Subjectively assessed student profiles in physics

Conclusions It is clear that in this particular educational system teachers' and lecturers' subjective assessments of each student on the cirteria given, were based primarily on two subjective impressions of the student; the students ‘academic ability’ and his, or her “motivation for academic work”. A major proportion of the variance on the physics subjective scales could be explained in terms of these two factors. However the factor scores did little to increase the prediction of success in University physics examinations over and above prediction based on school physics examination results. There was some indication that subjective assessments may have a potential use in predicting non-examination ‘attributes’ of importance, for example drop-outs and future career intentions. Undoubtedly much greater reliability and validity of student scores related to objectives needs to be obtained both via examinations and subjective assessments if future studies are to yield really useful student profiles.     

Attachment and the secondary caregiver

Separating from a primary caregiver or parent can cause anxiety and stress for the young child. Although separation anxiety is experienced by all children in varying degrees, for secondary caregivers in child care centers and family day care homes, it poses particular problems.Sandy Osborne is a doctoral candidate, Department of Child and Family Studies, College of Human Ecology, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The author thanks Kay Pasley and Jan Allen for their helpful comments.     

Occupational values and employment: A follow-up study of graduate men and women

Undergraduate job values have been reported as reflecting both the sex and social origins of the student. The present study assesses whether such differences are of any occupational significance. Ratings on 30 job attributes were collected from 310 final year undergraduates at universities and colleges throughout Britain. The four factors extracted from these ratings were then related to the job held at 26 years. Although the proportions of men and women differed between jobs, this difference was adequately explained by the job values reported by the students before graduation. There was no evidence that women had different values (at college) than men who were, at 26, to do a similar type of job. The origins of sex and social class differences in students' values are explored and it is concluded that there is a need for a new approach to careers education for the highly intelligent student of limited aspiration.     

Trapped between justified anger and being the strong Black woman: Black college women coping with racial battle fatigue at historically and predominantly White institutions

Using the unique form of a composite counterstory culled from the experiences of 13 Black women at historically and predominantly White colleges and universities in a Western U.S. state, this paper explores the psychological tensions and silencing Black college women face as they navigate social constructions of their selfhood under a White gaze. This study centers these Black women’s voices through a tradition of storytelling and examines the ways they try to carve their own place by often engaging liberating, yet repressive, historically constructed STRONGBLACKWOMAN imagery to counteract equally silencing Angry Black Woman imagery. The historically and predominantly White institutional spaces within which these women study, live, and play exacerbate this tension, propelling them to model and rely upon stereotypically ‘positive’ representations of Black womanhood to deal with the pain of microaggressions. Altogether, these factors create instances of enhanced racial battle fatigue.     

Linking Stereotype Threat and Anxiety

Claude Steele’s stereotype threat hypothesis has attracted significant attention in recent years. This study tested one of the main tenets of his theory—that stereotype threat serves to increase individual anxiety levels, thus hurting performance—using real‐time measures of physiological arousal. Subjects were randomly assigned to either high or low stereotype threat conditions involving a challenging mathematics task while physiological measures of arousal were recorded. Results showed significant physiological reactance (skin conductance, skin temperature, blood pressure) as a function of a stereotype threat manipulation. These findings are consistent with the argument that stereotype threat manipulations either increase or decrease situational‐specific anxiety, and hold significant implications for thinking about fair assessment and testing practices in academic settings.     

Health sciences librarians' research on medical students' use of information for their studies at the medical school, University of Queensland, Australia

This study reports the findings of research undertaken by health sciences librarians at the University of Queensland Library into how medical students use information for their studies, particularly resources and services provided by the Library. The methods utilized were an online survey and focus groups. Results indicated that students favor print resources over electronic, value accessing resources on a one-stop basis, and prefer training to be delivered flexibly. The implication of these results for future resource selection, service provision, and instructional design and delivery is discussed.     

Using symbolic interactionism to analyze a specialized STEM high school teacher’s experience in curriculum reform

In this paper, we present a microanalysis of a specialized STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) high school teacher??s experience of self-initiated science inquiry curriculum reform. We examine the meanings of these two constructs: inquiry curriculum and curriculum change through the process lens of interactions, actions, and interpretations. Symbolic interactionism is the theoretical framework we used to frame our analysis of how this teacher, Darren Daley (a pseudonym) and various stakeholders purposefully and strategically engaged in ??face-work?? and act out lines of actions to advocate or oppose curriculum change. Symbols are used in this world of face-to-face encounters to communicate, imply, and assert, meanings through socially flexible and adjustable processes. We scrutinize how Daley (un)consciously engaged all of these to defend his decisions, actions, and outcomes and ??look?? to others as doing inquiry reform. The meanings of such work are not intrinsically driven or reactions to psychological and extraneous factors and forces, but emergent through interactions. The data collection methods include interviews with Daley, school administrators, students, and parents, lesson observations in Daley??s class, and gathering of school website pages, brochures, and curriculum materials. We represent data in narratives describing storied history, voices, interactions, anecdotal accounts from individuals?? experiences, and interpretations. The analysis and findings illuminate the nature of teacher agency??how it is reclaimed, sustained, reinforced, contested, exercised, and modified in more nuanced ways, hence offering an alternative lens to theorizing and empirically analyzing this construct.     

War-related trauma linked to increased sustained attention to threat in children

Experiences of war and displacement can have profound effects on children's affective development and mental health, although the mechanism(s) underlying these effects remain unknown. This study investigated the link between early adversity and attention to affective stimuli using a free-viewing eye-tracking paradigm with Syrian refugee (n = 31, M_age = 9.55, 12 female) and Jordanian non-refugee (n = 55, M_age = 9.98, 30 female) children living in Jordan (March 2020). Questionnaires assessed PTSD, anxiety/depression, insecurity, distress, and trauma. Refugee children showed greater initial avoidance of angry and happy faces compared to non-refugee children, and higher trauma exposure was linked to increased sustained attention to angry stimuli. These findings suggest that war-related trauma may have differential effects on the early and later stages of affective processing in refugee children.     

Does self-determination predict the school engagement of four different motivation types in adolescence?

In order to enhance our understanding of inter-individual differences in scholastic motivation, this study examined if self-determination predicts the school engagement of four different motivation types (MT) in a large sample of adolescent students (N = 1088) from Brandenburg, Germany: (1) peer-dependent MT, (2) teacher-dependent MT, (3) peer-and-teacher-dependent MT and (4) peer-and-teacher-independent MT. Using structural equation modelling (SEM), the four types were first compared on latent variables (perceived self-determination and school engagement) and then, a latent multigroup SEM was conducted to test whether self-determination (competence, relatedness and autonomy) would predict emotional and behavioural school engagement separately by MT. The findings underscore the relevance of the typology as well as important inter-individual differences in the association between students’ psychological needs (competence, relatedness and autonomy) and their school engagement.