Relationally and physically aggressive children's intent attributions and feelings of distress for relational and instrumental peer provocations

Numerous studies have demonstrated that physically aggressive children exhibit hostile attributional biases in response to instrumental peer provocations, a social information-processing pattern that has been recognized as a contributor to peer-directed aggression. The present studies (N = 127 and N = 535) were designed to extend past research by evaluating the intent attributions and feelings of emotional distress of relationally and physically aggressive children in response to instrumental and relational provocation contexts. Results indicated that physically aggressive children exhibited hostile attributional biases and reported relatively greater distress for instrumental provocation situations, whereas relationally aggressive children exhibited hostile attributional biases and reported relatively greater distress for relational provocation contexts. Implications of these findings for the understanding of factors that may contribute to relational as well as physical aggression are discussed.     

Implementing Godly Play in educational settings: a cautionary tale

At the heart of all curriculum decision-making is the learner. Contemporary early childhood education theory and practice emphasises young children’s agency and voice in their learning paying particular attention to valuing each child’s sociocultural contexts. As learners, children are considered capable and active participants rather than as deficit and passive recipients. How does the implementation of godly play in prior-to-school and school early years settings sit within a contemporary view of childhood? To what extent does this programme align with early childhood theory and practice? This paper seeks to evaluate the presence and place of godly play (which is not a curriculum and nor does it claim to be a curriculum) in the religiously affiliated early childhood education context in either prior-to-school or school settings. It is to be emphasised that this paper is not evaluating the presence and place of godly play in the faith community of the local parish where all who participate are believers coming together to share that faith and to have that faith strengthened. However, its presence and place in formal educational settings outside of parish faith communities is questionable and requires closer critique.     

Parental support of numeracy during a cooking activity with four-year-olds

While research demonstrates the importance of numeracy-related activities performed at home for young children's mathematics achievement, few studies involve observational studies of the processes which support children's mathematical learning at home. On this premise, this study reports evidence from numeracy-related interactions between parents and their four-year-old child during cookery sessions at home. Numeracy group parents who received instructions to incorporate additional mathematics into the activity provided significantly more numeracy guidance and also created more opportunities for their children to practice advanced mathematics. Comparison group parents provided enough numeracy guidance to complete the recipe but rarely provided extensive or advanced numeracy guidance. Children in the numeracy group generated significantly more correct math responses during the activity than comparison group children, though there were no significant differences on the post-test. The findings suggest the need to raise parental awareness of opportunities to support and encourage mathematics in activities at home.     

Teachers' Spatial Anxiety Relates to 1st‐ and 2nd‐Graders' Spatial Learning

Teachers' anxiety about an academic domain, such as math, can impact students' learning in that domain. We asked whether this relation held in the domain of spatial skill, given the importance of spatial skill for success in math and science and its malleability at a young age. We measured 1st‐ and 2nd‐grade teachers' spatial anxiety (N = 19) and students' spatial skill (N = 132). Teachers' spatial anxiety significantly predicted students' end‐of‐year spatial skill, even after accounting for students' beginning‐of‐year spatial skill, phonological working memory, grade level, and teachers' math anxiety. Since spatial skill is not a stand‐alone part of the curriculum like math or reading, teachers with high levels of spatial anxiety may simply avoid incorporating spatial activities in the classroom. Results suggest that addressing teachers' spatial anxieties may improve spatial learning in early elementary school.     

Public/Instructional Communication

Derick Unwin and Ray McAleese, eds. Encyclopedia of Educational Media Communications and Technology (London: Macmillan, l978---£20.00/Westport, Ca.: Greenwood Press, 1979---$59.95)

Two useful and recent publications on Public Radio in the United States have both been published by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1111 16th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036)

Two recent publications provide some useful guidance on education for media, from different publishers

Maureen Harmonay, ed. The Arts (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing, 1979---$16.50/8.95)     

Foreign communications

JAPANESE CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION: CRITICAL CULTURAL ANALYSIS by Ray T. Donahue (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998—$59.00/39.50, ISBN 0–7618–1248–2 hard, 0–7618–1249–0 paper, 377 pp., notes, references, index)

