Fishing for answers: Couples living with dementia managing trouble with recollection

Dementia affects cognitive abilities in several ways, memory dysfunction being one of the most common symptoms. Not only does this have implications for the individual diagnosed with dementia, but also for the life shared with others. Spouses in couples share memories and experiences that make up an extensive common ground that constitutes the basis for their interaction. From video-recorded interviews with 12 couples in which one of the spouses is diagnosed with dementia, this study focuses on instances where the spouse with dementia is unable to recollect information that she is presupposed to know, so-called type-1 knowable. Conversation Analysis is used to analyze how the spouses in interaction manage this problem. Two conclusions are argued for: (a) different expectations of what is, or should be, in common ground may cause communicative problems and distress, and (b) spouses without dementia may use fishing techniques as a way of managing problems regarding recalling knowledge. These techniques do not necessarily enable the person with dementia to recall the information; on the contrary they may cause embarrassment for the person with dementia. By adopting a we-perspective approach to service provision, social workers can make a difference for couples and families living with dementia.     

Thank God it's Friday: Evangelical Christians preach a new cocurriculum

Kelsey Ebben and Peter Magolda admit that using a campus Christian group as an exemplar of effective student involvement is unorthodox. But, they argue, the widely applicable lessons for other organizations are too praiseworthy to pass up.     

The will to (de)liberate: shaping governable citizens through cognitive behavioural programmes in school

Lately, a deliberative conception of democracy has gained influence in policy debates throughout Europe. Individuals are here seen to be fostered into responsible, mature – democratic – citizens by being involved in dialogue. In the 1990s, calls for ‘democratic education’ intensified in Sweden. This article analyses two pedagogical models influenced by programmes developed in the USA that have recently had a great impact in Swedish schools and elsewhere, Social and Emotional Training and Aggression Replacement Training, both teaching pupils the ‘art of democratic deliberation’. By analysing manuals and interviews with school staff, we find that both models are based on the idea that through constant dialogue, pupils develop a ‘democratic mentality’. Referring to Foucault, this kind of dialogue can be seen as a technology of confession, where pupils are encouraged to reflect upon themselves and their behaviour, abilities and qualities as a way to change themselves and become democratic subjects.     

The Effects of Instructor Credibility,Grade Incentives,and Framing of a Technology Policy on Students’ Intent to Comply and Motivation to Learn

This experiment assessed whether instructor credibility (low or high) moderated the effects of grade incentives (rewards or punishment) and advantage framing (gain or loss) of technology policies on students’ intent to comply and motivation to learn. Results indicate that credibility increased motivation to learn. Significant moderated moderated mediation was found: a three-way interaction affected both intent to comply, and motivation to learn as mediated by attitude toward the policy. Specifically, credibility positively influenced learning outcomes via attitude when the syllabus used opposing frame-incentive structure (i.e., gain-framed punishment and loss-framed reward).     

Frontal asymmetry assessed in infancy using functional near-infrared spectroscopy is associated with emotional and behavioral problems in early childhood

Frontal asymmetry (FA), the difference in brain activity between the left versus right frontal areas, is thought to reflect approach versus avoidance motivation. This study (2012–2021) used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to investigate if infant (M_age = 7.63 months; N = 90; n = 48 male; n = 75 White) FA in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex relates to psychopathology in later childhood (M_age = 62.05 months). Greater right FA to happy faces was associated with increased internalizing (η² = .09) and externalizing (η² = .06) problems at age 5 years. Greater right FA to both happy and fearful faces was associated with an increased likelihood of a lifetime anxiety diagnosis (R² > .13). FA may be an informative and early-emerging marker for psychopathology.     

Balancing classroom ready with community ready: enabling agency to engage with community through critical service learning

Recent initial teacher education policy and regulatory frameworks privilege “classroom ready” discourses. Taking up “readiness” as technical skill requiring more “practice” leads to narrowing of teachers’ roles and efficacy with increasing pressure and regulation that marginalises ideals to equip pre-service teachers to be “community ready”. We argue that enabling preservice teacher agency to engage with community beyond notions of mastering bounded classroom practice is critical to teachers’ roles. Supporting teachers to teach in context as engaged global citizens requires a readiness of relational understanding and skills about the lived experiences of learners, and their wider community contexts. Data from a critical service learning case study highlight how preservice teacher agency to engage with community is conceptualised and experienced in simultaneously beneficial and challenging ways. These findings indicate the complex, yet necessarily significant contributions of service learning experiences to the development of preservice teacher “readiness”.     

Developing Coherent Conceptual Storylines: Two Elementary Challenges

The ‘conceptual storyline’ of a lesson refers to the flow and sequencing of learning activities such that science concepts align and progress in ways that are instructionally meaningful to student learning of the concepts. Research demonstrates that when teachers apply lesson design strategies to create a coherent science content storyline, student learning is positively impacted (Roth et al., 2011). Because the conceptual storyline is often implicit within a lesson, and teachers often have difficulty articulating this aspect of lesson design (Lo et al., 2014), our professional development program engages elementary teachers in analyzing and developing graphic representations of a lesson’s conceptual storyline to make that element explicit. In this exploratory study, we present typologies that represent two primary challenges teachers faced in developing coherent conceptual storylines in their lesson design, and examine the extent to which professional development enhanced their capacity to develop a coherent conceptual storyline.     

Development of motor-life-skills: variations in children at risk for motor difficulties from the toddler age to preschool age

This article explores variations in development of everyday motor-life-skills in 661 children (329 girls and 332 boys) in Norwegian kindergartens of ages 2:9 (T1) and 4:9 (T2) years:months. The particular focus is on children at risk for problems in motor development (the 10% weakest children in the sample). The methodological approach chosen is authentic assessment, applying the Early Years Movement Skills Checklist (EYMSC). All correlations between motor-life-skills at ages 2:9 and 4:9 are statistically significant (p < 0.01), varying between r = 0.26 to 0.38 for the four section scores of EYMSC (Self-help skills, Desk skills, General classroom skills and Recreational and playground skills) and r = 0.39 for the EYMSC total score. The group composition of children assumed to be at risk for motor difficulties changes considerably between ages 2:9 and 4:9. Approximately, two-thirds of the 10% weakest at T1 do not belong to the 10% weakest at T2. Logistic regression failed to identify children at risk at T1 being among the 10% weakest at T2. However, for two sections of EYMSC (Self-help skills; Recreational and Playground skills), it was possible to distinguish between stable and flux groups.