Aversive and aggression-promoting properties of urine from dominant and subordinate male mice

The urine of individual dominant and subordinate male mice was tested for aversive and aggression-promoting properties using open-field and aggression tests The results indicate the presence of (1) an aversive factor in male mouse urine which discourages investigation of an area marked with such urine and (2) an aggression-promoting factor. Dominant male urine proved far more effective in both respects than subordinate urine, the latter having similar effects to water. The results are discussed in terms of androgen output and possible territorial functions.     

A systematic review on the deployment and effectiveness of data analytics in higher education to improve student outcomes

Abstract

This is a systematic review conducted of primary research literature published between 2007 and 2018 on the deployment and effectiveness of data analytics in higher education to improve student outcomes. We took a methodological approach to searching databases; appraising and synthesising results against predefined criteria. We reviewed research on the effectiveness of three differentiated forms of data analytics: learning, academic and learner analytics. Student outcomes are defined as retention, academic performance and engagement. Our results find that three quarters of studies report the use of educational data analytics to be effective in improving student outcomes but their relationship with student outcomes requires further and more robust investigation and assessment. We argue that research must interpret and communicate effectiveness qualitatively, as well as quantitatively, by including the student voice in assessments of impact.     

Political culture and education in advanced industrial societies: West Germany and the United States

This paper sets out a theoretical framework for the understanding of education and political culture in industrial societies. The framework represents a response to the systems approach to this subject. The framework we propose treats political alienation as a normal outcome of the incompatibility between egalitarian goals and social inequalities in democratic systems. The framework is then applied to the role of education in the United States. We view education as a means by which norms later productive of political alienation are initially distributed throughout democratic systems. Further, we view the school's current predicament in America as a manifestation of its role in the creation of alienation. We then turn to Germany and speculate about the sources of recent democratic support in that political culture, despite the alienating tendencies predicted by our model. We single out factors of tradition, religion, economics, and educational organization as means of understanding changes in the political culture of that society. An absence of relevant data prevents us from applying our model of alienation in a fully comparative way to the German situation. We conclude by considering the effects of short-run political events on our model, and by speculating about the resurgence of alienation in German political culture once German schools, like American schools, more fully play the role of disseminating egalitarian norms in a socially inegalitarian system.

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Zusammenfassung Diese Studie stellt einen Rahmen für das Verständnis des Bildungswesens und der politischen Kultur in Industrieländern auf, der als Antwort auf den Systems-Ansatz zu diesem Thema gedacht ist. Dieser Rahmen behandelt politische Entfremdung als normales Ergebnis der Unvereinbarkeit von egalitären Zielen und sozialen Ungleichheiten in demokratischen Systemen. Zunächst wird er auf die Rolle des Bildungswesens in den USA angewandt. Bildung wird als ein Mittel gesehen, dem gesamten demokratischen System Normen zu eigen zu machen, die später zu politischer Entfremdung führen. Auch die gegenwärtigen Schwierigkeiten im amerikanischen Schulwesen werden auf seine Rolle als Erzeuger von Entfremdung zurückgeführt. Dann geht die Untersuchung auf die Bundesrepublik Deutschland über und stellt Überlegungen an über die Ursachen der deutlichen Zunahme demokratischer Gesinnung, trotz der von dem hier vorgeschlagenen Modell vorausgesetzten Entfremdungstendenzen. Tradition, religiöse und wirtschaftliche Faktoren sowie die Organisation des deutschen Bildungswesens werden zur Erklärung der Veränderungen in der politischen Kultur dieser Gesellschaft herangezogen. Mangels relevanter Daten kann das Entfremdungsmodell nicht in völlig vergleichbarer Weise auf die deutsche Situation angewandt werden. Abschliessend werden die Auswirkungen kurzfristiger politischer Ereignisse auf das Modell in Betracht gezogen sowie die Möglichkeit, dass auch in der deutschen politischen Kultur wieder stärkere Entfremdung eintreten wird, sobald die deutschen Schulen, ähnlich den amerikanischen, in vollerem Umfang die Rolle der Verbreitung egalitärer Normen in einem sozial nicht-egalitären Gesellschaftssystem spielen.

