The new UN CRC General Comment 13: "The right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence"--changing how the world conceptualizes child protection

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child established CRC General Comment 13 (April 2011) to address today's unabating high rates of violence against children globally despite CRC advances. GC13 provides clear interpretations and stronger detail to supplement the legal language of CRC Article 19, intended to establish protection of children from all forms of violence. Through GC13, the Committee seeks to strengthen policy and practice implementation for all children, including every nation's most vulnerable, by clearly establishing measurable indicators: structure, process and outcomes to children-through improved technical information, expertise and assistance. Based on knowledge and experience gained over the 22 years since the CRC was adopted, GC13 advances best practice approaches and technical resources for States Parties and professionals on preventing violence against children, and on strengthening protection programs, systems, services, research, monitoring, evaluation and reporting. This article addresses child rights and protection issues which have been raised during this period, as well as during the consultation and resulting dialogues, such as the rights of children in early/forced marriage, and the role of the State Party as responsible caregiver when parents or families are not capable of providing protection.     

Building National Capacity for Research Mentor Training: An Evidence-Based Approach to Training the Trainers

Research mentor training (RMT), based on the published Entering Mentoring curricula series, has been shown to improve the knowledge and skills of research mentors across career stages, as self-reported by both the mentors engaged in training and their mentees. To promote widespread dissemination and empower others to implement this evidence-based training at their home institutions, we developed an extensive, interactive, multifaceted train-the-trainer workshop. The specific goals of these workshops are to 1) increase facilitator knowledge of an RMT curriculum, 2) increase facilitator confidence in implementing the curriculum, 3) provide a safe environment to practice facilitation of curricular activities, and 4) review implementation strategies and evaluation tools. Data indicate that our approach results in high satisfaction and significant confidence gains among attendees. Of the 195 diverse attendees trained in our workshops since Fall 2010, 44% report implementation at 39 different institutions, collectively training more than 500 mentors. Further, mentors who participated in the RMT sessions led by our trained facilitators report high facilitator effectiveness in guiding discussion. Implications and challenges to building the national capacity needed for improved research mentoring relationships are discussed.     

Investigating Undergraduate Science Students’ Conceptions and Misconceptions of Ocean Acidification

Scientific research exploring ocean acidification has grown significantly in past decades. However, little science education research has investigated the extent to which undergraduate science students understand this topic. Of all undergraduate students, one might predict science students to be best able to understand ocean acidification. What conceptions and misconceptions of ocean acidification do these students hold? How does their awareness and knowledge compare across disciplines? Undergraduate biology, chemistry/biochemistry, and environmental studies students, and science faculty for comparison, were assessed on their awareness and understanding. Results revealed low awareness and understanding of ocean acidification among students compared with faculty. Compared with biology or chemistry/biochemistry students, more environmental studies students demonstrated awareness of ocean acidification and identified the key role of carbon dioxide. Novel misconceptions were also identified. These findings raise the question of whether undergraduate science students are prepared to navigate socioenvironmental issues such as ocean acidification.     

Database choices in endocrine systematic reviews

Objective

The choice of bibliographic database during the systematic review search process has been an ongoing conversation among information specialists. With newer information sources, such as Google Scholar and clinical trials registries, we were interested in which databases were utilized by information specialists and systematic review researchers.

Method

We retrieved 144 systematic reviews and meta-analyses from 4 clinical endocrinology journals and extracted all information sources used during the search processes.

Results

Findings indicate that traditional bibliographic databases are most often used, followed by regional databases, clinical trials registries, and gray literature databases.

Conclusions

This study informs information specialists about additional resources that may be considered during the search process.     

USING LISTENING JOURNALS IN MATH METHODS

The purpose of this teacher action research was twofold: to learn more about preservice teachers' preconceived notions related to listening and to investigate how a listening journal assignment impacted preservice teachers' views of listening as an important aspect of discourse. The participants were enrolled in a mathematics methods course for PreK–3 (early childhood) majors during their last semester of coursework prior to student teaching. Data in the form of final reflections from participants' listening journals and researchers' field notes were analyzed. Findings suggest that the preservice teachers entered the course without truly considering listening as an important component of teaching methods related to facilitating classroom discourse. The listening journal assignment helped them begin to think more deeply about listening and the different definitions and modes of listening; however, at the end of the semester, many still wrote about their own personal journeys with listening and not about the role of listening as a key element in promoting classroom discourse and learning.     

Equal Educational Opportunity: A Definition

Abstract

Efforts aimed at the development of a European dimension to the general education curricula offered in the different European countries have been stepped up in recent years, both within the countries of the current European Union and within the wider range of European countries belonging to the Council of Europe and subscribing to its Cultural Convention. The immediate importance of these efforts is seen to lie in the desirability of offering an education to young people that helps them make the most of their opportunities not only within their own national borders but also in the wider European Community to which they now belong and in which they have new rights and responsibilities. More generally, these efforts are also seen to be important in consolidating a Europe in which past animosities can finally be abandoned and replaced by a firm pan‐European attachment to ideals of freedom and cooperation between European nations, dedicated to the defence of democracy, human rights, freedom and tolerance. But, how successful have these efforts been? What are the problems encountered? What are the prospects for the future? How far is it proving possible to develop the European dimension across the curriculum? How successful is the European dimension, or might it be, in achieving its intended objectives? These questions, all of which are more puzzling than they might at first appear to be, are touched on in this paper.     

United in gender,divided by race: Reconstruction of issue and identity by the association of southern women for the prevention of lynching

This essay begins to investigate the relationship between race and gender in communication through study of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (1930‐1942). Organized by and composed exclusively of white women, this campaign managed to reconstruct lynching from a race issue to a gender issue. In doing so, the leader of the ASWPL, Jessie Daniel Ames, was successful at empowering white Southern women and uniting black and white women. However, due to failure to understand issues of the relationship between race and gender, the ASWPL perpetuated the very racism that was the cause for lynching.     

ELDERCARE IN THE 1990s: CHALLENGES AND SUPPORTS FOR EDUCATING FAMILIES

The purpose of this article is to summarize the recent literature on caregiving in order to identify viable ways to educate families to care for elderly relatives in the home environment. The demands and stresses currently associated with providing home care to older members are discussed, followed by an overview of support services that represent promising and workable approaches in enhancing families’ home‐caregiving capacities. With few exceptions, this paper is based on caregiving research published in the past five years.