Cultures of (Un)happiness: teaching,schooling, and light and dark humor

The author explores humor during a time of increasingly hostile accountability measures directed toward educators. Drawing on incongruity and other theories of humor, he explores both light and dark humor and some aspects of the educational potential and power of humor. Noting how humor is related to creativity and problem management, the argument is that humor has an important place not only in producing educator well-being but for student learning and school renewal.     

Early Relationship Quality From Home to School: A Longitudinal Study

The aim of this investigation was to examine the role of social relationships in the home as predictors of social functioning in the first years of school. Longitudinal data gathered on 156 children from urban, low-income families were used to examine the unique contributions of mother-child attachment classification at ages 1 and 2 years, the child's relationship with another adult caregiver, the child's closeness to a sibling, and the child's status in the family relative to siblings between ages 3 and 4 years, to teacher reports of their own relationship to the child and the child's social skills in the classroom and peer relations. The role of family-based relationships as possible protective factors for children at social or demographic risk for problems in school was also tested. Results indicate that quality of different family relationships provides relatively independent and complementary information about early social functioning in school, with more limited evidence for compensatory or protective processes at work.     

Maximizing responses to a nationwide faculty survey

Using on-campus facilitators to distribute and retrieve an 11-page questionnaire administered to a nationwide sample of humanities faculty and nonhumanities department chairmen in two-year colleges resulted in an 84% return rate. The 2,000 subjects were drawn from 156 junior/community colleges selected on the basis of geographic locale and type of control. Secondary stratification variables included college size, organization, and curriculum emphasis. Accurate rosters of full-time and part-time faculty were generated from class schedules. Pilot procedures, selection of the college and faculty samples, and the use of facilitators are described.     

Preparation,style, and format of doctoral dissertations in U.S. colleges and universities

While much criticism has been leveled at graduate education in major United States colleges and universities in the recent past, this study investigated the style and format variables related to preparation of the dissertation and associated matters. The results of this study indicate that a significant amount of introspective evaluation of the dissertation process and product has taken place over the last five years. Technological advances, quality concerns, and increased student involvement in the preparation process have been recognized and incorporated into new dissertation requirements, and a trend toward decentralized monitoring of dissertation preparation is evident from the results. Also presented are comparative information and data contrasting current practices with those reported in a 1975–76 survey of the same population. In both cases the response rate for the survey was greater than 85%, thus providing a very definitive picture of the current status of dissertation preparation.     

Mechanisms of the relation between perinatal problems, early childhood illness, and psychopathology in late childhood and adolescence

Data on perinatal and early childhood somatic and psychological risk factors of a random sample of children were gathered in early to middle childhood and employed to examine the long-term risk of emotional and behavioral problems of late childhood and adolescence. 3 issues were addressed: First, can syndromic specificity of such effects be identified on scaled and diagnostic measures of syndromes? Second, are these effects attributable to excess risk of low-income children for both perinatal and later childhood problems? Third, are the intervening mechanisms identifiable as intellectual impairment, vulnerability to poor health, poor maternal caretaking, maternal rejection, or maternal stress associated with marital problems? Findings indicated that elevated risk was present for all syndromes, both at the scale level and at the diagnostic level. None of the examined intervening mechanisms fully accounted for the effects of early risks.     

The role of signaled periods of nonreinforcement in responding on a random schedule in autoshaping

Little responding develops to a conditioned stimulus (CS) that is placed in a random relation to an unconditioned stimulus (US). However, if the USs not preceded by that CS are themselves signaled by another stimulus, then the CS does come to elicit responding. This result has been attributed (e.g., by Durlach, 1983) to the signal’s blocking of conditioning to background cues that otherwise would prevent conditioning of the CS. However, Goddard and Jenkins (1987) have suggested the alternative that signaling the USs promotes responding due to the adventitious creation of periods of signaled nonreinforcement. Two experiments were conducted to assess this alternative, involving an autoshaping preparation in pigeons. In Experiment 1, little responding to a keylight CS presented in a random relation to a food US occurred, despite the explicit presentation of a discrete noise signaling periods of no food in the intertrial interval (ITI). Experiment 2 was designed to replicate the procedure of Goddard and Jenkins, in which an auditory stimulus extended throughout the ITI of a random schedule, terminating only prior to extra USs and during the CS. Contrary to their findings, little responding developed to the target CS. However, responding did develop when the sound-free period occurred only prior to the extra USs. These results offer little support for the hypothesis that signaled periods of nonreinforcement promote responding on random schedules. However, they are consistent with the view that signaling of ITI USs acts by preventing conditioning of potentially competitive background cues.     

Acceleration of cognitive development of kindergartners

A curriculum modification was designed to increase the general reasoning ability of kindergarten children who were lagging in cognitive development. The new instructional program was tested with 22 kindergarters who scored in the lowest 9% on the EAS measure of general learning and reasoning ability taken from SRA's Survey of Basic Skills. The experimental children were given “learning set” instruction on unidimensional classification, unidimensional seriation, and number conservation for four months. They received the instruction in groups of six for 15 minutes two or three times per week during the time usually reserved for mathematics. Control children received the normal mathematics instruction, also in groups of six, for matched sessions. The experimental children made twice the gains of the control children on the EAS measure, and matched their gains on reading and mathematics achievement. It appears that integrated “learning set” training on these three Piagetian concepts may be a potent tool for aiding kindergartners who are falling behind their peers in cognitive development.     

Measuring Socioeconomic Status in Studies of Child Development

Income is more difficult to measure fully and accurately than occupation. Detailed occupational codes may be mapped into standard socioeconomic scales, and occupational status is related to other variables in much the same way as repeated or long-term measures of income. For these reasons, whether or not an attempt has been made to measure income, the measurement of socioeconomic status may be improved by ascertaining the occupation (and industry) of a job held by 1 or both parents. Income and household composition are preferable to the official poverty line in classifying economic standing, and housing tenure is a simple and powerful measure of economic consumption. Wherever possible, paternal as well as maternal education should be ascertained. However well they are measured, race-ethnicity and socioeconomic status do not capture all of the effects of family background.