Commentary: the coalition for improving maternity services:

A consumer advocate, two childbirth educators, and a certified nurse-midwife each provide commentary on the effectiveness of and potential uses for the Evidence Basis for the Ten Steps of Mother-Friendly Care.     

Explanations of attitudes to change: Colombian mathematics teachers’ conceptions of the crucial determinants of their teaching practices of beginning algebra

This article arises from a study whose overall purpose was to investigate the relationship between Colombian mathematics teachers’ conceptions of beginning algebra and their conceptions of their own teaching practices. The teachers’ understandings of their teaching practices were explored with a view to unravelling their conceptions of change in their teaching. Focusing on the perspectives of teachers afforded opportunities that exposed the powerful role that the teachers’ conceptions of social/institutional factors of teaching played in their conceptions of their practices. The degree to which the teachers attributed these (external) factors as crucial reasons for what they do in their teaching was the basis of a categorisation of their conceptions of the crucial determinants of their teaching practices into three types. The findings are particularly relevant to our understanding of the stability of mathematics teaching approaches in the Colombian context but have likely implications for a range of international education contexts. Specific implications for the development of the research into teachers’ conceptions of mathematics and its teaching, and for teacher education programmes are presented.

Cultural variation in children's social organization

This article examines how 31 triads of 6- to 10-year-old children from 3 cultural backgrounds organized their interactions while folding Origami figures. Triads of children whose families had immigrated to the United States from indigenous heritage regions of México (and whose mothers averaged only 7 grades of schooling) coordinated more often as an ensemble, whereas triads of European heritage U.S. children whose mothers had extensive schooling more often engaged dyadically or individually. When the European heritage children did engage as an ensemble, this often involved chatting rather than nonverbal conversation regarding folding, which was more common among the Mexican heritage children. Mexican heritage U.S. triads whose mothers had extensive schooling showed an intermediate pattern or resembled the European heritage children.     

Do infants need social cognition to act socially? An alternative look at infant pointing

Tomasello, Carpenter, and Liszkowski (2007) present a comprehensive review of the infant pointing literature. They conclude that infant pointing demonstrates communicative intent from its onset, at about 1 year of age. In this commentary, it is noted that for infants to understand communicative intent, they must have a concept of self and others as intentional agents. Evidence is reviewed to argue that this is not possible until 18-24 months of age. A leaner explanation of how infants might initially succeed in pointing tasks without understanding communicative intent is considered.     

Resilience to adult psychopathology following childhood maltreatment: evidence from a community sample

OBJECTIVE: Child abuse is an important risk for adult psychiatric morbidity. However, not all maltreated children experience mental health problems as adults. The aims of the present study were to address the extent of resilience to adult psychopathology in a representative community sample, and to explore predictors of a good prognosis. METHODS: Data are drawn from a follow-up of the Isle of Wight study, an epidemiological sample assessed in adolescence and at midlife. Ratings of psychiatric disorder, peer relationships and family functioning were made in adolescence; adult assessments included a lifetime psychiatric history, personality and social functioning assessments, and retrospective reports of childhood sexual and physical abuse. RESULTS: Ten percent of individuals reported repeated or severe physical or sexual abuse in childhood. Prospective measures revealed increased rates of adolescent psychiatric disorders in this group. Rates of adult psychopathology were also high. A substantial minority of abused individuals reported no mental health problems in adult life. Resilience of this kind was related to perceived parental care, adolescent peer relationships, the quality of adult love relationships, and personality style. CONCLUSION: Good quality relationships across childhood, adolescence and adulthood appear especially important for adult psychological well being in the context of childhood abuse.     

The Earlier the Better? Pausing for Thought …

Is earlier intervention always superior? Using two complementary forms of meta-analysis, Gardner and colleagues find no support for the “earlier is better” hypothesis in outcomes of parenting programs for child behavior problems across the 2–11 year age range. This commentary explores possible methodological and substantive reasons for the pattern of their findings. We need additional careful analyses of this kind, assessing age variations in intervention effects across broader age ranges, and in other developmental domains, for strong tests of the “earlier is better” hypothesis. At this stage, however, Gardner et al.'s findings give us some pause for thought.     

