Expanding Opportunity for the American People

Hi, everybody. In my State of the Union Address, I talked about the idea of opportunity for all.
Opportunity is the idea at the heart of this country--that no matter who you are or how you started out, with hard work and responsibility, you can get ahead.     

Reactivation of an old memory during sleep and wakefulness

In a series of four experiments, the effects of the reactivation of an old memory in different states of vigilance were investigated. Rats were trained to run in a six-unit spatial discrimination maze for food reward with low-level electrical stimulation delivered to the ear when they entered blind alleys. Twenty-five days after training, electrotactile stimulation was given to animals as a reactivating treatment just before a retention test. When the cuing treatment was given during wakefulness, retention performance was improved. When it was given in slow-wave sleep, it had no effect. When it was given in paradoxical sleep, performance was poorer. The use of control groups permitted an assessment of the specificity of the cuing effect in each case: Pretest presentation of the same stimulus did not modify performance when it had no cue value. Together, these results show that the effect of the reactivation of an old memory depends upon the vigilance state in which reactivation takes place. They suggest that reorganization of an old memory could be accomplished during paradoxical sleep.     

Prevalence of child sexual abuse reported by a cross-sectional sample of New Zealand women

OBJECTIVE: The objective is to describe the prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) among women in New Zealand, document ethnic specific rates, and outline the frequency of abuse experienced and the most commonly identified perpetrators. Associations between CSA and later adverse consequences were also explored. METHODS: Retrospective report from a random sample of 2,855 women aged 18-64 years old in two regions in New Zealand. Face-to-face interviews with one randomly selected woman from each household were conducted. RESULTS: The overall prevalence rates for CSA were 23.5% for women from the urban region and 28.2% from the rural region. In both urban and rural regions, Māori women more frequently reported experiences of CSA than women from European and other ethnic groups (urban: 30.5% vs. 17.0% and rural: 35.1% vs. 20.7%). The median age of onset of the abuse was 9 years, and the median estimated age of the abuser was 30 years. Half of those who experienced CSA reported that it occurred once or twice, 27% "a few times," and 23% "multiple times." Sole perpetrators were involved in 83% of cases. The majority of cases were perpetrated by a family member, most frequently male. Compared with non-victims, victims of CSA were twice as likely to experience later intimate partner violence and violence by others. CONCLUSIONS: This study reports on a large, population-based sample in an ethnically diverse population in New Zealand, providing the first ethnic-specific rates of CSA available. Findings suggest important priorities for prevention and intervention activities.     

Setting a Non-Agenda: Effects of a Perceived Lack of Problems in Recent News or Twitter

The mere perception that news has given certain problems more coverage can lead the audience to assume that those problems are more important. Given that the news media, at times, obsesses over relatively trivial matters, and given that the audience is increasingly able to filter media exposure, it is worth asking what happens when audience members perceive that recent media coverage has not emphasized any very important problems. In such cases, audience members might assume that any problems facing the nation must not be particularly important. We explicate this attitude of political complacency, test whether perceived media agendas lacking important problems can influence it, and explore whether complacency helps explain political disengagement. We also explore whether these effects generalize beyond news, to new media gatekeepers such as Twitter. Two experiments tested effects of a perceived absence of important problems in recent news or Twitter content. In the case of news, but not Twitter, this increased complacency in both studies. Study 2 added a no-exposure control and found that effects on complacency were driven by the cueing of nonproblem stories, not by the absence of problem story cues. Both studies validated complacency as a predictor of political disengagement.     

Negotiating science and engineering: an exploratory case study of a reform-minded science teacher

Engineering has been slowly integrated into K-12 science classrooms in the United States as the result of recent science education reforms. Such changes in science teaching require that a science teacher is confident with and committed to content, practices, language, and cultures related to both science and engineering. However, from the perspective of the science teacher, this would require not only the development of knowledge and pedagogies associated with engineering, but also the construction of new identities operating within the reforms and within the context of their school. In this study, a middle school science teacher was observed and interviewed over a period of nine months to explore his experiences as he adopted new values, discourses, and practices and constructed his identity as a reform-minded science teacher. Our findings revealed that, as the teacher attempted to become a reform-minded science teacher, he constantly negotiated his professional identities – a dynamic process that created conflicts in his classroom practices. Several differences were observed between the teacher’s science and engineering instruction: hands-on activities, depth and detail of content, language use, and the way the teacher positioned himself and his students with respect to science and engineering. Implications for science teacher professional development are discussed.     

Reasonable Adjustments in Assessment: Putting Law and Policy into Practice in Australia

The Australian Disability Standards for Education 2005 (Cth) require education providers to make reasonable adjustments in educational assessment so that students with disability can participate on the same basis as other students and be able to demonstrate what they know and can do. Reasonableness is governed by a determination of the balance of interests, benefits and detriment to the parties involved. The Standards require providers to consult with students and associates on adjustments, although guidance on how consultation should occur and how the views of students and associates are to be taken into account is vague. In this article, we identify three principles to be considered in order to put appropriate and effective reasonable adjustments in assessment into practice. While Australian law and assessment contexts are used to examine intentions, expectations and practices in educational assessment for students with disability, we argue that these three principles must be considered in any national education system to ensure equitable assessment practices and achieve equitable educational inclusion for students with disability.     

Parental Self-efficacy and Sensitivity During Playtime Interactions with Young Children: Unpacking the Curvilinear Association

Although scholars and service providers typically assume that parental self-efficacy (PSE) facilitates sensitive parenting, this study finds that the association between PSE and observer ratings of parents' sensitivity during free play actually is curvilinear. Parents (33 mothers, 5 fathers) from an intergenerational learning program serving low-income families completed the Self-Efficacy for Parenting Tasks Index and were videotaped during a 15-minute play period with their infant/toddler at program entry. Parents' self-reported PSE is positively, albeit weakly, associated with observer ratings of parental sensitivity from low to moderate levels of self-efficacy but inversely associated with sensitivity from moderate to high self-efficacy. Qualitative analyses show that mothers who report high PSE but are rated as low in sensitivity introduce toys when their child is already engaged, restrict their child's access to toys, physically manipulate their child, and violate their child's proximal space. Parenting education programs need to develop strategies for reaching parents who enter with high levels of confidence but lack knowledge of competent parenting practices.