Age-related changes in reading attitudes of young children: a cross-cultural study

The Preschool Reading Attitudes Scale (PRAS) was administered to 2201 young children, from three to five years of age, in early childhood programs from several regions of the United States. The scale is categorized into four areas related to children's reading environment. School Reading Activities, Non-school Reading Activities, Library Reading Activities and General Reading Activities. A validation sample revealed highly significant differences at all age levels between students receiving positive and negative teacher ratings of reading attitudes. The basic design involved three factors, age, sex, and ethnicity, and an analysis of variance was applied to total scores and subscores. The results showed significant outcomes for age and ethnicity, in addition to an age X ethnicity interaction. The results suggest that there are significant attitudinal differences between three-year-olds as opposed to four- and five-year-olds as well as age dependent differences among the ethnic groups.     

Emotion Regulation, Parenting and Display of Social Reticence in Preschoolers

The study of social reticence in early childhood has focused primarily on those dispositional, intra-individual factors that might account for its demonstration among peers. Little is known, however, about the relations between social reticence and its association with the quality of parenting behaviors. Indeed, the independent and interactive “contributions” of dispositional and parenting factors to children's demonstration of socially reticent behavior have not received adequate attention. In this study, 188 preschool children and their mothers were observed during unstructured Free-play and a structured Lego-building teaching task. Additionally, the children were observed in quartets of same-sex, same-age unfamiliar peers. Results indicated that children's shy, socially reticent behavior was predicted by the extent to which mothers were over-solicitous during Free-play. In addition, preschooler's expressions of reticent behavior were predicted by the interactions between emotion dysregulation and the lack of maternal guidance and control during a teaching task. Emotionally dysregulated children whose mothers provided little control in this putatively stressful teaching task were more likely to be shy and reticent. This relation was non-significant for dysregulated children with mothers who provided high levels of guidance. The results suggest that early childhood educators offer reticent/shy children opportunities to explore their impersonal and social milieus and to warmly encourage such exploratory activities. Without such encouragement and opportunity building, reticent preschoolers may suffer from not having experienced sufficient exploration-to-play sequences thereby stifling the problem-solving competencies derived from such experiences.     

Psychophysiological and behavioral evidence for varying forms and functions of nonsocial behavior in preschoolers

Four-year-old children showing low levels of social behavior in a laboratory play session with unfamiliar peers were classified as reticent (unoccupied or onlooking behaviors) or solitary-passive (solitary constructive or exploratory play). Compared with a group of more social children, the children in both low-social groups were rated high on maternal reports of shyness and displayed a pattern of right frontal EEG asymmetry. However, only the reticent group was elevated on measures indicative of a fearful temperament, both concurrently and retrospectively. A subset of children in the solitary-passive group showed increasing levels of reticent behavior over the course of the visit, suggesting that for some children solitary-passive behaviors provide a means for coping with feelings of unease.     

Advancing the Boundaries of Higher Education in Arizona Using the World Wide Web

Northern Arizona University (NAU) sought to incorporate the new distance delivery system, the World Wide Web, and the Internet into its distance-learning program in order both to accomplish a mandate from its governing board and to fulfill its distance education mission. To accomplish this change and enlarge the scope of distance education delivery throughout the state, NAU proceeded through a series of strategic steps including (a) a Web course-design initiative; (b) a university-wide grant to promote departmental-level programmatic Web-course curriculum development; (c) a faculty development initiative to train, support and inspire faculty to create high-quality coursework via the World Wide Web; and (d) development of an on-line infrastructure to deliver courses and provide students with all of the services they require to be successful on-line students. Please view NAU Online at http://www.nau.edu/nauonline.     

Other Telecommunications

Bruce M. Owen and Ronald Braeutigam's The Regulation Game: Strategic Use of the Administrative Process (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing, 1978---$20.00)

Alfred Price's Instruments of Darkness: The History of Electronic Warfare (New York: Scribner's, 1978---$12.95)

Linda Fox's Broadcasting and Communications (New York: Arco/London: Marshall Cavendish, 1978---$9.95)     

The Kalamazoo School Decision

On October 4, 1973, U.S. District Court Judge Noel P. Fox ruled in the Oliver case against the Kalamazoo school board and the Michigan state department of education, among others. On May 7, 1971, the city school board had adopted a desegregation plan. After an election, a new school board voted on July 6, 1971, to reinstate the attendance boundaries in force before May 7th. The complete opinion occupies 127 typed pages, in addition to five appendices. Following are major portions of the ruling.     

The Gender Equity Expert Panel: A Dissemination Model

Poor white children, often with roots in Appalachia, can present puzzling and intractable challenges for the multicultural educator. These students are not considered in multicultural textbooks, yet they face language and dialect issues, low educational attainment, under-representation in curriculum, and negative cultural stereotypes. This article details the history, language, dialect, and school experiences of marginalized ethnic Whites; explores problems inherent in representation related to race, class, and marginality; and discusses action research on pre-service education intended to strengthen teachers' perception of the special problem of marginalized Whites. This work highlights the importance of problematizing and expanding “basic” categories and terms such as “black,” “white,” “urban,” and “rural” to consider important differences of experience—an imperative in an education profession committed to diversity and social justice.     

Effects of Football Equipment on Thermal Balance and Energy Cost during Exercise

Abstract

Central core temperature, energy cost and pulmonary ventilation, heart rate, and sweat loss were measured on 5 football players while exercising on a motor driven treadmill at 6 mph for 20 min. Comparisons were made while subjects wore a football uniform and a hospital scrub suit. Core temperature was measured by a rectal thermistor inserted 4 in. into the rectum, energy cost and pulmonary ventilation by open circuit spirometry, heart rate by telemetry, and sweat loss by pre- and postexercise weight changes.

Core temperature, sweat loss, and peak exercise and end recovery heart rates while running in the uniform were significantly elevated compared to the scrub suit controls. Energy cost and pulmonary ventilation were greater (not significant) in the uniform primarily because of the added weight and, to a lesser degree, the reduction in available evaporative surface area.     

Activity profiles of the Australian female netball team players during international competition: Implications for training practice

Abstract

In elite sport, to remain competitive at the international level, it is critical to understand the game demands on players to ensure sport specific training programmes are designed for optimal athlete preparation and conditioning. In netball, recent research examining the activity patterns of players at the elite level is lacking, with only one study undertaken on this level of competition in the past 30 years. Therefore, the aim of this study was to provide coaches with up to date knowledge of player activity patterns as a basis for the design of optimal sport specific training programmes. The Australian female netball team were analysed using video footage of three international test matches. Player activity was categorised into five movement and eight game-based activities; and further classified as work or rest. Results suggest that differences in the current game exist when compared to the previous analysis. Positional differences were also found with regard to player activity confirming the need for an individualised component of training based on player position.