Children's Relationships with Peers: Differential Associations with Aspects of the Teacher-Child Relationship

Associations between children's social competence with peers and differential aspects of their teacher-child relationships were examined in a longitudinal sample of 48 4-year-old children enrolled in child care as infants. Toddler security with teacher was negatively associated with hostile aggression and positively with complex peer play and gregarious behaviors. Prosocial behaviors and withdrawing behaviors were associated with preschool security with teacher. Dependence on teachers as a preschooler was associated with social withdrawal and hostile aggression. Positive toddler teacher socialization was associated with higher perceived peer acceptance. Preschool teacher negative socialization was negatively associated with complex peer play, teacher ratings of hesitancy, friendly enactment, and accidental attribution and positively related to teacher ratings of difficulty.     

Origins of individual differences in theory of mind: from nature to nurture?

In this study of the origins of individual differences in theory of mind (ToM), the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study sample of 1,116 sixty-month-old twin pairs completed a comprehensive battery of ToM tasks. Individual differences in ToM were striking and strongly associated with verbal ability. Behavioral genetic models of the data showed that environmental factors explained the majority of the variance in ToM performance in this sample. Shared environmental influences on verbal ability had a common impact on ToM and explained more than half the phenotypic correlation between these two skills. Possible underlying proximal mechanisms are discussed, including maternal speech and mind-mindedness, sibling interactions, and peer influences.     

Bringing Total Quality Improvement into the college classroom

This paper describes a recent effort to infuse the Total Quality Improvement (TQI) approach, popularized by Deming and others, into an upper-division, junior-senior economics course at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The process of infusing TQI into instruction has received relatively little attention. Most efforts to bring TQI into higher education focus on improving administrative operations and establishing courses and programs for students to learn how to apply TQI in their future jobs. The challenge is in using TQI to help students realize their potential for learning in traditional courses.The TQI instruction approach developed for use in the course had three major elements. Customer Focus is represented by the proficiencies emphasized in the course and expected of graduating economics majors. Student Involvement is represented by team-centered research projects whose purpose is to enhance the proficiency of creating new knowledge. Continuous Improvement is represented by ongoing student evaluations of the course and instructor, carried out by a student team.After discussing the motivation for adopting this approach and the independent development of the concept of proficiencies in the economics major, the paper moves on to discuss the planning, implementation, and execution of the course. Particular attention is given to discussing the operation of the teams and the development of a multi-faceted ongoing evaluation process to assess the effectiveness of the TQI Instructional Approach.The evaluation results indicate strong student satisfaction with the TQI orientation of the course, while at the same time pointing out ways of improving what was done.The author is grateful to Jacob O. Stampen and Mark Finster for helping him learn about TQI, and to Ian Hau whose seminar stimulated this effort to infuse TQI into the classroom. Helpful comments on a draft of this paper came from Jacob O. Stampen, Maury J. Cotter, Charles A. Liedtke, Paul Weiss, and Michael L. Williamson. Special thanks for generating much of the underlying data go to the Evaluation Team of Kevin Brumm, Kimberly Klatt, and John Kittilstad, and to the Proficiency Team of Evan Anderson, Deana Lynn Grobe, and Tom Yale. Ilona Loser and Kris Feggestad assisted in assembling the results of the surveys. Suzanne Vinmans handled the typing, Vicki Szypulski made the visuals, and Elaine Moran provided helpful editorial suggestions. Laura A. Guy, Data and Program Library Service, facilitated access to the Current Population Survey tape used by several teams, and Kurt Neuwirth, Social Science Microcomputer Laboratory, created a user-friendly approach to the Current Population Survey data.     

Motion detection, letter position encoding, and single word reading

Recent research has shown that many people with dyslexia find it unusually difficult to detect flickering or moving visual stimuli, consistent with impaired processing in the magnocellular visual stream. Nonetheless, it remains controversial to suggest that reduced visual sensitivity of this kind might affect reading. We first show that the accuracy of letter position encoding may depend on input from the magnocellular pathway. We then suggest that when children read, impaired magnocellular function may degrade information about where letters are positioned with respect to each other, leading to reading errors which contain sounds not represented in the printed word. We call these orthographically inconsistent nonsense errors letter errors. In an unselected sample of primary school children, we show that the probability of children making “letter” errors in a single word reading task was best explained by independent contributions from motion detection (magnocellular function) and phonological awareness (assessed by a spoonerism task). This result held even when controlling for chronological age, reading ability, and IQ. Together, these findings suggest that impaired magnocellular visual function, as well as phonological deficits, may affect reading.     