STATISTICAL YEARBOOK: FILM, TELEVISION, VIDEO AND NEW MEDIA IN EUROPE: 1999 EDITION by the European Audiovisual Observatory (Strasbourg, France: European Audiovisual Observatory, 1999— 900ff or about $160, paper, ISBN 92–871–3885–0, 415 pp., tables, charts, notes, bibliography)

MODERN HISTORY OF INDIAN PRESS by Sunit Ghosh (New Delhi: Cosmo Publications, 1998—no price available, ISBN 81–7020–697–9, 394 pp., index)

ASIAN COMMUNICATION HANDBOOK edited by Anura Goonasekera and Duncan Holaday (Singapore: Asian Media Information and Communication Centre and School of Communication Studies, Nanyang Technological University, 1998—$65.00, ISBN 9971–905–65–5, 446 pp.)

PUBLIC PURPOSES IN BROADCASTING: FUNDING THE BBC edited by Andrew Graham (Luton: University of Luton Press, 1999—£10.95, paper, ISBN 1–86020–561–5, 168 pp., tables, index)

TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN AFRICA edited by Eli M. Noam (New York: Oxford University Press “Global Communications,”; 1999—$75.00, ISBN 0–19–510201–0, 306 pp., tables, chapter bibliographies, index)

LIBERALIZING THE EUROPEAN MEDIA: POLITICS REGULATION AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE by Shalini Venturelli (Oxford and New York: Clarendon Press, 1998—£50.00, ISBN 0–19–823379–5, 316 pp., index, bibliography)     

The relative impact of violation type and lie severity on judgments of message deceitfulness

This paper is part of a larger program of research assessing variables that underlie quantitative deceptiveness ratings. Several recent theoretical approaches, including Information Manipulation Theory (IMT), propose that deceptive messages are best understood as varying along two or more dimensions. At the same time, researchers have increasingly moved from dichotomous deception judgments to continuous deception ratings. This paper questions the validity of scaling degrees of deceptiveness along a single dimension, and argues that gradations in perceived deceptiveness reflect both the type of information manipulated and the severity of the consequences of the deception. This reasoning was tested with alxl experiment (N = 236) in which both the type of information manipulated and the severity of the consequences were systematically varied. As predicted, the results suggest that false messages (i.e., quality violations) are rated as more deceptive than lies of omission (i.e., quantity violations) when lie severity is low, but this difference diminishes as lie severity increases. In other words, false messages were rated as deceptive regardless of severity, but messages omitting information were rated as deceptive as false messages only when the consequences were serious. The implications for measuring deception are discussed.     

A Defense of Publishing Nonsignificant (ns) Results

An argument is advanced for the propositions that a lack of statistically significant findings does not automatically justify rejecting a scientific article for publication or mean that the findings are necessarily uninformative. Systematically declining publication for nonsignificant results leads to negative consequences that include distorting scientific literatures, making hypotheses and theories less falsifiable, depriving meta-analyses of an accurate sample of prior findings, and encouraging questionable research practices. Providing effect sizes and confidence intervals can make findings more informative, regardless of whether the finding is p < .05.     

Socialization to Work in Late Adolescence: The Role of Television and Family

This survey of college freshmen examines the role of television and family in anticipatory socialization to work. Findings indicate that both sources play a role in the development of work-related values and aspirations, but contribute in different ways. Wishful identification was higher for characters perceived to have higher paying jobs and stronger extrinsic (but not intrinsic) work values. Although causal direction cannot be shown, results suggest that respondents internalized the intrinsic and extrinsic work values they perceived in their parents' jobs, but derived mainly extrinsic work values and desire for easy work from observing their favorite characters at work.     

The daisy model for collaborative action research: application to educational practice

The Daisy Model is a conceptualisation of the way in which a core group of experienced and novice action researchers may work on a range of related mini-projects that contribute to organisational improvement. This model enables the spread of action research from one or two enthusiasts to others in an organisation. It allows for changes in individual commitment and organisational context as the research progresses. Development of this model has occurred since 1995, during several projects related to educational practice in New Zealand polytechnics. In 1997 the model was applied to the collaborative improvement of policies and procedures for recognition of prior learning at two polytechnics. This article describes the model and its application and examines the roles of the facilitator(s) and the types of activities that occur within the central core group and petal mini-project groups of the Daisy