School psychologists' perceptions of priorities for dealing with the dropout problem

A sample of 444 (245 males and 199 females) Nationally Certified School Psychologists were surveyed to determine which causes of dropping out should be national priorities. A Principal Axis Factoring with oblimin rotation was conducted using the 42-item School Psychologist's Dropout Survey. The five factors which emerged were Criminal/Victimization, Different from Peer Group, School Conflict, Dysfunctional Family/Lack of Support, and Family Responsibilities. The factors comprised of items with loadings of .40 or higher were added together for each factor to obtain subscale total scores for each participant. Then, for each subscale all total scores were added together and divided by 444 to obtain an average subscale total score for the entire sample. This process was followed for all five subscales. Finally, the average subscale scores were ranked to identify which causes of dropping out were viewed by school psychologists as the most important national priority. School psychologists perceived school conflicts and dysfunctional families as the primary causes of dropping out that should be national priorities. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Effects of diagnostic label,race, gender,educational placement,and definitional information on prognostic outlook for children with behavior problems

Across the United States, children with behavioral and emotional problems receive one of a variety of labels if they are determined eligible for special education services. Labels like SED, EBD, and BD can result in lowered or negative expectations that others have for these children. This study investigated the effects of label, child's gender and race, child's educational placement, and availability of definitional information on prognostic judgments for children with behavior problems. Three‐hundred‐sixty‐three undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education courses read a vignette and completed a prognostic outlook questionnaire. The questionnaire items asked for judgments about the likelihood of further behavioral disruption, the likelihood of developing and maintaining adequate interpersonal relationships, and requested an estimate of overall adjustment of the child. The vignette described an elementary school child with behavior problems and its content was held constant. Gender (boy vs. girl), race (African American vs. Caucasian), educational placement (receiving special education services full‐time through inclusion vs. self‐contained), diagnostic label (BD vs. EBD vs. SED) and definition of the disorders (present vs. absent) were varied. There was a label × race × placement interaction and a label × definition interaction for the behavioral disruptiveness dependent measure. Under the inclusion condition White children who had the SED or EBD label were rated to be significantly more likely to be disruptive than children with the BD label. For the 2‐way interaction when no definitional information was given children who had the SED label were rated more likely to be disruptive than children who had either the EBD or BD labels. There was also a significant gender × race × definition interaction on the overall adjustment measure. However, post hoc contrasts were not significant and no conclusions were drawn other than that the effect was minimal. There was a significant main effect of gender on the interpersonal relationships variable. Girls were judged as significantly more likely to develop appropriate interpersonal relationships with others than were boys. No other significant effects were noted. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Home Play of Toddlers with Disabilities: Contexts and maternal perspectives

A multiple case‐study design was used to explore the spontaneous play of three toddlers with disabilities as it emerged in the course of everyday activity in the home. Children were observed at home playing independently and with their mothers. Data consist of videotaped naturalistic observations in the children’s homes and mothers’ perspectives of their child’s play obtained in semi‐structured interviews. There was a great deal of similarity in the playful behaviour of toddlers and their mothers. Toddlers were active players throughout all daily routines and their play reflected their developmental level. Mothers actively supported their children’s initiative and engagement in play and they spoke of play as a highly valued behaviour. Some qualitative differences were noted in child and mother–child play, which seemed to relate to the nature of the child’s disability and developmental level. Further study of the play of young children with disabilities in naturalistic settings and ways that mothers and other caregivers value and support child play is recommended.     

Early numeracy in low‐performing young children

The aim of this study was to explore the early numeracy of low‐performing young children. The mean age of the children was six years and four months. The 511 participants belonged to three groups: multi‐language children, children with special educational needs and children with average performance. The results showed that there were significant group differences in early numeracy: the children in the reference group had better relational and counting skills than those with a multi‐language background and those with special educational needs. Some differences were found in counting skills between the children with multi‐language background and those with special educational needs. Finally, (special) educational support for low‐performing children is discussed.     

