‘Learning the basics’: young people’s engagement with sexuality education at secondary schools

School-based sexuality education remains a key response to the HIV epidemic. Drawing on findings from an ethnographic study, this study explores how young people engage with sexuality and HIV- and AIDS-related education as it is delivered through the Life Orientation (LO) learning area in South Africa, in order to understand the dynamics that support or hinder engagement. Focus group discussions were held with Grade 9 and 11 learners (aged 14–18 years) from 16 randomly selected public secondary schools across three provincial districts. Results show that enjoyment of LO education was related to perceived relevance and distinctiveness, informal lesson delivery, subjective assessment standards and seemingly minimal effort. However, the perception of reduced effort tarnished the status of LO and young people’s motivation to participate. Learner engagement is influenced by a variety of cognitive, affective and behavioural pathways including internalised discourse around HIV and AIDS, gender and sexuality; the quality of youth–educator relations and teaching competencies; peer pressures; and broader cultural dynamics. The cultivation of a learning environment in which young people share and debate their views promotes engagement and critical thinking. In-service and pre-service educator training, structured activity plans and monitoring are recommended to advance the content knowledge and pedagogy of educators.     

Creating a Context for the Learning of Science Process Skills Through Picture Books

This article provides suggestions on ways in which science process skills can be taught in a meaningful context through children’s literature. It is hoped that the following examples of how process skills can be taught using children’s books will provide a starting point from which primary teachers can create additional examples. Many possibilities exist within the world of children’s literature to develop process skills in a meaningful way.     

Sexual abuse and suicidality: gender differences in a large community sample of adolescents

OBJECTIVE: A cross-sectional study of gender specific relationships between self-reported child sexual abuse and suicidality in a community sample of adolescents. METHOD: Students aged 14 years on average (N = 2,485) from 27 schools in South Australia completed a questionnaire including items on sexual abuse and suicidality, and measures of depression (Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale), hopelessness (Beck Hopelessness Scale), and family functioning (McMaster Family Assessment Device General Functioning Subscale). Data analysis included logistic regression. RESULTS: In boys, self-report sexual abuse is strongly and independently associated with suicidal thoughts, plans, threats, deliberate self-injury, and suicide attempts, after controlling for current levels of depression, hopelessness, and family dysfunction. In girls, the relationship between sexual abuse and suicidality is mediated fully by depression, hopelessness, and family dysfunction. Girls who report current high distress about sexual abuse, however, have a threefold increased risk of suicidal thoughts and plans, compared to non-abused girls. Boys who report current high distress about sexual abuse have 10-fold increased risk for suicidal plans and threats, and 15-fold increased risk for suicide attempts, compared to non-abused boys. Fifty-five percent (n = 15) of sexually abused boys attempted suicide versus 29% (n = 17) girls. CONCLUSIONS: A history of sexual abuse should alert clinicians, professionals and carers in contact with adolescents, to greatly increased risks of suicidal behavior and attempts in boys, even in the absence of depression and hopelessness. Distress following sexual abuse, along with depression and hopelessness indicate increased risk of suicidal behavior in girls, as well as boys.     

Deaf/hearing cultural identity paradigms: modification of the deaf identity development scale

The Deaf Identity Development Scale (Glickman, 1993) was modified to include hearing individuals and examine how hearing and deaf adults identify themselves. Statistical analysis based on 244 deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing respondents revealed a significant interaction between hearing status of self and parents on the hearing, marginal, and immersion scales of the modified version but not on the bicultural scale. Codas are more marginalized, less immersed, and similarly 'hearing' in comparison to deaf persons with deaf parents. Hard-of-hearing respondents with deaf parents endorse more hearing values and fewer deaf values in comparison to deaf counterparts and also appear to be more marginalized. There were no significant differences between deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals with hearing parents. Compared to hearing respondents with hearing parents, deaf counterparts were more marginalized, more 'hearing,' and equally 'deaf.' Strong professional affiliation with the deaf community resulted in scores that differed significantly from those for individuals not as strongly affiliated. We discuss implications for identity development.     

Issues in development of the test battery for Australian sign language morphology and syntax

In this article, we outline the initial stages in development of an assessment instrument for Australian Sign Language and explore issues involved in the development of such a test. We first briefly describe the instruments currently available for assessing grammatical skills in Australian Sign Language and discuss the need for a more objective measure. We then describe our adaptation of an existing American Sign Language test, the Test Battery for American Sign Language Morphology and Syntax. Finally, this article presents some of the data collected from a group of deaf native signers. These data are used to demonstrate the range of variability in key grammatical features of Australian Sign Language and to raise methodological issues associated with signed language test design.     

