variety of applications mirroring the student life cycle; and second, an evaluation of the impact of the SSP on students exposed to it. The outcomes suggest that: the SSP is an example of good practice that can be successfully applied to a variety of learning contexts and student enrolment situations; and the impact of the intervention on student persistence is sustained for at least 12 months and positively influences student retention. It is claimed that the good practice evidenced by the SSP is dependent on its integration into the broader First Year Experience Program at QUT as an example of transition pedagogy in action.