A comparison of personality attributes of science teachers and medical technologists

Undergraduate students who major in science make diverse career choices. Two such career choices are medical technologists and science teachers. One possible reason for science majors selecting different career choices might be attributed to varied personality dimensions. The purpose of this study was to identify a set of personality attributes that distinguish practicing medical technologists from practicing science teachers. The subjects of this study consisted of 83 medical technologists and 57 science teachers. Eysenck Personality (EPI) was utilized to investigate the personality attributes of subjects in terms of Eysenck's personality variable of Extroversion-Introversion and Neuroticism-Stability. Vocational Preference Inventory was utilized to investigate the vocational personality profile of subjects in terms of Holland's classification of occupations and work environment. Data with EPI revealed that there was no significant difference between medical technologists and science teachers with respect to Eysenck's personality variable of extroversion. However, there was found a significant difference between the two groups with respect to Eysenck's personality variable of neuroticism. Data with VPI revealed that there was no significant difference between medical technologists and science teachers with respect to Eysenck's personality variable of extroversion. Both the groups were characterized by the personality profile of IAS (Intellectual-Artistic-Social). This profile was different from that required earlier in literature.     

Deaf and hearing students' morphological knowledge applied to printed English

The study examined the ability of deaf and hearing students at the college and middle school levels to discern and apply knowledge of printed word morphology. There were 70 deaf and 58 hearing participants. A two-part paper-and-pencil test of morphological knowledge examined subjects' ability to (a) perceive segmentation of morphemes within printed words and (b) recognize meanings associated with various printed morphemes. The hearing college students performed best on every dependent measure of the two-part test. The deaf college students scored significantly lower than the hearing college students but similarly to the hearing middle school students. Deaf middle school students consistently scored the lowest on both parts of the test. While all students' performance declined as the difficulty of the morphemic content increased within both tasks, the decline was greatest among middle school deaf students. Although segmentation and semantic analysis skills necessary to morphographic decoding were apparent in the deaf students, their mastery levels fell significantly below those of the hearing subjects.     

Classroom Activities and Areas: Regularity of Use and Perceptions of Adaptability by General Early Educators

This report describes a mail survey of general early educators from Head Start, public school pre-kindergarten, public school kindergarten, and community preschool/child care programs. The purposes were to secure information about the availability of classroom activities and areas, and to obtain the respondents' perceptions of the ease with which activities and areas could be adapted to accommodate children with disabilities. Of the 893 mailed questionnaires, 483 (54.1%) were returned and coded. The respondents reportedly used a wide range of classroom activities and areas, and they rated those activities and areas as moderately easy to adapt. Also, respondents from mainstreamed programs used slightly more activities and perceived the activities as easier to adapt than did respondents from non-mainstreamed programs. The findings appear to indicate that placement of children with disabilities in segregated programs cannot be justified on grounds that integration will restrict the range of activities available to typically developing children, or on the grounds that the adaptations are perceived by program staff as too difficult to be accomplished.     

Religious Challenges to School Voucher and Tax Benefit/Scholarship Programs

A key component of current school reform efforts focuses on increasing parental choice through voucher systems and programs that provide tax benefits for contributions to scholarship programs for private school tuition. Indeed, proposals to adopt such programs have been or currently are being considered in four-fifths of the states, and about half of the states have already adopted some type of voucher and/or tax benefit program to assist parents in selecting private education for their children. This article provides an overview of the challenges to school voucher and tax benefit programs under the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and/or the religion clauses of state constitutions. Specific sections address pertinent Supreme Court decisions, state constitutional religion clauses, state court cases rejecting religious challenges to voucher and tax benefit/scholarship programs, and cases in which such initiatives have been invalidated under the religion clauses of state constitutions. The concluding section focuses on the viability of future religion clause challenges to such programs and implications of legal developments pertaining to the privatization of schooling in our nation.     

The Interconnected Model of Professional Growth as a means to assess the development of a mathematics teacher

In this qualitative study we used a case study approach to observe and analyse a mathematics teacher who was challenged to redesign her lessons during network meetings with colleagues. Changes in practical knowledge are described by means of concept maps and semi-structured interviews. We applied cycles of change from the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth to describe the teacher’s professional development. We show that the teacher’s practical knowledge changes in the domain of practical content knowledge, and that controlled experimentation and reflection are necessary conditions to learn a new teaching strategy and to develop a series of lessons for pupils.     

Infant Attention and Early Childhood Executive Function

Individual differences in infant attention are theorized to reflect the speed of information processing and are related to later cognitive abilities (i.e., memory, language, and intelligence). This study provides the first systematic longitudinal analysis of infant attention and early childhood executive function (EF; e.g., working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility). A group of 5‐month‐olds (n = 201) were classified as short or long lookers. At 24, 36, and 48 months of age, children completed age‐appropriate EF tasks. Infant short lookers (i.e., more efficient information processors) exhibited higher EF throughout early childhood as compared to infant long lookers, even after controlling for verbal ability (a potential indicator of intelligence). These findings are discussed in relation to the emergence of executive attention.