Theory of mind,attention, and executive function in kindergarten boys

The present study explored the relationship between theory of mind (ToM), attention, and executive function in 66 kindergarten boys drawn from four rural school districts. Three stories designed to test understanding of first and second order mental states were administered. Executive function and attention were assessed, respectively, by scores on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) and the Behavior Assessment Scales for Children, Second Edition (BASC‐2). Analyses indicated that children identified by teachers as evidencing attention difficulties scored lower on false belief measures and were more likely to be identified as exhibiting behavioral difficulties associated with executive dysfunction than children identified as evidencing fewer attention difficulties. Attention and executive function were predictive of total ToM scores.     

Need supportive instructor training: perspectives from graduate teaching assistants in a college/university physical activity program

Background: In the U.S. college/university setting, physical activity courses are often offered as part of the general education program, where students earn college credits towards the completion of their degree program. These courses are typically taught by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), who face several challenges in instructing undergraduate students. Often, GTAs are thrust into their roles without the preparation that traditional teachers receive as customary with education degrees. Literature on need supportive teacher training, as part of self-determination theory, indicates that teachers including GTAs, can be successfully trained to meet the needs of their students regardless of years of previous experience. Presently, there is little information on the impact of such a training program from the perspective of the GTAs participating in the program.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to provide in-depth perspectives on need supportive training through examination of GTAs reflections of the training process.

Participants and setting: Fourteen GTAs from a university physical activity and healthful living program were recruited for this study, but two dropped out. All participants taught one of the following courses: aerobics, basketball, body conditioning, bowling, flag football, golf, racquetball, soccer, tennis, ultimate frisbee, volleyball, or yoga.

Data collection: Teaching reflections were written by participants at the end of a year-long training program.

Data analyses: Written reflections completed by the GTAs were analyzed via content analysis. Data were organized by how strategies were implemented, most/least successful use of the strategies, and adherence to the training. Once organized, the data was examined by two different researchers independently and themes were shared with participants as part of the member checking process. Searches for negative cases were utilized during the analysis process as well.

Findings: Across the data, it was determined that the GTAs felt the training to be beneficial, influencing much of how they worked with students. Results suggested that GTAs found several ways to implement the reviewed need supportive teaching strategies, including giving students the choice of activities and group membership. They were also able to better respond to students’ negative affect and give explanatory rationales. Goal setting was a consistently used strategy by the GTAs; however, it was cited as one of the least successful strategies due to the inability to effectively follow-up on the goals made during classes with the students. Additionally, it was noted that the GTAs had difficulties with devising their own ways of implementing the strategies and relied heavily on the examples that were provided during their training sessions.

Conclusion: In better understanding, the perceptions of GTAs who engage in need supportive training programs, researchers can better gauge the effectiveness of such programs and how they can be improved. Future research should focus on how to help GTAs to engage in more creative ways of using need supportive teaching strategies in physical activity environments.     

The impact of chronic carbohydrate manipulation on mucosal immunity in elite endurance athletes

Carbohydrate (CHO) availability could alter mucosal immune responses to exercise. This study compared the effect of three dietary approaches to CHO availability on resting and post-exercise s-IgA levels. Elite race walkers (n = 26) adhered to a high CHO diet (HCHO), periodised CHO availability (PCHO) or a low CHO/high fat diet (LCHF) for 3 weeks while completing an intensified training program. HCHO and PCHO groups consumed 8.0–8.5 g.kg^?1 CHO daily, with timing of ingestion manipulated to alter CHO availability around key training sessions. The LCHF diet comprised 80% fat and restricted CHO to < 50 g.day^?1. A race walk test protocol (19 km females, 25 km males) was completed at baseline, after adaptation, and following CHO restoration. On each occasion, saliva samples were obtained pre- and post-exercise to quantify s-IgA levels. Resting s-IgA secretion rate substantially increased ~ two-fold post-intervention in all groups (HCHO: 2.2 ± 2.2, PCHO: 2.8 ± 3.2, LCHF: 1.6 ± 1.6; fold-change± 95% confidence limits), however, no substantial differences between dietary treatments were evident. Post-exercise, substantial 20–130% increases in s-IgA concentration and 43–64% reductions in flow rate occurred in all dietary treatments, with trivial differences evident between groups. It appears that high volume training overrides any effect of manipulating CHO availability on mucosal immunity in elite athletes.     

Engineering work integrated learning placements: the influence of capitals on students’ access

ABSTRACT

Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is embraced in Australian higher education (HE) and is a feature of most Australian HE ‘entry to profession’ engineering education programs accredited by Engineers Australia. Accreditation guidelines articulate the need for curriculum-integrated engagement with professional practice (EPP) and encourage EPP in a separate workplace environment, e.g. WIL. This article reports on the analysis of semi-structured interviews with staff and student engineers from four Australian HE institutions with mandatory engineering WIL. Framed by a Bourdieusian theoretical perspective, the influence of capitals on student access to engineering WIL placements was investigated. The research found that students’ capitals influenced access to engineering WIL placements. Policy and educational practice recommendations are made.     

Evening activities as a potential confound in research on the adrenocortical system in children

The relation among children's evening activities, behavioral characteristics, and activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis was assessed in normally developing children ages 7 to 10 years. Salivary cortisol at bedtime was compared on evenings when children had structured activities outside of the home with unstructured evenings at home in relation to parental reports of children's behavioral characteristics. Participating in evening activities, particularly sport activities, was associated with small increases in bedtime cortisol levels in boys but not in girls. Differences in cortisol on activity versus no-activity nights were negatively related to children's social isolation. These results show that in studies with children, nights on which participants engage in sport activities should be avoided when collecting ambulatory measures of salivary cortisol concentrations.     

