Child development knowledge: Is it enough?

It would seem a foregone conclusion that early childhood program directors need a knowledge base in child development if they are to establish credibility in their role as directors (Kuykendall, 1990). The general assumption, then, is that directors' client base is young children. However, early childhood program directors in their daily experiences deal with opposite ends of the development continuum from children to adults.Sharon L. Wooden is Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM. Nancy E. Baptiste is Coordinator, Child Development Associate Program, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces.     

New Metrics for Employee Development

Organizations are increasingly concerned about human resource accountability and have turned to HR metrics as an economical way to assess results from human resource activities. Unfortunately, many existing development metrics have limited utility. In this article, we review and discuss existing metrics for employee development. Then, we present five new development metrics and that can provide a core set of metrics for any type of organization. These metrics will provide new perspectives that older metrics do not, and lead to better human resource development decisions.     

Competency beliefs,positive affect,and gender stereotypes of elementary students and their parents about science versus other school subjects

Iowa students and parents completed related attitude and belief questionnaires about school subjects. Grade K–3 students received simpler questionnaires than did Grade 4–6 students or parents. Among Grade 4–6 children, girls perceived higher competence in reading than did boys, but boys perceived higher competence in physical science. All children perceived physical science competence lower than reading or math competence. Parents perceived boys as more competent in science. Girls like reading more than boys did; boys and girls did not differ in liking of science. Grade 4–6 children also expected lower grades in and attached lower importance to physical science than to reading. Parents perceived science as more important for boys and expected higher performance of boys. Jobs related to math or science were seen as more male dominated. These results provided a more comprehensive picture of attitudes and beliefs about science in the elementary school than had existed and suggested that attitudinal gender differences related to physical science begin to develop by the earliest elementary school years. Policy implications are that intervention programs designed to promote gender equity should be extended to the early elementary school years and also should address parental attitudes. Additional implications for policy and research are discussed. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 719–747, 1999     

Judgments and Reasoning About Parental Discipline Involving Induction and Psychological Control in China and Canada

This study examined judgments and reasoning about four parental discipline practices (induction or reasoning and three practices involving “psychological control”; Barber, 1996; two forms of shaming and love withdrawal) among children (7–14 years of age) from urban and rural China and Canada (N = 288) in response to a moral transgression. Children from all settings critically evaluated love withdrawal and preferred induction. Despite being perceived as more common in China than in Canada, with age, parental discipline based on shaming or love withdrawal was increasingly negatively evaluated and believed to have detrimental effects on children's feelings of self‐worth and psychological well‐being. Some cultural variations were found in evaluations of practices, perceptions of psychological harm, and attribution of parental goals.     

Enhancing curriculum and delivery: linking assessment to learning objectives

Typical university‐wide course evaluations do not provide instructors with sufficient information on the effectiveness of their courses. This article describes a course assessment and enhancement model where student feedback can be used to improve courses and/or programs. The model employs an assessment tool that measures student perceptions of importance and their current competence in course‐specific learning objectives both pre‐ and post‐course. Information gained from this assessment enables course improvement over time and also allows for modification in delivery and/or content of the current course. This model is intended to augment traditional course evaluation mechanisms based on specific and actionable feedback on learning objectives.     

Using a Substitute Activity to Eliminate Eye Poking in a 3‐year‐old Visually Impaired Child in the Classroom

This paper documents the effectiveness of a substitute activity in decreasing the frequency of eye poking in a 3‐year‐old nonretarded visually impaired child who was involved in a highly participatory, full‐day reading program with four sighted classmates. Following 49 days of training, eye poking had been eliminated, and the subject was able to read 25 word cards. Elements to consider when selecting a substitute activity to interrupt an established self‐stimulating behaviour such as eye poking are discussed.     

The Effects of a Kit-Based Science Curriculum and Intensive Science Professional Development on Elementary Student Science Achievement

The science achievement of 226 5th graders from districts that have a kit-based inquiry science curriculum supported by intensive professional development (PD) is compared with data from a group of 173 5th graders from other districts that use nonkit science materials and do not have systematic science PD for teachers. Within the kit-based project, the sample of project teachers is stratified to select teachers with a high number of science PD hours versus those with few hours. While there were no significant differences in the mean total scores for kit-based students with low PD versus high PD teachers, the kit-based classrooms scored significantly higher than students in nonkit classrooms on both the pretest and posttest, though there were significantly more minutes of science instruction in the nonkit classrooms. Finally, nonkit teachers taught more units of shorter length and reported lower levels of preparedness to use reform pedagogical approaches.     

The human dimension of development in India

This paper provides an overview of the level of economic development in India, with a brief explanation of the factors that have impeded rapid growth of the economy. Against this background information, the paper focuses on some social programs undertaken by government and non-governmental agencies to help the most vulnerable segments of society to deal with the adverse effects of industrialization and urbanization and to share in the benefits of economic development.