Exploring Teachers’ Depressive Symptoms,Interaction Quality,and Children’s Social-Emotional Development in Head Start

Research Findings: This study explored the role Head Start teachers’ (n = 355) depressive symptoms play in their interactions with children and in children’s (n = 2,203) social-emotional development, specifically changes in children’s problem behaviors and social skills as reported by parents and teachers during the preschool year. Results of the multilevel path analyses revealed that children in classrooms with more depressed teachers made significantly fewer gains in social-emotional skills as reported by both teachers and parents. We found no evidence of mediation by the quality of teacher–child interactions. Practice or Policy: These findings have implications for understanding and supporting Head Start teachers’ mental health and potentially improving children’s social-emotional outcomes.     

Sensory processing disorder in a primate model: evidence from a longitudinal study of prenatal alcohol and prenatal stress effects

Disrupted sensory processing, characterized by over- or underresponsiveness to environmental stimuli, has been reported in children with a variety of developmental disabilities. This study examined the effects of prenatal stress and moderate-level prenatal alcohol exposure on tactile sensitivity and its relationship to striatal dopamine system function in thirty-eight 5- to 7-year-old rhesus monkeys. The monkeys were from four experimental conditions: (a) prenatal alcohol exposed, (b) prenatal stress, (c) prenatal alcohol exposed + prenatal stress, and (d) sucrose controls. Increased D(2) receptor binding in the striatum, evaluated using positron emission tomography neuroimaging, was related to increased withdrawal (aversion) responses to repetitive tactile stimuli and reduced habituation across trials. Moreover, prenatal stress significantly increased overall withdrawal responses to repetitive tactile stimulation compared to no prenatal stress.     

Rats show preference for delayed rewards on the radial maze

Rats on an eight-arm radial maze chose between four arms on which a small reward could be obtained after a short delay and four arms on which a larger reward could be obtained after a longer delay. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that rats preferred the long-delay, large-reward arms over the short-delay, small-reward arms. This preference was particularly marked when the arms were made into enclosed alleys. Experiment 3 showed that this effect was not produced by a preference for staying in enclosed alleys. We argue that the rats endured longer delays to obtain larger rewards when fear of predation was minimized.     

Policy Documents: On the Wall or in the Waste Bin?

It has always been quite fashionable to have a disparaging view about school policy documents and many teachers will have had experiences of being given such documents with great flourish and then never opening them again. Yet, as Iris Keating and her colleagues point out, policy documents could be extremely helpful to teachers as guides to appropriate classroom action and ensurers of a continuity of approach. They clearly need further study as objects in their own right.     

An Approach to Improving Science Knowledge About Energy Balance and Nutrition Among Elementary- and Middle-School Students

Unhealthy diets, lack of fitness, and obesity are serious problems in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control, Surgeon General, and Department of Health and Human Services are calling for action to address these problems. Scientists and educators at Baylor College of Medicine and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute teamed to produce an instructional unit, “Food and Fitness,” and evaluated it with students in grades 3–7 in Houston, Texas. A field-test group (447 students) completed all unit activities under the guidance of their teachers. This group and a comparison group (343 students) completed pre and postassessments measuring knowledge of concepts covered in the unit. Outcomes indicate that the unit significantly increased students'' knowledge and awareness of science concepts related to energy in living systems, metabolism, nutrients, and diet. Pre-assessment results suggest that most students understand concepts related to calories in food, exercise and energy use, and matching food intake to energy use. Students'' prior knowledge was found to be much lower on topics related to healthy portion sizes, foods that supply the most energy, essential nutrients, what “diet” actually means, and the relationship between body size and basal metabolic rate.     

A Qualitative Metasynthesis of Consultation Process Research: What We Know and Where to Go

ABSTRACT

Qualitative metasynthesis (QM) is a research methodology that permits the meaningful integration and interpretation of qualitative research. This study applies a QM approach combined with constructivist grounded theory methods, bolstered by several features of research credibility, to examine the state of consultee-centered consultation (CCC) and related relational, process-oriented school consultation research. A systematic search and retrieval process including two rounds of appraisal resulted in a final sample of 38 relevant studies from 1995 to 2014. Data analyses included two stages of coding/theme development. Integrated themes suggest a number of considerations regarding consultation implementation including: system-level factors; consultation structure; consultee voice, social-emotional support, and learning; ecological orientation and cultural responsiveness; and consultation training. Future research priorities stemming from these themes are identified and elaborated upon, as are future applications for QM in educational research.     

Non-organic failure to thrive: Implications of placement through analysis of videotaped interactions

This paper presents 6-month follow-up on a group of 16 infants hospitalized during the first months of life for non-organic failure to thrive (N-O FTT) and their mothers. Eight of these infants were placed in foster care and eight were returned home with their parents following hospitalization. The effects of placement on infant outcomes were examined through comparison of developmental scores and weight percentile changes, and the implications of foster care placements for mother-infant interactions were examined through analysis of patterns of interaction in videotaped sessions of feeding and play six months after hospital discharge. This analysis snowed that (1) mothers in both groups failed to make significant progress in resolving their own emotional or psychological conficts through treatment available; (2) weight and developmental status of the infants did not improve as expected in either group, and finally that (3) the patterns of interaction between mother and infant showed little change over time, and, regardless of placement at home or in foster care, remained concerning.     

The affective assemblage of internationalisation in Japanese higher education

Higher Education - Positive attributes stick to higher education internationalisation, and it is a policy paradigm with performative effects. Internationalisation draws on imagined virtuous flows...     

Commercial innovation from university faculty

Study of a sample of faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) has determined that many academic scientists and engineers have commercially-oriented ideas. “Idea-havers” scored high on creativity measurement instruments and participated in more diverse work environment. Academic “idea-exploiters” are marked by personal background characteristic of family, religion and parental occupation that have been identified in earlier research as characteristics of new technical company enterpreneurs. Other indicators reflecting high need for achievement were also observed in the idea-exploiting group. Policy implications for universities and countries interested in technology-oriented development are described.