Effects of school quality,school citizenship policy,and student body composition on the acquisition of citizenship competences in the final year of primary education

This study examines the effects of general educational quality of schools, school citizenship policy, and ethnic homogeneity of the student body on the acquisition of citizenship competences in the final year of primary education. The theoretical framework is based on developmental, psychological, and sociological studies into effects of social context on educational outcomes and research into effective schools. The effects of school quality, school policy, and student population were analysed using 2-level (students, school) multilevel models. The results show that differences in citizenship competences between students and schools are mainly explained by factors at student level. Although the school also appeared to play a role, the school variables used in the analysis did not offer sufficient explanation for these differences. In order to further investigate the relationship between school factors and students’ citizenship, more insight is needed into characteristics of citizenship practices of schools.     

Trust in top management and immediate supervisor: The relationship to satisfaction,perceived organizational effectiveness,and information receiving

Utilizing 2068 individuals in 60 organizations in the U.S. and Italy, this study (a) examines the overall relationship between trust in top management and immediate supervisor and overall estimates of satisfaction and perceived organizational effectiveness, (b) compares the amount of variance in satisfaction and effectiveness that can be explained by trust in top management to the amount of variance explained by trust in immediate supervisor, and (c) clarifies the role of information receiving as a predictor of trust in top management and immediate supervisor. Results of a canonical correlation analysis indicated that the canonical equation explained 49% of the variance in the linear composites (Canonical R = .69, p < .001). Trust in top management was more strongly associated with satisfaction and effectiveness than was trust in immediate supervisor. Tzvo separate multiple regression analyses indicated that after controlling for geographic location of company and type of industry, information received about job and organizational issues uniquely explained 26% of the variance in trust in top management and 13% of the variance in trust in immediate supervisor.     

Beyond the image: The giftedness of Jimi Hendrix

This article explores aspects of the life and character of electric guitarist Jimi Hendrix based on the review of literature on gifted achievers and Dabrowski's theory on developmental potential in the gifted. The influential environmental and personality factors in the development of Hendrix's musical gift, including the role played by imagination and autodidactism with reference to Vygotky's theory on play, are a primary focus. Issues raised include the value of different musical education forms as they relate to the varieties of musical expression, and the usefulness of motivational and creative attributes as indicators of gifted potential.     

Setting the Bar High: Danish Youth Education Counselors and National School-Completion Goals

European countries are striving to increase secondary school completion rates as part of their labor market planning. Denmark has taken an approach that places youth education guidance counselors at the center of their efforts. Based on interviews with 25 counselors and 10 other education leaders, this article explores the role and practice of these Danish counselors in regard to meeting state education goals. While the counselors strongly support the country’s high educational goal, they have concerns about its attainability, its across-the-board application, and coercive, or ‘individual-blaming’ elements of its implementation. Countries wishing to adopt this model should consider the fit between counseling philosophy and policy so as to avoid role conflict.     

Emotion,understanding, and social skills among boys at risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

There is growing interest in the role of emotional competence in middle school children's adjustment and functioning, yet many populations remain underresearched. Few studies have explored the emotional competence, especially emotion understanding, of children with, or at risk of, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and even fewer have examined the role emotion understanding plays in these children's social skills. Our study investigates a profile of the emotion understanding capacities of Israeli boys at risk of ADHD and evaluates its association with their social skills. One hundred and fifty‐two boys (grades 4–6) were each assigned to an at‐risk (n = 66) or comparison (n = 86) group based on their scores on an ADHD symptoms questionnaire (Conners Rating System–Revised). The two groups were matched on age, socioeconomic status and class, and school environment. Group comparisons revealed that relative to their non–at‐risk counterparts, at‐risk boys demonstrated less mature emotion understanding. Finally, our findings indicate that poor emotion understanding plays a more notable role in the social functioning of at‐risk than non–at‐risk children. This study's contribution to the understanding and school treatment of children with ADHD emotional and social competencies is discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Memory codes for temporal and nontemporal samples in many-to-one matching by pigeons

