Developmental trajectories of behavioral inhibition from infancy to age seven: The role of genetic and environmental risk for psychopathology

The present study leveraged data from a longitudinal adoption study of 361 families recruited between 2003 and 2010 in the United States. We investigated how psychopathology symptoms in birth parents (BP; M_age = 24.1 years; 50.5–62.9% completed high school) and adoptive parents (AP; M_age = 37.8 years; 80.9% completed college; 94% mother–father couples) influenced children's behavioral inhibition (BI) trajectories. We used latent growth models of observed BI at 18 and 27 months, and 4.5 and 7 years in a sample of adopted children (Female = 42%, White = 57%, Black = 11%, Multi-racial = 21%, Latinx = 9%). BI generally decreased over time, yet there was substantial variability in these trajectories. Neither BP nor AP psychopathology symptoms independently predicted systematic differences in BI trajectories. Instead, we found that AP internalizing symptoms moderated the effects of BP psychopathology on trajectories of BI, indicating a gene by environment interaction.     

The C.R.E.A.T.E. approach to primary literature shifts undergraduates' self-assessed ability to read and analyze journal articles, attitudes about science, and epistemological beliefs

The C.R.E.A.T.E. (Consider, Read, Elucidate hypotheses, Analyze and interpret data, Think of the next Experiment) method uses intensive analysis of primary literature in the undergraduate classroom to demystify and humanize science. We have reported previously that the method improves students' critical thinking and content integration abilities, while at the same time enhancing their self-reported understanding of "who does science, and why." We report here the results of an assessment that addressed C.R.E.A.T.E. students' attitudes about the nature of science, beliefs about learning, and confidence in their ability to read, analyze, and explain research articles. Using a Likert-style survey administered pre- and postcourse, we found significant changes in students' confidence in their ability to read and analyze primary literature, self-assessed understanding of the nature of science, and epistemological beliefs (e.g., their sense of whether knowledge is certain and scientific talent innate). Thus, within a single semester, the inexpensive C.R.E.A.T.E. method can shift not just students' analytical abilities and understanding of scientists as people, but can also positively affect students' confidence with analysis of primary literature, their insight into the processes of science, and their beliefs about learning.     

教育质量保障视域中的问责网络建构：理据、实践与优化进路

作为教育质量保障体系中的核心概念,问责正影响着各国的教育改革议程。在中国的教育发展实践中,也构建了过程与结果兼顾、直接问责与间接问责相互补充的问责网络,它发挥着对学校及教师工作的监督与导向作用。建构基于自觉承担责任的问责形式,发挥不同利益相关者的能动作用,是完善基于问责的教育质量保障体系的可能进路。     

Book reviews

The Metadata Handbook: A Book Publisher's Guide to Creating and Distributing Metadata for Print and Ebooks Renée Register and Thad McIlroy Columbus, OH, DATACurate, 2012, 133pp. ISBN: 978‐0‐9858288‐1‐3 (PDF), 978‐0‐9858288‐5‐1 (Kindle), 978‐0‐9858288‐2‐0 (epub), 978‐0‐9858288‐0‐6 (pbk), $125.00 (pbk) $95.00 (e‐book) http://themetadatahandbook.com/     

The industrial lot and its sampling implications

It is shown that wrong inferences are drawn from samples because of failure to understand what constitutes a lot and because of failure to verify the existence of a lot in the practically useful sense. Time-tried methods of making valid inferences from samples without increased cost are pointed out.