Cross-cultural differences in maternal perceptions of cries of low- and high-risk infants

The tape-recorded cries of low- and high-risk newborn infants were rated by 150 inner-city Anglo-American, Black-American, and Cuban-American mothers during the hospital lying-in period following childbirth. Half of each cultural group was primiparous and half was multiparous. The mothers rated the cries along 4 perceptual and 6 caregiving response scale items. Reliable differences were found between low- and high-risk infant cries on all perceptual responses with the effects of culture and parental experience affecting the degree of differences. Generally, Anglo-American mothers found the cries more distressing, urgent, arousing, and sick sounding than Black-American mothers, while Cuban-American mothers showed similarities to both Black- and Anglo-American mothers depending on the scale items. The ratings on the caregiving response scale items paralleled cultural differences found on the perception scale items and previous reports of the mother-infant interaction patterns of other Anglo-, Black-, and Cuban-American samples. The results are discussed as being important in developing nonethnocentric views of the functional significance of the behaviors of the infant at risk, yet as providing evidence of the cross-cultural significance of the cry sound of the infant at risk.     

Reflection‐Impulsivity in Retarded Adolescents and Non‐retarded Children

This study examined the responses to Kagan's Reflectivity‐Impulsivity test (and its relevance to temptation to steal dilemmas) of mentally retarded and non‐retarded subjects matched for both MA and CA and for sex. Retarded subjects were less reflective than non‐retarded children when matched on the basis of CA but showed no difference when matched on the basis of MA, confirming findings by Borys and Spitz (1978).     

Teaching about theories of light in year 12 physics: An historical approach

This paper examines an approach to the teaching of a year 12 Physics topic from within an historical setting. The Victorian Physics course requires teachers to cover each topic within some particular prescribed context, so that the everyday relevance of physics or its interrelationships with other fields of endeavour can be demonstrated. The Light and Matter topic specifies only one context: Landmark Developments. Rather than adopting a ‘names, dates and events’ approach which, for many understandable reasons, most teachers seem to follow, the author has attempted to cover the history in greater detail and more holistically. Specializations: history of physics, nature of science, construction of knowledge, social responsibility in science.     

The Use of Television in Public Examinations

This paper analyses the use of a television film, David Leland's Flying into the Wind, in O Level English Literature examinations in 1986. This is the first use of television material in an examination of this kind. After studying the video as part of a two‐year course, candidates were shown part of the television film during the examination and asked to comment upon it. An analysis of candidates' responses suggests television is a suitable medium for use in public examinations, as well as a popular choice with the candidates themselves. Certain aspects of the candidates' responses suggest the importance of visual imagery, and this in turn may have implications for theories concerning how we understand television. Finally, the subsequent use of Flying into the Wind and the current use of Gregory's Girl in GCSE examinations, and the place of television in the new National Curriculum orders are briefly considered.     

A SURVEY OF TYPICAL CHURCH BIBLE CLASSES FOR BOYS AND MEN

Emerging social media that build on digital technologies are reshaping how we interact with each other. Religious education and identity formation within these new cultural flows demands recognition of the shifts in authority, authenticity, and agency that are taking place, as well as the challenges posed by “context collapse.” Digital storytelling is one mechanism by which religious educators can help people to apprentice into practices shaped by a commitment to human freedom and relationality, rather than to public performances of hatred.     

Generic tendencies in majority and non‐majority supreme court opinions: The case of justice Douglas

Using a sample of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas' Supreme Court opinons as the data base, this study investigated the question of whether majority or non‐majority status constitutes a variable sufficiently strong to predict the rhetorical quality of the opinion. The three traditional schools of legal philosophy, Natural Law, Legal Positivism, and Legal Realism, provided the basis of three hypothetical rhetorical genres which were found to be present in statistically similar frequencies in all opinion types. These findings (1) call into question the conventional wisdom that majority and dissenting opinions represent different rhetorical sub‐species, and (2) suggest that a more fruitful avenue of analysis looks to the generic architechtonics of Supreme Court opinions rather than to the relatively more superficial dimension of stylistics.