Work placement experience: should I stay or should I go?

The opportunity to experience work placements that complement taught and practical courses in higher education has become a central strand of many undergraduate degree programmes. While there is tacit agreement that such placements are a good thing, in recent years the numbers of students opting for work placements has been declining. This paper uses a mixed method research design to probe the learning outcomes, attitudes and perceptions of undergraduate students who choose not to go on a work placement. Findings highlight some areas of concern that could be considered by institutions of higher education working to enhance good practice in students’ work placement experiences.     

Associations between blocking,monitoring, and filtering software on the home computer and youth-reported unwanted exposure to sexual material online

ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between the use of preventive software on the home computer and unwanted exposure to sexual material online.MethodsThe Youth Internet Safety Survey-2 was a national, RDD telephone survey conducted in March–June 2005. Eight hundred households (one caregiver and one child between the ages of 10 and 17 years) with home Internet access answered questions pertaining to Internet prevention activities in the household and adolescent behaviors and exposures online.ResultsUnwanted exposure to sexual material occurred in 32% of youth in homes with pop-up/spam blockers and 25% of youth in homes with filtering, blocking, or monitoring software on the home computer, compared to 43% of households without preventive software installed on the home computer. Among otherwise similar youth, pop-up/spam blockers installed on the home computer were significantly associated with 59% lower odds of reporting unwanted exposure to sexual material on the home computer; and filtering, blocking, or monitoring software was significantly associated with 65% lower odds. When data were stratified by youth sex, associations between preventive software and unwanted exposure were similar for boys and girls. When stratified by age, preventive software was associated with significantly reduced risk of unwanted exposure for 10–12-year olds and 13–15-year olds, but not for 16–17-year olds.ConclusionAlthough these correlational analyses are far from providing conclusive evidence that preventive software protects children from unwanted exposure to sexual material online, findings suggest that caregivers of boys and girls 15 years of age and younger who want to reduce the likelihood of unwanted exposure to sexual material on the home computer should consider including preventive software—especially filtering, blocking, or monitoring software—in their Internet safety plan.Practice implicationsPractitioners should partner with caregivers in developing an Internet safety plan, including proactive caregiver-youth discussions about expected Internet behavior appropriate for their household.     

Characteristics of the start in women's World Cup skeleton

This study characterizes key elements of the start in elite female World Cup skeleton athletes. The top 20 female competitors in three World Cup races were videotaped within a calibrated space to allow the following components of the start to be quantified: (1) acceleration (velocity at 15-m mark, time to 15-m mark), (2) capacity (time to load, total number of steps to load), and (3) load (velocity at 45-m mark). A correlation analysis was used to establish the relationship between the variables of interest and overall start time (15- to 65-m mark). Velocity at the 15-m mark accounted for 86% of the variance in overall start time at St. Moritz and 85% at Sigulda. A stepwise regression analysis revealed that approximately 89% of the variation in start time could be explained by velocity at the 15-m mark, time to load, and velocity at the 45-m mark. Of the variables analysed in this study, rapid acceleration to attain a high velocity at the 15-m mark was the most important component of a fast overall start time. The importance of the time to load and velocity at the 45-m mark vary according to the different track characteristics.     

Preadolescent Peer Status, Aggression, and School Adjustment as Predictors of Externalizing Problems in Adolescence

The comparative effectiveness of preadolescent aggressive behavior, peer rejection, and school functioning were evaluated in the prediction of adolescent delinquency and school maladjustment. Fifth-grade children (n = 112, 69% white, 53% male, M = 11 years old) were followed forward for 7 years until the end of high school. Rejected children were more likely to have a nonspecific negative outcome and more types of negative outcomes than average, popular, or neglected children, particularly among the white students. However, in regression models containing sex, race, aggression, frequent school absences, low grades, and rejection, the only significant predictor of juvenile delinquency or of a nonspecific negative outcome was aggression toward peers. Both aggression and frequent school absences were significant predictors of early school withdrawal. Analyses for the white children in the sample revealed that both rejection and aggression best predicted to the nonspecific negative outcome, whereas aggression alone best predicted to school dropout and to having one or more police contacts. Implications for future longitudinal outcome research and for risk-group identification in racially heterogeneous samples are discussed.     

ENTERPRISE AWARENESS IN TEACHER EDUCATION (EATE)

This paper sets out the rationale underpinning the setting up, delivery and evaluation of a major initiative in initial teacher education. The purpose of Enterprise Awareness in Teacher Education (EATE) is to incorporate enterprise, economic and industrial issues into all initial courses for trainee teachers. This is facilitated through an extensive programme of staff development. The article then goes on to record the processes and thinking behind one level of the evaluation of the initiative which has been incorporated into individual developments in institutions from the outset     

Children's Academic and Behavioral Adjustment as a Function of the Chronicity and Proximity of Peer Rejection

The experience of peer rejection is associated with a number of concurrent and later problems for children. However, we know very little about differences in risk relative to different experiences of rejection over time. This study examined later academic and behavioral problems as a function of two dimensions by which rejection may vary over time: chronicity and temporal proximity. 622 second- through fourth-grade children (ages 7–12) were tested in the spring of 4 consecutive years. The results indicated that both chronicity and proximity directly influenced later adjustment. Taken together, the findings suggest that all levels of rejection were associated with greater absenteeism from school, and more chronic and proximal experiences of rejection were associated with elevated externalizing behavior problems and teacher-rated internalizing behavior problems. There was evidence that initial level of adjustment, gender, and development moderated the relation among these dimensions of rejection and later adjustment.     

Dominance relationships in femaleHerotilapia multispinosa (Pisces: Cichlidae)

Agonistic interactions between all possible pairings of 10 adult female rainbow cichlids (Herotilapia multispinosa) were observed in three round-robin tournaments. Specific behaviors and color patterns were found to characterize winning and losing fish. The outcomes of agonistic encounters were used to construct a hypothetical dominance hierarchy. This hierarchy was consistent over the three tournaments in that (1) the order of animals in the hierarchy remained relatively unchanged and (2) the relationship between the members of a particular dyad tended to remain stable. The latter was especially true for fish of widely different dominance rank.