African American Fathers in Low Income, Urban Families: Development, Behavior, and Home Environment of Their Three-Year-Old Children

This study examined the relationship between paternal roles, regardless of residence, and the well-being of 175 3-year-old children from low income, African American families. There were no differences in children's cognition, receptive language, behavior, or home environment related to father presence. Fathers (or father figures) were identified in 73% of the families, and 64% participated in an interview and videotaped observation. The relationships between paternal roles (parenting satisfaction, economic support, nurturance during play, child care, and household responsibilities) and children's cognitive skills, receptive language, behavior, and home environment were examined. After controlling for maternal age, education, and parenting satisfaction, there were significant relationships between paternal roles and each index of children's well-being, suggesting that fathers' contributions were unique. Fathers who were satisfied with parenting, contributed financially to the family, and were nurturant during play had children with better cognitive and language competence; fathers who were satisfied with parenting and employed, had children with fewer behavior problems; and when fathers were living with the child, the home was more child-centered. Neither the biological relationship of the father nor the parents' marital status entered into the models. These findings support ecological theories linking paternal involvement with children's well-being and argue for the institution of family-oriented policies that promote positive father involvement.     

Exploring the Use of Electroencephalography to Gather Objective Evidence of Cognitive Processing During Problem Solving

Currently, there is significant interest being directed towards the development of STEM education to meet economic and societal demands. While economic concerns can be a powerful driving force in advancing the STEM agenda, care must be taken that such economic imperative does not promote research approaches that overemphasize pragmatic application at the expense of augmenting the fundamental knowledge base of the discipline. This can be seen in the predominance of studies investigating problem solving approaches and procedures, while neglecting representational and conceptual processes, within the literature. Complementing concerns about STEM graduates’ problem solving capabilities, raised within the pertinent literature, this paper discusses a novel methodological approach aimed at investigating the cognitive elements of problem conceptualization. The intention is to demonstrate a novel method of data collection that overcomes some of the limitations cited in classic problem solving research while balancing a search for fundamental understanding with the possibility of application. The methodology described in this study employs an electroencephalographic (EEG) headset, as part of a mixed methods approach, to gather objective evidence of students’ cognitive processing during problem solving epochs. The method described provides rich evidence of students’ cognitive representations of problems during episodes of applied reasoning. The reliability and validity of the EEG method is supported by the stability of the findings across the triangulated data sources. The paper presents a novel method in the context of research within STEM education and demonstrates an effective procedure for gathering rich evidence of cognitive processing during the early stages of problem conceptualization.     

Massive preexposure and preexposure in multiple contexts attenuate the context specificity of latent inhibition

Latent inhibition, which refers to attenuated responding to a conditioned stimulus (CS) after CS-unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) pairings as a result of CS-alone presentations prior to the pairings, is often attenuated if preexposure and conditioning occur in different contexts (i.e., it is context specific). Here we report two conditioned lick suppression experiments, using rat subjects, that examined whether manipulations known to attenuate the context specificity of extinction could also eliminate the context specificity of latent inhibition. Context specificity of latent inhibition was eliminated when the CS was preexposed in multiple contexts (Experiment 1) and when the CS was massively pre-exposed in the training context alone (Experiment 2). These results and their practical implications are discussed in the framework of contemporary theories of latent inhibition.     

英语交际教学法中的词汇教学

随着英语词汇学习研究的发展，显性／有意识词汇教学（explicit teaching）被提出，而且被认为有必要与交际法词汇学习相结合。在交际法中，词汇学习需要融入教师的显性指导，教师在词汇教学过程中应注意传授词汇学习方法，并鼓励学习者课外的自主学习。     

Departmental morale as a function of the perceived performance of department heads

The object of this paper is to analyze some of the factors underlying differing levels of morale in university departments. Morale is conceived to be primarily a product of perceived department-head performance, although it is also suggested that environmental and satisfaction variables may be important. Morale is seen as a potential symptomatic attribute which might be used in diagnosing organizational difficulties. The authors did indeed find, using multiple discriminant analysis on departmentally aggregated data, that the perceived performance of department heads was more important in predicting levels of morale. In addition, department size was also found to be useful. The conclusions drawn were that morale could be used as a symptom of departmental (or organizational) well being and that such data could be useful to those managing department heads both in the selection of department heads and in their ongoing supervision.The authors were designated by Western Kentucky University to supervise the collection and analysis of the data described. The data were used with the permission of the Office of the President, Western Kentucky University.     

Economic stress, parenting, and child adjustment in Mexican American and European American families

To assess the impact of economic hardship on 111 European American and 167 Mexican American families and their 5th-grade (M age=11.4 years) children, a family stress model was evaluated. Structural equation analyses revealed that economic hardship was linked to indexes of economic pressure that were related to depressive symptoms for mothers and fathers of both ethnicities. Depressive symptoms were linked to marital problems and hostile parenting. Paternal hostile parenting was related to child adjustment problems for European Americans, whereas marital problems were linked to child adjustment problems for Mexican Americans. Maternal acculturation was associated with both higher marital problems and lower hostile parenting. The utility of the model for describing the effects of economic hardship in Mexican Americans is noted.     

Choices for studying choice: Assessing charter school effectiveness using two quasi-experimental methods

Two quasi-experimental methods – fixed effects (FE) and virtual control records (VCR) – were used to measure charter schooling in 14 states and two districts. The new VCR method uses all available observable charter student characteristics and prior performance to create a composite comparison record. A head-to-head comparison of the FE and VCR methods used the same charter students to test the FE control (e.g., the charter student's own traditional public school experience) and the VCR for equivalence. The comparison produced highly similar estimates; charter coefficients were identical in sign and significance and of the same general magnitudes. In an analysis of the sampling fractions included in each method using all available tested charter students, the VCR method was found to produce more generalizable results. In the policy analysis, charter school quality was found to be demographically and geographically uneven with only 19 percent of charter schools outperforming their local markets.     

Factors influencing school connectedness: Chinese adolescents’ perspectives

This study explored the concept of school connectedness and the factors that may influence its development with a sample of Chinese adolescents. Six focus groups involving 52 high school students were conducted using a set of predetermined discussion topics. Results indicated that the students fully understood the notion of school connectedness and could identify a number of key influences affecting its development. These factors could be grouped under several domains including teacher care, peer relations, broader school relationships, school disciplinary policies and practices, activities within the school’s guidance and counseling program, and opportunities for talent development. The students were also able to suggest practical strategies that schools might introduce to enhance and strengthen students’ acquisition of connectedness to school. The implications from the findings are discussed with particular reference to implementing comprehensive school guidance and counseling program in Hong Kong.