The Role of Family in the Development of Social Skills in Children with Physical Disabilities

This study aims to identify the family characteristics that promote the development of social skills in children with physical disabilities. Parents and teachers completed a range of questionnaires in an Australia‐wide study of 212 parents of children (5–12 years of age) with physical disabilities who attend mainstream schools. The relationships between parental attitudes, parental involvement, family relationships, teachers’ opinions, disability severity, and children’s social skills were tested using structural equation modelling. The results of this study show the importance of family characteristics for the development of social skills in children with physical disabilities. A strong link was found between aspects of healthy family relationships, especially high levels of parental involvement with schooling, and greater social skills development in children. In short, families with highly cohesive, idealised, and democratic family styles strongly influence children’s social skills by providing a safe and sound foundation for children to explore their social environment. Practical implications arising from this study are discussed.     

The prevalence of a history of child sexual abuse among adults visiting family practitioners in Israel

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of a history of child sexual abuse (CSA) in a random sample of adult patients presenting for routine health care to family practice clinics in Israel. METHOD: One thousand and five randomly selected patients aged 18 to 55, attending 48 clinics, participated in this questionnaire study. RESULTS: Twenty-five percent indicated that they had been sexually abused as children. More women reported CSA (p < .0001 ) than men, as did women originating from Western countries (p = .02) and those with more than 12 years of education (p = .01). There were no significant associations between CSA and the other socio-demographic variables examined. Fondling was the most common and intercourse the least common activity experienced. Forty-five percent of the perpetrators were previously known. The mean age at which the child sexual abuse began varied between 10 and 14. Only 45% of the subjects had ever told anyone about the experience. CONCLUSIONS: Since no other prevalence study has been reported to date in Israel, these findings suggest that as in other Western countries CSA is a relatively common problem. Family physicians and other health professionals should be aware of this high prevalence and its known potential for initial and long-term deleterious outcomes.     

大学与中小学伙伴协作:美国教师教育中的实践

美国职前教师教育专业计划是与教师准备任教的学生年龄段及科目相对应的,其中特别强调师范生获取大量的教育现场经验.美国在职教师教育的特点主要有,安排经验丰富的教师指导新教师;在职教师必须进行持续的学习.为改进教师教育的质量,美国普遍推行建立大学与中小学之间的伙伴协作关系,其采取的主要形式是建立专业发展学校.专业发展学校的使命有:为教师候选人提供专业准备、促进指导教师的专业发展、开展旨在改进教学实践的探究、提高学生的学业成绩.在美国,大学与中小学之间的伙伴协作既取得了明显的成效,也面临着多方面的挑战.     

Inhibitory associations between neutral stimuli in flavor-aversion conditioning

In Experiments 1 and 2, rats were exposed to two compound flavors, AX and BX, containing one flavor in common (X). Following this exposure phase, an aversion was conditioned to A in the experimental group by pairing its consumption with an injection of lithium, while a control group drank A without being poisoned. The effect of this treatment was to establish B as a conditioned inhibitor. In Experiment 1, experimental animals were slower than controls to condition an aversion to B when its consumption was paired with lithium (a retardation test of conditioned inhibition). In Experiment 2, B alleviated the suppression of intake of another flavor previously paired with lithium (a summation test). Experiments 3 and 4 established that these effects depended upon prolonged prior exposure to AX and BX.     

Culturally Responsive Literacy Practices in an Early Childhood Community

Early childhood educators continue to see an increase in their culturally diverse student population. As our country continues to grow as a multicultural nation, it is imperative that our early childhood classrooms embrace this rich diversity and provide experiences that affirm all students, families and communities. We (teacher educators) synthesized the current research into the following five frameworks that we believe embody the foundation of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) in an early childhood setting: (a) developing a culturally responsive classroom community, (b) family engagement, (c) critical literacy within a social justice framework, (d) multicultural literature, and (e) culturally responsive print rich environments. In this article we situate each framework within the larger context of research. Next we move beyond discussing CRT practices by offering ideas on how culturally responsive classrooms look and how to implement this pedagogy and in an early childhood setting with real classroom practices.     

