Parent–youth discordance about youth-witnessed violence: Associations with trauma symptoms and service use in an at-risk sample

ObjectiveStudies have consistently demonstrated a lack of agreement between youth and parent reports regarding youth-witnessed violence. However, little is known about whether disagreement is associated with poorer outcomes and less utilization of mental health services. The purpose of the current study was to examine disagreement among youth and parents about youth witnessed violence, and determine whether concordance predicted trauma symptoms and recognition of need and receipt of counseling services.MethodsConcordance about youth-witnessed violence was examined in 766 dyads from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Youth participants self-reported trauma symptoms, caregivers indicated youth need for and receipt of services. Both youth and parents provided information about youth-witnessed violence exposure in the last year.ResultsResults showed youth and caregivers differed significantly about youth-witnessed violence. Specifically, 42% of youth reported youth-witnessed violence, compared to only 15% of parents. For those parents who reported youth-witnessed violence, only 29% reported an identified need for services and only 17% reported the youth had received any mental health services. Concordance between parent–youth dyads was associated with greater identified need for services but was not associated with the use of counseling services or trauma symptoms.ConclusionsYouth who reported witnessing violence reported more frequent trauma symptoms regardless of concordance. Parents from dyads in which both informants reported youth-witnessed violence were more likely to endorse need for, but not receipt of counseling services. Given this association between youth-witnessed violence and mental health problems, more work is needed to identify barriers to concordance as well as service utilization.     

‘Does it answer the question or is it French fries?’: an exploration of language supports for scientific argumentation

ABSTRACT

Reform initiatives around the world are reconceptualising science education by stressing student engagement in science practices. Yet, science practices are language-intensive, requiring students to have strong receptive and productive language proficiencies. It is critical to address these rigorous language demands to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students, including English language learners (ELLs). Little research has examined how to specifically support ELL students’ engagement in science practices, such as argumentation. Using case-study methodology, we examined one middle school science teacher's instructional strategies as she taught an argumentation-focused curriculum in a self-contained ELL classroom. Findings revealed that three trends characterized the teacher’s language supports for the structural and dialogic components of argumentation: (1) more language supports focused on argument structure, (2) dialogic interactions were most often facilitated by productive language supports, and (3) some language supports offered a rationale for argumentation. Findings suggest a need to identify and develop supports for the dialogic aspects of argumentation. Furthermore, engaging students in argumentation through productive language functions could be leveraged to support dialogic interactions. Lastly, our work points to the need for language supports that make the rationale for argumentation explicit since such transparency could further increase access for all students.     

An aristocracy of talent? Describing self and other at an early twentieth‐century high school

This paper is a reading of early twentieth‐century government high school culture as it was expressed through a twenty‐year run of one Australian high school’s student‐authored magazines. From its first issue the editors of The Parramatta High School Magazine were keen to promote its role in the making of a community. The idea that high school people belonged to a special and exclusive group was reiterated in a number of ways. Writing in the magazines described the features of a shared culture – whiteness, literacy, good taste, rational behaviour – and implicitly defined high school students as different from other categories of people, including non‐English speaking foreigners and ‘the uneducated’. Central to the process of classification and identification were statements of ‘who we are’ and ‘who we are not’ which were grounded in the language of meritocracy, and encompassed particular contemporary understandings of social class, race and gender.     

Interview with Ariadne

Ariadne's story advocates the impetus for launching initiatives to raise awareness on the multiple returns of investment in educational initiatives during the Third Age. Ariadne, a 69-year-old Greek widow, discovered the “world of learning” back in 2009 when she joined Adult Education Centres (AECs), referring with enthusiasm to a series of wider benefits having emanated from her encounter with Lifelong Learning. However, in May 2011, due to the economic recession, the Greek Ministry of Education abruptly closed all AECs and along them the “gateway” for many individuals like Ariadne to knowledge, socializing and active aging.     

Memory objects in project environments: Storing, retrieving and adapting learning in project-based firms

This paper investigates the role of objects holding representations of knowledge in the transfer of learning across projects. On the basis of an in-depth case study, this paper shows that the way in which relatively simple artifacts, such as Excel workbooks, represent knowledge enables them to act as boundary objects across occupations and as memory devices across projects. It is the temporal capacity of these boundary objects that makes them points of juncture in a widely distributed memory system, enabling project-based firms to balance preservation and adaptation of knowledge. The mechanisms for the preservation of learning are not missing from project environments, rather they are less visible and less direct than in other settings, and therefore less docile in the face of managerial action.     

Representation of the cell and its processes in high school students: An integrated view

This paper presents an integrated view of the ideas and conceptual problems of high school students with respect to the cell, its processes, structure and relation to the functions of multicellular organisms. The theme of cell has divided into eight topics, with a questionnaire for each topic. In these topics, different levels of representation and understanding are distinguished between general considerations about plants and animals, those connected with processes at organ and system levels and, finally, the level of cell processes. Data from 1200 students were analysed. Results show that students have an analogical mechanism that establishes an isomorphism between the representation of the functioning of multicellular organisms of cell processes. A series of problems in understanding was also shown. Results imply that these problems are mainly due to students' lack of differentiation between some processes at organism and organ level, and have important implications for learning this subject. Finally, some suggestions are made for teaching.