Masculinity Politics, Myths and Boys' Schooling: A Review Essay

This essay reviews two recently published American books about masculinity politics—Michael Kimmel's pro-feminist Manhood in America and his edited collection The Politics of Manhood —in order to comment critically on the current debate underway in various parts of the world on 'boys' and their schooling which sees them as the 'new victims' of the educational process.     

Conditioning with taste as the CS in conditioned flavor preference learning

There appear to be unconditioned affective reactions to the four basic tastes: liking for sweet and salt and disliking for sour and bitter. We attempted to modify these reactions by pairing the tastes with calories and with sweeter tastes. Differing sucrose concentrations were ineffective in reversing the preference for salt over citric acid or for saccharin over quinine. We could, however, reverse the preference for salt over citric acid, producing an actual preference for sour over salt, by using sucrose and saccharin as the reinforcers. The initial reactions to tastes could also be modified by reducing the initial difference in affect produced by the tastes through mixing both tastes with sucrose.     

Sharing teacher knowledge at scale: teacher inquiry,learning design and the representation of teachers’ practice

Sharing teachers’ professional knowledge remains challenging. Teachers’ development often remains ad hoc or local, and attempts to scale this up have proved problematic. To address this, research in areas such as ‘learning design’ has explored the use of formal representations of practice. This proposes that educational practice can be improved by documenting, sharing and building on what teachers already do. Whilst this has led to some successes, it has not resulted in the widespread transformation of practice. This paper reviews the literature about sharing teacher knowledge. The challenges of scaling up development are then considered in relation to two theories that help explain the challenges: Communities of Practice and Sociomateriality. This analysis is illustrated through case studies in Norway and the UK. These show that teachers already create and share artefacts that represent their pedagogic knowledge. However, they found formal representations, such as learning designs, difficult to work with. The paper concludes that scaling up teacher development using abstract formalisms is unlikely to succeed. Instead, teachers value stories and the materials they already create in their day-to-day practice. It is this intermediate level of representation, between direct experience and formal abstraction, that offers the most promise for sharing practice.     

Extinction and food-reinforced inhibition of conditioned salivation in dogs

The present experiment compared two methods of eliminating a classically conditioned response in dogs, extinction and reinforcement of nonsalivation, using both a within- and between-subjects experimental design. Eighteen dogs were trained for 16 days in Phase I, 16 days in Phase II, and 8 days in Phase III. In Phase I, each subject received classical conditioning training to two stimuli. In Phase II, Group 1 received extinction training to one stimulus and reinforcement of nonsalivation to the other stimulus. Group 2 received continued classical conditioning training to one stimulus and reinforcement on nonsalivation training to the other. Group 3 received continued classical conditioning training to one stimulus and extinction training to the other. In both the within- and between-subjects comparisons, responding to the stimulus associated with extinction was eliminated faster than responding to the stimulus associated with reinforcement of nonsalivation.     

Disentangling the relationship between working memory and language: The roles of short-term storage and cognitive control

This study investigates the relationship between working memory and language in young children growing up in a multilingual environment. The aim is to explore whether mechanisms of short-term storage and cognitive control hold similar relations to emerging language skills and to investigate if potential links are mediated by related cognitive abilities. A sample of 119 Luxembourgish 6-year-olds completed several assessments of working memory (complex and simple span), native and foreign vocabulary, syntax, reading, rhyme awareness, and fluid intelligence. Results showed that short-term storage and cognitive control manifested differential links with developing language abilities: Whereas verbal short-term storage was specifically linked to vocabulary; cognitive control manifested unique and robust links with syntax and early reading development. The study suggests that in young children the working memory system is composed of separate but interacting components corresponding to short-term storage and cognitive control that can be distinguished by the roles they play in supporting language acquisition.     

Relations of Children's Effortful Control and Teacher-Child Relationship Quality to School Attitudes in a Low-Income Sample

RESEARCH FINDINGS: The purpose of this study was to examine the relations of children's effortful control and quality of relationships with teachers to school attitudes longitudinally in an ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged sample. Data were collected as part of a larger intervention project during mid-fall, winter, and late spring (ns = 823, 722, and 758, respectively) for 2 cohorts of 3- to 5-year-olds (collected during 2 different school years). Children's effortful control was assessed in the fall with parents' and teachers' reports and 2 behavioral measures. Teacher-child relationship quality was assessed mid-year with teachers' reports of closeness and conflict. Attitudes toward school were assessed in late spring using teachers' and students' reports of school avoidance and liking. Effortful control, in general, was positively correlated with teacher-child closeness and school liking and negatively correlated with conflict and school avoidance. Using structural equation modeling and controlling for sex and ethnicity, we found that effortful control was positively related to teacher-child relationship quality, which in turn was positively related to school attitudes. Furthermore, the relation of effortful control to school attitudes was mediated by teacher-child relationship quality. PRACTICE OR POLICY: Results provide evidence for the importance of relational processes that take place within the classroom context and have implications for teachers and clinicians working to increase school success in ethnic minority and low-income children.     

A Dual Identity Approach for Conceptualizing and Measuring Children's Gender Identity

The goal was to test a new dual identity perspective on gender identity by asking children (n = 467) in three grades (M_age = 5.7, 7.6, 9.5) to consider the relation of the self to both boys and girls. This change shifted the conceptualization of gender identity from one to two dimensions, provided insights into the meaning and measurement of gender identity, and allowed for revisiting ideas about the roles of gender identity in adjustment. Using a graphical measure to allow assessment of identity in young children and cluster analyses to determine types of identity, it was found that individual and developmental differences in how similar children feel to both genders, and these variations matter for many important personal and social outcomes.     

Counselor Educators' Experiences Preparing Preservice School Counselors: A Phenomenological Study

The authors conducted a phenomenological study to explore the experiences of 32 school counselor educators preparing preservice school counselors. Analysis of data from 3 focus groups revealed 3 themes: breadth versus depth, balancing specialties and professor partiality, and preparation versus practice. These results highlight the need for collaboration across counseling specialties at the preservice level.     

„Jeder Schule ihre Lehrer“?

Neue Personalauswahl- und Einstellungsverfahren, an denen die Einzelschulen ma?geblich beteiligt werden, kommen bei der Besetzung von Lehrerstellen in zahlreichen Bundesl?ndern seit Mitte der 1990er-Jahre zur Anwendung und haben mittlerweile die herk?mmlichen zentralen Auswahl- und Zuweisungsverfahren zumindest in einigen von ihnen nahezu vollst?ndig abgel?st. Die Praxis und Wirkung der neuen Auswahlverfahren wurde bislang allerdings nicht systematisch untersucht. In diesem Beitrag werden empirische Befunde einer Untersuchung von Schulen in Nordrhein-Westfalen vorgestellt, die im Jahr 2002 freie Lehrerstellen über das neue Ausschreibungsverfahren besetzt haben. Erfasst wurden unter anderem die in der Praxis angewandten Kriterien der Personalauswahl und die Inhalte der Auswahlgespr?che, die Beurteilung des neuen Auswahl- und Einstellungsverfahrens durch die beteiligten Schulleitungen und Mitglieder der Auswahlkommissionen, Einsch?tzungen und Erfahrungen der neu eingestellten Lehrkr?fte sowie der Verlauf ihrer Berufseinstiegsphase und ihre Bew?hrung am neuen Arbeitsplatz.