Parental distress: the initial phase of hearing aid and cochlear implant fitting

The results of previous cross-section studies suggest that childhood hearing impairment may lead to parental psychosocial stress. The present study investigated whether modifications in parental psychic state can be ascertained in connection with the child's treatment events and the child's hearing and speech status, in a prospective study design. Data were available on 116 fathers and mothers regarding the pre-cochlear implant examination or hearing aid fitting of their child. In the course of the child's treatment, parental quality of life improved from a low to a normal level. Among children who were at the stage of pre-examination for a cochlear implant, better hearing and speech capacity was linked to more severe impairment of the parental state. It is emphasized that the parents whose children showed comparatively good language development at the time of pre-examination for a cochlear implant were especially subjected to stress.     

Conditioned aversion is promoted by memory of CS−

Five experiments tested the effects of experience with a white compartment not paired with footshock (CS?) on conditioning of an aversion to a black compartment paired with footshock. As previously found with odors as CSs, a single pairing of the CS+ with footshock yielded significant conditioning only if the animal was also exposed to CS?, with greater conditioning when the CS? exposure preceded the CS+ than when the CS+ preceded the CS?. If, however, the CS? preceded CS+ by a 24-h interval, it was ineffective and no CS+ conditioning occurred. For adult rats, the effectiveness of the CS?/CS+ “integration” progressively decreased with increasing length of the interval separating their occurrence, although it was still significant (i.e., some CS+ conditioning occurred) with a 12-h CS? to CS+ delay. For preweanlings (16 days postnatal), no conditioning to CS+ occurred if the interval between CS? and CS+ was 1 h or longer, although significant conditioning to CS+ did occur with a CS? to CS+ interval as long as 40 min. It was as if active memory for the CS? at the time of CS+ exposure was necessary for CS+ conditioning, and forgetting of the CS? memory proceeded more rapidly for preweanling than for adult rats. Collectively, these experiments extend results previously indicating that (1) the CS+ contiguous to the US may or may not be “selected” for conditioning, depending on the rat’s exposure to, or memory for, a CS?, and (2) this stimulus selection might differ for immature and mature rats.     

Priority-setting in the roll out of South Africa’s National Integrated ECD Policy

The South African National Integrated Early Childhood Development Policy was approved by the South African Cabinet in 2015. Given capacity and financial constraints, all services outlined cannot be implemented in a single step. Priorities must be set. We examine the budget implications (total cost and cost per child) and benefits of the four largest components of the Policy: interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes; home visits for at-risk mothers of children under 2 years of age; community-based playgroups for mothers and children, and center-based early childhood development services. Further, we identify which services are based on the strongest evidence, the value-based trade-offs that characterise the prioritising decisions, and which logistical factors favour alternative orderings of services. The interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes are low cost, based on sound evidence and would make use of the established healthcare infrastructure. Home visits for at-risk mothers are associated with improved development for targeted children and consequential benefits for caregivers and broader society. Playgroups are a promising low-cost intervention, but further evidence is required to determine their effectiveness. Centre-based services are expensive and generate smaller developmental returns, but provide childcare. The results highlight the value judgements required to determine the appropriate sequencing of interventions.     

A Comparison of Student Teachers' Beliefs from Four Different Science Teaching Domains Using a Mixed Methods Design

The study presented in this paper integrates data from four combined research studies, which are both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The studies describe freshman science student teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning. These freshmen intend to become teachers in Germany in one of four science teaching domains (secondary biology, chemistry, and physics, respectively, as well as primary school science). The qualitative data from the first study are based on student teachers' drawings of themselves in teaching situations. It was formulated using Grounded Theory to test three scales: Beliefs about Classroom Organisation, Beliefs about Teaching Objectives, and Epistemological Beliefs. Three further quantitative studies give insight into student teachers' curricular beliefs, their beliefs about the nature of science itself, and about the student- and/or teacher-centredness of science teaching. This paper describes a design to integrate all these data within a mixed methods framework. The aim of the current study is to describe a broad, triangulated picture of freshman science student teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning within their respective science teaching domain. The study reveals clear tendencies between the sub-groups. The results suggest that freshman chemistry and—even more pronouncedly—freshman physics student teachers profess quite traditional beliefs about science teaching and learning. Biology and primary school student teachers express beliefs about their subjects which are more in line with modern educational theory. The mixed methods approach towards the student teachers' beliefs is reflected upon and implications for science education and science teacher education are discussed.     

How to Analyze Interpersonal and Individual Effects in Peer-Tutored Reading Intervention

Reading strategy interventions relying upon peer tutoring are a common way to foster poor readers' comprehension skills. Those interventions are based on the assumption that tutees benefit from the (higher) reading skills of their tutors. However, this interpersonal effect has not yet been tested explicitly because the effectiveness of peer tutoring is commonly analyzed separately for tutees and tutors or with aggregated data. The present study illustrates how interpersonal and individual effects of a peer-tutored reading strategy intervention can be estimated using dyads as units of analysis in structural equation modeling. To demonstrate the application of the model, data from an experimental intervention study comparing the effects of a peer-tutored reading strategy training and a control condition in Grade 4 (N = 68 dyads) were analyzed.     

Text-belief consistency effect in adolescents´ comprehension of multiple documents from the Web (El efecto de consistencia en la comprensión lectora de los adolescentes de documentos múltiples provenientes de Internet)

ABSTRACT

Readers often comprehend belief-consistent information from multiple texts better compared with belief-inconsistent information (text-belief consistency effect). The aim of the present study was to investigate whether adolescents’ comprehension of multiple texts is similarly impacted by their beliefs. Moreover, readers’ prior knowledge and an alternating (compared with a blocked) mode of presenting multiple texts were expected to attenuate the text-belief consistency effect. High school students read two belief-consistent and two belief-inconsistent texts on one of two scientific issues in different modes of presentation (blocked vs. alternating). A recognition task was used to assess situation model strength for each text, and prior beliefs and prior knowledge were measured before the main experiment. As expected, in the blocked mode of presentation high school students had a stronger situation model for belief-consistent texts. In the alternating mode of presentation, participants had similar situation model strengths for the different texts. Moreover, high-knowledge participants experienced a text-belief consistency effect, whereas low-knowledge participants had weaker and similar situation models for the texts.