Salivary biomarker levels and diurnal variation: associations with medications prescribed to control children's problem behavior

This study examined associations between medications prescribed to control children's problem behaviors and levels of, and diurnal variation in, salivary cortisol (C), testosterone (T), and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA). Saliva was collected in the morning, midday, and afternoon from 432 children ages 6-13 years. Relative to a no-medication comparison group, children taking (1) antipsychotics had higher DHEA levels and flat C diurnal rhythms, (2) Ritalin or Adderall had flat T diurnal rhythms, (3) Concerta had higher T and DHEA levels, (4) antidepressants had flat DHEA diurnal rhythms, and (5) hypotensives had flat DHEA diurnal rhythms and higher T levels. Medications prescribed to control children's problem behaviors should be monitored in studies of the endocrine correlates and consequences of developmental psychopathology.     

Promoting Social Inclusion in Educational Settings: Challenges and Opportunities

The goal of this article is to provide a critical analysis of barriers to social inclusion and integration in schools and propose inclusive educational practices that help connect and unite diverse students. Diversity is defined broadly to refer to a range of differences (i.e., overall heterogeneity) across students. We review theoretical frameworks that help explain group dynamics and contextual conditions that contribute to exclusion (i.e., peer victimization, rejection, friendlessness) of students based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, body weight, and so on. We argue that to be able to facilitate inclusion (acceptance by peers, cross-group friendships), educators and school administrators need to be aware of group and interpersonal dynamics. They must also comprehend how some common school practices highlight differences and segregate students in ways that further promote divisions and reinforce negative stereotypes. We propose proactive school-based practices as “built-in” preventions to increase social inclusion. Also, relevant intervention approaches are reviewed. To conclude, we discuss teacher education and professional development and make recommendations for future research.     

Strategic approaches to civic responsibility: The essential role of cocurricular events

Do cocurricular events on your campus reach their potential for developing students' sense of civic responsibility? The authors make four recommendations for making student learning the focus of these activities.     

Photo essay: The border is …

Based on autobiographical data, the paper describes six ideal types of teacher identities conceived as different patterns of perceiving and coping with professional demands. One hundred and twenty full‐time seventh through ninth grade teachers were selected in a stratified random sample. Teachers’ experience ranged from 5 to 29 years and 12.5% of the selected teachers were female. Data were collected in the form of semi‐structured interviews that started with a short overview of the interviewee's professional biography [Stegreiferzählung]and continued with self‐image and attitudes, social and professional mobility, vocation, start as a classroom teacher, professional competence, best years and burn‐out, professional satisfaction, and social network questions. The first step of data analysis included content and frequency analyses of these topics. In a second step, the Stegreiferzahlungwas analyzed by classifying the different biographical phases and defining biographical types. In a third step, identity‐types were constructed by using the biographical type as an “independent” variable to analyze the systematically explored topics according to Mex Weber's method of forming ideal types. This led to the six ideal types of teacher identity: the stabilization‐type, the development‐type, the diversification‐type, the problem‐type, the crisis‐type, and the resignation‐type.     

The effects of passive and active learning on student preference and performance in an undergraduate basic science course

Active learning is based on self-directed and autonomous teaching methods, whereas passive learning is grounded in instructor taught lectures. An animal physiology course was studied over a two-year period (Year 1, n = 42 students; Year 2, n = 30 students) to determine the effects of student-led seminar (andragogical) and lecture (pedagogical) teaching methods on students' retention of information and performance. For each year of the study, the course was divided into two time periods. The first half was dedicated to instructor-led lectures, followed by a control survey in which the students rated the efficiency of pedagogical learning on a five-point Likert scale from one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree). During the second period, students engaged in andragogical learning via peer-led seminars. An experimental survey was then administered to students using the same scale as above to determine students' preferred teaching method. Raw examination scores and survey results from both halves of the course were statistically analyzed by ANOVA with Newman-Keuls multiple comparison test. By the end of the study, student preference for peer-led seminars increased [mean ± SD: (2.47 ± 0.94)/(4.03 ± 1.36), P < 0.04], and examination scores significantly increased [mean ± SD: (73.91% ± 13.18)/(85.77 ± 5.22), P < 0.001]. A majority of students (68.8%) preferred a method that contained peer-led seminars and instructor-led lectures. These results may indicate that integration of active and passive learning into undergraduate courses may have greater benefit in terms of student preference and performance than either method alone.     

For Whom Are We Building These Gems? Redefining Impact at the Museo Textil de Oaxaca

Abstract Can museums still be valuable to populations that don’t visit them? The city of Oaxaca, Mexico is home to a flourishing museum scene, but despite a desire by those museum professionals to serve the Oaxacan community, the city’s museums largely lack a local visiting base. This article, which reflects on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Oaxaca in 2010, explores the implications of the disjunction between intention, assumption, and reality in some of Oaxaca’s museums, especially the Museo Textil de Oaxaca, a small private textile museum in the city’s historical center. By considering the museum’s inherent value and its innovative attempts to tangibly impact a specific community outside of the museum edifice, I suggest a way to rethink impact in museums by, in effect, turning them inside out: shifting the focus away from “public value driven by a universal right to cultural access” ( Stein 2012, 219 ), toward more tangible, external outcomes, including direct interventions in the dynamic world beyond the quiet galleries.     

Correlates of school-day physical activity in preschool students

This study examined the relationship among sex, body mass index, motor skill competence (MSC), perceived physical competence (PPC), and school-day physical activity in preschool students (N = 34). Physical activity was assessed by steps accumulated during the school day, while MSC and PPC were assessed with the Test of Gross Motor Development-2nd edition (Ulrich, 2000) and the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance (Harter & Pike, 1984). Regression analyses revealed that preschool students' locomotor ability accounted for 21 % (p = .007) of the variance associated with school-day physical activity. The findings support an association between participants' ability to locomote and be physically active. The findings warrant future investigations to examine the relationship between locomotor skills and physical activity behaviors.     

Contested childhoods across borders and boundaries: Insights from curriculum provisions in Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in the 1920s

Conceptualisations and constructs of children and childhood are temporally and contextually grounded. Historical documents are rich sources of insight and understanding regarding how children were understood, valued and treated at various times by particular societies. This article explores the conceptualisation of children and childhood in the 26-county Irish Free State (South) and the 6-county Northern Ireland (North) in the 1920s following the partition of Ireland, through the lens of educational documentation, primarily national primary school curricula. The focus on both jurisdictions is interesting in the context of partition, exploring the sometimes divergent and often convergent ways in which children were conceptualised across borders and boundaries. This article reveals, using Sorin and Galloway’s framework as a conceptual and analytical tool, that conceptualisations of children were broadly similar in the North and South but differed in their focus and enactment in both fledgling states. These disparities are largely attributable to the very different political, social and religious orientations of both jurisdictions and the use of education as a vehicle for nation-building, as well as identity and gender formation. The article also explores alternative conceptualisations of children in education policy in the North and South by presenting case study ‘outliers’ of educational provision. A century since partition, conclusions and implications are noted that resonate with contemporary elements of convergence and divergence on educational policy and the conceptualisation of children across the island of Ireland.