Pigeons were trained to match temporal (2 and 8 sec of keylight) and color (red and green) samples to vertical and horizontal comparison stimuli. In Experiment 1, samples that were associated with the same correct comparison stimulus displayed similar retention functions; and there was no significant choose-short effect following temporal samples. This finding was replicated in Phase 1 of Experiment 2 for birds maintained on the many-to-one mapping, and it was also obtained in birds that had been switched to a one-to-one mapping by changing the comparison stimuli following color samples. However, in Phase 2 of Experiment 2, when the one-to-one mapping was produced by changing the comparison stimuli following temporal samples, a significant choose-short effect was observed. In Experiment 3, intratrial interference tests gave evidence of temporal summation effects when either temporal presamples or color presamples preceded temporal targets. This occurred even though these interference tests followed delay tests that failed to reveal significant choose-short effects. The absence of significant choose-short effects in Experiment 1 and in Phase 1 of Experiment 2 indicates that temporal samples are not retrospectively and analogically coded when temporal and nontemporal samples are mapped onto the same set of comparisons The interference test results suggest that the temporal summation effect arises from nonmemorial properties of the timing system and is independent of the memory code being used     

Two Mandarin readers in Taiwan: characteristics of children with higher and lower reading proficiency levels

This study investigated how two readers of Mandarin with differing reading‐proficiency skills interacted with a narrative passage, as well as what knowledge they brought to and made use of while reading the text. The perspectives of reading comprehension, transactional theory and social‐cognitive models of reading served as this study's theoretical framework. Two Sixth‐Grade participants were selected for inclusion through snowball sampling. The data in this study were obtained from interviews and think‐alouds. Qualitative analysis indicated that the skilled Mandarin reader's stance moved along the efferent/aesthetic continuum, while the less‐skilled Mandarin reader's was mainly efferent. The skilled reader employed strategies of inferencing, summarisation and synthesis during and after reading, while the less‐skilled reader applied bridging inferences, paraphrasing and repetition. The findings of this study corroborate previous findings that proficient readers employ more sophisticated approaches to reading than less‐proficient readers.     

Personality traits as a predictor of academic achievement in adolescents

The study examined the predictive value of adolescents’ personality trait ratings by different groups of informants in explaining academic achievement [grade point average (GPA)] while controlling for students’ sex and their mothers’ education. The Inventory of Child/Adolescent Individual Differences was employed as a measure of students’ personality traits at the end of elementary schooling (mean age = 14.7 years) and two years later when the participants attended secondary schools. The trait ratings were obtained through self‐, maternal and peer reports at both measurement occasions. They explained substantial portions of unique variance in the students’ GPA concurrently, and over time. Ratings by each of the three groups of informants had an incremental validity over one another in predicting school grades. Among personality variables, conscientiousness and low extraversion were consistently predictive of GPA.     

Gender Development in Transgender Preschool Children

An increasing number of transgender children—those who express a gender identity that is “opposite” their natal sex—are socially transitioning, or presenting as their gender identity in everyday life. This study asks whether these children differ from gender‐typical peers on basic gender development tasks. Three‐ to 5‐year‐old socially transitioned transgender children (n = 36) did not differ from controls matched on age and expressed gender (n = 36), or siblings of transgender and gender nonconforming children (n = 24) on gender preference, behavior, and belief measures. However, transgender children were less likely than both control groups to believe that their gender at birth matches their current gender, whereas both transgender children and siblings were less likely than controls to believe that other people's gender is stable.     

Training Studies: An Experimental Design to Advance Educational Neuroscience

The promise of educational neuroscience lies in its potential to uncover mechanistic insights into the science of learning. However, to realize that promise, the field must overcome a fundamental difference between the constituent disciplines: neuroscience is primarily concerned with understanding how the brain works; whereas education attempts to change the brain regardless of its workings. Learning is one domain where these orientations align: it is a deep feature of nervous systems and a target outcome of education. This article proposes coupling training studies with neuroimaging to assess the impact of real‐world learning on brain activity patterns, and simultaneously ask fundamental questions about the causal role of specific patterns of brain activity in academic skill acquisition. Finally, planning and implementing these studies requires multiple forms of expertise and collaborating across disciplines, which will contribute to a more cohesive educational neuroscience research community.