Leadership across the curriculum

The problem, says one community college president, is not that we need to develop better leaders, but we need to develop more leaders. Here's how to start.     

A proactive targeted approach to preventing adolescent aggressive behaviours

The aim of this research was to critically examine methods for reducing incidences of aggression within adolescence. To achieve this aim, a proactive intervention programme was devised and implemented aimed at changing attitudes towards physical and relational aggression through social skills education within the College’s tutorial programme. The research involved the implementation of an intervention programme that consisted of three workshops based on social skills training, problem solving and anger management techniques, the development of empathic skills, education on the role of the bystander, and victimisation prevention strategies (N = 158). Two self-report questionnaires were administered, pre-test and post-test to analyse the effectiveness of the intervention programme. The questionnaires included measures of attitude towards physical and relational aggression; victimisation; popularity and aggression; bystander and victimisation beliefs; and empathy towards victims. A control group completed the two questionnaires in the same time frame but without undertaking the intervention workshops. Post implementation, aggression scores for both physical and relational aggression significantly decreased for the intervention group against a control. Additionally, popularity was found to positively correlate with both physical and relational aggression. This study highlights the necessity for intervention programmes in educational environments in terms of the shaping of prosocial attitudes of students and to ensure the safeguarding of students.     

A Professional Development System as a Catalyst for Changing Science Teachers

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Rising against a gathering storm: a biopolitical analysis of citizenship in STEM policy

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is a form of education seen by many governments and educators as a preparation of the types of students needed for the future. STEM education is being developed in many countries without the support of official policy, such as is the case in Canada. In the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and a private non-profit organisation, Achieve Inc.?, have been enlisted to develop policy to guide the development on STEM nationally. Due to its influence in global politics and economy, many countries, including Canada, are interested in how the United States is preparing its citizens for the future through STEM education. In this paper we present a critical discourse analysis on STEM policy from the United States as a basis to discuss: biopolitics in science education; notions of citizenship in contemporary school education and science education; and citizenship and STEM education.     

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS IN FOSTER CARE: IMPEDED OR IMPROVED?

Foster care's impact on academic development was investigated for 392 students reentering foster care. Psychoeducational evaluation was performed at initial and return placements. Average achievement increased .22 points between placements. Students reentering care did not show differences in achievement or IQ compared to control students with a single placement. Although average achievement showed a small increase between placements, some students showed large changes. Declining achievement was directly related to above‐average initial achievement ( p < .001), and indirectly related to not being in special education ( p < .001) and nonminority race ( p < .02). Results provide evidence that overall academic development appears neither enhanced nor hindered by foster care placement, but specific groups may be at risk for poor gains. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 527–535, 2004.     

The development of the abused child through adolescence and approaches to intensive treatment in a psychiatric hospital

Rejection, deprivation, physical pain, and an unpredictable environment are the primary determinants in the maladjustment of the abused child from infancy through adolescence.It is our conclusion that the majority of adolescents with character and personality disorders, particularly as manifested in the BORDERLINE SYNDROME, will have been subjected repeatedly and consistently to a parenting style incorporating these four determinants.The authors are involved in providing long term In-patient treatment to 40 severely emotionally disturbed adolescents. The vast majority of these youngsters are referred for uncontrollable acting out. Approximately ninety percent of these adolescents under treatment were abused and neglected as children.One of the forty adolescents under treatment will be considered. We believe her case history is typical of the abused child in adolescence.     

Problem-solving skills of high school chemistry students

What strategies do high school students use when solving chemistry problems? The purpose for conducting this study was to determine the general problem-solving skills that students use in solving problems involving moles, stoichiometry, the gas laws, and molarity. The strategies were examined for success in problem solving for 266 students of varying proportional reasoning ability, using interviews incorporating the think-aloud technique. Data were coded using a scheme based on Polya's heuristics. Results indicated that successful students and those with high proportional reasoning ability tended to use algorithmic reasoning strategies more frequently than nonsuccessful and low proportional reasoning students. However, the majority of all students solved the chemistry problems using only algorithmic methods, and did not understand the chemical concepts on which the problems were based.     

The effects of cognitive development and age on elementary students' science achievement for structured inductive and semi-deductive inquiry strategies

This study explored Morine and Morine's (Discovery: A challenge to teachers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973) assumptions regarding age and cognitive development of learners successfully utilizing two types of inquiry, specifically structured inductive and semi-deductive. Two groups of elementary school students from grades one, three and five were individually assessed on six conservation tasks and a multiplicative classification task. The two groups were instructed on two different science topics utilizing different inquiry strategies. Achievement data from topic specific tests were analyzed by an ANOVA technique. The results indicated that age made a significant difference on achievement for both inquiry strategies. The significant contributions were due to the differences between grade one and grades three and five. The differences between grade three and grade five were not significant. The effect of cognitive development was more noticeable in the less structured semi-deductive strategy in which four conservation tasks and the multiplicative classification tasks were significant.