Promoting Prosocial Behaviours Among Preschool Children With and Without Disabilities

A multiple probe across subjects design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program on promoting prosocial behaviours among preschool children with and without disabilities. The intervention was carried out with three integrated groups of children, each comprised of one child with a disability and two peers without disabilities, created from three mainstreamed preschool classrooms. The intervention was successful in promoting increases in positive social interactions among the children with disabilities and their peers without disabilities. For two of the three groups the children with disabilities engaged in an equal or greater percentage of positive social initiations than their peers without disabilities. Increases in positive social responses to positive social initiations were similar for children with and without disabilities. Intervention phase behavioural changes generalised to both immediate group conditions, but did not generalise to deferred classroom conditions. Variability of response to intervention across groups highlights the need to develop and implement interventions on an individualised basis. The results indicate that further research is needed regarding the promotion of deferred generalisation effects as well as understanding the effects that trainer presence may have on the generalisation of the targeted social behaviours. There is also a need for the investigation of the potential for gender‐related effects including differential activity levels, ability for sustained attention, and group composition.     

Testing an Idealized Dynamic Cascade Model of the Development of Serious Violence in Adolescence

A dynamic cascade model of development of serious adolescent violence was proposed and tested through prospective inquiry with 754 children (50% male; 43% African American) from 27 schools at 4 geographic sites followed annually from kindergarten through Grade 11 (ages 5–18). Self, parent, teacher, peer, observer, and administrative reports provided data. Partial least squares analyses revealed a cascade of prediction and mediation: An early social context of disadvantage predicts harsh–inconsistent parenting, which predicts social and cognitive deficits, which predicts conduct problem behavior, which predicts elementary school social and academic failure, which predicts parental withdrawal from supervision and monitoring, which predicts deviant peer associations, which ultimately predicts adolescent violence. Findings suggest targets for in‐depth inquiry and preventive intervention.     

The Efficacy of Personal Learning Plans in Early Childhood Teacher Preparation

The purpose of this paper is to present data demonstrating the potential efficacy of Personal Learning Plans (PLPs) as an instructional tool in early childhood teacher preparation. One hundred and thirty-nine undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory course offered within a unified early childhood education program over a period of four years completed preliminary and final surveys including items on student background, efficacy of course methods, and student learning style and outcomes. Data related to the PLP and other, more didactic, methods used in the target course are presented. A general conclusion that can be drawn from these data is that students believed the PLP method to be no less effective than other methods relative to some indicators and significantly more effective than other methods relative to other indicators. Results are discussed in terms of self-efficacy theory.

Enhancing the Effects of Modeling Through Role-Play Practice

The effects of yoking role-play practice to modeling treatments designed to teach the rudimentary counseling skill of reflection of feeling were investigated. Twenty-eight novice counselors-in-training were randomly assigned to one of the four treatment conditions: written model, videotape model, written model plus role-play practice, and videotape model plus role-play practice. Effectiveness was measured by ratings of students' oral responses to 16 videotaped client vignettes. The multivariate analyses revealed that although there were no significant differences between the two modeling conditions without role-play practice, there were significant differences between students who received an opportunity to role-play practice and those who did not. From the results of the analyses, it was concluded that role-play practice significantly enhanced the effectiveness of the written model but not the video model. These results are discussed in terms of counselor skills training.     

浅谈北方三少民族传统生态观

本文基于人类学视角,运用民族学的理论知识,主要从三少民族的自然崇拜、禁忌、习惯、民间文学着手论述其传统的生态观,并简要分析传统文化在保护生态环境方面的客观作用。对三少民族而言,生态保护是民族传统文化的重要元素,其传统文化体现了三少数民族生存方式中的生态智慧,体现了尊重和保护环境的朴素生态观。     

What Do Educational Mismatches Tell Us About Skill Mismatches? A Cross‐country Analysis

The relationship between higher education and employment is commonly interpreted in terms of the extent to which the higher education sector is providing graduates with the knowledge and skills to match employment needs. It is assumed that a mismatch between working in a job and level or field of education limits the use of skills, with adverse effects on both productivity and earnings. This article examines this assumption on the basis of five countries from the European graduate survey (CHEERS data). Although the analysis shows that educational and skill mismatches are indeed related, mismatches by no means imply mismatches between available and required knowledge and skills. The results indicate that traditional approaches of mismatches have to be adapted to more flexible forms of relationships between higher education and work.