Toy-playing behavior,sex-role orientation,spatial ability,and science achievement

The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the possible relationships among children's extracurricular toy-playing habits, sex-role orientations, spatial abilities, and science achievement. Data were gathered from 282 midwestern, suburban, fifth-grade students. It was found that boys had significantly higher spatial skills than girls. No significant differences in spatial ability were found among students with different sex-role orientations. No significant differences in science achievement were found between girls and boys, or among students with the four different sex-role orientations. Students who had high spatial ability also had significantly higher science achievement scores than students with low spatial ability. Femininely oriented boys who reported low playing in the two-dimensional, gross-body-movement, and proportional-arrangement toy categories scored significantly higher on the test of science achievement than girls with the same sex-role and toy-playing behavior.     

Developmental practicum experiences of preservice teachers in deaf education: implications for practicum placement and faculty-student collaborative research

The study examined the developmental practicum experiences of second-year graduate students in deaf education. Participants in the study consisted of a convenient sample of five practicum students. Triangulated data for the study came from the researcher's observational notes, e-mail correspondence with participants, and participants' journals. Inductive analysis was used to analyze the data. Results of the study evinced developmental experiences that are different from those reported in previous studies. The results of the study have significant implications for (a) practicum placement of graduate students in deaf education in terms of site-based orientation, use of the clinical model of supervision, opportunities for self-reflection, and periodic practicum seminars; and (b) faculty-student collaborative research in terms of planning, ethical issues, students' time needs, and training.     

Understanding mother-adolescent conflict discussions: concurrent and across-time prediction from youths' dispositions and parenting

Adolescence is often thought of as a period during which the quality of parent-child interactions can be relatively stressed and conflictual. There are individual differences in this regard, however, with only a modest percent of youths experiencing extremely conflictual relationships with their parents. Nonetheless, there is relatively little empirical research on factors in childhood or adolescence that predict individual differences in the quality of parent-adolescent interactions when dealing with potentially conflictual issues. Understanding such individual differences is critical because the quality of both parenting and the parent-adolescent relationship is predictive of a range of developmental outcomes for adolescents. The goals of the research were to examine dispositional and parenting predictors of the quality of parents' and their adolescent children's emotional displays (anger, positive emotion) and verbalizations (negative or positive) when dealing with conflictual issues, and if prediction over time supported continuity versus discontinuity in the factors related to such conflict. We hypothesized that adolescents' and parents' conflict behaviors would be predicted by both childhood and concurrent parenting and child dispositions (and related problem behaviors) and that we would find evidence of both parent- and child-driven pathways. Mothers and adolescents (N5126, M age513 years) participated in a discussion of conflictual issues. A multimethod, multireporter (mother, teacher, and sometimes adolescent reports) longitudinal approach (over 4 years) was used to assess adolescents' dispositional characteristics (control/ regulation, resiliency, and negative emotionality), youths' externalizing problems, and parenting variables (warmth, positive expressivity, discussion of emotion, positive and negative family expressivity). Higher quality conflict reactions (i.e., less negative and/or more positive) were related to both concurrent and antecedent measures of children's dispositional characteristics and externalizing problems, with findings for control/regulation and negative emotionality being much more consistent for daughters than sons. Higher quality conflict reactions were also related to higher quality parenting in the past, positive rather than negative parent-child interactions during a contemporaneous nonconflictual task, and reported intensity of conflict in the past month. In growth curves, conflict quality was primarily predicted by the intercept (i.e., initial levels) of dispositional measures and parenting, although maintenance or less decrement in positive parenting, greater decline in child externalizing problems, and a greater increase in control/regulation over time predicted more desirable conflict reactions. In structural equation models in which an aspect of parenting and a child dispositional variable were used to predict conflict reactions, there was continuity of both type of predictors, parenting was a unique predictor of mothers' (but not adolescents') conflict reactions (and sometimes mediated the relations of child dispositions to conflict reactions), and child dispositions uniquely predicted adolescents' reactions and sometimes mothers' conflict reactions. The findings suggest that parent-adolescent conflict may be influenced by both child characteristics and quality of prior and concurrent parenting, and that in this pattern of relations, child effects are more evident than parent effects.     

