Criminal Justice Students’ Attitudes Toward LGBTQ Individuals and LGBTQ Police Officers

Despite increasing acceptance of LGBTQ individuals in America, homophobia and homophobic attitudes among police officers are still a concern. Both LGBTQ individuals and LGBTQ officers report harassment and discrimination at the hands of police officers. Empirical evidence suggests that these homophobic attitudes are evident among students preparing for criminal justice careers. A number of studies have found that those who plan on law enforcement careers are significantly more homophobic. The current study sought to explore criminal justice students’ attitudes toward LGBTQ individual and LGBTQ police officers. Pursuant to a survey of criminal justice majors at a large public university, findings suggest that males pursuing a law enforcement track expressed the most homophobia and homophobic attitudes. Further statistical analysis indicated that gender, not the law enforcement track, predicts homophobia and homophobic attitudes.     

What is the Relationship Between Teacher Quality and Student Achievement? An Exploratory Study

The major purpose of the study was to examine what constitutes effective teaching as defined by measured increases in student learning with a focus on the instructional behaviors and practices. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) were used to identify teacher effectiveness levels while controlling for student-level and class/school-level variables. Actual achievement of 1936 third grade students in 85 classrooms on the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) Assessment results in English, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Science were compared to expected achievement resulting in an indicator of teacher effectiveness. Based on student learning gains, teachers were divided into quartiles. The statistical modeling approach facilitated comparisons of outcomes that were free of influences of identified extraneous variables. A double blind design was selected for in-depth cross-case studies with teachers from the highest quartile representing highly effective teachers (N?=?5) and the lowest quartile the less effective teachers (N?=?6). The observation team assessed the third grade teachers (N?=?11) based 20 categories within four domains: instruction, student assessment, classroom management, and personal qualities. Key findings indicate that effective teachers scored higher across the four domains. Additionally, effective teachers tended to ask a greater number of higher level (e.g., analysis) questions and had fewer incidences of off-task behavior than ineffective teachers. The exploratory study identified instructional behaviors and practices of teachers that result in higher student learning gains.     

The NEST–NNEST Divide and Teacher Identity Construction in Hong Kong Schools

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the contribution of nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) to teaching English as an international language, the privileging of native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and native-speaker competency, and concomitant marginalization of NNESTs, continues in many countries. To investigate and problematize the role the NEST-NNEST dichotomy plays in teachers’ professional identity construction, this article explores the ways in which multiple discourses interact to enable and constrain opportunities for such construction through in-depth interviews with teachers in Hong Kong. It raises questions about the failure of previous investigations to adequately problematize discourses that establish and support divisions between Hong Kong teachers and also questions the assumption that such divisions are necessarily associated with perceptions of marginalization among those positioned as NNESTs. This article presents suggestions for contesting discourses that establish and support hierarchical relations between teachers and discusses the implications for future research.     

Lack of effect of specific sodium hunger on learned aversions to sodium and sucrose

Frumkin (1975) reported that sodium-deficient rats fail to learn taste aversions to NaCl. However, those rats were sodium-deficient at the time of testing as well as at the time of training; any learned aversion could have been masked by a strong sodium hunger. Rats were made temporarily sodium-hungry by injections of Formalin or aldosterone. They were then poisoned after drinking both an NaCl and a sucrose solution. Several days later they were tested for learned aversions. Rats trained under the influence of aldosterone did not differ from controls. Rats trained under the influence of Formalin acquired slightly weaker aversions to both NaCl and sucrose. Thus there is no evidence that sodium deficiency alters the associability of NaCl with poison.     

Relations between sociocultural pressures and weight control behavior among early adolescent boys

Guided by the biopsychosocial model, we examined (a) the prevalence of weight control behaviors (WCBs; i.e., trying to stay the same weight, lose weight, gain weight, or do nothing about weight) among early adolescent boys by race/ethnicity and grade level, and (b) how the boys’ perceptions of sociocultural pressures (from parents, peers, and media) to lose weight, gain weight, exercise, and diet predicted their WCBs while accounting for body composition and grade level. Early adolescent boys ( n = 508) in middle schools completed survey measures of WCB and sociocultural pressures and objective assessment of body mass index as body composition. Multinomial logistic regressions revealed that sixth graders were more likely than seventh and eighth graders to be trying to lose weight. Moreover, greater pressure to gain weight and lower pressure to exercise predicted a greater likelihood of trying to gain weight. The significant roles of grade levels and different sociocultural pressures in predicting WCBs suggest that health professionals and school staff should consider these factors when intervening with early adolescent boys.     

Assessment of progressively delayed prompts on guided skill learning in rats

We examined the controlling factors that allow a prompted skill to become autonomous in a discrete-trials implementation of Touchette’s (1971) progressively delayed prompting procedure, but our subjects were rats rather than children with disabilities. Our prompted skill was a left-right lever-press sequence guided by two panel lights. We manipulated (a) the effectiveness of the guiding lights prompt and (b) the presence or absence of a progressively delayed prompt in four groups of rats. The less effective prompt yielded greater autonomy than the more effective prompt. The ability of the progressively delayed prompt procedure to produce behavioral autonomy depended upon characteristics of the obtained delay (trial duration) rather than on the pending prompt. Sequence accuracy was reliably higher in unprompted trials than in prompted trials, and this difference was maintained in the 2 groups that received no prompts but yielded equivalent trial durations. Overall sequence accuracy decreased systematically as trial duration increased. Shorter trials and their greater accuracy were correlated with higher overall reinforcement rates for faster responding. Waiting for delayed prompts (even if no actual prompt was provided) was associated with lower overall reinforcement rate by decreasing accuracy and by lengthening trials. These findings extend results from previous studies regarding the controlling factors in delayed prompting procedures applied to children with disabilities.     

Exploring Relational and Individualistic Counseling Preferences of Culturally Diverse College Students

This exploratory study examined the influence of gender and ethnicity on college student preferences for individualistic vs. relational‐focused counseling approaches. Overall, the results did not demonstrate significant differences across gender and ethnicity. However, there was a small tendency for women and African American participants to rate the counselor conducting the relational‐focused counseling approach more positively than did men and White participants, respectively.     

‘Sticks and stones': masculinities and conflict spaces

Drawing upon a post-structural ethnography of boys’ constructions of gendered and sexual identities in one South African high school, this paper empirically seeks to theorise how 20 Grade 8 boys, identified as The Jokers, The Achievers, The Outcasts and The Average Ou's, simultaneously seek out spaces in male peer culture to cultivate, police and challenge hegemonic notions of masculinity. The paper illustrates the construction and positioning of masculinities across spaces of conflict, more particularly, the personal and social resources reproduced by boys in the pursuit of ‘desirable’ masculinities across experiences of interpersonal conflict, punishment, friendship and play. Given the nature of these identity struggles in school boy peer culture, this paper highlights the need for fostering and maintaining peer conversational spaces where boys and girls are challenged to actively deconstruct prevailing gendered identities and work towards more expansive definitions of self.