What progress has been made in meeting the needs of seriously maltreated children? The course of 200 cases through the Boston Juvenile Court

OBJECTIVES: The study examined child, parent, and case characteristics in a sample of 200 cases of serious child maltreatment brought before the Boston Juvenile Court (BJC) on Care and Protection petitions in 1994. Whether recent changes in Massachusetts law have been effective in reducing delays in adjudication and helping children achieve permanent placements more quickly was also examined. METHOD: Data were abstracted from court records by the research team. The 200 cases were followed prospectively for 4 years. Retrospective data on the families' previous involvement with the protective service system were also abstracted from the records. Data from the 1994 cases were compared to that obtained from a sample of cases brought before the BJC in 1985-1986. RESULTS: Children permanently removed from parental custody in the 1994 sample required less time post-disposition to achieve permanent placements. However, overall, time frames for the 1994 cases remained remarkably similar to those in 1985-1986: children were in the protective service system an average of 5 years; cases required an average of 1.6 years in court; and half of the children permanently removed from parental custody were still in "temporary" foster care at 4-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Although some improvements have occurred since 1985-1986, the system still fails to meet the needs of seriously maltreated children to achieve permanent placements promptly. The implications of the findings for system reform are discussed.     

Learning English Spellings: strategies employed by primary school boys

Abstract The use of visual and auditory information in learning to spell is explored, together with the effect, if any, of semantic information. One hundred boys aged from seven to eleven were tested, using eight nonsense words with contrived meanings. It was expected that visual information would be helpful in spelling irregular words and that, with age, use of strategies would become more flexible, incorporating semantic (along with visual and phonological) information. Contrary to expectations, it was only with the 10‐ and 11‐year‐olds that visual information produced better results than auditory presentation alone but for them, in conjunction with oral responses, it did aid spelling. Such a finding is in keeping with Ehri's Amalgamation Theory (1980) which suggests that, in order to be able to manipulate printed words, the learner must draw on several strategies and accepts that no single strategy can be used to overcome all irregularities in written English.     

The Categorization of Above and Below Spatial Relations by Young Infants

3 experiments using the familiarization-novelty preference procedure were conducted to investigate whether 3-month-old infants could form categorical representations of the spatial relations above and below. In Experiment 1, one group of infants familiarized with exemplars depicting a dot in different positions above a horizontal bar displayed a subsequent visual preference for a novel category exemplar (dot below bar) that was paired with a familiar category exemplar (dot in novel position above bar). A second group of infants presented with exemplars in which the dot appeared in variable locations below the bar also responded preferentially to a novel category exemplar (dot above bar) when it was paired with a familiar category exemplar (dot in new position below bar). These preferences did not result from the salience of vertical up-down changes in dot position or the encoding of dot positions relative to an internal horizontal midline (Experiment 3) or from an inability to discriminate the members of each category (Experiment 2), but rather would seem to be a consequence of the ability to represent categorically the spatial relations above and below. The data provide evidence for early categorical organization in human spatial memory.     

What happens after the care and protection petition? Reabuse in a court sample.

Of 206 cases of serious child mistreatment brought before a metropolitan juvenile court on Care and Protection Petitions (C & P), 63 (31%) were dismissed (returning the child to the parent(s]. During a 2-year follow-up period, 18 (29%) of these dismissed cases had substantiated reports of further mistreatment, and 10 (16%) subsequently returned to court on another C & P. Families that had previously been to court for a C & P, and those in which the parent was diagnosed psychotic or character disordered, were significantly more likely to return to court. In addition, we were surprised to find that 8 (6%) of the 130 children ordered permanently removed from parental custody also returned to court. This study documents the continuing mistreatment of children, even after the state's most serious interventions. The study also highlights the necessity of incorporating clinical research in the form of ongoing follow-up of individual cases into the court process, and suggests that it may be possible to identify cases with a very high probability of reinjury and return to court.     

A Theoretical Framework for Professional Development in a South African University

The changing context of higher education both internationally and in South Africa has presented challenges to lecturers that have led in some institutions to the introduction of accredited professional development courses for academics. Such courses for university lecturers are relatively new in South Africa. This paper reports on research in progress on a Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education and Training course offered at Rhodes University in South Africa. It highlights some important questions that have arisen on the ways in which the theoretical framework of the course has or has not met the needs of diverse groups of lecturers within the specific South African context. A central theme of the course is that of the critically reflective practitioner. Lecturers are encouraged to explore the ontological and epistemological underpinnings of their disciplines and to examine the philosophical assumptions of their espoused theories about teaching and learning as well as their teaching practice. The theoretical framework has been found to be most successful for more experienced academics. However, the author raises some important questions regarding the suitability of this framework in relation to the specific post‐apartheid context in which the course operates, specifically whether the course prepares lecturers to open up both “actual” and “epistemological” access to all the students at the university.     

The effects of wind and altitude in the 400-m sprint

In this paper I use a mathematical model to simulate the effect of wind and altitude on men's and women's 400-m race performances. Both wind speed and direction were altered to calculate the effect on the velocity profile and the final time of the sprinter. The simulation shows that for a constant wind velocity, changing the wind direction can produce a large variation in the race time and velocity profile. A wind of velocity 2 m?·?s^?1 is generally a disadvantage to the 400-m runner but this is not so for all wind directions. Constant winds blowing from some directions can provide favourable conditions for the one-lap runner. Differences between the running lanes can be reduced or exaggerated depending on the wind direction. For example, a wind blowing behind the runner in the back straight increases the advantage of lane 8 over lane 1. Wind conditions can change the velocity profile and in some circumstances produce a maximum velocity much later than is evident in windless conditions. Lower air density at altitude produces a time advantage of around 0.06 s for men (0.07 s for women) for each 500-m increase in elevation.     

The effect of track geometry on 200- and 400-m sprint running performance

Abstract

This study looked at how the geometry of the running track affects performances in the 200- and 400 m sprint running events. Although an athletics track must be designed with two parallel straights and two curved bends, the lengths of the straights and bends are not fixed and may vary within an approved set of limits. The bend can be semi-circular or a double-curve consisting of arcs of two different radii. A mathematical model was used to calculate the effect of track geometry on race times for six different track designs; three with semi-circular bends (encompassing the extremes of the permitted designs), and the three permitted double-curve designs. The calculations revealed substantial differences among the track designs. The time difference (in the inside lane) between the fastest and slowest tracks is about 0.1 s in the 200-m race and 0.2 s in the 400-m race. The time differential between the outside and inside lanes for a double-curve track can be up to 0.08 s greater than for a standard track with semi-circular bends.     

Investigation of Tacit Knowledge in Principal Leadership

This study investigated how tacit knowledge was used by expert and novice principals during problem-solving situations. Through the use of a phenomenological, qualitative approach, novice principals were compared with expert principals as both went about their daily tasks of school leadership. Results of the study contribute to the research on effective leadership and offer implications for leadership training models. Results suggest that experience may not be the most critical factor in expertise.     

Creative approaches to staff development: global education in ITE in The Gambia

The elements of global education should be at the heart of all learning and teaching. In ITE we often protect ‘our subject’ in the belief that it should have more prominence in the curriculum and more teaching time in school. In this article a group of ITE tutors comment on their learning about global education and its inclusion in their subject following a study trip, with students and teachers, to The Gambia. A truly cross-curricular strand develops and ideas within subjects are matched to key concepts of global education. An experiential model of tutor CPD evolves which includes personal challenge of values and attitudes.