Children's cognition of stressful events

Current research on children and stress supports the belief that children today experience stressful events in a complex developmental-ecological context. Many interdependent elements, including child variables (sex, age, temperament, and developmental stage), family variables (marital status, interactions, child-rearing practices, and socioeconomic status), and variables related to the child's extended social and physical environments (neighborhood, child care, and peers), affect the ways in which children perceive, respond, and cope with stressors (Benswanger, 1982; Honig, 1986). The accuracy of children's perceptions and the development of coping skills, however, vary according to children's cognitive abilities and limitations.Jan Allen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies, College of Human Ecology, at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The author is appreciative of helpful comments about this article from Dr. Deborah W. Tegano and Becki A. Bowditch.     

Attending to spatial locations: a developmental study

In 2 experiments, 7- and 8-year-old children and college students performed a letter-detection task in which reaction time was the dependent variable. Expectancy was manipulated by varying the probability the stimulus would appear at the center of an imaginary circle rather than along the perimeter. Although both age groups responded consistently faster to stimuli presented in expected locations than to stimuli presented in unexpected locations, this expectancy effect was larger for the children than it was for the college students. In a third experiment, these results were replicated using a luminance-detection task with 5-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and college students as subjects. It was concluded that children as well as adults are able to expand or contract the breadth of their attentional focus in accordance with task demands and that there is a developmental change in the efficiency with which a stimulus presented in an otherwise empty field can be located. Furthermore, it was suggested that children may be more disrupted by the occurrence of an unexpected event than adults are.     

Introduction d'un Modele Conceptuel comme Cadre de Reference dans la Formation Initiale des Instituteurs Primaires (Ecole Normale de l'Etat,Andenne (B) )

The article examines strategies for the training of Primary teachers in Belgium, a level of training which was increased from two to three years duration in 1983. An action research at the EN de l'Etat at Andenne has focused on the conceptual model (following a structure of analysis proposed by Antoine Leon). This model, and the typology of teaching/learning situations which it embodies, permits the student to establish theoretical terms of reference at the outset of training, and to acquire educational insights which relate meaningfully to the goals of teaching. The approach adopted makes certain demands upon the students; for example, they need to take stock, objectively, of their own experiences of learning and must be prepared to question their own assumptions. An important factor in the research has been the use of micro‐teaching, with CCTV, and it is necessary that the students be given an early opportunity to try out their learning from the studio setting in a ‘real’ environment. Overall, however, the experiment, which has been conducted in liaison with the Free University of Brussels, is a promising avenue for achieving the integration of theory with practice.     

THE LISBON CONVENTION ON THE RECOGNITION OF QUALIFICATIONS CONCERNING HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE EUROPEAN REGION: AN EXAMPLE OF SUCCESSFUL CO‐OPERATION BETWEEN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE AND UNESCO

On the eve of the adoption of the new Council of Europe ‐ UNESCO Convention, this article goes back to the first agreement between the two international organizations to step up their co‐operation in the field of academic recognition and retraces the different stages that led to the final completion of the legal text. It offers an overview of the entire process, analyzing the development of the basic concepts of the Convention, highlighting controversial issues, and demonstrating the complex process of consultation in a wider and diversified Europe that will be brought to completion at the Lisbon Diplomatic Conference. This article, in a slightly different form, will be presented as a background document at the Lisbon Conference.     

有线电视自办节目特色化初探--谈主持人学识与技巧的关系

现阶段有线电视的节目主要有转播和自办两类,本文主要通过对有线电视四种自办节目类型的梳理,探求其在电视媒体中的地位、作用及其特色,以期促进有线电视自办节目质量的提高.     

Emotions Management Skills and Barriers with Library Staff: A Correlational Survey of Agriculture Students

The literature has identified barriers with library staff as one of the important barriers affecting academic activities of students and also recognized the relationship of various academic and demographic characteristics of students with it. The emotions management skills of students may be one of the possible correlates of the barriers with library staff. This study was designed to investigate the levels of barriers with library staff and emotions management skills as well as their possible correlation using two standardized scales. The data were collected from the final year undergraduate agriculture students. The results confirmed the existence of barriers with library staff among the participants of both genders experiencing the same level of anxiety. The participants scored 3.75 (average) on the emotions management scale. The results also revealed significantly negative correlation between emotions management skills and barriers with library staff among these students. These results have many practical implications in the sphere of academic librarianship.     

What publishers can take away from the latest early career researcher research

Key points

• Early career researchers (ECRs) consider journals the central form of communication – but are concerned about pressure to publish.
• ECRs want to share but currently accept the closed publishing system because of the need to build a traditional reputation.
• ECRs know – and appear to care – little about publishers but trust them as publishing and reviewing facilitators.
• Editors are criticized for not managing peer review with better selection of reviewers.
• Megajournals are not seen as the future journal form and criticized for lack of selectivity.
• ECRs want open access/science in principle but are circumspect about their contribution to it.
• ResearchGate is a key force for change as ECRs consider it a mainstay communication and reputation platform.