Harsh corporal punishment of Yemeni children: occurrence, type and associations

OBJECTIVE: To examine the occurrence, type and associations of harsh corporal punishment in Yemen. METHODS: Caregiver and teacher reports were obtained on 1,196 Yemeni 7-10-year olds obtained by systematic random sampling of children in the 1st to 4th grades of urban and rural schools. Caregivers (86% mothers) reported on disciplinary practices, socio-familial background, and child psychopathology. Teachers reported on school performance and child psychopathology. RESULTS: More than half of the rural caregivers and about a quarter of the urban caregivers reported using harsh corporal punishment (hitting children with implements, tying them up, pinching them, or biting them). Harsh corporal punishment was significantly associated with poor school performance and both behavioral and emotional difficulties. The socio-familial factors that were independently associated with harsh corporal punishment were: rural area, male gender of the child, low maternal education, and large family size. CONCLUSION: Harsh corporal punishment is very common in Yemen. International findings suggest that the association with school failure and psychological maladjustment may well be causal. Promoting parental use of effective and non-violent disciplinary methods should be a public health priority. Practice implications: Yemen urgently needs to develop and evaluate programs that teach parents how to use culturally appropriate rewards and non-abusive sanctions to shape children's behavior without stunting their academic and emotional development. Persuading parents to adopt such approaches may need programs that focus not just on techniques but also on attitudes, e.g. challenging the commonly held belief that children will not develop properly unless they are beaten when they do wrong.     

Experimenting with Sound and Silence: sonorous bodies,sonic selves,acoustic topographies,and auditory histories of schooling

Abstract

This article deconstructs some of the underlying assumptions that inform projects in Paynter and Aston’s 1970 book, Sound and Silence. Foucauldian and Deleuzian technologies of power and technologies of desire are used to frame an argument that Paynter and Aston’s projects play into the fabrication of sonorous bodies and sonic selves but also provide potentialities for the creativity of the subject. Sound and silence as material-in-flux is analysed through notions of temporality and affect to argue for a context of hope in acoustic topographies and auditory histories of schooling.     

美国的特殊教育与作为学校管理者的教师

学校的管理者是一个特殊的教师群体。要成为优秀的教育管理者,教师必须接受适当的培训以遵守特殊教育领域的法律和法规。教育管理培训方案必须包括特殊管理教育方面的要求。对教育管理者自我效能感的调查结果表明,教育管理者的自我评价与实际能力之间存在差异。研究结果显示,培训方案需要改进以便更严格地培养教师成为教育管理者,最终他们才能做到“不让一个孩子掉队”。     

Blocking and enhancement of fear conditioning by appetitive CSs

Prior research on Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer has shown that when a CS previously associated with shock (AvCS+) is presented contingent upon a choice response to a discriminative stimulus for food reinforcement, it facilitates discrimination learning. Conversely, a response-contingent CS previously associated with the absence of shock (AvCS?) retards discrimination learning. To evaluate whether these findings reflect across-reinforcement blocking and enhancement effects, two experiments investigated the effects of appetitively conditioned stimuli on fear conditioning to a novel stimulus that was serially compounded with the appetitive CS during conditioned-emotional-response (CER) training. Although there were no differential effects of the appetitive CSs in CER acquisition, Experiment 1, using a relatively weak shock US, showed that a CS previously associated with food (ApCS+) retarded CER extinction to the novel stimulus, in evidence of enhanced fear conditioning to that stimulus. In addition, Experiment 2, using a stronger shock US, showed that a CS previously associated with the absence of food (ApCS?) facilitated CER extinction to the novel stimulus, in evidence of weaker fear conditioning to that stimulus. These results parallel traditional blocking effects and indicate not only that an ApCS+ and an ApCS? are functionally similar to AvCSs of opposite sign, but that their functional similarity is mediated by common central emotional states.