The Family Environment of “Quick-Witted” Persons: Birth Order,Family Communication Patterns,and Creative Facility

“Creative facility” refers to the ease, rapidity, or fluency with which people are able to formulate and produce novel, appropriate messages. Previous research indicates that people differ in this regard and that the phenomenon is linked to various personality and cognitive-style variables. This study aims to investigate whether aspects of family structure (i.e., birth order) and family processes (i.e., family communication patterns) are related to creative facility. Results indicated a significant interaction between birth order and family conversation orientation such that, for first-borns, higher levels of conversation orientation were associated with slower message production. No effects were observed for family conformity orientation. Among the implications of the findings is the need to assess birth order in studies of family communication patterns.     

Virtual Communities: Bowling Alone,Online Together

First Lesson in Speech Improvement. By Birmingham &; Krapp, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1922.

Expression in Speech and Writing. By Lamborn, E. A., Greening. The Oxford Press. 1922. Pp. 120.

Classical rhetoric

Quintilian's Institutes of Oratory. Translated by H. E. Butler. Vols. III and IV. Loeb Classical Library. New York, Putnam's, 1922.

A Study in Greek Rhetoric. The Stylistic Infuence of the Second Sophistic On the Panegyrical Sermons of St. John Chrysostom. By Thomas E. Ameringer.‐ Catholic University of America, Washington, 1921.     

Psychometric properties of the Add Health School Connectedness Scale for 18 sociocultural groups

The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health's School Connectedness Scale (SCS) has been widely used in psychological, public health, and education research, but has undergone limited psychometric analysis. This study used the responses of 500,800 junior and senior high school students who completed the biennial California Healthy Kids Survey, which includes the SCS. The results supported the use of the SCS as a unidimensional measure and showed that it has acceptable reliability (α = .82 to .88) and concurrent validity (r = .44 to .55) across 18 sociocultural groups. A series of multiple group analyses confirmed configural, metric, and scalar equivalence across groups. The SCS shows promise as measurement instrument for school psychologists; however, further research is needed to examine its underlying latent school connectedness construct. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Analogical Reasoning in the Classroom: Insights From Cognitive Science

Applying knowledge from one context to another is a notoriously difficult problem, both for children and adults, but lies at the heart of educational endeavors. Analogical reasoning is a cognitive underpinning of the ability to notice and draw similarities across contexts. Reasoning by analogy is especially challenging for students, who must transfer in the context‐rich and often high‐pressure settings of classrooms. In this brief article, we explore how best to facilitate children's analogical reasoning, with the aim of providing practical suggestions for classroom instruction. We first discuss what is known about the development and neurological underpinnings of analogical reasoning, and then review research directly relevant to supporting analogical reasoning in classroom contexts. We conclude with concrete suggestions for educators that may foster their students' spontaneous analogical reasoning and thereby enhance scholastic achievement.     

Acculturation, well-being and classroom behaviour among white British and British Asian primary-school children in the south–east of England: Validating a child-friendly measure of acculturation attitudes

Using a sample of white British and British Asian primary-school children (N = 386, aged 5–11 years), we measured acculturation attitudes (own and perceived outgroup), correlated constructs (ingroup and outgroup affect and identification) and relevant outcomes (self-esteem, classroom demeanour) in a structured interview to validate a customised, child-friendly measure of acculturation attitudes based on Berry's framework. Scale items measuring desire for culture maintenance and intergroup contact loaded onto the predicted factors, were internally reliable and showed concurrent validity with affect and identification. The predictive utility of measures was demonstrated in associations between children's acculturation attitudes (or perceived discrepancies with those of the outgroup) and outcomes such as self-esteem and teacher ratings of emotional symptoms.     

Decoding and sight-word naming: Are they independent components of word recognition skill?

Word recognition skill is the foundation of the reading process. Word recognition could be accomplished by two major strategies: phonological decoding and sight-word reading, the latter being a marker for proficient reading. There is, however, a controversy regarding the relationship between decoding and sight-word reading, whether the two are independent or the latter is built on the foundations of the former. A related controversy about instructional strategy could be whether to use whole-word method to improve word recognition skills, or to first build decoding skills and then introduce sight words. Five goals were set up to address these issues: (a) developing a criterion that can be used easily by classroom teachers to assess sight-word reading ability, (b) examining this relationship between decoding and sight-word reading, (c) identifying the mechanism that can explain the relationship, (d) examining factors that facilitate sight-word reading, and (e) discussing potential instructional implications of these findings. In order to accomplish these goals, naming time and word-naming accuracy of three groups of subjects (elementary school children, children identified as having reading disability, and college students) were studied by using a variety of verbal materials. The over-all conclusions are that the difference in naming time of letters and words can be used as a metric for assessing sight-word reading skill. Sight-word reading appears to be intimately related to decoding. Sight-word reading is accomplished by parallel processing of constituent letters of words and is influenced also by the semantic nature of words. It is conjectured that sight-word reading instruction is likely to be successful if decoding skills are firmly established first.     

Effects of 72-h of exercise abstinence on affect and body dissatisfaction in healthy female regular exercisers

In this study, we compared the effects of a 72-h exercise abstinence period and normal exercise on the affect and body dissatisfaction of 58 healthy women (mean age 26.1 years, s = 8.2) who exercised at least four times per week, and explored the relationship between the changes in affect and body dissatisfaction. Participants completed the UWIST-MACL and Body Dissatisfaction Scale to assess affect and body image, and were randomized to an abstinence or control group. Affect and body image for both groups were re-assessed following the 72-h abstinence period. Compared with the control group, the abstinence group had a significant decrease in hedonic tone and energetic arousal, and a significant increase in tense arousal and body dissatisfaction from pre-intervention to post-intervention. There were no significant relationships between the changes in body dissatisfaction and the components of affect. A 72-h exercise abstinence period resulted in increased affect disturbance and body dissatisfaction in regularly active women.     

Physical Activity Play and Preschool Children's Peer Acceptance: Distinctions Between Rough-and-Tumble and Exercise Play

Research Findings: Two forms of exercise play (toy mediated and non-mediated) and 2 forms of rough-and-tumble (R&T) play (chase and fighting) were examined in relation to preschoolers' peer competence. A total of 148 preschoolers (78 boys, 89 Euro-Americans) were observed during free play at their university-sponsored child care center. The gender makeup of children's play companions (same gender, other gender, or mixed gender) as well as the type of play that children engaged in was recorded. Sociometric interviews assessed how well liked children were by their classmates. Analyses revealed that toy-mediated exercise play with mixed-gender and same-gender peers was associated with boys' and girls' peer acceptance. Girls' non-mediated exercise play and boys' R&T chasing was associated with peer acceptance. Boys who engaged in R&T fighting with same-gender peers were better liked by peers, whereas boys who engaged in R&T chasing with other-gender peers were not liked by peers. Practice or Policy: The results suggest that child gender and the gender of one's playmate are important factors in associations between physical activity play and peer acceptance.     

Working with new staff

When a vacancy occurs in the day care center teaching staff, time should be taken in choosing a replacement. It is important that this new staff member fit well into the specific classroom and the whole day care center staff.