Effects of maternal interference on the attachment and exploratory behavior of one-year-olds

Effects of maternal interference on social behavior toward mother and exploratory play were examined in a laboratory experimental paradigm. Subjects were 40 1-year-olds and their mothers. Mothers of the 20 interference-group infants were instructed periodically to physically interfere with their child's independent object play during the first half of the observation session. A postinterference free-play period immediately followed. The 20 control-group infants were permitted by mother to play freely throughout the session. Groups were matched for exposure to play materials. Despite its aversiveness, interference had no subsequent effect on infant social initiatives to mother, responsiveness to mother's social bids, or exploratory play.     

Maternal Personality: Longitudinal Associations to Parenting Behavior and Maternal Emotional Expressions toward Toddlers

OBJECTIVE: Longitudinal associations among maternal personality, emotional expressions, and parenting were examined. DESIGN: Maternal parenting (sensitivity and intrusiveness) and positive emotional expressions were observed during a free-play session with toddlers at 18 (T1, n = 246) and 30 (T3, n = 216) months. Mothers completed a personality measure at T1 and a questionnaire measuring their emotional expressiveness (positive and negative) when toddlers were 24 months old (T2, n = 213). RESULTS: Dimensions of maternal personality and maternal emotional expressiveness were related to individual differences in maternal parenting behaviors, in particular to maternal sensitivity. Conscientiousness and Agreeableness at T1 were positively associated with observed positive emotional expressions at T1. Agreeableness, Openness to Experience, and Extraversion at T1 also were positively related to positive emotional expressions reported by mothers at T2. Maternal positive emotional expressions (T1 and T2), in turn, were associated with more sensitive behavior observed with toddlers at T3. CONCLUSION: In addition to direct effects of maternal personality on maternal parenting, mothers' emotional expressiveness was found to be a possible pathway for explaining relations of maternal personality and parenting.     

Longitudinal Effects of Student Mobility on Three Dimensions of Elementary School Engagement

Working within the developmental science research framework, this study sought to capture a dynamic and complex view of student mobility. Second‐ through fifth‐grade data (N = 1,003, predominantly Caucasian) were drawn from a longitudinal study, and growth curve analyses allowed for the examination of mobility effects within the context of other factors that put children at risk, including behavior problems and family stress. School changes predicted declines in academic performance and classroom participation but not positive attitude toward school. Time‐varying factors such as peer acceptance and teacher support had a positive influence on the growth trajectories of child outcomes. Additionally, teacher support had a particularly strong influence on positive attitudes toward school among children who had more school changes.     

Building a Sustainable Quality MattersTM Community of Practice Through Social Network Analysis

ABSTRACT

The growth of distance education has necessitated strong evidence of quality for institutions of higher education, and numerous standards and principles of quality have been developed, such as Quality Matters? (Quality Matters). These systems are often considered only at the course level to guide design and improve student outcomes, but they can also help to pull the institution together and galvanize advancement in online development. Adopting online quality standards can be a complex process that requires changes to institutional culture. This article describes how the use of the Community of Practice (CoP) framework engaged a campus-wide network of individuals in adoption of the Quality Matters training, rubric, and review process to advance distance education support and online course development. Using Social Network Analysis, researchers were able to identify the strengths and weakness of the CoP during the early adoption phase of Quality Matters to quantitatively measure the connections among members of the community.

Based on a survey administered to every participant who attended the Applying the Quality Matters Rubric? (APPQMR) workshop, researchers analyzed connections across the Quality Matters? (Quality Matters) Community of Practice (CoP). This analysis indicated strong cohesion of the network based on work related to distance education but low density for connections based on Quality Matters. Furthermore, it demonstrated that significant connections existed between members prior to the adoption of Quality Matters and identified key influencers within the network. The results also indicated that the Quality Matters leadership team at the institution is highly central to the Quality Matters CoP network. The results can be used to identify strategies to further adoption of Quality Matters at the institution by strengthening the CoP.     

因为有他,我才学会快乐

My mother's angry scream broke into the happy,friendly world of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.Even as a 6-year-old, I often escaped into the neighborhood of the kind, soft-spoken man who wore that brightly colored sweater. But on this day, any attempt to slip into my safe TV world didn't work. My mom's angry shouts made sure of that.     

International Trends in Health Science Librarianship Part 18: The Middle East (Iran,Qatar and Turkey)

This is the 18th in a series of articles exploring international trends in health science librarianship in the 21st century. The focus of the present issue is the Middle East (Iran, Qatar and Turkey). The next feature column will investigate trends in the Balkan States JM