How headmasters perceive their role: A case study in Botswana

This study investigates the extent to which junior secondary school headmasters in Botswana differ in their beliefs about the impact of their activities in instructional supervision, school management, and communications between the school and the community about student achievement. The study reveals that groups of headmasters who differ in these beliefs also differ in the way they view the dynamics of their school. Implications for headmaster selection, headmaster training, and decentralization of educational management are discussed.

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Zusammenfassung Diese Studie untersucht, inwieweit die Auffassungen der Lehrer an der junior secondary school (auf die Sekundarstufe vorbereitende Schule) in Botswana über den Einfluß ihrer Aktivitäten auf Unterrichtsüberwachung, Schulleitung und die Kommunikation zwischen den Schulen und der Gemeinde zu den Leistungen der Schüler voneinander abweichen. Die Studie zeigt auf, daß die Schulleiter, die unterschiedliche Meinungen vertreten auch die Dynamik ihrer Schulen unterschiedlich bewerten. Diskutiert werden auch die Auswirkungen auf die Auswahl von Schulleitern, Fortbildungen für Schulleiter und auf die Dezentralisierung der Bildungsverwaltung.

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Résumé Cette étude examine dans quelle mesure les jeunes directeurs des écoles secondaires du Botswana conçoivent différemment l'impact de leur activité sur l'orientation pédagogique, la gestion scolaire et la manière dont l'école informe la communauté des résultats scolaires. L'étude révèle que certains groupes de directeurs affichant des conceptions divergentes sur ces thèmes diffèrent également dans leur façon de considérer la dynamique de leur école. Il s'ensuit une discussion des conséquences à envisager dans la sélection des directeurs, leur formation et la décentralisation de la gestion scolaire.

     

Play and Divergent Problem Solving: Evidence Supporting a Reciprocal Relationship

A series of three studies was conducted to examine the relationship between specific forms of social and pretend play and divergent (figural and semantic) and convergent problem solving in preschool aged children. Naturalistic and experimental designs were used to provide a clearer account of the nature of the relationship between play and problem solving and to challenge the assumption that there is a single direction bf influence (play influencing problem solving) rather than the influence being complex and reciprocal. Overall, the results support a complex reciprocal causality model in which the development of divergent problem solving skills facilitates the development of play skills and vice versa.     

Canadian Communication

E.B. Ogle, Long Distance Please: The Story of the TransCanada Telephone System (Toronto: Collins, 1979—$14.95)

Stuart McFadyen, et al., Canadian Broadcasting: Market Structure and Economic Performance (Montreal: Institute for Research on Public Policy/available in U.S. from Renouf, Old Post Rd., Brookfield, Vt. 05036—$15.95, paper)

The Information Revolution and its Implications for Canada by Shirley Serafini and Michel Andrieu (November 1980, 113 pp. —$4.95, paper)

Telecommunications and Canada: Consultative Committee on the Implications of Telecommunications for Canadian Sovereignty (March 1979, 98 pp.—$6.00, paper)

The 1980s: A Decade of Diversity–Broadcasting, Satellites, and Pay-TV (.July 1980, 94 pp.—$3.95, paper)

Attitudes of Canadians Toward Advertising on Television (1978, 55 pp.—$2.00, paper)     

Associations Between First‐Time Expectant Women's Representations of Attachment and Their Physiological Reactivity to Infant Cry

Associations among 53 primiparous women's Adult Attachment Interview classifications (secure–autonomous vs. insecure–dismissing) and physiological and self‐reported responses to infant crying were explored. Heart rate, skin conductance levels, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were recorded continuously. In response to the cry, secure–autonomous women demonstrated RSA declines, consistent with approach‐oriented responses. Insecure–dismissing women displayed RSA and electrodermal increases, consistent with behavioral inhibition. Furthermore, insecure–dismissing women rated the cries as more aversive than secure–autonomous women. Nine months postpartum, secure–autonomous women, who prenatally manifested an approach‐oriented response to the unfamiliar cry stimulus, were observed as more sensitive when responding to their own distressed infant, whereas women classified prenatally as insecure–dismissing were observed as less sensitive with their own infants.     

UNIVERSITY‐BASED ADULT DAY CARE CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND TRAINING: DESIGN,FUNDING, AND PROGRAMMATIC ISSUES

In the early 1980s, the College of Human Resources at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University began a visioning process to plan its educational agenda for the 21st century. One of the more pressing issues targeted for educational intervention was community‐based long‐term care. Ten years later, a licensed, Medicaid‐certified adult day health center is fully operational on the university campus, providing a myriad of research, teaching, and public service opportunities for faculty and students. Center design, funding, and programmatic issues are discussed.     

Congruence between Mothers' and Fathers' Differential Treatment of Siblings: Links with Family Relations and Children's Well-Being

We studied patterns of mothers' and fathers' differential treatment of firstborn (average age 10.5 years) and secondborn (average age 8 years) school-age siblings, and we examined the links between parents' differential treatment and children's well-being and dyadic family relationships. Mothers, fathers, and both siblings in 110 families were interviewed in their homes. For each dimension of parental behavior that we assessed (i.e., differential affection and discipline) we created groups of families that reflected mothers' and fathers' levels of differential treatment (e.g., discipline the firstborn more, equal treatment, discipline the secondborn more). Although we detected substantial correspondence between the 2 parents' differential treatment, we found a sizable group of families in which parents' reports were incongruent (i.e., 1 parent reported equal and the other differential treatment). Parental patterns were linked to differences between the siblings' well-being and both sibling and parent-child relationships, with younger siblings exhibiting greater vulnerability to differential treatment. Incongruence in differential warmth was associated with marital distress.