Affect Regulation as a Mediator of Attachment and Deliberate Self‐Harm

The authors used structural equation modeling to test the mediational role of affect regulation on attachment and deliberate self‐harm in 216 undergraduates. Results suggest that affect regulation mediates the relationship between attachment and deliberate self‐harm, providing support for the theoretical importance of attachment and affect regulation in the etiology of self‐harm behaviors. Accordingly, attachment styles should be considered when providing clinical assistance to college students in an effort to improve affect regulation and to treat deliberate self‐harm.     

A Domain-Referenced Approach to Diagnostic Testing Using Generalizability Theory

This paper describes a four-step approach to constructing diagnostic test profiles that provide precise but practical information on students' instructional needs. The approach is based on the specification and analysis of a domain and uses generalizability theory to determine which skills within the domain need to be assessed to diagnose gaps in students' skills and to estimate score profiles. A 64-item test of pronoun use was constructed to represent 32 categories of usage defined by different combinations of five factors in the domain. Generalizability analyses were conducted to determine the optimal number of categories to be included in students' profiles and the number of items needed for each category, and to produce univariate and multivariate estimates of students' universe scores. Multivariate profiles of universe scores were the most accurate and differed substantially from observed score and univariate universe score profiles.     

The Honour of the Science Teacher: Pupils, Knowledge, and Society

This address covers several aspects of a teacher's "sense of honour." There is the professional honour we accord ourselves as members of a group who have shared working values. This is shown to be seriously at risk in today's world of distrust in all experts. Research evidence helps to show how, through practice and reconstructed autobiography, teachers develop an important functional sense of personal identity. Pupils form a large part of the content of this practitioner honour, although the teachers' relationship with them is carefully distinguished from that between parent and child. It is further argued that the teachers' pedagogic knowledge of science is, and indeed should be, closer to post-modern epistemology than to the abstract logical approach taken during the Enlightenment. The final section looks at society's changing demands on education and how this affects teaching, teachers, and their sense of honour in the tasks they undertake.     

Autonomous participation. An activist ethnography in Maranya Youth Club

ABSTRACT

In this article there is a discussion about the results of an activist Ethnography carried out in Benicasim (Spain). The study is focused on the culture of youth participation in leisure spaces that contribute significantly to the education of young people as critical citizens. During 3 years of fieldwork as an activist in the Youth Club (YC) we carried out an investigation based on biographical, narrative, participatory and observational tools. Particularly, we try to understand which elements can turn a participatory structure into a tool for a model of participatory progression and offer the possibility of creating personalised participatory trajectories. Our results suggest that structuring participation in a youth club can be beneficial if we care for aspects like commitment, responsibility, availability, leadership and the sense of membership. Adapting these elements to the characteristics of each youth will boost participation to more autonomous levels, thus enabling an empowering and autonomous learning process.     

Psychosocial Environment and Student Self-Handicapping in Secondary School Mathematics Classes: A cross-national study

Research investigating the relationship between classroom environment and self-handicapping was conducted in Australian, Canadian and British secondary schools. Perceptions of classroom environment, self-handicapping and academic efficacy were assessed by 3,602 students from 29 schools. Correlation analyses between ten classroom environment scales from the What Is Happening In This Class (WIHIC) questionnaire and the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) and self-handicapping were conducted with and without control for academic efficacy. Results showed that classroom environment scales accounted for appreciable proportions of variance in self-handicapping beyond that attributable to academic efficacy. Enhanced affective dimensions of the classroom environment were associated with reduced levels of self-handicapping. Commonality analyses revealed that the WIHIC scales accounted for a much greater proportion of variance in self-handicapping that did the CLES scales.     

Maternal employment and parent-infant interaction at one year

The purpose of this study was to ask if parent-infant interaction differs in middle-class families with employed and homemaker mothers. Home observations of mother, father, and infant were carried out on weekday evenings, and observations of mother and infant as a dyad were performed during the daytime. Findings indicated group differences in the mother-father-infant context only, in which infants in the homemaker-mother group smiled and laughed more and were engaged more often in mutual looking and object play. Furthermore, daughters in the employed-mother group, but sons in the homemaker-mother group, received more parental stimulation encouraging their attention of objects.     

The differential impact of academic self-regulatory methods on academic achievement among university students with and without learning disabilities

Although research on academic self-regulation has proliferated in recent years, no studies have investigated the question of whether the perceived usefulness and the use of standard self-regulated learning strategies and compensation strategies provide a differential prediction of academic achievement for university students with and without learning disabilities (LD). We developed and tested a model explaining interrelationships among self-regulatory variables and grade point average (GPA) using structural equation modeling and multiple group analysis for students with LD (n = 53) and without LD (n = 421). Data were gathered using a new instrument, the Learning Strategies and Study Skills survey. The results of this study indicate that students with LD differed significantly from students without LD in the relationships between their motivation for and use of standard self-regulated learning strategies and compensation strategies, which in turn provided a differential explanation of academic achievement for students with and without LD. These paths of influence and idiosyncrasies of academic self-regulation among students with LD were interpreted in terms of social cognitive theory, metacognitive theory, and research conducted in the LD field.     

The Gateway Science Workshop Program: Enhancing Student Performance and Retention in the Sciences Through Peer-Facilitated Discussion

Minority student attrition and underachievement is a long-standing and widespread concern in higher education. It is especially acute in introductory science courses which are prerequisites for students planning to pursue science-related careers. Poor performance in these courses often results in attrition of minorities from the science fields. This is a particular concern at selective universities where minority students enter with excellent academic credentials but receive lower average grades and have lower retention rates than majority students with similar credentials. This paper reports the first year results of a large scale peer-facilitated workshop program designed to increase performance and retention in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics at a selective research university. After adjusting for grade point average or SAT-Math score, workshop participants earned higher final grades than nonparticipants in Biology and Chemistry, but not in Physics. Similar effects on retention were found. While, positive effects of the program were observed in both majority and minority students, effect sizes were generally largest for minority students. Because of practical constraints in Physics, implementation of the program was not optimal, possibly accounting for the differential success of the program across disciplines.