Promoting social competence in deaf students: the effect of an intervention program

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of a social skills training program on the social skills and social behaviors of deaf children in a mainstream setting. The study used a pretest/posttest design. The participants consisted of 18 severely and profoundly hearing-impaired children (ages ranged from 9;1 to 13;6) who were enrolled in three elementary schools in the Canary Islands. Results indicated that the intervention succeeded in improving students' social problem-solving skills, especially in making comprehensible the steps implied in the solution of interpersonal problems; the intervention also led to significant improvement of deaf students' assertive behavior as rated by their teachers and by themselves. Significant differences in social or academic integration as judged by companions in a sociometric questionnaire were not found.     

Research in Educational and Vocational Guidance in the Nordic Countries: Current Trends

The Nordic countries have followed slightly different, yet complementary paths in terms of research in guidance. The balance between studies in guidance based on sociology, psychology, and even ethnology varies according to the research focus and tradition in each of the Nordic countries. This article covers main Nordic guidance research issues with characteristic examples from the various countries under the headings of Structures, Contents, and Values. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Self-regulation advantage for high-IQ children: Findings from a research study

Current approaches in intelligence research indicate the need for a more extensive determination of characteristics of children with possible giftedness, not only at an intellectual level, but also at the level of self-regulation and motivation. The present study compares self-regulation efficiency between high-IQ and average-ability children aged 6 to 11 years using a computerized task: The ‘Self-regulation and concentration test for children’ [SRTC, Kuhl, J. & Kraska, K. (1993). Self-regulation: Psychometric properties of a computer-aided instrument. The German Journal of Psychology, 17, 11–24]. Results show that high-IQ children have better self-regulatory abilities than a comparable group of average-ability children. In addition, self-regulation efficiency is related to working memory and action orientation (i.e., self-motivation). It is concluded that the assessment of self-regulation is important both for the research and practice related to children with high intellectual ability.     

Interplay of Biological and Social‐Environmental Factors in the Developmental Outcome of Prematurely Born Children From Infancy To Seven Years

THE DEVELOPMENT of 58 preterm infants classified as low‐risk was compared over their first 7 years with a control group of 100 full‐term healthy infants. One major conclusion from this ongoing study is the critical need to take account of age when outcomes for prematurely born children are compared with full‐term children. As well as finding “catch up” phenomena at certain ages, the study also found periods during which there were reverses of this favourable tendency. Further, the study provided evidence that perinatal risk conditions may have a differential impact on mental development, depending on social‐environmental factors. It was suggested that advantaged family circumstances may reduce or even fully compensate for the adverse effects of preterm birth whereas a disadvantaged environment may amplify them.     

The educational performance of immigrant children at Czech schools

The integration of immigrant children into the education system is a process that is accompanied by serious debate, especially in advanced countries, which have large shares of immigrants and a long history of immigration. The poorer educational outcomes of foreign-born children are largely explained there through their socio-economically disadvantaged background compared to the native-born population. This article examines whether the observations for those countries also apply to the Czech Republic—a country with a relatively short immigration history and immigration flows from different source countries than those in Western Europe. Regression analyses conducted on PISA 2012 data focusing largely on the maths skills of 15-year-olds reveal that the performance of immigrant children in Czech schools roughly compares to that of their counterparts in Western Europe. While their PISA outcomes were lower than those of Czechs, this was because immigrant children have poorer conditions at home or in the classroom.     

The sign of the new millennium. Organisational changes and job satisfaction at Spanish public universities

This article describes the ramifications that recent organisational changes in the Spanish higher education sector have had on levels of job satisfaction among teaching staff. The research gathered their opinions on recent changes affecting their teaching duties, using job satisfaction scales in different areas of their academic work. The results point to a large number who claim to have seen their job satisfaction diminish over the period in which the organisational changes have taken hold. This sense of loss of job satisfaction is positively and significantly related to growing standardisation and to the erosion of the principles of collegiality, but negatively to the initiatives for improving the coordination between teaching staff and the assessment of the quality of their work.     

Effectiveness of a school-based multicomponent program for the treatment of children with ADHD

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a multicomponent program for treating attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) carried out by teachers in a classroom context. Dependent measures included neuropsychological tasks, behavioral rating scales for parents and teachers, direct observation of behavior in the classroom, and academic records of children with ADHD. Fifty children with ADHD participated in the study. The teachers of 29 of the 50 students were trained in the use of behavior modification techniques, cognitive behavior strategies, and instructional management strategies. The other 21 students formed the control group. Parents' and teachers'ratings detected improvements in primary symptoms (inattention-disorganization, hyperactivity-impulsivity) and in behavioral difficulties usually associated with ADHD (e.g., antisocial behavior, psychopathological disorders, anxiety). Furthermore, the results showed increased academic scores, enhanced classroom behavioral observations, and improved teachers' knowledge about the strategies directed toward responding to the children's educational needs.