BDSM Disclosure and Stigma Management: Identifying Opportunities for Sex Education

While participation in the activities like bondage, domination, submission/sadism, masochism that fall under the umbrella term BDSM is widespread, stigma surrounding BDSM poses risks to practitioners who wish to disclose their interest. We examined risk factors involved with disclosure to posit how sex education might diffuse stigma and warn of risks. Semi-structured interviews asked 20 adults reporting an interest in BDSM about their disclosure experiences. Most respondents reported their BDSM interests starting before age 15, sometimes creating a phase of anxiety and shame in the absence of reassuring information. As adults, respondents often considered BDSM central to their sexuality, thus disclosure was integral to dating. Disclosure decisions in nondating situations were often complex considerations balancing desire for appropriateness with a desire for connection and honesty. Some respondents wondered whether their interests being found out would jeopardize their jobs. Experiences with stigma varied widely.     

Temperament Predicts Processing Speed in Low Socioeconomic Status Rural Preschoolers

Extreme poverty all over the world is concentrated in rural settings. However, studies about cognition in low socioeconomic status (SES) children are for the most part conducted in urban populations. This paper investigates, in a poor rural sample, what are the individual and socioenvironmental variables that make the difference in performance in a processing speed task. Forty four 5‐year‐old children were evaluated with a processing speed task; individual and socioenvironmental information was obtained from parents' interviews. Higher scores in the effortful control dimension of temperament were associated with higher performance in the processing speed task. No other individual or socioenvironmental variable predicted the performance. These results showed that effortful control is important in processing speed and suggest that in low SES rural contexts, low effortful control children would require stronger interventions.     

Supporting inclusion in early childhood settings: some possibilities and problems for teacher education

Aotearoa New Zealand, like other countries, has legislation and policies that support inclusion and promote the participation of all children and families in early childhood education. We might expect therefore to see a culture of inclusion resonating through policy and practice in early childhood settings. There are early childhood teachers who support such legislative and policy goals, who are committed to inclusion, and who are developing more inclusive early childhood services. Yet, it is also evident that discrimination and exclusion is experienced by many. Teacher education plays an important role in supporting inclusion and assisting teachers’ development of knowledge, skills and attitudes that will support them to teach all children. In this paper, we write as a group of teacher educators and demonstrate the challenges we took up to move beyond traditional approaches to inclusive education and to open up theoretically and practically diverse possibilities for thinking and doing inclusion differently in early childhood teacher education.     

OPINIONS OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE DEANS REGARDING PRINCIPLES OF CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

The ways in which the Education Pilot Criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award were adapted for use in institutional self-assessment are summarized. Research results are based on self-reported perceptions of academic deans in the North Carolina Community College System regarding current and future applications of continuous quality improvement principles in the academic setting.     

Plasma ß‐endorphin immunoreactivity: Response to resistance exercise

Previous research investigating the response of plasma ß‐endorphins (ß‐EP) to resistance exercise has resulted in equivocal findings. To further examine the effects of resistance exercise on ß‐endorphin immunoreactivity, six resistance‐trained athletes participated in a three‐set series of eight repetitions of isotonic exercise. All exercises were performed at 80% maximal effort. Blood was sampled from the group by venepuncture, both prior to and following the exercise bout, and ß‐endorphin concentration was determined by radioimmunoassay. The results indicated that mean ( ± S.E.) plasma levels of ß‐endorphins following exercise (18.04 ± 3.4 pg ß‐EP ml^‐1) were not significantly changed from pre‐exercise (control) levels (19.59 ± 2.4 pg ß‐EP ml^‐1), although there was considerable inter‐individual variability. Our results support previous research which has reported no significant changes in ß‐endorphin immunoreactivity following resistance exercise, as well as reported findings of considerable variability in the ß‐endorphin response to exercise.     

Waste in Education

Most students learn less and forget more than they should, an unnecessary waste of time and money. Dr. Dale accurately identifies some typical instructional weaknesses and clearly suggests remedies.     

Exploring the Role of ‘Gendered' Discourse Styles in Online Science Discussions

In this study, we examined whether gendered discourse styles were evidenced in online, synchronous, physics collaborative learning group discussions, and the extent to which such discourse patterns were related to the uptake of ideas within the group. We defined two discourse styles: the oppositional/direct style, theorized to be the socialized discourse pattern typically used by males, and the aligned/indirect style, theorized to be the socialized discourse pattern typically used by females. Our analysis indicates the presence of both styles in these chats and the styles were generally utilized along theorized, gendered lines. However, we also observed male use of the stereotypically ‘feminine' discourse style and female use of the stereotypically ‘masculine' discourse style. Moreover, we found no main effect for discourse style on the uptake of ideas. The findings indicate that, contrary to prior research in both face-to-face science classroom settings and online physics settings, ideas were taken up at relatively similar rates regardless of the gendered discourse style employed. Design implications of this study are discussed and suggestions for future research are made.     

Identifying Science Understanding for Functional Scientific Literacy

Students' questions play an important role in meaningful learning and scientific inquiry. They are a potential resource for both teaching and learning science. Despite the capacity of students' questions for enhancing learning, much of this potential still remains untapped. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine and review the existing research on students' questions and to explore ways of advancing future work into this area. The paper begins by highlighting the importance and role of students' questions from the perspectives of both the learner and the teacher. It then reviews the empirical research on students' questions, with a focus on four areas: (1) the nature and types of these questions; (2) the effects of teaching students questioning skills; (3) the relationship between students' questions and selected variables; and (4) teachers' responses to, and students' perceptions of, students' questions. Following this, some issues and implications of students' questions for classroom instruction are discussed. The paper concludes by suggesting several areas for future research that have significant value for student learning.