Families with children conceived by donor insemination: a follow-up at age twelve

Growing public awareness of the use of donor insemination (DI) to enable infertile couples to become parents has been accompanied by increasing concern regarding the potentially negative consequences for family relationships and child development. Findings are presented from a prospective study of the quality of parenting and psychological adjustment of DI children at age 12. Thirty-seven DI families, 49 adoptive families, and 91 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures administered to mothers, fathers, children, and teachers. The differences between DI families and the other family types reflected greater expressive warmth of DI mothers toward their children and less involvement in the discipline of their children by DI fathers. The DI children were well adjusted in terms of their social and emotional development. The findings are discussed with respect to the secrecy surrounding DI and the imbalance in genetic relatedness between the parents and the child.     

Links Among Italian Preschoolers’ Socioemotional Competence,Teacher–Child Relationship Quality,and Peer Acceptance

Research Findings: The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations among teacher–child relationship quality (close, conflictive, and dependent), children's social behavior, and peer likability in a sample of Italian preschool-age children (46 boys, 42 girls). Preschool teachers evaluated the quality of the teacher–child relationship and children's social behaviors (i.e., social competence, anger-aggression, and anxiety-withdrawal). Peer-rated likability was measured using a sociometric procedure. Results indicated that conflictual teacher–child relationships were related to high aggressive behavior, and dependent teacher–child relationships were positively associated with children's anxiety-withdrawal. Moreover, we found an indirect association between close teacher–child relationship quality and peer likability through children's social competence. Practice or Policy: The findings provide evidence that the teacher–child relationship is critical for children's social behaviors and that social competence is uniquely related to peer likability.     

Special educational needs,disability and school accountability: an international perspective

Standards-based accountability approaches in education are increasingly being adopted in many industrialised countries. This tends to involve the scrutiny of student performance in national academic tests and then holding schools accountable for subsequent progress. International assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are not accountability measures in themselves, but are often utilised in a similar way and national policies are judged against performance in these tests. Drawing upon the examples of PISA and national assessments in the USA, this paper explores how students with special educational needs and disability (SEND) are included in, and served by, these assessment policies. The analysis suggests that while these approaches are inclusive in their intent (most obviously through efforts to include students with SEND in testing) they may poorly represent the progress of these students. It is argued that more equitable inclusion of students with SEND must find a balance between accountability measures which measure performance in traditional attainment-focused tests and other relevant assessments which are meaningful to the given student and/or SEND sub-group.     

Navigating the Information Landscape

This article explores the tension between the structures by which the library organizes and presents information, and the ways in which students and researchers access, use, and conceptualize knowledge. I suggest that while knowledge structures are vital to learning and research, an overemphasis on structurality is mistaken, and can lead to an inappropriately positivist approach that impedes the research mission. The article examines various metaphoric ways of negotiating meaning and navigating information structures, and of crossing the threshold of structurality.     

Challenges Facing the UK Book Industry

This abstract examines the challenges facing the UK publishing industry, as well as the opportunities brought by the advent of digital. The article makes reference to key facts and statistics which illustrate the value of the market, and the publishing market is discussed in terms of its categories: consumer publishing, academic and STM publishing, and children’s publishing. The importance of copyright to the business and the developing role of the publisher are examined, as are industry initiatives taking place in the UK to help raise awareness of the diminishing bricks and mortar retail sector. The work performed by publishers and authors participating in initiatives tackling illiteracy and encouraging reading for pleasure as an activity is discussed.     

Peak power output provides the most reliable measure of performance in prolonged intermittent-sprint cycling

Abstract

The aims of this study were to determine the reliability of an intermittent-sprint cycling protocol and to determine the efficacy of one practice session on main trials. Eleven men, moderately trained team-sport athletes, completed three visits to the laboratory involving a graded-exercise test and practice session and two trials of a Cycling Intermittent-Sprint Protocol separated by three days. Data for practice and main trials were analysed using typical error of measurement, intra-class correlation and least-products regression to determine reliability. Typical error of measurement (expressed as a coefficient of variation) and intra-class correlation for peak power output from all 20 sprints for trial 1 and trial 2 were 2.9 ± 12.8% (95% confidence interval: 2.0–5.0%) and 0.96 (95% confidence interval: 0.85–0.99), respectively. Typical errors of measurement and intra-class correlation for mean power output for all 20 sprints for trials 1 and 2 were 4.2 ± 11.9% (95% confidence interval: 2.9–7.4%) and 0.90 (95% confidence interval: 0.66–0.97), respectively. The results suggest that peak power output provides a more reliable measure than mean power output. The Cycling Intermittent-Sprint Protocol provides reliable measures of intermittent-sprint performance.     

A reciprocal effects model of the temporal ordering of motivation and burnout among youth table tennis players in intensive training settings

Abstract

Using self-determination theory (SDT) (Deci, E.L., & Ryan, R.M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York, NY: Plenum) as the theoretical framework, we conducted a longitudinal investigation of the temporal ordering between motivation and burnout among youth athletes in intensive training setting. Data were collected from 145 table tennis players in intensive training centres at three time points during a 2-month period characterised by a simultaneous increase in social, physical and psychological demands for these athletes. Structural equation modelling of cross-lagged panel models was used to test the hypotheses. Results showed significant paths leading from athlete burnout – especially sport devaluation and reduced sense of accomplishment – at time 1 to amotivation, intrinsic and extrinsic motivations at times 2 and 3. Only two significant paths leading from motivation (introjected regulation at time 1) to burnout (emotional/physical exhaustion at time 2 and reduced sense of accomplishment at time 3) were identified. Overall, our results suggest that athlete burnout predicts motivation over time but motivation did not predict athlete burnout over time. Results are discussed in terms of current research findings on SDT.     

Working on What Works: working with teachers to improve classroom behaviour and relationships

The Working on What Works (WOWW) approach, which is based upon Solution-focused Brief Therapy, was implemented in a mainstream primary classroom over a 10-week period. The focus was on improving behaviour and relationships in class. Results demonstrated an improvement in teacher ratings for targets set by the class teacher compared with baseline. Pupils also set, and rated themselves on class targets. Observation of pupils, and their class-ratings, demonstrated a positive impact for these targets. Longer term follow-up suggested that this positive impact was maintained. It is concluded that WOWW had a positive impact on behaviour and relationships within this classroom.     

Promoting staff support in schools: Solution Circles

The Solution Circle (SC) approach is a flexible tool which encourages participants to maintain a positive, creative approach to problem-solving. This project focussed on the introduction of this approach to staff in a primary and a secondary school. The rationale was to implement a problem-solving/discussion tool that would allow staff to utilise expertise present within the school before looking to outside agencies for support. In both schools staff participants reported positively about the process, highlighting its potential use to promote the inclusion of pupils with a wide range of needs.     

On the Rebound: Critical Race Praxis and Grassroots Community Organizing for School Change

This ethnographic research was conducted over a three-year period, and documents the efforts of a committed group of parents and community members who through community-based research sought to address the disproportionate underachievement of African American students within their city??s public school system. Specifically, the parents and community members who make up the group Parents of Children of African Ancestry (POCAA) offer a refreshing theory of action that explicitly addressed issues of racial inequity, and called upon the larger community to respond with the urgency the youth deserved. In effect, POCAA challenges dominant views of African American parents and re-envisions their involvement in school reform as a site of radical resistance.