Antisocial Behaviour in Children and Eysenck's Theory of Personality: An evaluation

Antisocial behaviour in children and youth was examined in relation to the biosocial personality theory of Hans Eysenck. Eysenck's theory is based on three independent personality traits that reflect hypothesised temperament source traits affecting behavioural predisposition. The theory holds that the interaction of the three temperament traits Psychoticism (P), Extroversion (E), and Neuroticism (N) with socialisation experiences produce personality. Eysenck's measurement instruments also contain a Lie (L) scale that has been shown to function as an index of socialisation or social conformity. Eysenck's antisocial behaviour (ASB) hypothesis predicts that individuals at risk for developing ASB have above average P scale scores. Further, individuals who are also high on the E and N scales and below average on the L scale are at the greatest risk. The current article provides an overview of the theory and an evaluation of the research support for the ASB hypothesis in children and youth. The evaluation supported the role of P and L in ASB. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Measuring Science Instructional Practice: A Survey Tool for the Age of NGSS

Ambitious efforts are taking place to implement a new vision for science education in the United States, in both Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)-adopted states and those states creating their own, often related, standards. In-service and pre-service teacher educators are involved in supporting teacher shifts in practice toward the new standards. With these efforts, it will be important to document shifts in science instruction toward the goals of NGSS and broader science education reform. Survey instruments are often used to capture instructional practices; however, existing surveys primarily measure inquiry based on previous definitions and standards and with a few exceptions, disregard key instructional practices considered outside the scope of inquiry. A comprehensive survey and a clearly defined set of items do not exist. Moreover, items specific to the NGSS Science and Engineering practices have not yet been tested. To address this need, we developed and validated a Science Instructional Practices survey instrument that is appropriate for NGSS and other related science standards. Survey construction was based on a literature review establishing key areas of science instruction, followed by a systematic process for identifying and creating items. Instrument validity and reliability were then tested through a procedure that included cognitive interviews, expert review, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (using independent samples), and analysis of criterion validity. Based on these analyses, final subscales include: Instigating an Investigation, Data Collection and Analysis, Critique, Explanation and Argumentation, Modeling, Traditional Instruction, Prior Knowledge, Science Communication, and Discourse.     

The Burden of Teaching Teachers: Memoirs of Race Discourse in Teacher Education

This paper presents the views and educational experiences of two African American female scholars, from a critical race and black feminist theorist perspective, teaching in the area of social justice to predominantly white female pre-service teachers. These testimonies reveal the struggles encountered by these scholars when engaging students in a historical and contemporary examination of race, privilege, and systemic inequalities. The objectives of this paper are to expand on the literary dialogue of such resistance and attempt to bring awareness into the arenas that need the most exposure, i.e. departmental, faculty, and tenure review meetings. It is commonly written and verbalized that institutions are interested in attracting and retaining faculty of color. We argue that the ways we are supported must shift. This problem of student resistance, who they resist and why, should become open for discussion on college campuses across the nation. Dawn G. Williams is an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration and Policy at Howard University. Venus Evans-Winters is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Illinois Wesleyan University.     

Charging to the End: Course Activities for Semester‐Long Student Engagement in an Undergraduate Product Development Capstone Course

Setting instructional goals to drive student engagement in the classroom is essential, as research has shown that improved student engagement in a course will affect student success, as well as the development of key personal and professional skills. Student engagement is a multifaceted concept with multiple perspectives. In focusing on the behavioral perspective of student engagement, various effective teaching practices can be implemented to encourage engagement in a diverse study body. Utilizing validated tools, such as the Natl. Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Engagement Themes and Indicators, can ease the development of classroom approaches to student engagement with convenience and flexibility. Semester‐long student engagement in a food science undergraduate product development capstone course was encouraged through instructional approaches styled around the NSSE Engagement Themes and Indicators. The variety of instructional approaches utilized in the capstone food science course are described in detail and discussed in relation to the NSSE Engagement Themes and Indicators with which they align.     

