Effects of Classroom Seating Arrangements on Children's question-asking

This study investigated the relationship between classroom seating arrangements and the question-asking of fourth-graders. Data were collected during 53 lessons spread over 8 weeks. Children were assigned to sit in a semicircle and then in a row-and-column seating arrangement for 2 weeks each. This rotation was repeated. Both children's questions and the teacher's verbal reactions were recorded using an observational system based on Kearsley's question taxonomy. The results showed that children asked more questions in the semicircle than in the row-and-column arrangement, and that the pattern of question characteristics was stable over time. The findings also revealed that, within the row-and-column arrangement, there was an action-zone in which children asked more questions per lesson. The results are interpreted in terms of Steinzor's postulation that social interaction is encouraged when individuals are able to establish face-to-face contact. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Development and initial validation of an instrument to assess the motivational qualities of music in exercise and sport: the Brunel Music Rating Inventory.

Equivocal results of the psychophysical effects of music have been explained in part by the insensitivity of researchers to important personal and situational variables when selecting music. The aim of the present study was to operationalize a conceptual framework for the prediction of psychophysical responses to music into a music rating inventory to assess the motivational qualities of music in exercise and sport environments. An initial item pool was developed and administered to 334 aerobics instructors. Exploratory factor analysis produced a 13-item, four-factor structure (association, musicality, cultural impact and rhythm response), which accounted for 59.2% of the variance. This model demonstrated acceptable fit indices when tested using confirmatory factor analysis on 314 exercise-to-music participants, and was better than an alternative two-factor model. When cross-validated using multisample confirmatory factor analysis, the model also showed an acceptable fit overall, although some invariance in the rhythm response factor was evident that can be attributed to the exclusive use of synchronous music by aerobics instructors. The Brunel Music Rating Inventory appears to be a valid and reliable tool for both researchers and practitioners to assess the motivational qualities of music in exercise and sport environments.     

Exporting Failure: the strange case of NVQs and overseas markets

At a time when Britain's vocational education and training (VET) system and vocational qualifications are undergoing a major review and restructuring in response to critical reports about the model established under the former National Council for Vocational Qualifications, the British Council and associated agencies is currently trying to market National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) overseas. The chief weaknesses and failings of NVQs and the competence‐based education and training (CBET) system on which they are based are outlined in terms of assessment anomalies and the needs of firms, trainees and employers. Since these shortcomings are so so serious, it is suggested that‐‐until they have been remedied through the current reforms under the aegis of the new Qualifications and Curriculum Authority‐‐it is ethically unjustifiable to export a failed VET system to countries which may be unaware of the critical research surrounding NVQs and CBET.     

Enuresis: An historical,cultural, and contemporary account of etiology and treatment

The authors discuss the cultural relativism of enuresis and the subsequent notion that urinary incontinence may not be a disease or psychopathy, but, rather, a problem associated with social expectations and developmental delays. Published literature has revealed that, historically, enuretic children have been subjected to distressing and painful methods of treatment, i. e., medications, mechanical devices, and pharmacologic preparations, to the point of permanent disability. They also discuss the evolution of explanations and treatments for enuresis from the Middle Ages into the 1970s, with emphasis on the successful use of behaviral therapies and meaningful parent and child reeducation.     

Coping with separation anxiety

Whether beginning nursery school, kindergarten, or first grade, many children commonly experience fear at being separated from their parents and at being in a new place for the first time for an extended period. For example, Albert lived across the street from the school where he was to attend first grade. Taken by his brothers and sisters to the school on the first day, Albert was left in a room with a teacher and forty-five other children.Betty Lou Land is an Associate Professor of Reading at Winthrop College and Terry Norton is an Instructor of Reading.     

Antenatal prediction of mother-infant difficulties

A prospective study of 143 "low risk" pregnant women expecting their first baby was conducted in Newcastle, Australia. The study was designed to examine the contribution of a woman's perception of her own childhood experiences, her trait anxiety level, socioeconomic status, and social support network to difficulties in her relationship with her baby during the baby's first year. The women were initially interviewed during pregnancy and followed up 3 and 12 months postpartum. Follow-up measures included the Dimensions of Perinatal Adjustment, the Neonatal Perception Inventory, the Ainsworth Strange Situation, and information from hospital records, family doctors, and baby health centre sisters. Women who perceived their social network as less supportive during pregnancy were likely to see their one-year-old babies (p less than .05) as more difficult. The other antenatal measures were not significantly predictive of outcome.