Adolescent sexual risk behaviors and school‐based sexually transmitted infection/HIV prevention

Many adolescents are susceptible to negative outcomes associated with sexual behavior. This is particularly true for those who initiate sexual intercourse at an early age, have many sex partners, or engage in unprotected sex because these behaviors put one at risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. This article reviews the various demographic, social‐contextual, and intrapersonal factors linked to sexual risk behaviors. Successful STI/HIV prevention programs must consider developmental and gender issues, as well as cultural norms and values, to effectively meet the prevention needs of all adolescents. We discuss the characteristics of effective intervention programs and provide the names and key features of empirically validated, school‐based STI/HIV prevention programs. In addition, we recommend specific roles for school psychologists in STI/HIV prevention efforts. Finally, other resources are provided to assist practitioners in their continuing review of STI/HIV prevention education. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Developing into similarity: global teacher education in the twenty‐first century

This article explains the process that is causing systems of teacher education in the EU, the USA and elsewhere to converge into a form of fewer qualitative distinctions. We argue that expansion brought about by processes familiar to globalisation is creating wide differences in the cost of information that incentivises use of standardised patterns for producing teachers. The logic of institutional expansion, like the logic of globalisation, operates as a uniting force across previously regarded nation‐state boundaries and cultural distinctions. This brief study identifies institutional scale and the division of information as key factors that link the interaction of institutions across markets and adds insight into the critically important issues surrounding the production of quality teachers.     

Educational effects of the Tools of the Mind curriculum: A randomized trial

The effectiveness of the Tools of the Mind (Tools) curriculum in improving the education of 3- and 4-year-old children was evaluated by means of a randomized trial. The Tools curriculum, based on the work of Vygotsky, focuses on the development of self-regulation at the same time as teaching literacy and mathematics skills in a way that is socially mediated by peers and teachers and with a focus on play. The control group experienced an established district-created model described as a “balanced literacy curriculum with themes.” Teachers and students were randomly assigned to either treatment or control classrooms. Children (88 Tools and 122 control) were compared on social behavior, language, and literacy growth. The Tools curriculum was found to improve classroom quality and children's executive function as indicated by lower scores on a problem behavior scale. There were indications that Tools also improved children's language development, but these effects were smaller and did not reach conventional levels of statistical significance in multi-level models or after adjustments for multiple comparisons. Our findings indicate that a developmentally appropriate curriculum with a strong emphasis on play can enhance learning and development so as to improve both the social and academic success of young children. Moreover, it is suggested that to the extent child care commonly increases behavior problems this outcome may be reversed through the use of more appropriate curricula that actually enhance self-regulation.     

Individual participant data meta-analysis of the impact of educational interventions on pupils eligible for Free School Meals

Meta-analysis is the synthesis of findings from research projects, which enables an estimate of the average or pooled effect across various studies. This study presents findings from the intention to treat analysis for a series of educational evaluations in England using a two-stage meta-analysis with standardised outcome data and individual participant data meta-analyses. The research estimates the overall impact of educational trials on pupils eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and the attainment gap in literacy and mathematics performance between FSM and non-FSM pupils based on analysis of 88 trials and data from over half a million pupils. For the meta-analyses, frequentist and Bayesian multilevel models were used to estimate the individual and pooled effect size across categories of explanatory variables such as age groups (key stages in England) and aspects of the type of interventions (one-to-one, small group, whole class). Results indicated that the overall impact of interventions on the literacy outcomes of FSM pupils was positive, with a pooled effect size of 0.06 (0.03, 0.08). However, for mathematics, no overall effect on FSM pupils was observed. Analysis of the attainment gap indicated that literacy outcomes for FSM pupils were improved by interventions marginally more than for non-FSM pupils (pooled attainment gap 0.01 (−0.01, 0.04)). The risk of bias assessment showed that estimates were consistent across different methodological approaches. Overall, evidence from this study can be used to identify, test and scale educational interventions in schools to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.     

The Roles of Privacy and Trust in Children's Evaluations and Explanations of Digital Tracking

A “digital revolution” has introduced new privacy violations concerning access to information stored on electronic devices. The present two studies assessed how U.S. children ages 5–17 and adults (N = 416; 55% female; 67% white) evaluated those accessing digital information belonging to someone else, either location data (Study 1) or digital photos (Study 2). The trustworthiness of the tracker (Studies 1 and 2) and the privacy of the information (Study 2) were manipulated. At all ages, evaluations were more negative when the tracker was less trustworthy, and when information was private. However, younger children were substantially more positive overall about digital tracking than older participants. These results, yielding primarily medium-to-large effect sizes, suggest that with age, children increasingly appreciate digital privacy considerations.     

让精神疾病原形毕露

精神疾病难以诊断，但基因检测和脑部成像技术，能够让它原形毕露。     

生命科技的全球观察

生物技术体系的改变，生物药的生产制造，个性化用药、预防医学等将共同形成研发的新驱动力。