Push-Penny: Are you a Random Player?

Several measures of “success” for a simple game are discussed. Comparisons between players, and between a player and a simulation, can be made in several ways.     

Supporting children’s transition to school age care

While a great deal of research has focused on children’s experiences as they start school, less attention has been directed to their experiences—and those of their families and educators—as they start school age care. This paper draws from a recent research project investigating practices that promote positive transitions to school and school age care. Data were generated through questionnaires, document analysis, visits to sites and conversations with a wide range of participants. In this paper, data related to school age care are reported. The results emphasise the importance of communication in the development of strong positive relationships among all those involved in transition. The practices identified as effective reflect the principles of My Time, Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia, and are aligned with the Transition to School: Position Statement, which focuses on the opportunities, expectations, aspirations and entitlements for all during educational transitions. Drawing on these practices, possibilities for enhanced professional practice are explored.     

Development and validation of the preschool learning behaviors scale

This article presents the design, national standardization, and validation of the Preschool Learning Behaviors Scale (McDermott, Green, Francis, & Stott, 2000). A normative sample (N = 100) of 3‐ to 5–1/2‐year‐olds was configured to the U.S. Census, wherewith factor analyses yielded distinct and reliable dimensions of Competence Motivation, Attention/Persistence, and Attitude Toward Learning. The solution was invariant in an independent national sample (N = 170) and generalizable across child sex, age, ethnicity, and parent education level. Three‐week stability and interobserver agreement were supported with a local Head Start sample (N = 52). Bivariate and canonical correlations demonstrated validity convergence with indices of social skills, divergence from behavior problems, and substantial independence from cognitive ability. Implications and future research are considered. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Academic help-seeking in the university setting: The effects of motivational set,attributional style,and help source characteristics

We examined university students' academic help-seeking under task-involved and ego-involved classroom conditions. The effects of these motivational sets on frequency of help-seeking were expected to depend on students' attributions for failure. Use of two types of help sources was investigated: (1) an instrumental help source that imparted useful strategies to the help-seeker, thereby allowing him or her to retain responsibility for solving the problem; (2) an executive help source that disclosed the solutions, thus relinquishing the help-seeker of the responsibility for independent problem-solving. We found that ego involvement increased executive help-seeking in students who attributed failure to low ability, but not in students who made effort attributions. Moreover, task involvement produced more instrumental help-seeking than ego involvement in all students regardless of their attribution style. Since executive help-seeking can impede academic development by inhibiting skill acquisition and by fostering dependence on a help source, university teachers should consider classroom strategies that promote task involvement.Support for this research was provided to Jamie-Lynn Magnusson by The University of Manitoba Research Funds Committee and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Support was provided to Raymond P. Perry by Franz E. Weinert, the Max Planck Institute, Munich. Portions of this paper were presented at the meetings of the American Educational Research Association. This paper is based on research conducted for a doctoral thesis submitted by Jamie-Lynn Magnusson, under the supervision of Raymond P. Perry, to the Department of Psychology at The University of Manitoba.     

Onset,development, and prevention of drinking and driving among adolescents

An etiological study was designed to investigate the onset and development of drinking and driving among adolescents who recently received their driver’s license. A theoretical framework, derived from Problem Behavior Theory, was applied in order to identify environmental, personality and behavioral factors associated with drinking and driving. Among students who reported that they had driven a motor vehicle in the past three months (N=1416), 33 percent of the males and 22 percent of the females (who averaged 16.7 years) reported “drinking at least two drinks on a single occasion prior to driving” at least once in the previous three months. Personality factors (including perceived ability to drive after drinking, tolerance of drinking and driving, and lack of self-confidence in avoiding drinking and driving situations), perceived environmental factors (perceived car availability and friends modelling of drinking and driving) and behavioral factors (riding with a drinking driver and marijuana use) accounted for a large proportion (49%) of the variance in reported drinking and driving. It is recommended that school-based, peer-led educational programs be designed which target young adolescents prior to the age at which legal driver license is obtained. The programs should be broad-based and consider drinking and driving within the larger context of drinking and driving related behaviors and traffic safety in general.     

High antenatal maternal anxiety is related to ADHD symptoms, externalizing problems, and anxiety in 8- and 9-year-olds

Associations between antenatal maternal anxiety, measured with the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and disorders in 8- and 9-year-olds were studied prospectively in 71 normal mothers and their 72 firstborns. Clinical scales were completed by the mother, the child, the teacher, and an external observer. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that maternal state anxiety during pregnancy explained 22%, 15%, and 9% of the variance in cross-situational attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, externalizing problems, and self-report anxiety, respectively, even after controlling for child's gender, parents' educational level, smoking during pregnancy, birth weight, and postnatal maternal anxiety. Anxiety at 12 to 22 weeks postmenstrual age turned out to be a significant independent predictor whereas anxiety at 32 to 40 weeks was not. Results are consistent with a fetal programming hypothesis.     

Preservice teachers’ perceptions of an ICT-rich learning environment: Development of an instrument

This article reports the development of an instrument to measure preservice teachers’ perceptions of the Study Landscape (SLS), which is an ICT-infused learning environment that encourages preservice teachers to direct their own learning to build a two-way relationship between theory and teaching practice. This study comprised a qualitative and quantitative part. Six factors derived from interviews with users formed the basis of the instrument: (1) Support of Learners’ Initiatives; (2) Support of Information Searches; (3) Support of Interaction; (4) Relationship with Fellow Students; (5) Relationship with Teacher Educators; and (6) Relationship with SLS Staff. Once developed, the questionnaire was responded to by 186 students. Analysis of the data supported five out of six factors.     

Source use and argumentation behavior in L1 and L2 writing: a within-writer comparison

The aim of this study was to test whether Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis (LIH) might also apply to writing, by determining to what extent writers’ text quality, source use and argumentation behavior are related in L1 and L2, how effective writers’ behavior is and whether their L2 proficiency influenced the relations between them. To answer these questions, twenty students wrote four short argumentative source based essays each in L1 (Dutch) and four in L2 (English). A within-writer cross-linguistic comparison of their texts revealed that their L1 and L2 writing competencies appear to be related. Furthermore, writers’ source use behavior differed to some extent between languages, but the strong positive correlations found between source use features suggest that in most cases this was more a person than a language effect. Similarly, for argumentation behavior, results showed some learner specific features (e.g. inclusion of titles and reference lists), but differences between languages for others (e.g. the inclusion of both arguments and counter-arguments). Effects of the different source use and argumentation features studied on text quality were limited and no clear effect of L2 proficiency on writers’ behavior or their influence on text quality were found. Overall, in line with earlier research, these findings provide some additional support for Cummins’ LIH and the idea that writers might have a common underlying source for writing related knowledge and practices which they can apply in multiple languages.

     

Highbrows in University Education

Is it still possible to combine two programmes of study in higher education, and if so, what are the characteristics of these double‐students and what kind of obstacles do they face? In the Netherlands, about 10 percent of students in university education take two studies at the same time.

Different theoretical approaches offer hypotheses to explain the choice of students for a second study, compared to students who pursue the regular one‐study programme. Human capital as well as financial (socio‐economic) capital theory provides some insights in this choice process. Education programme‐related factors, as well as motivational and (social and academic) integration (Tinto, 1987 Tinto V 1987 Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition Chicago The University of Chicago Press  [Google Scholar]) factors, will possibly be important determinants for pursuing one or two study programmes in higher education.