Single‐sex schooling and labour market outcomes

One quarter of the 1958 British Birth cohort attended single‐sex secondary schools. This paper asks whether sex‐segregated schooling had any impact on the experience of gender differences in the labour market in mid‐life. We examine outcomes at age 42, allowing for socio‐economic origins and abilities measured in childhood. We find no net impact of single‐sex schooling on the chances of being employed in 2000, nor on the horizontal or social class segregation of mid‐life occupations. But we do find a positive premium (5%) on the wages of women (but not men), of having attended a single‐sex school. This was accounted for by the relatively good performance of girls‐only school students in post‐16 qualifications, not by the wider range of subjects studied by both girls and boys at single‐sex schools. Men’s labour market attainments were more closely related to attending private schools and to parental class, suggesting that the intergenerational transmission of advantage, while not related to coeducation, is related to gender.     

The militant‐moderate agitator: Daniel O'Connell and catholic emancipation in Ireland

An analysis of O'Connell's campaign for Catholic civil rights in the early nineteenth century demonstrates the use of antithetical, militant‐moderate, agitational strategies. By provocation and coercion he induced Parliament to accede to Catholic demands, while at the same time he controlled his turbulent followers with moderate strategies. O'Connell's rhetorical choices were effective because 1) he personified Irish needs and attitudes, and 2) his militancy coincided with English images of Irish disloyalty.     

A writing curriculum for preschoolers

Conclusion There is no doubt that composing can add much to children's potential for learning at the preschool level. It is critical, however, that the writing should always be for meaningful communication. A play environment is rich with opportunities for meaningful labeling, drawing, and sending of messages. Preschool teachers do not have to succumb to a ditto and workbook approach to writing filtered down from the elementary school curriculum. Older children may not have trouble understanding the purposes for isolate drills, tracing, and copying from the board, but younger children become bewildered by such an abstract instruction. Their writing needs to emerge from drawing and dictating and from first-hand experiences. Their audiences must be immediate.When preschool teachers are sensitized to the values of writing for children and provide a stimulating environment in their classrooms, children will learn to write (and read) easily and naturally and will come to their elementary school experiences with a much more solid foundation for the basic skills.Linda Leonard Lamme is Associate Professor and Chair of the Early Childhood Program and Patricia Denny is a doctoral candidate in early childhood education at the University of Florida in Gainesville.     

Performance ofBetta splendens in a radial arm maze

Siamese fighting fish (Betta splendens) were tested in aquatic versions of radial arm mazes. In the first experiment, the fish were trained to find tubifex worms in an eight-arm maze in which the optimal strategy was to choose each arm once without repetition. After initial training, the fish entered approximately 6.63 different arms in eight choices, showing a strong tendency to choose sequences of adjacent arms, moving about the maze in a Stereotypic direction. This algorithmic response pattern was not, however, sufficient to predict the high performance level of the fish. In the second experiment, a delay of .5 or 5 min was interposed between the fourth and fifth choices. Similar Stereotypic patterns continued in Experiment 2, but choice accuracy following the longer delay declined to a level not significantly above chance. In the third experiment, different fish were tested in a three-arm maze, reinforced either for returning from the second arm to the arm in which they had most recently been fed (win-stay) or for visiting a third arm (win-shift). The fish were significantly faster at acquiring the win-shift contingency than the win-stay contingency. These results demonstrate that solution of spatial tasks depends on the interaction of appropriate behavioral strategies and cognitive capacities that may have little generality across species.     

Self‐Injury,Gender, and Loneliness Among College Students

Several studies have demonstrated relationships between loneliness and numerous psychological and physical difficulties among college students. The purpose of this study was to examine whether loneliness might be a factor associated with increased risk of self‐injury among college students. The findings did not support the hypothesis that self‐injury would be associated with elevated levels of loneliness. The findings were significant but in the opposite direction than expected. Furthermore, the findings regarding gender are in contrast to findings of previous research.     

Highlighting and taking notes are equally ineffective when Reading paper or eText

Education and Information Technologies - The present study examined whether there is a difference in comprehension when reading from computer-based text versus reading from paper-based text and...