Contributions of Maternal Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms to Parenting

Objective. The goal of the current study was to examine the impact of maternal attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms on several dimensions of parenting. Design. One-hundred seven mothers of young adolescents provided ratings of their own attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, depressive symptoms, and parenting behavior, as well as their adolescents’ aggressive behaviors. Results. Hierarchical regression analyses examined the relative contributions of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder symptoms to parenting. Greater levels of maternal attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptomatology were associated with poorer monitoring, whereas more oppositional defiant disorder symptoms were associated with lower levels of parenting involvement and positive reinforcement and higher levels of overreactivity and use of corporal punishment. Conclusions. Maternal oppositional defiant disorder behaviors were particularly associated with negative, affective dimensions of parenting. Understanding the impact of maternal attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms on parenting may require consideration of concomitant maternal oppositional defiant disorder symptoms.     

An Empirical Assessment of Cooperative Groups in Large, Time-compressed, Introductory Courses

We measured student knowledge and motivation at the beginning and end of a three-week general psychology course. Two large lecture sections (N = 215 and N = 154) were compared; one used a cooperative learning process, and one did not. Student knowledge significantly improved in both sections, but there was no additional benefit derived from using cooperative learning. Interestingly, student motivation significantly decreased in the cooperative learning section. With recognition of the study’s limitations, we conclude that cooperative learning has limited efficacy in large enrollment, compressed courses. Dawn Vreven is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She received her Ph.D. from Brown University. Her research interests include visual perception and cognition. Susan McFadden is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. She received her Ph.D. from Drew University. She co-edits the “Teaching Tips” column for the Association for Psychological Science’s Observer and has published a number of articles on teaching and learning. This work was supported by the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program.     

Reading teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature and English phonology

We investigated relationships among elementary teachers’ reading-related content knowledge (knowledge of literature and phonology), their philosophical orientation toward reading instruction, their classroom practice, and their students’ learning. Correlations showed little relationship between instructional philosophy and content knowledge, and little relationship between instructional philosophy and classroom practice. However, relationships emerged between content knowledge and instruction, and between kindergarten teachers’ phonological knowledge and their students’ reading achievement. We recommend that the recent focus on teacher’s disciplinary knowledge be broadened to include teachers of beginning reading and that teachers be afforded opportunities to develop the necessary knowledge base to teach reading effectively.     

Understanding institutional image

An organization's image is not a clear, concise concept but rather a set of an individual's perceptions about the institution. An educational institution has a multifaceted image that includes academic, social, political, and perhaps stylistic dimensions. We discuss the use of the semantic differential research tool to investigate one institution's image. Specifically, we explore the following questions: (1) What are the differences between the institution's desired image and current image? (2) Do various constituencies view the institution differently? If so, how do alumni perceptions differ from those of current students? Does the institution's internal image differ from its external image?Presented at the Thirty-Second Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Atlanta, GA, May 10–13, 1992.     

Dual identities: organizational negotiation in STEM-focused Catholic schools

In the last decade, STEM-focused schools have opened their doors nationally in the hope of meeting students’ contemporary educational needs. Despite the growth of these STEM-focused institutions, minimal research exists that follows how schools make a transition toward a STEM focus and what organizational structures are most conducive to a successful transition. The adoption of a STEM focus has clear implications for a school’s organizational identity. For Catholic schools, the negotiation of a new STEM focus is especially complex, as Catholic schools have been shown to generally possess a distinct religious and cultural organizational identity. The adoption of a second, STEM-focused identity raises questions about whether and how these identities can coexist. Framed by perspectives on organizational identity and existing conceptualizations of the cultural and religious hallmarks of Catholic schools, this study utilizes a multiple-case study design to explore the organizational transition of four Catholic K-8 institutions to Catholic STEM-focused schools. These cases demonstrate the particular challenges of negotiating multiple organizational identities. While variation existed in how the four schools accommodated these identities, the most promising environments for successful transition drew upon an aggregative model of identity negotiation, that is, when schools attended to both identities, but ensured that the original Catholic identity of the school remained foundational to all decisions. The least successful identity negotiations occurred when there was a lack of common understanding about what comprised a STEM-focused school, leading to minimal buy-in from stakeholders or when a school sought to make the transition for recruitment or marketing rather than mission-driven reasons. Discussion of the more successful identity aggregation provides a framework for schools within and beyond the religious sector that desire to adopt an additional STEM-focused identity.