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Résumé Cet article présente und cadre théorique de travail permettant une meilleure compréhension de l'éducation et de la culture politique dans les sociétés industrielles. Ce cadre est une réponse à l'approche systématique de ce sujet. Le cadre que nous proposons envisage l'aliénation politique comme un aboutissement normal de l'incompatibilité entre buts égalitaires et inégalités sociales dans des systèmes démocratiques. Le cadre est ensuite appliqué au rôle de l'éducation aux Etats Unis. Nous regardons l'éducation comme un moyen par lequel les normes qui, ultérieurement vont produire l'aliénation politique, sont distribuées initialement, dans les systèmes démocratiques. Nous examinons ensuite l'école: nous voyons sa situation critique actuelle en Amérique comme une manifestation de son rôle dans la création de l'aliénation. Nous nous tournons ensuite vers l'Allemagne et nous formons des conjectures sur les sources du récent soutien démocratique à cette culture politique, en dépit des tendances à l'aliénation prédites par notre modèle. Nous choisissons des facteurs de tradition, de religion, d'économie et d'organisation éducative comme étant des moyens permettant de comprendre les changements dans la culture politique de cette société. Une absence de données pertinentes relatives à ce sujet nous empêche d'appliquer notre modèle d'aliénation d'une façon parfaitement comparative à la situation en Allemagne. Nous concluons en examinant les effets des évènements politiques pendant une brève période sur notre modèle et en faisant quelques réflexions sur la résurgence de l'aliénation dans la culture politique allemande, lorsque les écoles allemandes, comme les écoles américaines, jouent plus complètement le rôle de disséminatrices de normes égalitaires dans un système socialement inégalitaire.

     

A Guide to Just and Fair Remediation of Counseling Students with Professional Performance Deficiencies

Ethical standards for counselor training require remediation of students with professional performance deficiencies. However, standards fail to specify the type or extent of remediation necessary to safeguard students' legal rights or justify dismissal if remediation is unsuccessful. Critical assessment of remedial practices in counselor preparation has occurred primarily in the courts when the constitutionality of specific practices was challenged. Prompted by a recent court challenge and its implications for curricular and policy change (C. R. McAdams, V. A. Foster, & T. J. Ward, 2007), this article examines court‐tested methods of student remediation and presents them as a guide for developing just and fair student remediation policies.     

Fathers’ and mothers’ home learning environments and children’s early academic outcomes

The home learning environment (HLE) that children experience early on is highly predictive of their later academic competencies; however, the bulk of this work is operationalized from mothers’ perspectives. This study investigates the HLE provided by both mothers and fathers to their preschoolers (n = 767), with consideration for how parents’ practices relate to one another as well as how these practices predict children’s early academic outcomes. Using an SEM framework, results indicate that while, overall, mothers provide HLE activities more frequently than fathers do, both mothers (β = .18, p < .05) and fathers (β = .22, p < .05) make unique contributions to their preschooler’s early academic skills, but only for families where mother has less than a bachelor’s degree. For families where mother has a bachelor’s degree or higher, the effect of father’s HLE practices is not a significant predictor of children’s academics when considering mother’s HLE. For all families, fathers are providing a variety of HLE activities to their young children; and, although these may occur less frequently than mothers’ practices, they are particularly important for the academic development of children whose mothers have less than a bachelor’s degree. Practical implications are discussed.     

Moral disengagement: A new lens with which to examine children’s justifications for lying

ABSTRACT

The development of children’s lie-telling abilities is considered to be a social and cognitive milestone. While occasional lying is developmentally appropriate, the use of frequent, antisocial lies as a maladaptive problem-solving mechanism can indicate behaviour problems. Since lying is often considered a moral transgression, researchers should examine lying from the perspective of moral theory to understand children’s reasons for lying, which may help to understand how chronic lying develops. A theoretical framework, namely the social cognitive process of moral disengagement (MD) could not only provide new insight into children’s justifications for telling common lies, but also atypical, antisocial lies. This paper aims to describe how MD may be applied to explain children’s justifications for lying, especially antisocial lies, and how adults can address MD by modelling the positive consequences of truth-telling, to promote honesty in children.     

Conditions for young infants' perception of object trajectories

When an object moves behind an occluder and re-emerges, 4-month-old infants perceive trajectory continuity only when the occluder is narrow, raising the question of whether time or distance out of sight is the important constraining variable. One hundred and forty 4-month-olds were tested in five experiments aimed to disambiguate time and distance out of sight. Manipulating the object's visible speed had no effect on infants' responses, but reducing occlusion time by increasing object speed while occluded induced perception of trajectory continuity. In contrast, slowing the ball while it was behind a narrow or intermediate screen did not modify performance. It is concluded that 4-month-olds perceive trajectory continuity when time or distance out of sight is short.     

Deaf persons of asian american, Hispanic american, and african american backgrounds: a study of intraindividual diversity and identity

This article explores the ways in which deaf college students who are members of minority racial groups think about and describe their identities. In-depth, semistructured interviews with 33 deaf students of Asian American, Hispanic American, and African American background were analyzed for themes regarding the self-reported identities of respondents. Results suggest that each person is a constellation of many parts, some of which are stronger than others but any of which can be drawn out in response to a particular set of circumstances, resulting in a contextual and interactive model of identity. Four factors are described as central to this "intraindividual" model: individual characteristics, situational conditions, social conditions, and societal conditions. Additionally, the model includes a biographical component reflected in changes in identity that occur over time. Findings are discussed as they relate to identity theory. The article is concluded with recommendations for further research, as well as considerations for educators and counselors of deaf minority students.