Screening Higher‐Education Students for English Language Problems: Development of the Australian Tertiary‐English Screening Test

The number of NESB students in higher education has increased in recent years. Among the cultural factors that adversely affect the studies of some of these students are difficulties associated with the English language. Students with language related problems need to be identified early so that they can be encouraged to participate in the available support programs. A 20 item screening test (AUSTEST), quickly administered to large groups, has been developed on medical students at the University of Sydney. The test has evolved through a program of screen testing 1146 first‐year students (40% NESB) over the course of 5 years. The final cross‐validation study of a three‐phase process of test development with 81 students produced a correlation of 0.86 with a well established but more expensive individually administered English‐language proficiency battery, correctly identified 31 of the 33 students who were below the general population average, and correlated 0.43 with aggregated final marks in first‐year medicine. Although developed on medical students, the AUSTEST may be of more general use to other faculties who enrol significant numbers of able NESB students.     

Maternal representations of the infant: associations with infant response to the still face

Mothers' representations of their infants may influence early development of emotional self-regulation. This study examined the associations between characteristics of mothers' (N = 100) narratives about their 7-month-old infants, maternal depression, and their infants' affect regulation during the Still Face procedure. Findings showed that (1) mothers' representations were linked with individual differences in their infants' behavior across the Still Face procedure, (2) the association between mothers' representations and their infants' behavior was mediated by parenting behavior, and (3) mothers' representations explained unique variance in their infants' affect regulation beyond the contribution of maternal depression. Although infants' displays of positive affect diminished while mothers held a still face, only infants of mothers in the balanced representation category returned to high levels of positive affect upon resuming interaction. These findings highlight the role of maternal representations in the process by which dyads repair temporary disruptions in interaction, as well as individual differences in infants' and mothers' responses to the Still Face.     

The Equation, the Whole Equation and Nothing But the Equation! One Approach to the Teaching of Linear Equations

There exists an extensive range of research looking at the teaching and learning of linear equations, resulting in many papers highlighting a range of teaching approaches and illustrating a variety of significant cognitive problems and stumbling blocks to the learning of linear equations with understanding. Building on this literature, this paper presents some of the results of a case study which looked at the mathematics classroom of one particular teacher, Alwyn, trying to teach mathematics with meaning to less able pupils at secondary school level. Our interest here is those lessons which dealt specifically with the learning of linear equations, in which firstly a different approach was utilised and secondly many of the problems referred to in the literature were not present. We contrast this method with the teaching of linear equations to a variety of ability levels in several other classrooms that we have studied and we attempt through use of the Pirie-Kieren model, to analyse and account for the successful growth of understanding of the lower ability, year eight pupils in one particular classroom.     

Faculty development

Summary In an arena known for its emphasis on research and publication, the College Teaching Workshops are a refreshing change. The value of quality teaching has been validated by the popularity of and demand for these faculty development activities. For additional information about the College Teaching Workshops, contact the Center for Instructional Services, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907.     

Beginning the cycle of equitable teaching: The pivotal role of cooperating teachers

Cooperating teachers are prominent people in influencing the next generation of teachers because they interact daily with student teachers. This paper discusses the impact of gender-sensitive cooperating teachers on student teachers' teaching strategies, questioning patterns and interactions during their teaching practicum. Student teachers working with these gender-sensitive cooperating teachers were more equitable in their questioning patterns and more likely to ask students (of both genders) higher-order questions than their peers. Concord High School Caesar Rodney High School Glasgow High School Middletown High School Hanby Middle School     

Association between early sexual abuse and adult HIV-risky sexual behaviors among community-recruited women.

OBJECTIVE: The first purpose was to determine whether sexual abuse involving penetration that occurred in childhood only, adolescence only, or both childhood and adolescence differently impacted whether community-recruited women had ever traded sex for money or drugs, their number of recent sex partners, and the number of times they had engaged in recent unprotected sex. The second purpose was to assess the mediating effects of adulthood rape, recent drug use, and recent sex with an injection drug user on these three HIV-risky sexual behaviors. METHOD: Women (n = 1,490) recruited from three US sites were questioned about their childhood and/or adolescent sexual abuse histories, adulthood rape experiences, recent drug use, and adult HIV-risky sexual behaviors via structured interviews. RESULTS: One-third of the women reported having experienced sexual abuse involving penetration in childhood and/or adolescence. Overall, regression analyses indicated a significant relationship between early sexual abuse and adult risky behaviors; rape in adulthood mediated this relationship for all three HIV-risky behaviors. Abuse that occurred in childhood only and abuse that occurred in both childhood and adolescence had a stronger impact on later risky behaviors than did abuse that occurred in adolescence only. CONCLUSIONS: Because childhood constitutes a critical period in individuals' sexual, social, and personal development, sexual abuse precipitated during this time may distort women's constructions of sex and sexuality. Women abused in childhood may therefore engage in HIV-risky sexual behaviors to a greater extent than women abused in adolescence as a result of these disruptions to their development. Rape in adulthood appears to intensify the effects of early sexual abuse,     

Children''s Housework and Psychosocial Functioning: The Mediating Effects of Parents'' Sex-Role Behaviors and Attitudes

We examined sex-typed housework of children from dual- and single-earner families and its implications for children's adjustment as a function of congruencies between children's work and parents' sex-role behaviors and attitudes. Participants were 152 firstborn 9-12-year-olds (85 girls, 67 boys) and their parents. All fathers and 50% of mothers were employed. In home interviews parents rated their sex-role attitudes, and children rated their competence, stress, and parent-child relationships. In 7 nightly telephone interviews, children and parents described their household tasks for that day. Analyses revealed sex and earner-status differences in children's and parents' involvement in traditionally feminine and masculine tasks. Correlations between levels of parents' and children's task involvement were significant only in the case of fathers and sons in single-earner families. Regarding the connections between task performance and child adjustment, we found that incongruency between boys' sex-typed tasks and their fathers' sex-role behaviors and attitudes was linked to poorer psychosocial functioning, a pattern that did not hold for girls.