Using Animals to Teach Children Biology: Exploring the Use of Biological Explanations in Children’s Anthropomorphic Storybooks

Research Findings: Anthropomorphism—the attribution of human characteristics to nonhuman entities—has long been a staple of children’s media. However, children’s experiences with anthropomorphic media may interfere with biological reasoning instead encouraging an anthropocentric view of the natural world. To date, little research has addressed the typical content of children’s storybooks about animals: Do these storybooks present factual information that may support early developing biological reasoning, or do they instead focus on human-centered, psychological information that may encourage anthropocentrism? We analyzed the types of causal explanatory information that commercial storybooks about animals provide to children about 2 biological concepts that have been extensively studied in the experimental literature: biological inheritance and the transmission of illness. Using coding schemes similar to those used in prior experimental literature to assess preschool-age children’s biological reasoning, we found that none of the anthropomorphized books presented children with scientifically accurate causal mechanisms. These books focused almost exclusively on social-emotional experiences as opposed to biological explanations, which may inadvertently encourage anthropocentric reasoning. Practice or Policy: Understanding more about the content of informal sources of early learning can help inform educators on how to best support developing knowledge about the natural world and biological properties.     

Dampening of Adrenocortical Responses during Infancy: Normative Changes and Individual Differences

Changes in cortisol and behavioral responses were examined longitudinally in 83 infants (39 girls, 44 boys) tested at their well-baby exams with inoculations at 2, 4, 6, and 15 months (72 infants completed all testing). Another sample of 2-, 4-, and 6-month-olds ( n = 18 per age) received mock exams without inoculations to determine early developmental changes to the exam procedures. Behavioral distress was coded every 30 sec during the exam, a 5-min inoculation period, and a 20-min recovery period. Salivary cortisol was obtained upon arrival at the clinic and 25 min after the beginning of the inoculation period. To the exam-inoculation procedures, cortisol responses were high at 2 months, decreased significantly between 2 and 4 months, remained comparable between 4 and 6 months, and then declined again between 6 and 15 months. Between 6 and 15 months there was also a decrease in pretest cortisol. By 15 months, significant increases in cortisol from pre- to posttest were no longer observed for most infants. To the exam-only procedures, cortisol responses decreased between 2 and 4 months, and by 4 months most infants failed to show pre- to posttest increases in cortisol. Behavioral distress decreased between 2 and 6 months, but increased again at 15 months. While crying and cortisol were modestly correlated during the 2- to 6-month exam-inoculation procedures, at 15 months no significant correlations were obtained. Behavioral and hormonal reactions thus followed different ontogenetic paths and may provide different information about infant functioning. There was some evidence that the emergence of the circadian rhythm in cortisol might be related to the early decrease in cortisol response.     

A University-Based Literacy Service-Learning Program for Youthful Offenders on Probation: A Preliminary Study of the Program’s Development,Implementation and Feasibility

This article reports on the development, implementation and feasibility of a mid-Atlantic university-community service-learning literacy program for youth on probation. Undergraduate teacher candidates served as literacy instructors for the youth. We focus on benefits and administrative challenges of developing and implementing a preliminary service-learning program for probated youth living in the community. We analyzed focus group data collected from special education undergraduate instructors, interview data collected from probated youth and their case managers, pre-post literacy assessments administered to the youth, the youths’ court files and data maintained by the community-based agency. We conclude that our model of a university-community literacy partnership has the potential to raise reading performance of youth, motivation, and promote prosocial behaviors. Addressing the educational needs of youth on probation, however, is complex and multifaceted. We find that success requires consistent communication among all stakeholders, adequate funding for leadership, organization and curricula, and ongoing assessment and evaluation.     

‘I think autism is like running on Windows while everyone else is a Mac’: using a participatory action research approach with students on the autistic spectrum to rearticulate autism and the lived experience of university

This co-authored article outlines the research process and key findings from the Stratus Writers Project, a participatory action research project with a group of seven students on the autistic spectrum at a university in the North of England. The project explores their experiences of university through critical autobiographies and offers unique insider perspectives into some of the key issues, challenges and successes. Building on a participatory action research approach, the data were collected by the participants themselves; however, this study departs from traditional research in that the participants also analysed the data, thus offering rich and potentially overlooked theoretical knowledge. The article concludes by demonstrating the strength of participatory action research approaches by identifying the impact that our project and its findings have had so far.     

Futurescaping: school choice of internationally mobile global middle class families temporarily residing in Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This paper explores internationally mobile global middle class families (GMCF) in terms of how they rationalise moving away from their home country, select schools and reimagine their young children’s futures in an international setting. Building on Appadurai’s notion of ‘the future as a cultural fact’ and Anagnost’s concept of ‘life-making in neoliberal times’ we analyse how the search for escaping the past is dialectically related to seeking better futures. For GMCFs, the search for better futures within current neoliberal times leads to them discursively constructing spatial–temporal movements across international boundaries. The term ‘futurescaping’ is introduced and used to understand the act of imagining futures that are shaped by a person’s past and present experience. We argue that futurescaping is more than simply transnational mobility, but is a multidimensional act, which is dynamic, culturally value-ladened, historically embedded, futuristic and provides a unique view into the everyday lives of internationally mobile GMCF.