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS’ CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PREFERENCES AND PRACTICES

This study investigated school psychologists’ continuing professional development (CPD) activities, topics, needs, motivations, financial expenditures, and opinions, as well as relationships between select demographic characteristics and certain CPD practices and preferences. A survey was mailed to 1,000 randomly selected Regular Members of the National Association of School Psychologists, resulting in the return of 510 completed surveys, a 51% response rate. Respondents expressed opinions about CPD that were positive, optimistic, and consistent with their high levels of engagement and investments of both time and financial resources. Most respondents reported engaging in 25 or more hours of CPD during the previous year. CPD topics in which they engaged most frequently were response to intervention and academic, behavioral, and social–emotional interventions, and academic screening and progress monitoring. Respondents reported a high level of need for more CPD in those same topic areas, but a low level of need for offerings in standardized assessment. Older school psychologists were less likely to have engaged in CPD relating to contemporary assessment practices and interventions and more likely to have engaged in activities related to standardized assessment. Almost half of the respondents had engaged in CPD through an online activity and reported a desire for more online opportunities. No relationship was found between age and usage of, or positive opinions about, online CPD.     

An exploratory study of pre-service middle school teachers’ knowledge of algebraic thinking

Using algebraic habits of mind as a framework, and focusing on thinking about functions and how they work, we examined the relationship between 18 pre-service middle school teachers’ ability to use the features of the algebraic thinking (AT) habit of mind “Building Rules to Represent Functions” and their ability to recognize and interpret the features of the same AT habit of mind in middle school students. We assessed the pre-service teachers’ own ability to use the AT habit of mind Building Rules to Represent Functions by examining their solutions to algebra-based tasks in a semester-long mathematics content course. We assessed the pre-service teachers’ ability to recognize and interpret students’ facility with the AT habit of mind Building Rules to Represent Functions by analyzing their interpretations of students’ written solutions to algebra-based tasks and their ability to plan and analyze AT interviews of middle school students during a concurrent field-based education course. The data revealed that the pre-service teachers had a limited ability to recognize the full richness of algebra-based tasks’ potential to elicit the features of Building Rules to Represent Functions in students. The pre-service teachers’ own overall AT ability to Build Rules to Represent Functions was related to their ability to recognize the overall ability of students to Build Rules to Represent Functions, as exhibited during one-on-one interviews, but not to their ability to recognize the overall ability to Build Rules to Represent Functions exhibited exclusively in students’ written work. Implications for mathematics teacher education are discussed.     

Critical Thinking in its Contexts and in Itself

The nature of critical thinking remains controversial. Some recent accounts have lost sight of its roots in the history of philosophy. This article discusses critical thinking in its historical and social contexts, and in particular, for its educational and political significance. The writings of Plato and Aristotle are still vital in considering what makes certain kinds of thinking and certain kinds of knowledge distinctive. But neither Plato nor Aristotle theorised critical thinking in its specificity, that is, by differentiating it from other kinds of thinking and by outlining its features. It was only with German Idealism, as part of the European Enlightenment, that philosophy achieved a level of self-reflection and engagement that broadened, deepened and made radical the logos of Socrates and Plato. In the encounter between Modern German and Ancient Greek philosophy we can see that there are different kinds of reason, the most politically and existentially significant of which runs through critical thinking, which we can only ever experience as critical dialogue. The logos of dialectical reason is uncompromising in its pursuit of truth and ‘the good life’, and as such, demands courage from those who pursue it.     

The associations of selected technical parameters with discus throwing performance: A cross-sectional study

The aim of this study was to identify associations between discus throwing performance and the technical parameters of: hip–shoulder and shoulder–arm separation, trunk forward–backward tilt, and throwing-arm elevation angles. Video data of male and female discus throwers' competitive performances were captured during major competitions. Real-life three-dimensional coordinates of 21 body landmarks, and the discus's centre, were obtained for 94 trials using the direct linear transformation procedure. Each technical parameter was reduced at six critical instants. The trend of each parameter across four standards of performance was analysed separately for both sexes. For the female throwers, hip–shoulder and shoulder–arm separations after the flight phase, as well as forward–backward trunk tilts at the beginning and end of the throwing procedure were associated with performance. For male throwers, only the hip–shoulder separation immediately before the flight phase was associated with performance. These findings suggest that the relationships between technical parameters and discus throwing performance are different for males and females. Our results suggest that elite female discus throwers are reliant on effective technique throughout the throwing procedure to achieve long distances, whereas male discus throwers may have a relatively homogeneous technique, and a dependence on physical strength to achieve their long throws.     

Live like the affuent in college,live like a student after graduation

Leigh S. Shaffer shares his concerns about premature affuence among college undergraduates; describes the serious, long‐term problems it can cause; and offers suggestions for how higher education professionals of all types can support student fnancial well‐being.