Adolescents' and Parents' Conceptions of Parental Authority and Personal Autonomy

Conceptions of parental authority and ratings of adolescent-parent conflict were assessed in 68 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders and their parents. Boundaries of adolescent personal jurisdiction and conflict over these boundaries were examined. Participants judged the legitimacy of parental authority and rated the frequency and intensity of conflict regarding 24 hypothetical moral, conventional, personal, multifaceted (e.g., containing conventional and personal components), prudential, and friendship issues. Adolescents and parents agreed that parents should retain authority regarding moral and conventional issues. Parents treated multifaceted, friendship, prudential, and personal issues as more contingent on parental authority than did adolescents, based on conventional, prudential, and psychological reasons, whereas adolescents treated these issues as under personal jurisdiction, based on personal concerns. Personal reasoning and judgments increased with age. Multifaceted issues were discussed more than all other issues, but moral and conventional conflicts were more intense than all other conflicts. The findings are discussed in terms of previous research on parental authority and adolescent-parent conflict during adolescence.     

Dance in computer technology: A survey of applications and capabilities

Conclusion Dance has made major incursions into the area of computer technology over the past 10 years. In this respect, it has more than rivalled the other arts and, in addition, has an even greater potential for reaching beyond current constraints and into the realm of vanishing horizons. Through computer and video technologies, dance has gained a potential and accelerated access to home audiences. Computer technology has also provided the art of dance with increased opportunities for creativity and experimentation, for literacy and for learning. In sum, and as a result, dance exemplifies the integration of artistic concerns and technological advances in today's world.     

Neglected fathers: Limitations in diagnostic and treatment resources for violent men

In its examination of violent activity within the family, current literature assumes a “pecking order” exists: Larger and stronger family members attack those who are smaller and weaker. Adult males are usually studied as primary maltreaters of spouses, while females are considered mainly responsible for physically abusive behavior with children. Use of this perspective has led to neglect of male abusers, who injure half of the mistreated children in the United States. Through assessment of 66 studies of child abuse published during a 5-year period, this paper documents the lack of attention abusive fathers have received. Twenty-eight of these studies included only mothers, while two dealt exclusively with fathers. Most of the 36 remaining two-parent studies did not discuss sex differences. No diagnostic categories consistently differentiated male from female abusers. No study discussed specialized treatment needs of women and men. This survey suggests that the therapeutic field considers the child's mother the primary responsible parent, even though she may not be the perpetrator of violence in the family. As a result, inadequate treatment resources have been made available to maltreating fathers. The survey points to the need for much more comprehensive research comparing male and female maltreaters.     

Changes in letter sound knowledge are associated with development of phonological awareness in pre‐school children

Letter sound knowledge, which, together with phonological awareness, is highly predictive of pre‐school children's reading acquisition, derives from children's knowledge of their associated letter names and the phonological patterns of those names. In this study of 66 monolingual pre‐school children we examined whether phonological patterns between letter names and their associated sounds might be differentially associated with aspects of phonological awareness. Results suggest that rudimentary levels of phonological awareness may facilitate the learning of letter sound associations. However, more explicit phonological awareness appears to be linked bi‐directionally with letter sound knowledge with diverse name‐sound associations, with letter sound associations that do not follow regular patterns (e.g. ‘juh’ for ‘j’ and ‘huh’ for ‘h’) most closely associated with performance in more complex phoneme awareness tasks.     

Teachers’ journeys towards critical use of ICT

Teachers have a central role in developing new learning models in schools. This paper describes a study that explored teachers’ confidence and competence in using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) as they participated in an ICT development project conducted by an Australian education system in 12 primary schools. The project aimed to develop ICT integrated teaching practices by providing in‐class equipment and teacher professional development in ICT use, curriculum development and teaching strategies. The study used qualitative data from teacher records of Professional Development and Action Learning to identify three of four stages proposed to describe teachers’ ICT learning. Teachers moved from gaining basic ICT skills, to conducting ICT‐focused lessons and eventually appropriate ICT integration. Teachers who progressed to the third stage were able to exploit additional learning opportunities and begin to make fundamental changes to their pedagogy, but needed more time to reach the final stage of challenging existing pedagogical structures.     

Little pitchers use their big ears: preschoolers solve problems by listening to others ask questions

Children ask questions and learn from the responses they receive; however, little is known about how children learn from listening to others ask questions. Five experiments examined preschoolers' (N = 179) ability to solve simple problems using information gathered from listening to question-and-answer exchanges between 2 parties present in the same room. Overall, the ability to efficiently use information gathered from overheard exchanges improved between ages 3 and 5. Critically, however, across ages children solved the majority of problems correctly, suggesting preschoolers are capable of learning from others' questions. Moreover, children learned from others' questions without explicit instruction and when engaged in another activity. Implications for the development of problem-solving skills are discussed.