Referring and Reporting Research Participants at Risk: Views from Urban Adolescents

Researching developmental risks of urban youth raises ethical concerns when an investigator discovers a participant is in jeopardy. This study collected data on 147 seventh, ninth, and eleventh graders' views of 3 investigator options: (1) taking no action and maintaining confidentiality, (2) reporting the problem to a concerned parent or adult, and (3) facilitating adolescent self-referrals. Participants judged these options within the context of 5 risk domains: substance abuse, child maltreatment, life-threatening behaviors, delinquency, and shyness. Judgments of reporting options were related to grade and ratings of risk severity, but not to moral reasoning. Confidentiality was viewed favorably for risk behaviors of low perceived severity or for which the consequences of adult discovery might introduce greater risk. Confidentiality was viewed unfavorably and reporting to adults favorably for child maltreatment and threats of suicide. Self-referral was viewed favorably across all grades and risk behaviors. Implications of adolescent perspectives for research ethics are discussed.     

Conservation in Physics Teaching,History of Science and in Child Development

The current work is an exploratory study on the ideas thatstudents in their fourth semester of engineering have about ``conservation'. Wereview the Piagetian position on the importance of conservations in logical operational structures inchild development and we comment upon other current trends in cognitive psychology. We discussbriefly the development of conservations in science during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and we pointout the contrast between this and how most textbooks introduce this subject. We have also carried out afirst, tentative analysis of the answers given by a sample of these students to a brief questionnaire about``conservation' and ``non-conservation'.     

Diversifying Academic and Professional Identities in Higher Education: Some management challenges

This paper draws on an international study of the management challenges arising from diversifying academic and professional identities in higher education. These challenges include, for instance, the introduction of practice-based disciplines with different traditions such as health and social care, the changing aspirations and expectations of younger generations of staff, a diffusion of management responsibilities and structures, and imperatives for a more holistic approach to the “employment package”, including new forms of recognition and reward. It is suggested that while academic and professional identities have become increasingly dynamic and multi-faceted, change is occurring at different rates in different contexts. A model is offered, therefore, that relates approaches to “people management” to different organisational environments, against the general background of increasing resource constraint arising from the global economic downturn.

     

Word reading and reading comprehension: stability, overlap and independence

Longitudinal twin data were analyzed to investigate the etiology of the stability of genetic and environmental influences on word reading and reading comprehension, as well as the stability of those influences on their relationship. Participating twin pairs were initially tested at a mean age of 10.3 years, and retested approximately five years later. Both word reading and comprehension were found to be highly stable, and genetic influences were primarily responsible for that stability. In contrast to studies with younger participants, no unique genetic influences were observed at follow-up testing in this older sample. High genetic correlations were obtained between word reading and reading comprehension at both ages, indicating common genetic influences. However, significant genetic influence on comprehension was also observed, independent of that on word reading. Although the phenotypic relation between the two measures appeared to decline across time, the genetic etiology of this relation was highly stable.     

Scaling a Mountain — A study of the use,discrimination and generalisation of some mathematical concepts in a LOGO environment

The paper will describe pupils’ engagement in mathematical activity, in collaboration with a partner, in an exploratory LOGO programming environment. It will focus on how initial pupil conceptions become progressively more differentiated and generalised. An attempt will be made to describe levels at which pupils, in this particular context, tend to operate with respect to a range of mathematical concepts and processes embedded within the activity, and situations which have provoked ‘changes in level’ that is, where pupils have modified or reorientated their initial conceptions, extended their range of applicability or made new links or syntheses. The general role of conflict, both cognitive and socio cognitive will be considered together with the particular roles of teacher intervention, pupil discussion and computer interaction in both promoting the conflict and aiding in its resolution. Illustrations will also highlight the specificity of cognitive structures constructed within the activity and the crucial importance of the nature of pupil representation of the activity and its relation to the practices from which it emerged.     

Racist Harassment in the White Hinterlands: Minority ethnic children and parents' experiences of schooling in Northern Ireland

The present article explores the nature and extent of racist harassment in predominantly white areas. It is based on a case study of Northern Ireland, and draws on data from in-depth interviews with a total of 32 children and 43 parents chosen from the four largest minority ethnic groups in the region: Chinese, Irish Travellers, South Asians and Black Africans. The article demonstrates that racist harassment is a significant problem in schools in Northern Ireland and highlights the varied forms that it can take, from overt acts of physical and verbal abuse to more covert and subtle forms of teasing and 'friendly' banter. It also highlights the central role that schools play within this. More specifically, some schools were found to respond appropriately and effectively to incidents of racist harassment among their pupils. Other schools, however, through inactivity and/or responding inappropriately, were found to not only indirectly reinforce the racist harassment that was taking place, but at times to directly contribute to it. The article concludes by stressing the relevance and importance of schools developing effective strategies for dealing with racist harassment in predominantly white areas.     

Effects of metacognitive and elaborative activity on cooperative learning and transfer

The effects of instructing pairs of students to engage in metacognitive activities (error correcting and key idea detection), elaborative activities (use of imagery, analogies, etc.), or neither during cooperative learning were examined for both initial cooperative learning and transfer to an individual learning task. The results suggest that metacognitive activity facilitates cooperative learning and elaborative activity facilitates transfer to individual learning. These findings have strong implications for the tailoring of cooperative learning strategies to instructional goals.