"When I Was Little": Childhood Recollections in Chinese and European Canadian Grade School Children

Recollection of early childhood experiences was investigated in 225 European Canadian and 133 Chinese children (ages 8, 11, and 14) by a memory fluency task that measured accessibility of multiple early memories and elicited the earliest memory. Younger children provided memories of events that occurred at earlier ages than older children. Furthermore, Canadian children produced more memories and had an earlier age of first memory than did Chinese children, with cultural differences in both measures increasing with age. It appears that while adultlike childhood amnesia is still emerging among Canadian children, Chinese children by age 14 already resemble adults. Content of Canadian versus Chinese children's memories reflected an autonomous versus relational self-construal. Results are discussed in terms of sociocultural influences on memory.     

For Richer or Poorer: Building inclusive schools in poor urban and rural communities

Throughout the world, educators are struggling to shift their delivery of services to children with disabilities from a segregated to inclusive approach. This shift creates substantial opportunities and challenges. This is particularly true in poor urban and rural schools. Although our experience is based in rural and urban schools in the United States, we know that poor rural and urban schools throughout the world face similar issues as inclusive education takes hold. This article describes a framework for building more effective and successful schools in poor rural and urban communities called “Whole Schooling.” In addition, we identify the multiple barriers to inclusive schools, articulate the commonalties and differences between poor rural and urban schools, and describe specific strategies for utilising available resources to build more effective and successful rural and urban schools in which inclusive education is a central component.     

Instrumented bicycle pedals for dynamic measurement of propulsive cycling loads

A system was developed for measuring and analyzing the forces placed on a bicycle pedal during operation of a stationary ergometer. Forces are measured in the plane parallel to the ergometer in directions normal and tangential to the surface of the pedals, encompassing the plane of propulsive forces. The pedals are designed to be structurally and functionally equivalent to standard clipless pedals. The stock pedal spindle and bearing assembly was replaced with a new spindle that was instrumented with two Wheatstone bridges of foil strain gauges. The bearings were relocated to the crank-arm/pedal-spindle interface. The original pedal body was then pinned to the new spindle. Additionally, the pedals were instrumented with optical encoders to measure the pedal angle relative to the crank arm. An optical encoder was also mounted near the bottom bracket to measure crank-arm angle. Signals were transmitted via a cable tethered to the cyclist’s leg from the pedals to an instrumented chassis, where the strain gauge signals were conditioned and the digital optical encoder signals converted to analogue signals. From the instrumented chassis, seven signals are ready for standard analogue data collection. Data collected from this new system has proved to be both comparable with previously published literature and accurate when compared with expected power output values.     

Parents' Socialization of Children's Injury Prevention: Description and Some Initial Parameters

In a year-long participant observation study of remediative action following actual injury, 61 8- and 9-year-old children and their 27-46-year-old mothers wrote records and reported on more than 1,000 minor injuries in branching biweekly interviews. Mothers reported that 80.1% of injuries received no parent-initiated remediation, 14% received only a lecture, and less than 3% of injuries were followed by parental action. Children reported that 96.1% of their injuries were followed by no remediative action and recalled lectures after only 1.2% of injuries. Remediative action was related to type of child activity (e.g., unstructured play was followed by remediation more often than more purposive behavior) and to mother's affect (e.g., anger) and beliefs (e.g., that injury was the child's fault or due to rule violation). The parameters that influenced remediative consequences, and thus that may influence future injury, are discussed.     

Developing and managing individualized studies programs: Some guidelines

This paper presents eight guidelines that educators should follow in developing and managing undergraduate individualized studies (contract learning-type) programs. The guidelines fall under the headings (1) supplying rationales, (2) focusing on the faculty, (3) assessing faculty performance, (4) assessing student readiness, (5) assessing the costs, (6) students as researchers, (7) how much academic credit, and (8) agents of change. A main theme presented is that the student-centered focus in individualized studies programs needs to be matched by an equal regard for the faculty member.