The Role of Emotion Regulation in the Social Problems of Boys With Developmental Delays

Parents and teachers reported that 6- to 8-year-old boys with developmental delays were less able to regulate their emotions than nondelayed boys matched on chronological age. Compared to nondelayed boys, boys with developmental delays had more social problems, which persisted and increased over a 3-year period. Children's ability to regulate their emotions explained significant variance in their social problems after controlling for their developmental status. In addition, emotion regulation partially mediated the relationship between children's developmental status and their social problems. These results suggest that emotion regulation plays a significant role in the social problems of boys with developmental delays. Furthermore, increasing the emotional competence of these children may facilitate their peer relationships and, ultimately, their school adjustment.     

Development and validation of an instrument to assess primary school students’ perceptions of the learning environment

Over the past 40 years, numerous instruments have been developed to assess the learning environment for a variety of purposes. Despite this plethora of available surveys, there are few that have been developed for use at the primary school level, and even fewer that have been comprehensively validated. This article describes the development of a long-overdue learning environment survey that is suited to primary school students. Evidence to support the validity of the survey, in terms of translation and criterion validity, was guided by Trochim and Donnelly’s (2006) construct validity framework. A pilot test involving one class of 30 students and interviews with six students was used to examine the face validity of individual items. Analyses of data collected from 609 students in 31 classes supported the convergent, concurrent, discriminant and predictive validity, the results of which were all satisfactory. This article is significant in that it provides educators and researchers with a valid tool to assess the learning environment. The instrument, named the Classroom Climate Questionnaire—Primary (CCQ-P), is described and its practical advantages and limitations are discussed.     

The role of popular girls in bullying and intimidating boys and other popular girls in secondary school

Despite a large amount of research focusing on bullying and exclusion in secondary schools, there is far less research focusing on cross‐gender bullying and ‘popular’ students who experience bullying. This research provides an analysis of interactions between male and female students (aged 13–14) in a school in England. The data provides multiple examples, both in the form of observations and group interviews, of girls teasing, intimidating and bullying boys and other popular girls. The analysis also considers teachers’ reactions to this behaviour, highlighting that it is often unnoticed. This paper raises this as an area for concern and suggests that future research should explore this further, both gaining more in‐depth knowledge of female bullying and intimidation of boys and popular girls, and exploring ways of working with teachers and schools to support students.     

Protecting Museum Collections from Vibrations Due to Construction: Vibration Statistics,Limits, Flexibility and Cooperation

ABSTRACT

Vibrations due to heavy construction work continue to be a major concern for museums. Although there has been an increase in research on the effect of vibrations on objects of cultural heritage in recent years, selecting measures to protect collections and remain open during construction work continues to be difficult because of a lack of data on what objects can actually withstand, the complexity of vibration loads, and the uniqueness of each situation. The major renovation of the Central Library in Liverpool, UK, which shared walls with the World Museum and Walker Art Gallery, both of which belong within National Museums Liverpool, showed how museums and other institutions can successfully deal with such situations. An integral approach was taken, beginning with an extensive risk analysis to determine which objects could remain on display, which needed extra protection and regular condition monitoring, and which had to be removed. The museums then negotiated a vibration protocol and action plan with the contractors, including continuous monitoring, and trigger levels requiring consultation or work stoppage. Vibration data were also stored and used for later analysis. This integral approach was successful in protecting the collections on exhibition, with only two incidents of reported damage directly related to vibrations. A combination of museum staff experience, excellent communications with the contractors, and some flexibility in defining vibration limits provided a successful recipe for both museums. The analysis of the vibration data using the basic engineering concept of the Palmgren-Miner rule, supports a more flexible approach to setting vibration limits based on recently published guidelines.     

不可混为一盘的水果

Whether pink or white or ruby red,grapefruit juice and some oral medicines don't mix. The juice can increase the effects-and side effects-of cholesterollowering drugs and other medications by up to a factor of ten.     

