The impact of cumulative change in early adolescence

This article examines the impact of experiencing several major life transitions simultaneously in early adolescence. For many children, entry into the new life period of adolescence is marked by the transition from a relatively intimate elementary school setting into a more complex, impersonal junior high school environment. This major shift in organizational context is often accompanied by dramatic changes in biology and social definition. We hypothesized that transitions will be easier for children to cope with if the various adolescent changes come into focus at different stages rather than simultaneously. In a longitudinal study conducted in a large Midwestern city, schoolchildren were followed from sixth into seventh grade in 2 different types of school systems. The effect of multiple life changes (school transition, pubertal development, early dating behavior, residential mobility, family disruption) on students' self-esteem, academic grade-point average, and participation in extracurricular activities was analyzed. The results identify children who are forced to cope with several life transitions concurrently as a group at risk. Theoretical implications are discussed, with development of the notion that individuals need an "arena of comfort" in at least some spheres of their lives.     

A Framework for the Analysis and Management of Library Security Issues Applied to Patron-property Theft

This paper adapts three conceptual frameworks from Environmental Criminology – Routine Activity Theory, Rational Choice Theory, and Situational Crime Prevention – to create a Crime Prevention Toolkit that helps librarians analyze and manage criminal activity in contemporary academic libraries. The toolkit is applied to a case study of patron-laptop theft at an urban academic library to demonstrate its use in analyzing criminal activity and creating a crime-problem intervention. The intervention was rapidly successful at eliminating patron-property theft. There were no patron-laptop thefts of any kind in the library after implementation of the intervention, in contrast to 12 recorded laptop thefts the previous academic year. This is the first time a research-based, conceptual framework of three theories from Environmental Criminology has been used to analyze and manage criminal activity in an academic library. It is also the first time a patron-property theft intervention in an academic library has been demonstrated effective in an empirical inquiry.     

人草大战

我突然怀念起曾经住过的在城市陋屋区的旧房子来,陋室在12层的公寓上,没有电梯,只有一间屋子,半个卫生间。事情是这样的:这一切发生得非常简单。我们搬到乡下后不久,我的妻子,詹妮弗,觉得后院需要一次彻底的整理。“后院怎么了?”我问道“,看看我们院子里的草长得多壮实,多招摇。我敢打赌,这一带可没有哪家能比得上我们。”这时候詹妮弗透露了一个小秘密,我们草坪上的根本就不是草,只有壮实、招摇的毒葛。我认为,毒葛长得欣欣向荣,可不像后院的其他植物,我们也许应该除掉其他东西,比如说那个看起来病怏怏的玫瑰。我据理力争“:为什么要把真…     

Assessing the influence of field- and GIS-based inquiry on student attitude and conceptual knowledge in an undergraduate ecology lab

Combining field experience with use of information technology has the potential to create a problem-based learning environment that engages learners in authentic scientific inquiry. This study, conducted over a 2-yr period, determined differences in attitudes and conceptual knowledge between students in a field lab and students with combined field and geographic information systems (GIS) experience. All students used radio-telemetry equipment to locate fox squirrels, while one group of students was provided an additional data set in a GIS to visualize and quantify squirrel locations. Pre/postsurveys and tests revealed that attitudes improved in year 1 for both groups of students, but differences were minimal between groups. Attitudes generally declined in year 2 due to a change in the authenticity of the field experience; however, attitudes for students that used GIS declined less than those with field experience only. Conceptual knowledge also increased for both groups in both years. The field-based nature of this lab likely had a greater influence on student attitude and conceptual knowledge than did the use of GIS. Although significant differences were limited, GIS did not negatively impact student attitude or conceptual knowledge but potentially provided other benefits to learners.     

Improving beginning reading instruction and intervention for students with LD: reconciling "all" with "each"

We begin with an examination of the tensions that exist between educational efforts that target the needs of all students and efforts that target the needs of individual students with disabilities. Next, we provide reasons why, in beginning reading, a schoolwide system designed to teach all students to read can also support individualized and flexible instruction designed to teach each student to read. Finally, we describe a schoolwide beginning reading model that includes a schoolwide framework or infrastructure that supports comprehensive and coordinated reading goals, assessment, and instruction for all students integrated with ongoing progress monitoring and instructional adjustments that allow for differentiated and individualized instruction for each student, including students with disabilities.     

AFFINITY DISCIPLINES AND THE USE OF PRINCIPLES OF GOOD PRACTICE FOR UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

Academic disciplines with soft paradigmaticdevelopment tend to have an affinity for more readilyenacting practices designed to improve undergraduateeducation than do hard paradigmatic developmentdisciplines. This study extends the affinity disciplinehypothesis to Chickering and Gamson's seven principlesof good practice. The affinity discipline hypothesisgarners empirical support for four of the sevenprinciples of good practice: encouragement offaculty-student contact, encouragement of activelearning, communication of high expectations, andrespect for diverse talents and ways of knowing.Implications for theory and practice are suggested by the findings ofthis study.     

The effect of systematic training in elaboration on word meaning and prose comprehension in poor readers

This paper reports two interrelated, exploratory training studies to promote word knowledge and textual comprehension through elaboration in poor readers compared with their controls. The results suggest that systematic, sustained in situ training helped these poor readers, although both the training approaches and stimulus materials would need refinement. The study was assisted in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada with SSHRCC research grants Nos. 410-87-0058 and 410-89-0128 awarded to Che Kan Leong.     

Instruction in Pre‐reading Skills in Preschool Children and its Effect on the Subsequent Rate of Reading Attainment

The effect of three preschool conditions on early reading attainment in the first four terms at primary school was studied. The conditions were: (a) nursery education with computer‐presented structured pre‐reading instruction comprising visual and auditory discrimination and recognition of letter shapes and sounds, (b) ‘normal’ nursery activities, and (c) no formal nursery education. The initial reading performance of these children in the three conditions was then monitored during their first two terms in the same class group of a first school. The group who received pre‐reading skills training was found not only to learn to read more quickly in terms of the number of books in the reading scheme read, but for this superiority to increase over the two terms, compared to the nursery only and the no‐nursery groups. Both the nursery conditions were superior to the no‐nursery group. The results were interpreted as indicating the importance of structured learning of basic pre‐reading skills and of the computer as an effective means of presenting them.