The electronic campus: Getting smart with smart cards on campus

Imagine a time when students will carry one small card that they can use to access reference materials, buy football tickets, and receive financial aid through an ATM. Fantasy? No, says Glen McCandless, this reality is just around the corner.     

Parental perceptions of adverse educational outcomes among children diagnosed and treated for ADHD: A call for improved school/provider collaboration

An Erratum has been published for this article in Psychology in the Schools 42(2) 2005, 227 [ ]. This research utilized parent report to examine the prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), related treatment, and associated educational outcomes among elementary school children in southeastern Virginia. In a representative sample of elementary school children, 17% had been diagnosed with ADHD. The majority of diagnosed children had been medicated for ADHD (84%). More than one third of students taking medication had received no other interventions for ADHD. Over half of the diagnosed students received behavioral therapy and almost half received a combination of medical and behavioral interventions. Children diagnosed with ADHD were 3 to 7 times ( p values < 0.001) more likely than other children to receive special education, be expelled or suspended, and repeat a grade. Based on parental opinion, children diagnosed with ADHD are at high risk for school failure. Results are discussed in terms of distinctions between clinical efficacy/effectiveness and schoolwide and public health interventions implemented in the study region. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Contribution of the doctoral education environment to PhD candidates’ mental health problems: a scoping review

ABSTRACT

Recent research into the mental health of PhD candidates suggests that their high levels of stress could be caused in part or exacerbated by aspects of the doctoral education environment. However, the particulars of this environment have not been explored in consistent enough ways to provide a clear way forward for universities to respond to this issue. This article presents a systematic scoping review of the recent literature on this topic with the aims of collecting and consolidating the heterogeneous range of findings therein and providing a framework to coordinate further research and inform intervention design. Factors shown by the literature to contribute to stress in doctoral settings are presented, including problems in the supervisory relationship, lack of transparency of university processes, workload, role conflict, financial insecurity and uncertain career prospects. Analysis of the review sample indicates four main themes in this body of literature: shifting ideas about the range of environmental stressors and the relationships between them, a paucity of trialled interventions that target the range of known stressors, a lack of standardisation in instruments used for capturing the effects of stressors and evaluating interventions and finally, a need for comprehensive, agreed upon typologies – to integrate what is known about the issue and prioritise interventions. This article proposes guidelines to address these deficiencies, based on an ecological understanding of the doctoral research setting.     

Adolescent twins and emotional distress: the interrelated influence of nonshared environment and social structure

This study examined the power of nonshared environment to differentiate the development of adolescent monozygotic twins, and the extent to which this power varied across social structural contexts (e.g., ethnicity, socioeconomic status). Estimation of difference score models on 289 same-sex monozygotic twin pairs from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health revealed that differences in maternal closeness, teacher bonding, and religious participation differentiated monozygotic twins on emotional distress, with the more distressed twin typically lower on all three. Family income was the strongest structural moderator of these relations, with parental autonomy granting more important in higher income families and religious participation more important in lower income families. Finally, in some groups, one monozygotic twin's emotional distress was also associated with the other twin's familial and extrafamilial relationships. The results of this study demonstrate that interpersonal contexts can shape monozygotic twins' individual experiences within the structure of the larger society.     

The efficacy of directed studies courses as a form of undergraduate research experience: a comparison of instructor and student perspectives on course dynamics

Directed studies (DS) courses are widely touted for their ability to enhance research skills in undergraduate students—yet little is known about the dynamics, motivations, and perceived outcomes connected to these specific types of undergraduate research experiences. Building on earlier qualitative research, in this paper we report the results of a self-report survey designed to directly compare instructor and student perspectives on DS course dynamics at a small, liberal arts university. Samples of students who completed DS courses and instructors who supervised them completed a survey assessing their motives, perceived outcomes, and barriers encountered in their course work. Parallel wording of items in instructor and student surveys permitted comparison of perceptions of DS course dynamics. Results indicated that there were many similarities in how both groups approached DS courses but that there were also several important differences in motives and perceived outcomes pointing to the need for greater communication between instructors and students about their expectations for the course.     

The Restructuring of Academic Work: Themes and Observations

The objective in this paper is to provide an overview of the key themes that can be identified by looking across the contributions to this special issue, and highlight a number of the important observations that emerged during the seminar in which these papers were originally presented. The seminar, which took place in Berlin in October of 2005, was organized by UNESCO‐CEPES in collaboration with the Observatory of the Magna Charta Universitatum and the German Commission for UNESCO.     

The temporal relationship between infant heart rate acceleration and crying in an aversive situation.

The temporal relationship between heart rate (HR) acceleration and crying was examined in 16 8-16-month-old infants. Consistently, the HR acceleration began well before the onset of crying, suggesting that such acceleration is not merely a by-product of crying. The accelerations observed were above and beyond a return to baseline following orienting. The crying itself validates the association between these instances of HR acceleration and negative effect.