Does spatial awareness training affect anatomy learning in medical students?

Spatial ability (SA) is the cognitive capacity to understand and mentally manipulate concepts of objects, remembering relationships among their parts and those of their surroundings. Spatial ability provides a learning advantage in science and may be useful in anatomy and technical skills in health care. This study aimed to assess the relationship between SA and anatomy scores in first- and second-year medical students. The training sessions focused on the analysis of the spatial component of objects' structure and their interaction as applied to medicine; SA was tested using the Visualization of Rotation (ROT) test. The intervention group (n = 29) received training and their pre- and post-training scores for the SA tests were compared to a control group (n = 75). Both groups improved their mean scores in the follow-up SA test (P < 0.010). There was no significant difference in SA scores between the groups for either SA test (P = 0.31, P = 0.90). The SA scores for female students were significantly lower than for male students, both at baseline and follow-up (P < 0.010). Anatomy training and assessment were administered by the anatomy department of the medical school, and examination scores were not significantly different between the two groups post-intervention (P = 0.33). However, participants with scores in the bottom quartile for SA performed worse in the anatomy questions (P < 0.001). Spatial awareness training did not improve SA or anatomy scores; however, SA may identify students who may benefit from additional academic support.     

Vital pathways for hospital librarians: present and future roles

Objectives:

The research objectives were to (1) describe the current and future roles of hospital librarians and the challenges they face and (2) find evidence supporting the hypothesis that librarians are essential to hospitals in achieving the organizations'' mission-critical goals.

Method:

The authors used results from a previous research study that identified the five organizational mission-critical goals important to hospital administrators and then searched the literature and solicited examples from hospital librarians to describe the librarian''s role in helping hospitals achieve these goals.

Results:

The literature supports the hypothesis that hospital librarians play important roles in the success of the hospital. Librarians support quality clinical care, efficient and effective hospital operations, continuing education for staff, research and innovation, and patient, family, and community health information needs.

Conclusion:

Hospital librarians fulfill many mission-critical roles in today''s hospital, providing the right information at the right time in a variety of ways to enhance hospital and medical staff effectiveness, optimize patient care, improve patient outcomes, and increase patient and family satisfaction with the hospital and its services. Because hospital librarians and their services provide an excellent return on investment for the hospital and help the hospital keep its competitive edge, hospital staff should have access to the services of a professional librarian.

Highlights

• A review of the literature supports the hypothesis that services of the professional librarian result in:
  • enhanced staff effectiveness,
  • optimized patient care,
  • improved patient outcomes, and
  • increased patient and family satisfaction with the hospital and its services.

Implications

• Because hospital librarians and their services provide an excellent return on investment for the hospital and help the hospital keep its competitive edge, hospital staff should have access to the services of a professional librarian.

     

Keeping their attention: Classroom practices associated with behavioral engagement in first grade mathematics classes in China and the United States

This study investigated variation in students’ behavioral engagement across mathematics classes in China and the United States. Student behavioral engagement was examined along with two aspects of the classroom (group size and teacher instructions given about classroom behavior). Video observational data were collected and coded over 1051 time intervals in 35-minute mathematics sessions in Chinese classrooms (n = 8) and comparable American classrooms (n = 7). Latent growth analyses revealed that overall, behavioral engagement declined over time, although the drop-off was dramatically sharper in American classrooms relative to Chinese classrooms. In addition, larger group size and the timing of teacher instructions (given before versus after the behavior) were significantly associated with increased engagement. This study revealed compelling cultural differences as well as patterns in student and teacher behaviors associated with students engaging in on-task behaviors in the classroom. Implications for ways to promote effective classroom behavior are discussed.     

New peace,new teachers: Student teachers' perspectives of diversity and community relations in Northern Ireland

This paper reflects upon student teachers' conceptions of inter-community relations and the preparation they receive to address issues of diversity and mutual understanding. The study in Northern Ireland is set against a backdrop of political, social and educational change, where a shared, peaceful future appears possible. Student teachers at a Catholic institution and a predominantly Protestant institution indicated a willingness to engage with issues concerning diversity and inter-community relations, despite having a limited knowledge of the concepts. However they also demonstrated clear views about the relevance and value of the preparation they received. The findings are evaluated using multicultural theory.