The Role of Preschool Relational and Physical Aggression in the Transition to Kindergarten: Links With Social-Psychological Adjustment

Research Findings: The transition to kindergarten has important ramifications for future achievement and psychosocial outcomes. Research suggests that physical aggression may be related to difficulty during school transitions, yet no studies to date have examined the role of relational aggression in these transitions. This article examines how engagement in preschool physical and relational aggression predict psychosocial adjustment during the kindergarten school year. Observations and teacher reports of aggression were collected in preschool, and kindergarten teachers reported on student–teacher relationship quality, child internalizing problems, and peer acceptance in kindergarten. Results suggested that preschool physical aggression predicted reduced peer acceptance and increased conflict with the kindergarten teacher. High levels of relational aggression, when not combined with physical aggression, were related to more positive transitions to kindergarten in the domains assessed. Practice or Policy: These data lend support to the need for interventions among physically aggressive preschoolers that target not only concurrent behavior but also future aggression and adjustment in kindergarten. Thus, educators should work to encourage social influence in more prosocial ways among aggressive preschoolers.     

Social Information-Processing Mechanisms in Reactive and Proactive Aggression

Theories of aggressive behavior and ethological observations in animals and children suggest the existence of distinct forms of reactive (hostile) and proactive (instrumental) aggression. Toward the validation of this distinction, groups of reactive aggressive, proactive aggressive, and nonaggressive children were identified ( n = 624 9–12-year-olds). Social information-processing patterns were assessed in these groups by presenting hypothetical vignettes to subjects. 3 hypotheses were tested: (1) only the reactive-aggressive children would demonstrate hostile biases in their attributions of peers' intentions in provocation situations (because such biases are known to lead to reactive anger); (2) only proactive-aggressive children would evaluate aggression and its consequences in relatively positive ways (because proactive aggression is motivated by its expected external outcomes); and (3) proactive-aggressive children would select instrumental social goals rather than relational goals more often than nonaggressive children. All 3 hypotheses were at least partially supported.     

Let's go on an elephant hunt

Here's a great finger-play drill that teaches the different forms of transportation. The kids (and you) will love it.Nicki Klein Parsons is a registered nurse and special education teacher who has worked as head teacher in a day care center and is now a special education teacher at the Johnson Elementary School in Montrose, Colorado. Ms. Parsons can be reached at 1714 Story Lane, Montrose, Colorado 81401.     

Childhood Maltreatment and the Development of Relational and Physical Aggression: The Importance of a Gender‐Informed Approach

This investigation examined the associations between maltreatment and aggression using a gender‐informed approach. Peer ratings, peer nominations, and counselor reports of aggression were collected on 211 maltreated and 199 nonmaltreated inner‐city youth (M age = 9.9 years) during a summer day camp. Maltreatment was associated with aggressive conduct; however, these effects were qualified by gender, maltreatment subtype, and the form of aggression under investigation. Findings revealed that maltreatment was associated with physical aggression for boys and relational aggression for girls. Physical abuse was associated with physically aggressive behaviors, but sexual abuse predicted relational aggression for girls only. Findings suggest that investigating the interaction between familial risk and gender is important in understanding aggressive behaviors of boys and girls.     

The development of a methodology for establishing task‐level performance standards for apprentice,journeyman, and master skill levels in the U.S. Navy

The goal of the project examined here was to establish performance standards for Navy aerographer's mate (AG) enlisted sailors at three skill levels. We used an online expert judgment task and consensus workshop methodology to gather information from subject matter experts on minimal proficiency requirements for each task within each skill level. Analysis of these judgments found a high degree of rater agreement on these standards, and resolution of any disagreements was accomplished in a consensus workshop.     

Social cognition in context: validating a cartoon-based attributional measure for urban girls

Standard approaches to the development of psychological measures emphasize the role of the research team in identifying constructs, generating and retaining items, and establishing psychometric soundness. Although there are a number of strengths associated with these methods, the resulting measures may not be culturally sensitive to minority cultural groups. In order to address this need, the authors partnered with African American inner-city 3rd- and 4th-grade girls (predominantly 9- and 10-year-olds) to design and validate a cartoon-based hostile attributional bias measure that is developmentally and culturally sensitive. This paper illustrates how a partnership-based research model can be used to design measurement tools sensitive to the ways in which developmental processes are influenced by an urban, low-income, ecological context.     

The specific skills required of teachers who deliver K–12 distance education courses by synchronous videoconference: implications for training and professional development

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to identify the specific skills required of videoconference teachers who teach K–12 distance education courses. Many schools and educational districts worldwide are using videoconference technology to deliver courses to students as an economic solution when they cannot afford specialised teachers at remote locations. However, teachers are rarely trained to use this instructional technology and must therefore translate their experience in face-to-face and/or online teaching to this alternative medium. The collective case study used observations and interviews of eight teachers across five schools to identify the specific skills required to teach in a way that they perceived as successful in a videoconference class. It was found that teachers are largely under-prepared with strategies to project presence, develop relationships, foster interaction, manage the course and teach content across a distance when the screen is the main tool of connection. The authors offer a path to improvement that involves supporting teacher action research, creating communities of inquiry and developing teaching quality standards specific to videoconference.     

Riots and Reactions: Hypocrisy and Disaffiliation?

The August 2011 riots in England occasioned widespread condemnation from government and the media. Here, we apply the concepts of hypocrisy and affiliation to explore reactions to these riots. Initially acknowledging that politics necessitates a degree of hypocrisy, we note that some forms of hypocrisy are indefensible: they compromise integrity. With rioters condemned as thugs and members of a feral underclass, some reactions exemplified forms of corrosive hypocrisy that deflected attention away from economic, social and cultural problems. Moreover, such reactions omitted to attend to the concept of [dis]affiliation amongst young rioters. Accordingly, we look to the role that education might play in re‐affiliating those who do not feel they belong to, or have a sufficient stake in, society. Whilst our focus is on the riots in England, the exploration of hypocrisy and affiliation, and discussion of education for re‐affiliation, transcends that national context.     

Serving the gifted: A national survey of school psychologists

Gifted students are among the most underserved population in American schools and are some of the most underperforming in the world, ranking last in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Algebra, and Geometry among 13 other developed countries. To improve services for the gifted, possible gaps in training and service delivery must be identified. There is a lack of research addressing many of the practical aspects of the delivery of services to the gifted. There is also a lack of research examining how well school psychologists are prepared to provide services to gifted and talented students. We conducted a national survey of school psychologists to evaluate the amount of time school psychologists allocate for gifted assessment and consultation. We also collected information about graduate school and professional development on gifted topics, familiarity with prominent figures in the gifted field, and gifted assessment methods. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.