Students of color helping others stay in college: A grassroots effort

College students have a long and rich tradition of working on the front lines to effect change. Activist students of color have turned their attention to other students in need of personal, communal, and academic support. New research chronicles this powerful approach.     

Changes in Academic Staff Perceptions of the Status of Teaching and Research

This paper is based on an opportunity which arose, in a major metropolitan Australian university, to use empirical data to investigate change. The question addressed was whether academic staff's perceptions of the relative importance of teaching and research in the university's reward structure had changed over the nine year period 1973‐1982. Reference is made to a theoretical orientation concerning rewards, morale and institutional health, in the framing of hypotheses and in discussion of the implications of the findings. Efforts to change the status of teaching, relative to research, are noted, as well as problems confronting such efforts.     

Progress report on the development of child abuse prevention, identification, and treatment systems in Eastern Europe

PROBLEM: After the Soviet Union dissolved in 1989, it became apparent that there was little recognition of the problems of child abuse and neglect, professionally, legally, or societally. There were no effective systems or laws in place to deal with these problems. METHOD: Beginning in 1995 the Children's Mental Health Alliance, in conjunction with the Open Society Institute began conducting trainings in Eastern Europe [Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry 39 (2000) 660]. Originally 18 countries from the Baltics to the Balkans participated. A program was elaborated which would proceed in several stages: (1) training mental health professionals to deal with child abuse and neglect (CAN); (2) teaching multidisciplinary team work and fostering the development of multidisciplinary NGOs focused on CAN; (3) promoting the self-sufficiency of these NGO's which would then facilitate social and legal reform and increase public awareness of the problem. Specific methods included multi-national trainings, assignment of mentors to the developing teams who maintained weekly contact with the teams and made yearly site visits to their countries, and overseeing project grants from OSI. RESULTS: NGO's had been established and registered in 11 countries, many establishing a network of programs within their countries. By 2000, over 3800 mental health professional had been trained, either directly by the program or by the trainees of the program. By the end of 2000, over 17,000 other professionals (lawyers, police, judges, educators, other physicians, etc.) had been trained by the network. CONCLUSION: While more work needs to be in this region, the teams in 11 countries have made solid starts.     

Co-occurring forms of child maltreatment and adult adjustment reported by Latina college students

OBJECTIVES: This study had two primary objectives: First, to examine the nature and co-occurrence of various forms of child maltreatment (sexual, physical, emotional, and witnessing violence) reported by Latina college students, and second, to explore coexisting maltreatment types and acculturation status as possible contributors to long-term adjustment difficulties. METHOD: Participants were 112 Latina undergraduate students categorized by the number of childhood maltreatment types experienced (0, 1, or 2 or more) and acculturation level (1 to 5). The possible effects of co-occurring forms of maltreatment, in conjunction with acculturation status, were investigated with respect to participants' reported trauma symptomatology. Data were collected using self-report measures. RESULTS: Nearly three out of 10 participants (29%) experienced more than one type of child maltreatment and, as expected, these individuals reported greater trauma symptomatology than those reporting either a single type of maltreatment or no maltreatment at all. Those who reported multiple types also endured more severe maltreatment than did respondents who experienced a single type. Acculturation level was neither directly related to trauma symptoms nor did it moderate the lasting correlates of maltreatment among victims. Interestingly, those who experienced a single form of maltreatment reported no more trauma symptoms than did participants who reported no maltreatment history at all. CONCLUSION: This investigation documents a large degree of overlap among various forms of self-reported childhood maltreatment within a Latina college population. The results underscore the need to consider multiple forms of maltreatment, as well as severity, when making inferences regarding potential effects on later functioning.     

Computer Technology,Science Education,and Students with Learning Disabilities

The ways computer technology could be used to teach science to students with learning disabilities (LD) are explored. Science is for all students and that includes students with LD. Learning science has both cognitive and affective implications for students with LD. In this context, computer technology provides cognitively engaging and motivating instructional tools for individualizing the mode of delivery; developing expert tutors; anchoring instruction; integrating science with other subjects; reducing cognitive load on working memory; and motivating students to stay on task. These applications are discussed with implications for teaching science to students with LD.     

Science achievement in semester and all-year courses

The study investigated the effects of full-credit semester and all-year timetables on science attitudes and science achievement of grade-10 students in British Columbia. All grade-10 students in British Columbia completed multiple matrix sampled assessment instruments in May of 1986. These instruments provided background information, affective scores, and cognitive scores which were used to compare the groups. It was found that, contrary to reported teacher perceptions of semester versus all-year courses, students in the all-year courses consistently outperformed both first- and second-semester students in the cognitive domains tested, and there were no significant differences in the affective domains. The finding that second-semester students out-performed the first-semester students casts doubt on the reported teacher perception that knowledge retention is of little concern under a semester system.     

Children's developing knowledge of the relationship between mental awareness and pretense

This study investigated 3- and 4-year-old's understanding of the relationship between pretense and mental awareness. In Experiments 1 and 2, only a subset of 4-year-olds recognized that sleeping characters and characters ignorant of their appearance were not pretending. However, these experiments had certain linguistic demands, which potentially influenced performance. In Experiments 3, these demand characteristics were reduced; under these circumstances, 3- and 4-year-olds recognized that pretenders were aware of their actions or appearance. However, Experiment 4 showed that even using this modified procedure, 3- and 4-year-olds do not completely understand the relationship between pretense and awareness. These data support the hypotheses that by the age of 4, children have some, but not a complete, understanding of the relationship between pretense and mental awareness.     

Influence of Different Surface Treatments of H13 Hot Work Die Steel on Its Thermal Fatigue Behaviors

Thermal fatigue checking is general failure of hot work die steels,which is relative with the structures and properties of the steels and the stress alternated during the employment.The Uddeholm test method on thermal fatigue is used to compare the behaviors of different samples,which are treated with plasma nitriding 、plasma sulfur-carbon-nitriding、boronizing or not treated.The results show that the nitriding improves the thermal fatigue property of the tool steel,while the plasma sulfur-carbon-nitriding and the boronizing impair the property.The mechanisms are induced as follows .By increasing the hardness and changing the stress distribution in the surface layer,surface treatment can decrease the plastic deformation and the temsile stress during the cycling.Therefore,the generation and growth of the cracks are restrained.On the other hand,as results of surface treating,in the surface layer the toughness declines and the expanding coefficient ascendes;the latter change caused the strengthening of the tensile and compressive stress during the cycling.Thus the resistance to thermal fatigue is weakened.Whether or not the surface treatment is favor to thermal fatigue of tool steels relies on which factor is dominant.     

Introduction: Refugee Teacher Consultation in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This is the introductory article to a journal theme issue on Refugee Teacher Collaboration in Malaysia. The origins of this issue are described, as well as the Editor’s hope that these articles will inspire additional consultation research using participatory approaches. A brief synopsis of the issue is provided.