Gender,marital status,and support systems of public school principals

Recent literature on leadership emphasizes the importance of support systems for individuals occupying prominent roles. This research examined the support systems of public school principals, comparing male and female and married and unmarried principals. Specifically, who provided support and the amount and type of support provided were examined. Specific characteristics of spouses who provide support were also explored. Drawing on surveys of over 170 principals from one southeastern state, the study found some significant differences and interesting similarities in the type and amount of support provided to male and female and married and unmarried principals. The findings differed from some of the literature on female principals in terms of the areas of similarity between males and females. Other findings generally supported the literature on support systems.     

Physical and cognitive development in the first two years

Summary Physical and cognitive development proceed at a breathtaking pace in the first two years of life. Infants enter the world as competent individuals who actively explore the external world from the moment of birth. As their basic reflexes disappear, they begin to engage in intentional and purposeful behavior. Their ability to move, as in crawling and walking, and to manipulate objects extends their opportunities to learn about the physical environment. Responsive and supportive caregivers who work with infants and toddlers play a critical role in providing an optimal learning environment that takes into account infants' unique developmental needs. The next segment of the four-part series addresses the social and emotional development of infants and toddlers.     

Long-term reaction of the rat to conspecific (frustration) odor

Rats’ choices in a T-maze were observed to determine (a) their long-term tendencies, in the apparent absence of reinforcement, to approach or avoid a goalbox containing a “frustration odor” stimulus generated by prior placements into the box of other rats given frustrative nonreward, and (b) the extent to which preferences for one or the other goalbox persisted following cessation of odor placements. The initial response to frustration odor was avoidance, though it took a few trials to develop. Avoidance was short-lived for most subjects, diminishing quickly and turning to a stable approach reaction, although three subjects developed an equally stable avoidance. These changes in response direction appeared to result from altered perception or interpretation of the odor rather than changed responsivity or alterations in the odor product itself. Preferences for one or the other of the goalboxes per se were but little affected by experiencing odor there.     

Choice Among Essay Topics: Impact on Performance and Validity

This study assessed the ability of history students to choose the essay topic on which they can get the highest score. A second, equally important question was whether the score on the chosen topic was more highly related to other indicators of proficiency in history than the score on the unchosen topic. Overall, for both U.S. and European history, scores were about one third of a standard deviation higher for the preferred topic than for the other topic. For U.S. history, about 32% of the students made the wrong choice; that is, 32% got a higher score on the other topic than on the preferred topic. In European history, 29% made the wrong choice. In the U.S. history sample, the preferred essay correlated .40 with an external criterion score, compared to .34 for the other essay; in the European history sample, the preferred essay correlated .52 with the external criterion, compared to .44 for the other topic.     

Behavioral expression of learned fear in rats is appropriate to their age at training,not their age at testing

Recent research has shown that learned fear emerges in a response-specific sequence. For example, an odor conditioned stimulus (CS) previously paired with shock elicits behavioral expressions of fear like avoidance at a younger age than it elicits other behavioral expressions of fear like potentiation of the startle response (Richardson, Paxinos, & Lee, 2000). In the present study, the question of whether learned fear is expressed in a manner appropriate to the animal’s age at training or its age at testing was explored in three experiments, all using a within-subjects design. The results suggest that learned fear is expressed in a manner appropriate to the rat’s age at training, not its age at testing. The Discussion section focuses on the implications of these findings for (1) the developmental analysis of memory and (2) the idea that an aversive CS elicits a central state of fear.     

Legitimizing subjectivity: Meritorious performance and the professionalization of teacher and principal evaluation

An earlier version of this article was a paper presented at the 1988 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans     

真爱爸爸

我努力去做一个好爸爸。给孩子们买礼物,带他们去游泳,为了供他们上学,我工作夜以继日,勤勤恳愚。可与迪克·霍伊特相比,我这个父亲却逊色许多。迪克用轮椅推着身患残疾的儿子参加了85次马拉松,每次行程26．2英里。他不但用轮椅连续8次推着儿子行驶26．2英里,用橡皮艇搭载着儿子,自己游泳拖着游了2．4英里,他还把儿子放在自行车把手座位上,骑车112英里,所有这些都在一天之内完成。同样,迪克也曾用轮椅推着儿子到美国各地滑雪,把儿子背在身上翻山越岭。还有一次,他用自行车驮着儿子周游全美。与迪克相比,你带儿子去打保龄球这件事真是不值一提,不是吗?那么作为儿子的里克为父亲做了些什么呢?除了挽救了父亲生命之外,里克并没有帮过父亲什么忙。43年前,这个动人的亲情故事始于马萨诸塞州的温切斯待镇,由于里克出生时被脐带所勒,大脑受到损伤,失去了支配四肢的能力。“他这辈子将会是一个植物人,把他送到福利院吧。”迪克说在里克9个月大的时候医生这样告诉他和妻子。可是迪克·霍伊特夫妇不相信医生的诊断结果。他们发现小里克的眼神尾随他们在屋子里转