An Evaluation of a Children's Safety Training Programme

This paper reports an experimental evaluation of a children's safety training programme,Kidscape, which aims to increase primary school children's ability to deal with four types of potentially unsafe situation: being bullied, being approached by a stranger, being subject to inappropriate intimacy from a known adult and to pressure from such adults to keep such intimacy secret. Assessments of children's safety awareness were carried out in three schools which used the programme, and in three matched control schools which did not, with children at two age levels, 6 years and 10 years. These assessments of children's awareness were made on three occasions: before, immediately after and 2‐3 months after the training programme for the experimental sample (60 children) and on corresponding occasions for the control sample (60 children). The results revealed a significant improvement in the safety awareness of the experimental (trained) group after training and also a significant difference between the groups, in favour of the trained group. However, an improved performance of the control (untrained) group suggests that factors other than the Kidscape programme itself may influence these differences. Age differences in children's wariness of the four safety situations are also discussed.     

Adrenocortical and psychosocial responses of families in Jordan to the COVID-19 pandemic

This study of 52 predominantly lower income Jordanian and Syrian families with young children (31 girls; M_age = 53.37 months, SD = 3.53) in Jordan began in 2019, before the pandemic. Families were followed to explore stress physiology, family functioning, and mental health over the first 9 months of the pandemic. Mothers reported less adaptive coping and more negative changes to family life in June 2020 when their children had poorer behavioral self-regulation and more behavior problems, and when families had lower income, in 2019. More negative changes to family life predicted greater hair cortisol concentrations in children in June 2020, and more negative changes and less adaptive coping predicted worse child and mother psychosocial adjustment in December 2020.     

Independent study in secondary schools

This paper reviews research and other publications on independent study in secondary schools in the United States appearing subsequent to the Alexander-Hines survey of the field in 1965–66. Particular attention is given to the rationale of independent study, types, characteristic features, independent study students and teachers, schedules, facilities, and outcomes. To the extent possible in the absence of another, more recent, comprehensive national survey, comparisons are made with the findings of the Alexander-Hines study. The state of the field, burgeoning but somewhat confused by the use of independent study as time rather than process, is summarized in a final section.

---

Résumé Cette étude passe en revue la recherche et autres publications sur l'étude indépendante dans les écoles secondaires aux Etats-Unis, parues consécutivement à l'exposé du sujet par Alexander-Hines en 1965–66. Une attention particulière est donnée à l'analyse raisonnée de l'étude indépendante, aux types, traits caractéristiques, étudiants et professeurs adeptes de l'étude indépendante, programmes, facilités et aux résultats. Autant que possible en l'absence d'autres études d'ensemble national plus récentes, des comparaisons sont faites avec les conclusions de l'exposé Alexander-Hines. La situation actuelle, bourgeonnante tout en étant quelque peu confuse par l'utilisation de l'étude indépendante en matière de temps plutôt que de méthode, est résumée sommairement dans le dernier chapitre.

     

Men accessing education: masculinities,identifications and widening participation

Drawing on ESRC‐funded research (RES‐000–22–0832), this article examines the accounts of men participating in London access and foundation programmes in relation to their shifting masculine identifications. I consider how the men’s early memories of schooling shape their student masculinities. Their accounts are contextualised in relation to hegemonic discourses of widening participation and neo‐liberalism. Drawing on feminist critique, I pay attention to the men’s self‐regulating practices in their struggle to be recognised as deserving of higher education access and participation. The interconnections and contradictions within men’s identifications across a range of differences are considered in relation to their experiences and imaginaries of accessing higher education.     

Neoliberalism and curriculum in higher education: a post-colonial analyses

In an era of internationalisation and globalisation, neoliberal agendas have now become important aspects of many institutional and national governments’ higher education policy. A major aspect of these neoliberal agendas is their impact on the curriculum. This paper critically examines the impact of neoliberal agendas on curriculum through a postcolonial and decolonising lens, drawing on research conducted in the African context to illuminate the theoretical analysis presented. Drawing on 48 semi-structured interviews and documentary analyses across three public universities in Ghana, we examine the relationship between neoliberal agendas, neo-colonialism and curriculum imperatives in African higher education. The analysis illuminates the ways that hegemonic discourses connected to neoliberal agendas re-privilege Western-oriented values and perspectives and impact the curriculum changes in African higher education institutions.     

Counselor Experience Related to Complexity of Case Conceptualization and Supervision Preference

The authors investigated the relationship among trainees' counseling experience, familiarity with specific client symptomatology, case conceptualization integrative complexity (i.e., the ability to differentiate and integrate knowledge related to specific client symptomatology), and preference for supervisor style. Data from 100 beginning practicum to intern‐level counselor trainees revealed that general trainee experience and familiarity with specific client symptomatology were related to trainee case conceptualization integrative complexity. However, contrary to developmental models of counselor supervision, neither trainee experience, familiarity with specific symptomatology, nor trainee case conceptualization integrative complexity significantly predicted preference for supervisor style.     

Exploring teacher pedagogy,stages of concern and accessibility as determinants of technology adoption

This research examines how the pedagogical orientations of teachers affect technology adoption in the classroom. At the same time, the authors account for the stage of concern that teachers are experiencing regarding the use of the technology, their access to the technology and the level of schooling at which they teach.The authors’ investigation of these factors occurs in the context of a contemporary technology, the interactive whiteboard (IWB), in Australian schools. A structural equation model was estimated using a reflective measure of technology usage with antecedents in the form of pedagogical-oriented beliefs and best–worst scaling derived scores for a teacher’s stage of concern regarding IWBs. Teachers with constructivist-oriented pedagogical beliefs were significantly more likely to use IWBs than transmission-oriented teachers. However, the strongest determinant of usage was whether the technology is immediately accessible or not.