Using students’ feedback for teacher education: measurement invariance across pre-service teacher-rated and student-rated aspects of quality of teaching

Comparing self-perceived quality of teaching to students’ perception can be used in higher education to improve the quality of teaching of pre-service teachers in teacher education. However, comparing these measurements from different perspectives is only meaningful if the same constructs are being measured. To shed light on this comparison’s meaningfulness, we scrutinised whether aspects of quality of teaching are measured in the same way across pre-service teachers and their students by means of measurement invariance analyses. To do so, 272 pre-service teachers in teacher education rated aspects of their quality of teaching, and were rated by their 4851 students. Measurement invariance across these perspectives was tested in multilevel structural equation models. Strong measurement invariance held for two aspects of quality of teaching; for the third, one item lacked weak measurement invariance. Pre-service teachers perceived their quality of teaching lower than their students. In conclusion, aspects of quality of teaching can be compared across perspectives, and teacher education should encourage pre-service teachers to use students’ feedback as a valuable resource for improving their quality of teaching.     

Gender,text, and discussion: Examining intellectual safety in the science classroom

It is clear from the extant literature that gender inequities exist in a myriad of ways in science classrooms. Past research, however, has been conducted solely from researchers' observations and has neglected to investigate students' awareness of and reactions to their own experiences. Hence, this study focused on students' perceptions of gender differences in instructional activity and talk about that activity in physics and honors physics classes. Data analysis showed that although teachers may be unaware of gender inequities, students of both sexes are not unaware of such inequities. Females explained their fears of offering their opinions and participating in activities like labs and small-group or whole-class discussions. Differential language patterns were found for males and females, particularly when discussion was structured and rewarded for refutation. Explanations are offered for these disparities and suggestions are given for addressing gender bias in science classrooms. It has been well documented that science classrooms are not gender fair (Bazler & Simonis, 1991; Bianchini, 1993; Tobin, 1988). Teachers, texts, and the forms of instruction they perpetuate contribute to gender inequities in science instruction. For example, research tracing changes in science textbooks over time has shown that current texts have failed to eliminate barriers to women in science (Bianchini, 1993). Science textbooks are criticized for their unequal treatment of genders, with illustrations, photos, and texts of males far outnumbering those of females, despite the approximate 50/50 male/female ratio of our population (Bazler & Simonis, 1991). In addition to the proclivity of science textbooks to favor males, researchers speculate that the tendency for boys to achieve higher than girls in science may be a result of more opportunity to engage in academic tasks (Tobin & Garnett, 1987). Their behavior shows that teachers have differential expectations for students' responses in activities like teacher-led discussion. In teacher-led, whole-class discussion, boys are spoken to more frequently and are asked more higher-order questions (Becker, 1991; Hall & Sadler, 1982). Teachers in science classrooms elaborate more on males' responses than females' responses in large-group discussion of scientific concepts (Jones & Wheatley, 1990). © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Gender-related worry and emotionality test anxiety for high-achieving students

Test anxiety among academically talented high school students (N = 103) was explored in this study. Two components of test anxiety were assessed: a cognitive component (worry) and a physiological component (emotionality). The results indicated that these students suffered from test anxiety, and that higher anxiety was related to lower science performance. Overall, females reported more test anxiety than did males. Whereas females experienced higher worry than emotionality, males reported little difference between the two anxiety components. Implications for college-bound students are discussed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Coronavirus disease(COVID-19):The need to maintain regular physical activity while taking precautions

The on-going Coronavirus disease(COVID-19)outbreak in China has become the world's leading health headline and is causing major panic and public concerns.On January 30,2020,the World Health Organization(WHO)declared that the new coronavirus outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern.1 The virus has already had a direct impact on more than 10 million people in the city of Wuhan and has reached other parts of China as well,posing a health threat of unknown magnitude globally.As of February 8,2020,WHO reported 34,886 confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally,with 34,589 of them occurring in China(including 6101 severe cases and 723 deaths).A total of 288 other confirmed cases(with 1 death)have been reported in 24 countries,including Japan,Australia,Germany,and United States.2 However,these daily estimates are expected to rise even higher as reports from health authorities in China3 are gathered and near real-time updates of the Johns Hopkins virus dashboard are made 4 The outbreak has caused governments in various countries to take swift and protective measures.In China,these included putting cities on lockdown,5 implementing travel wamings/bans and cancellations,6 extending national holidays,and closing schools and postponing classes7.