An Australian study of graduate outcomes for disadvantaged students

Whether or not disadvantaged students are realising the same benefits from higher education as their peers is of fundamental importance to equity practitioners and policymakers. Despite this, equity policy has focused on access to higher education and little attention has been paid to graduate outcomes. The Australian study reported here used national data to investigate relationships between disadvantage and graduate outcomes. The study provides critical insights into how access to higher education does, or does not, lead to improvements in post-graduation equity. The study reveals that outcomes are not equal for all students and that higher education disadvantage persists for many students after they have completed their studies. Whilst the specific findings relate to the Australian university sector the broader discussion of the article is relevant to higher education policy more generally, especially in terms of how governments align institutional processes to measure and scrutinise achievement in relation to public policy objectives.     

Bi/Multiracial Maori Women's Hybridity in Aotearoa/New Zealand

This paper examines the exclusion of bi/multiracial Maori women from dominant representations of Maori women's identity and engages with a new articulation of Maori women's difference through a narrative of cultural hybridity. Through a study of key texts on the history of New Zealand and dominant articulations describing Maori nationalists’ efforts to invoke equality for Maori during the 1970s and 1980s, I exemplify how an essentialist Maori women's identity was promoted within Maori nationalist appeals to bicultural nationalism. I argue that current articulations of Maori women's identity do not include an analysis of race, gender, and class, nor the way they operate simultaneously to position the bi-multi racial woman discursively in the nation today. Twenty women who position themselves as bi/multiracial were interviewed and their stories show how the raced and gendered body must be reinstated within articulations of Maori women's identity through situating corporeal difference within discussions on their subjectivity and related marginalization.     

Social influences on the identification of toxic foods by Norway rats

In the present experiments, a naive “observer” rat first interacted with a “demonstrator” rat previously fed a diet unfamiliar to the observer. The observer then sampled two unfamiliar diets, one of which was the diet its demonstrator had eaten. The observer was then injected with LiCl and, following recovery from toxicosis, was offered a choice between the two diets it sampled prior to toxicosis induction. It was found that: (1) each observer rat formed an aversion to whichever diet its demonstrator had not eaten, (2) effects of demonstrators on aversion learning by observers were present even if there was a 7- or 8-day delay between interaction of a demonstrator and observer and diet sampling by the observer, and (3) observers interacting with 3 demonstrators, each fed a different diet, subsequently exhibited a reduced tendency to form an aversion to each of the diets eaten by their demonstrators. Taken together, the results indicate that information acquired from conspecifics as to the diets they have eaten can play an important role in determining the foods to which otherwise naive rats will learn aversions.     

The Adequacy of Privacy: The European Union Data Protection Directive and the North American Response

The recently passed European Directive on the Protection of Personal Data aims to harmonize European data protection law at a higher level of protection than exists now. It represents a European consensus on a standard for personal privacy and a model for countries without data protection laws. The protracted process for agreement and ratification, however, has produced a document with many derogations and ambiguities, reflecting the wider moves towards 'subsidiarity' within the European Union. Of concern to North America is the stipulation that transborder data flow may not be permitted unless the receiving country can demonstrate an 'adequate' level of protection. While the process through which this provision will be interpreted and applied is so far found to be complicated and unclear, nevertheless European authorities will be reluctant to tolerate 'data havens,' a fact that should concern North American business that relies on the unimpeded flows of personal data from and to Europe. Neither Canada nor the United States can claim 'adequate' data protection according to the European standard. However, Canadian efforts through the Canadian Standards Association and the Federal Information Highway Advisory Council signal an attempt to fashion a more comprehensive policy framework for privacy than the more incremental and reactive approach of the United States. This divergence is explained by key cultural, economic, and political factors within Canada, which have caused a different reaction to the extraterritorial effects of the European Union's Data Protection Directive.