Forces affecting change in small rural schools

Selected curriculum changes were studied in two rural shcool‐community contexts. Both qualitative and quantitative data indicated that implementation was at a low level of use and that factors related to isolation were particularly powerful influences in the change process. A major implication of the study is demonstrated need for detailed curriculum implementation plans that account for local school community factors.     

Annual Index Volume 8

The objective of this paper is to report the development and use of an observation checklist to identify typically developing children with behavioural manifestations associated with inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. This measure is termed the Scope Classroom Observation Checklist (SCOC). The SCOC was developed, assessed for reliability using an independent observer and teacher ratings, and administered to a sample of 157 mainstream schoolchildren. The SCOC revealed a normal distribution of scores on the checklist, and the top and bottom quartiles of this distribution were found, as would be expected, to differ significantly on SCOC score. The SCOC had good inter‐observer reliability and a high rate of concordance with teacher ratings of attentional difficulties. The SCOC has emerged as a reliable measure that could prove to be a useful tool in a battery of screening measures to identify mainstream schoolchildren with difficulties characterised by inattention and hyperactivity‐impulsivity.     

The icelandic educational network: incidents reported as fostering successful use of educational networks

Abstract

Telecommunications have moved into the world of education, and educational networks have arisen in many countries. The Icelandic Educational Network (IEN) is one of these, and a recent study was undertaken to examine its role and its impact on the educational community in Iceland. A critical incident study was conducted to determine what activities educators felt have led to their successful use of the IEN. Participants were asked to describe two critical incidents that fostered their successful use of the IEN; 580 critical incidents reported by 290 subscribers at the IEN were analyzed. The data, recorded and presented in narrative and visual form, revealed six categories that foster successful use of the IEN, and frequency distribution charts showing the frequency of each incident are included here. Participant feedback has provided information regarding instructor training for telecommunication technology, and has indicated possible areas for inclusion in teacher education, and professional development activities     

Measuring Jews in Motion

Jewish educators are expected not only to imbue their students with Jewish knowledge but with Jewish feelings and Jewish actions as well—in short, with Jewish identity. However, in spite of a growing understanding among researchers that identity is fluid and dynamic, many of the traditional methods for assessing Jewish identity reflect essentialist concepts of identity that assume Jews and their Jewishness remain unchanging across various contexts. Our intention in this article is to review briefly some of the ways in which traditional methods of studying Jewish identity reveal problematic conceptualizations, and to suggest an alternative that seems to us more in keeping with constructivist concepts of identity.     

Microstructural analysis of negative anticipatory contrast: A reconsideration of the devaluation account

An animal’s appetitive behavior is not a fixed response to current stimulation but can be affected by the anticipation of future events. For example, rats regularly given access to a moderately valued solution followed by a higher value solution (e.g., 4 % sucrose → 32 % sucrose) consume less of the initial solution than in control conditions where the initial solution is not followed by a higher value solution (e.g., 4 % sucrose → 4 % sucrose). Previous analyses have suggested that this negative anticipatory contrast effect does not depend on the “expectation” of a valuable stimulus producing a functional devaluation of a currently available stimulus of lesser value. In a within-subjects anticipatory contrast procedure, this study revealed that both consumption and the mean size of licking clusters were smaller for a 4 % sucrose solution on days when it preceded 32 % sucrose than on days when 4 % preceded 4 %. Since lick cluster size typically bears a positive monotonic relationship with the concentration of palatable solutions, this reduction is indicative of a decrease in the palatability/hedonic value of the solution subject to contrast. As such, we provide direct evidence that negative anticipatory contrast does produce a functional devaluation of the solution, thus challenging prevailing theoretical assumptions.     

Right or Wrong? Toward a Theory of IRBs’ (Dis)Approval of Research

No one would disagree that scientific research has been unethical—even criminal—at times. Institutional review boards (IRBs) play a fundamental role in protecting people from unethical criminological research. At the same time, IRBs, as social entities, are subject to a wide range of influences that may affect their decisions regarding the ethicality of research. This research note draws on the paradigm of pure sociology and the logic underpinning Black’s theory of law to propose a preliminary theory of IRBs’ (dis)approval of research. Specifically, it suggests that IRBs apply less social control to criminological research involving higher status researchers and lower status research participants and, therefore, those persons are more often involved in research. The paper concludes with theoretically situated, practical advice for how (1) IRBs can reduce their discrimination, and (2) criminological researchers can reduce IRBs’ disapproval of their projects and thereby increase their research output.     

Lombroso's Legacy: The Miseducation of Criminologists

This study examines the extent to which criminal justice and criminology Ph.D. students are exposed to contemporary biological and genetic findings associated with aggression and violence. Drawing on multiple sources of information, we find little evidence showing that Ph.D. students are exposed to any biological research on crime and offending. We examine the consequences for this “trained incompetence” and offer suggestions for remedying this deficiency.

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. (John Stuart Mill)     

Teaching Biosocial Criminology I: Understanding Endophenotypes Using Gottfredson and Hirschi’s Self‐Control Construct

Criminology is experiencing a paradigm shift in theory and research that articulates a more interdisciplinary, biosocial mode of inquiry. Unfortunately, however, graduate‐level criminal justice education rarely encompasses biosocial training. The current review is the first in a series of works that seeks to fill this biosocial training void by providing instruction on concepts in the biological sciences and neurosciences that have direct relevance to criminal justice education and criminology. Here we introduce endophenotypes and demonstrate their relevance to the study of crime using the self‐control construct from Gottfredson and Hirschi’s general theory. Because biosocial criminology is in its nascent stage, it is critical that biosocial criminologists provide service and instruction to their social science‐trained colleagues.