Can Infant Temperament Be Used to Predict Which Toddlers Are Likely to Have Increased Emotional and Behavioral Problems?

The 'terrible twos' are often associated with increased temper tantrums, noncompliance and aggression. Although some expression of these behaviors is normal, whether early individual factors can predict which children are most at risk of frequent or prolonged emotional and behavioral problems is of increasing interest. The current study of 6,067 toddlers found that their 9 month scores on a new brief measure of temperament—the Infant Behavior Questionnaire – Revised - Very Short Form (IBQ-R-VSF)—were associated with both difficult behaviors and prosocial behaviors at age 2, measured using a preschool version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Controlling for a range of demographic, maternal characteristics and contextual factors, we found that infants higher on the trait Negative Emotionality and/ or lower on Orienting Capacity and Fear were more likely to develop hyperactivity, emotion, peer and conduct problems and less likely to demonstrate pro-social behaviors at two years of age. Temperament aged 9 months explained an additional 1 - 6 % of the variance in toddler behavior. These findings suggest that infant temperament is associated with the behavior strengths and difficulties of 2-year-olds and provide the first longitudinal validation of the new 5-factor structure of the new IBQ-R-VSF.     

Education, Profession and Culture: Some Conceptual Questions

What is it to regard the occupation of teaching as a profession – as distinct from a trade or vocation? The conventional modern conception of a profession is that of a normative enterprise in which standards of good practice are not just technically or contractually but also morally grounded: indeed, arguably the key difference between trades like plumbing or building and professions like medicine or law is that although the former are doubtless often subject to ethical regulation, ethical principles are actually constitutive of professions. It is also plausible to regard universal professional obligations as grounded in rights indexed to considerations of human need: insofar as humans cannot in general flourish without health, medical practitioners are bound to respond to any medical need without favour or prejudice. This paper argues, however, that powerful and persuasive contemporary critiques of notions of objective or value-neutral development and flourishing raise quite serious theoretical problems (expressed here as antinomies) for any analogous view of teaching as a profession.     

Association of conditioned stimuli during serial conditioning by pigeons

CS2-CS1-US autoshaping was given to hungry pigeons and evidence of CS2-CS1 association was sought. Pigeons pecked that key of a two-key compound CS2 located where the upcoming CS1 key light was to occur. Such CS2-CS1 association was: (1) quickly acquired, (2) quite durable, and (3) stronger with simultaneous than with successive discrimination tasks.     

Making a Difference for the Under Fives? The early implementation of Te Whaariki,the New Zealand National Early Childhood Curriculum

The New Zealand Ministry of Education is producing the final draft of Te Whaariki the national early childhood curriculum (Ministry of Education 1993). Once formalised all early childhood services will be required to demonstrate that their programmes are operating according to the Principles, Aims and Goals outlined in Te Whaariki (a Maori name meaning a mat for all to stand on). Three years ago a paper at the first Warwick International Early Years Conference outlined the rationale, framework and processes involved in the development ofTe Whaariki (Carr & May 1993c). We had been contracted by the Ministry of Education to coordinate the development of a national early childhood curriculum that firstly, would embrace a diverse range of early childhood services and cultural perspectives, secondly, would articulate a philosophy of quality early childhood practice, and thirdly would make connections with the new national curriculum for schools. Te Whaariki was released to early childhood centres on a trial basis in late 1993. Since that time there has been an official process of trialing and evaluation which has indicated a very high level of support within the early childhood community for the document. In 1994 the Government contracted a number of professional development projects to support early childhood practitioners with the document. Training programmes began reviewing the structure and rationale of the courses they provide. Margaret Carr is now undertaking a research project looking at some possibilities for the assessment for young children that relate to the Principles, Aims and Goals outlined in Te Whaariki. There are, however, many issues for centres regarding the implementation of Te Whaariki. For example, current regulatory requirements and funding levels make it difficult for centres to meet the high expectations of quality outlined in Te Whaariki, although the 1995 budget pronouncements promised some small funding increase.

This paper provides an overview of the implementation of Te Whaariki. We are mindful that other countries, have been undertaking similar kinds of development. While we see Te Whaariki as a document that is uniquely New Zealand, we have also sought, throughout the process of development and implementation, to encourage international critique and appraisal ofTe Whaariki as part of on going debates regarding the nature of early childhood curriculum in the 1990s. This paper was first presented at the second Early Years Conference at Warwick in 1996.     

Higher education: core skills in a learning society

This paper is based on the initial findings of the ESRC study on the acquisition and development of core skills in higher education and employment. The context for the study is provided by contested notions of a learning society apparent in the mismatch between the skills and knowledge that universities currently provide and what employers state that they want. The paper takes the form of a series of propositions and questions relating to the perspectives of those in higher education. It discusses the multiple interpretations, and lack of clarity, of the vocabulary of skills, and the difficulties for higher education in meeting the demands of a learning society. It is suggested that changes must be grounded in a more developed approach to the conceptualization of student provision and an enhanced understanding of how students learn.     

An Epistemic Frame Analysis of Neoliberal Culture and Politics in the US, UK, and the UAE

Neoliberalism is a loosely knit bricolage from economics, politics, and various forms of reactionary populism that can be envisioned as a kind of epistemic frame in which largely counterrevolutionary forces engage in the creative destruction of institutional frameworks and powers, forging divisions across society that include labor and social relations (Harvey, A brief history of neoliberalism, 2009). Such “creative destruction” implies that neoliberalism is actually a reactionary “catalog of mind” (Robin, The reactionary mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin, 2011, p. 17); that when believers engage in reactions to programs and ideas which represent what Bourdieu (Acts of resistance: Against the tyranny of the market, 1998) called “the left hand of the state” (typically represented by teachers, judges, social workers), one result has been the “involution of the state” (p. 34) and the “destruction of the idea of public service” (Bourdieu, The abdication of the state. In P. Bourdieu (Ed.), The weight of the world: Social suffering in contemporary society, 1999, p. 182). We examine neoliberalism using Shaffer’s (Int J Learn Media 1(2):1–21, 2009) concept of an “epistemic frame” based on the epistemic frame hypothesis that suggests that a community of practice has a culture, and that the collection of values, skills, knowledge, and identity form the “epistemic frame” (p. 4). An epistemic frame has a kind of grammar and structure comprised of people’s thoughts and actions, reinforced by the ways that people see themselves, the values to which they hold, and the epistemology that binds together their agenda. The purpose of our analysis is to create a praxis for what has been termed Regressionsverbot, which is defined as “a ban on backward movement with respect to social gains at the European level” (Bourdieu, Acts of resistance: Against the tyranny of the market, 1998, p. 41). In the form of cases from the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates, neoliberal initiatives are examined, unpacked, and interrogated.