Objectivity of boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (adhd) and their mothers when responding to a caricatured portrayal of adhd

In a recent theoretical model of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) it is proposed that a core deficit in response inhibition affects, among other things, an individual's objectivity in their reaction to events. In the context of this, the ability of boys diagnosed with ADHD objectively to differentiate their own behaviour from that of a caricatured portrayal of ADHD by Bart Simpson was examined. Four segments, each lasting 10–15 seconds, depicting ADHD related behaviours were isolated from a television episode of The Simpsons and shown in random order to 39 boys diagnosed with ADHD, their mothers, and two paediatricians. After watching each segment, the boys were asked to show how similar they believed their behaviours were to those exhibited by Bart Simpson by simultaneously placing two figures (one a replica of Bart and another representing themselves) on a chequer board. Mothers were subsequently administered the same procedure to indicate how they viewed their sons' behaviour in relation to Bart's. The distance measured between the two figures was representative of their levels of objectivity compared to a benchmark level set by the two paediatricians using the same chequer board procedure. While the results overall indicate that boys with ADHD and their mothers are able to make distinctions between caricatured and typical ADHD behaviours, the results are mediated by both ADHD subtype and the specific ADHD behaviour portrayed in the video segment.     

Combining a constructive rural orientation with academic quality: High school outstations in Papua New Guinea

In common with other states, Papua New Guinea is addressing the problem of preparing educated young people to re-enter rural life and take up forms of self-employment. The Secondary Schools Community Extension Project is the newest of a line of experiments. This paper describes the philosophy of the project and focuses on a detailed observation of a key component, the outstation, in two of the pilot schools.A central concept is the integration of practical activities, preferably in cooperation with the people of a village, with the normal academic curriculum of the secondary school. The aim is of course to avoid conflict between the objectives of the project and the objectives of the students for success in the final examinations. The integration is facilitated by the style of the examinations, which are skill, rather than content based.The two pilot schools differed, each succeeding in some objectives but doing less well in others. Overall, the verdict is that the experiment promises to be of value in the transition from school to work in a predominantly rural developing country.     

杭州游记

I had joined a Chinese group for a tour of the famousresort of Hangzhou,some 175km from the bustle ofShanghai.First impressions,leaving the railway sta-tion after my two and a half hour s’journey,werenot good—a modem city with traffic as manic as the oneI had just left.But then I saw the West Lake. This is probably Hangzhou’s most famous view—avast expanse of water,ringed with green hills,dottedwith small islands and causeways,with little pleasureboats pottering about.This was the first stop on our     

Hey - what's the big idea?

A ‘big idea’ in statistics can fail to register with students when it is obscured by finer details of lesson tasks or activities. Based on the graphics calculator, this article describes a lesson designed to introduce the Central Limit Theorem.