Source Monitoring in Children with Learning Disabilities

The results of a recent study by Lorsbach, Melendez and Carroll‐Maher (1991) suggest that children with learning disabilities may possess a general deficit in remembering the source of their verbal memories. The purpose of the present study was to examine further whether children with learning disabilities possess a general deficit in source monitoring and whether such a deficit is independent of performance on a recognition memory task. Children with learning disabilities and nondisabled children were presented with a series of incomplete sentences once or twice in either a listen‐listen (external source monitoring) condition or a think‐listen (reality monitoring) condition. Following the presentation of the study‐list, subjects were presented with the terminal nouns of the preceding sentences and asked to make old/new recognition judgments, as well as source attributions. Although children with learning disabilities were deficient in both forms of source monitoring, they did not differ from nondisabled children in their recognition performance. The results suggest that children with learning disabilities possess a general deficit in verbal source monitoring.     

Science Teachers’ Thinking About the Nature of Science: A New Methodological Approach to Its Assessment

This paper describes Spanish science teachers’ thinking about issues concerning the nature of science (NOS) and the relationships connecting science, technology, and society (STS). The sample consisted of 774 in-service and pre-service teachers. The participants responded to a selection of items from the Questionnaire of Opinions on Science, Technology & Society in a multiple response model. These data were processed to generate the invariant indices that are used as the bases for subsequent quantitative and qualitative analyses. The overall results reflect moderately informed conceptions, and a detailed analysis by items, categories, and positions reveals a range of positive and negative conceptions about the topics of NOS dealt with in the questionnaire items. The implications of the findings for teaching and teacher training on the themes of NOS are discussed.     

Young Muslim women's experiences of Islam and physical education in Greece and Britain: a comparative study

Previous research suggests that Muslim women can experience particular problems when taking physical education (PE) lessons, for example with dress codes, mixed-teaching and exercise during Ramadan; and they can face restrictions in extra-curricular activities for cultural and religious reasons. The area is under-researched and there is little evidence of comparative studies that explore similarities and differences in cross-national experiences, which is the aim of this paper. Two studies conducted in Greece and Britain that explored the views of Muslim women on school experiences of physical education are compared. Both studies focused on diaspora communities, Greek Turkish girls and British Asian women, living in predominantly non-Muslim countries. Growing concerns about global divisions between ‘Muslims and the West’ make this a particularly pertinent study. Qualitative data were collected by interviews with 24 Greek Muslim women, and 20 British Muslim women.

Physical education has national curriculum status and a similar rationale in both countries but with different cultures of formality and tradition, which impacted on pupils’ experiences. Data suggested that Greek and British groups held positive views towards physical education but were restricted on their participation in extra-curricular activities. For the British women religious identity and consciousness of Islamic requirements were more evident than for the Greek women. Differences in stages of acculturation, historical and socio-cultural contexts contributed to less problematic encounters with physical education for Greek Muslims who appeared more closely assimilated into the dominant culture.     

How communication context impacts judgments of a potential peer mentor

Disclosure is a critical element of interpersonal relationships and individuals are often evaluated on what they share with others, whether in personal, professional, or learning contexts. Technology now allows for many different outlets for communicating with other people. We used experimental methods to explore the impact of communication medium (i.e. print diary, online diary, blog, or email) on psychosocial perceptions of a potential peer mentor. Female participants gave more positive mentor ratings on likeability, likeliness to disclose to the mentor, and perceived closeness than did males, but not on judgments of the mentor’s privacy. Participants judged the mentor to be more private when they viewed the print diary than in the online conditions and when reading the online diary than the blog (the least private condition). We also found that women were more likely to reciprocate disclosure when they viewed disclosures in the print condition than in the blog.     

ANALYSIS OF INSTRUCTIONAL CONSULTANTS' QUESTIONS AND ALTERNATIVES TO QUESTIONS DURING THE PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION INTERVIEW

This study sought to determine the relation between Instructional Consultants' communication skills and competence using videotapes of simulated Problem Identification interviews. A quantitative analysis identified the frequencies of questions and alternatives to questions used, and the qualitative analysis examined the content of the verbalizations in the context of the session. Few quantitative differences were observed across consultants' competency levels, with the exception that Competent consultants posed the most clarifying statements and fewest expert opinions. However, the qualitative analysis indicated that the quality of the verbalizations best accounted for the consultants' communication skill levels. These results suggest that it is the familiarity with the Instructional Consultation model that enabled the consultant to guide the session and use effective communication. Training recommendations include building an understanding of the underlying assumptions of the consultation model and rehearsing communication skills within that context.     

Mentoring in Contexts of Cultural and Political Friction: Moral Dilemmas of Mentors and Their Management in Practice

This paper examines the nature of moral dilemmas mentors from three different national groups (Jewish, Druze, and Arab) encounter in their work in Israeli Arab schools, how they manage these dilemmas in practice, and how the nature of particular dilemmas might connect to their management strategies. Given the multicultural and politically conflictive context of the Israeli society, a cultural and political reading of in-service mentors’ moral dilemmas reveals that mentors’ encounter and management of recurrent moral dilemmas is embedded in cultural and political issues in a way that seem to hinder their mentoring practice. Preparation programs for mentors need to highlight awareness of mentors’ own culture and that of their mentees in order to implement a culturally and politically responsive practice.     

Long-Term Stability of Individual Differences in Sustained Attention in the Early Years

The goal of this longitudinal study was to explore whether early measures of attention and inattention would be predictive of later attentiveness and whether there was any evidence of stable individual differences in attentiveness. Both full-term and preterm children were observed at 1, 2, and 3.5 years in free play and in more structured situations. For the group as a whole, and for full-terms separately, quantitative measures of inattention at 2 years were predictive of comparable measures at 3.5 years. For preterms separately, quantitative measures of inattention at 1 year were predictive of both behavior and the mothers' rating on the Conners Hyperactivity subscale at 3.5 years. Global, qualitative ratings of attentiveness at 1 and 2 years were predictive of mothers' ratings on the Conners at 3.5 years for the group as a whole and for full-terms separately. For full-terms only, the global ratings of attentiveness at 1 and 2 years were also predictive of 3.5-year quantitative measures of behavior. These data provide an encouraging base for further investigation of early individual differences in attentiveness and of possible early precursors of later attention deficits.