Modification of Children's Gender-Stereotyped Behavior

2 studies of 8- and 11- year-old children explored factors related to willingness $$. Study I assessed baseline gender prefernces and gender-reiatd cognitive flexibility. While older children were found to have greater congnitive flexibility, and older boys had more stereotyped preferences, such questionnaire measures were not highly predictive of gender-atraditional behavior. Study 2 explored the parameters of vicarious social reinforcement in the symbolic modeling of gender-atraditional behavior. Peer reinforcers were more effective with younger children and on child-oriented tasks, whereas adult reinforcers were more effective with older children and on adult-oriented gender tasks. Both studies found that considerably more atraditional behavior was elicited with male examiners, suggesting more attention needs to be paid to this variable. Possible mechanisms underlying this effect are discussed.     

Consumer health services and collections for Hispanics: an introduction

Hispanics are the fastest growing minority population in the United States today. Providing health information services to Hispanic patients and their family members can be challenging because of diversity. Library staff should be familiar with the specific health care needs and sociocultural characteristics of Hispanics. This article discusses the movement toward providing culturally competent health care and identifies socioeconomic challenges and barriers to health care faced by Hispanics. Suggestions are offered for communicating with this group in the reference setting, and a selective bibliography of Internet consumer health resources available in both Spanish and English is provided.     

BUILDIT

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Emotion Reactivity and Regulation in Maltreated Children: A Meta-Analysis

The many adverse effects of child maltreatment make the scientific investigation of this phenomenon a matter of vital importance. Although the relationship between maltreatment and problematic emotion reactivity and regulation has been studied, the strength and specificity of these associations are not yet clear. We examine the magnitude of the maltreatment—child-emotion reactivity/regulation link. Studies with substantiated maltreatment involving children aged up to 18 were included, along with a smaller number of longitudinal studies (58 papers reviewed, encompassing more than 11,900 children). In comparison to nonmaltreated children, maltreated children experience more negative emotions, behave in a manner indicative of more negative emotion, and display emotion dysregulation. We outline several theoretical implications of our results.     

Against the corrosive language of Corpspeak in the contemporary university

Many universities today are businesses, embracing the priorities and values of any other consumerist enterprise. There is an argument that, insofar as the phenomenon of marketisation is a function of what (Michaels, F. [2011]. Monoculture: How one story is changing everything. Red Clover Press) terms a global economic ‘monoculture’, these developments are inevitable. Nevertheless, this article argues against such rhetoric that embraces the neoliberal principle of unrestrained growth and that has public universities adopting a business model, applying managerialist approaches, measuring and – most importantly in the context of this article – expressing worth and purpose in corporate terms, as these prioritise commerce over the cultivation of creative and critical thought essential to healthy social functioning. It argues for an educational environment that enables multiple ways of seeing, thinking and living to flourish. The particular focus is on the deleterious effects of corporatising language within universities. I reflect upon how this language is used to express notions of value and to shape identity. In (Fairclough, N. [2004]. Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge) phrasing, texts ‘have causal effects upon, and contribute to changes in, people?…?actions, social relations, and the material world’; thus, I examine language-based conceptual inadequacies, misrepresentations, and what Bourdieu terms ‘unconscious inclusions’ – within many contemporary universities. I then consider what style of language, what other attitudes and approaches, actually support the university as a learning place with a specific cultural role, rather than presenting it as another ‘multi-output organisation’.     

The emergent literacy skills of four-year-old children receiving free kindergarten early childhood education in New Zealand

This study investigated the emergent literacy and language skills of four-year-old children in New Zealand during their kindergarten year prior to school-entry. A total of 92 four-year-old children from a range of socio-economic areas were seen individually at their local kindergarten and were assessed on code-related measures (letter name knowledge, initial phoneme awareness, emergent name writing) and meaning-related measures (story comprehension and retelling ability). Approximately, 60% of the parents completed a home literacy questionnaire. Regression analyses showed no effect for age on any of the code-related measures. In contrast, significant effects for age were found on story comprehension and retelling ability. There were no differences in performance based on gender with two exceptions: Girls performed better than boys on letter name knowledge and early name writing. Questionnaire results suggested literacy activities were valued in the home environment with most parents reporting reading to their child each night, and the majority of parents reported owning more than 60 children’s books. Results from the current study suggest more explicit teaching may be necessary within the kindergarten curriculum to facilitate the code-related skills linked to successful word recognition ability and early spelling development.     

A Constructivist Approach to Teaching Permutations and Combinations

A lesson is described where students construct their own knowledge of permutations and combinations by exploring a problem situation. This helps students gain an appreciation of real-world implications of these topics while developing a strong conceptual understanding of them.     

Fostering highly engaged knowledge building communities in socioemotional and sociocognitive hybrid learning spaces

With the aim of understanding sociocognitive and socioemotional hybridity in learning spaces, we examined a semester-long learning community where students were given the freedom to advance their epistemological and social agendas across face-to-face and online settings. We collected and analyzed 1,780 online notes written by students throughout the semester and coded them based on their sociocognitive or socioemotional values. We then examined the conversation chains that students engaged in vis-a-vis their developments as a group. In addition to showing how the group developmental stages served as a macro-level context for the socioemotional and sociocognitive spaces, the analysis highlighted how deep, rapid, community knowledge building conversations spontaneously emerged in relation to the timing of socioemotional developments. This study elucidates an important dimension of hybrid spaces, emphasizing the need to design activities to support both sociocognitive and socioemotional spaces in technology-enhanced learning communities.