Advanced mathematics course-taking: A focus on gender equifinality

High school mathematics achievement predicts future success. Potentially different factors that lead to success for boys versus girls, termed equifinality, are not well understood. Such factors are needed to inform interventions to increase numbers of students taking advanced mathematics courses and going on into science and mathematics careers. With 16,373 diverse tenth grade participants of the 2002 Education Longitudinal Study, we used multi-group logistic regression modeling to investigate advanced mathematics course selection from a social cognitive perspective, testing relations separately by gender. Girls took advanced mathematics courses at significantly higher rates than males. Family background and cognitive factors were related to advanced mathematics coursetaking for both groups. Supporting the equifinality hypothesis, father's expectation, parent communication, and peer academic value were significant for girls yet mother's expectation and parent participation were significant for boys. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

A comparison of teacher assessment (APP) with standardised tests in primary literacy and numeracy (WIAT-II)

Assessing Pupils’ Progress (APP) arose from a government drive to increase the amount of teacher-based assessment within school and to make this consistent across schools. We conducted semi-structured interviews with head teachers to gain insight into how their schools applied APP and we compared the APP levels for English and Maths, provided by teachers across 11 schools for 72 pupils, to a standardised assessment (Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-II; WIAT). There was a strong correlation between the APP and WIAT for literacy but not for numeracy. Head teacher interviews revealed that APP is used differently across schools and at times is used in a way inconsistent with government guidance, which raises the question of how teacher assessments are used and their purpose. Questions that should be considered are; how is moderation used in schools, what is the function(s) of teacher assessments and what is good practice in relation to these assessments? Clarity about the function of assessments is of vital importance as is ensuring that assessments are meaningful to teachers, pupils, families and schools, especially in light of the weight that can be placed on teacher assessments for all these groups.     

Impact of embedded librarianship on undergraduate nursing students’ information skills

Background:One-shot library sessions have numerous drawbacks; most notably, they rarely have a long-term impact on students’ research behavior or skill sets. Library literature notes that when students interact with an embedded librarian, their skills improve. While close partnerships with subject faculty are important, librarians must also assess students’ skill sets to determine the impact of these teaching efforts.Case presentation:During the course, the embedded librarian used various activities and assignments to teach information-seeking skills, with the expected outcome of increased skill sets. This IRB-approved research project focused on measuring and assessing students’ information-seeking abilities before and after interacting with the embedded nursing librarian. Changes in students’ information fluency skills were measured using pre- and post-tests.Conclusions:The study results provide evidence of the benefits of the embedded librarianship model. Continued measurement of students’ skills acquisition is important to enable librarians and library administrators to show the positive impacts the library has on student learning and success.     

Enhancing student engagement in student experience surveys: a mixed methods study

Background

Measuring the student experience is becoming increasingly important in higher education in the UK. Student experience surveys are used as indicators of quality and form the basis of rankings of higher education institutions. They are also used by them as tools to assist their quality enhancement initiatives. However, these surveys frequently suffer from low response rates, which can reduce the reliability and usefulness of their data. The UK Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) is a relatively new survey and suffers from a low response rate. As this survey is new, little is known about why students do not respond to it.

Purpose

This study aimed to explore the reasons why postgraduate students do not respond to the PTES.

Sample

Three hundred and fifty-five postgraduate taught students from four health faculties in one UK higher education institution completed an online survey. Of these, seven participated in one of two focus groups.

Design and methods

The online survey was completed both by students who completed the PTES in 2011 and those who did not. This provided us with cross-sectional data to compare both groups’ knowledge of PTES and their reasons for completing or not completing it. We used multivariate regression analysis to explore which variables were associated with response to PTES. We led two focus groups to explore the themes that emerged from the survey in more depth. This data was analysed by two researchers using thematic analysis.

Results

The cross-sectional data found that students who were not clear about the purpose of PTES were less likely to respond, independent of other potential predictor variables. Focus group data indicated that if postgraduate students felt a stronger connection to the university community they may be more likely to respond to PTES.

Conclusions

This study suggests that higher education institutions may wish to review their strategies for advertising student experience surveys to focus more on their purpose rather than their impact.