‘They call me headmaster’: Malawian and Australian women leaders

This article explores commonalities in the lives and work of women head teachers in Malawian secondary schools and women principals in Australian Lutheran schools. In both Australia and Malawi women are under-represented in school leadership and often appointed to complex schools and communities. We commence with a brief discussion of Malawi and Australia’s political and educational histories which have much in common, before outlining current selection policies for school leadership. The second part of the article explores women leaders’ initial and ongoing challenges in relation to their school systems, daily work and domestic lives. The final section focuses on their perspectives of current strategies to address women’s under-representation as leaders in their respective school systems. Notwithstanding the stark contrast in socio-economic contexts, we highlight enduring transnational inequalities in women leaders’ lives and work in Malawian secondary and Australian Lutheran schools.     

“Connect,” Log It,Track It,Go! Techne—Not Technology—and Embodiment to Achieve Phronesis in Exercise Promotion

Given the rise in obesity and the positive exercise effects in curbing obesity levels, exercise promoters are expected to use technological applications—social media and fitness applications—in their exercise motivational programs. The purpose of this article is to critique the use of social media and fitness apps as both ineffective and potentially harmful. An alternative approach is proposed where phronesis (practical wisdom) in exercise participation can be achieved via physical and cognitive mastery of the action for its own sake (real techne-art, embodiment). Emphasizing exercise outcomes (e.g., energy expenditure) captured by external devices distracts from embodied and phronetic action. Drawing on the philosophies of phronesis, techne, and embodiment, exercise promoters should emphasize embodied exercise experiences via mastery of action, social interactions, and connectedness to nature. They should target real action in real communities, and not emotionless and meaningless online forums about how to become the ultimate virtual fitness buff.     

Effect of carbohydrate ingestion during cycling exercise on affective valence and activation in recreational exercisers

Carbohydrate (CHO) ingestion enhances “feel-good” responses during acute exercise but no study has examined the effect of regular ingestion of CHO on affective valence. We investigated the effect of CHO ingestion on perceptual responses and perceived work intensity of individual exercise sessions throughout a 10-week cycling (“spin”) exercise intervention. We also assessed whether any changes in affect and/or perceived work intensity would influence health and fitness parameters. Twelve recreational exercisers (46 ± 9 years; nine females and three males) were randomly allocated to either CHO (7.5% CHO; 5 mL · kg^?1 per exercise session; n = 6; CHO) or placebo (0% CHO, taste- and volume-matched solution; n = 6; PLA) groups. Participants exercised 2 × 45-min per week, over a 10-week intervention period. Perceptual measures of exertion (RPE), affect (feeling scale, FS) and activation (felt arousal scale, FAS) were assessed after each exercise session. The FAS ratings increased over time in CHO but decreased throughout the intervention in PLA (P = 0.03). There were no differences in heart rate (P = 0.70), RPE (P = 0.05) and FS (P = 0.84) between trials. Furthermore, no changes in health and fitness parameters were observed over time or between groups. CHO ingestion enhanced ratings of activation in recreational exercisers throughout a 10-week cycling intervention.     

The Impact of a Therapy Dog Program on Children’s Reading: Follow-up and Extension to ELL Students

An initiative in which therapy dogs were integrated into a school-wide reading curriculum was analyzed to determine the effect on student reading in the program’s second year. Prior research on the first year of this specific program (Kirnan et al. in Early Child Educ J 44(6):637–651) demonstrated improvement in reading scores only for kindergarten students, while interview data revealed increases in positive attitudes and enthusiasm for reading across all grades. In the current study, a series of independent t-tests were conducted for each grade, comparing the second year of the program to a control group. There was a significant difference for kindergarten in the second year, as reading scores were higher for program students compared to those in the control group. Unlike the first year of the program, in the second year there was also a significant mean difference in first grade. For both grades, an analysis of covariance controlling for reading scores prior to program implementation still resulted in a significant main effect for the reading program. Combining the first 2 years of the program yielded a large enough sample for a comparison of ELL students with non-ELL students in kindergarten. These data showed significantly higher reading scores for students enrolled in the dog program relative to the control for both ELL and non-ELL students, again accounting for earlier reading scores. These findings demonstrate the need to analyze at-risk subgroups as well as the need to apply a longitudinal lens in researching both dog-assisted literacy programs and participant progress.