Reporting Risk: Perceptions of Fear and Risk from Health News Coverage

Using actual news coverage of an environmental risk, this experimental study examined whether providing unrelated risk comparisons and information about other sources of the same risk influenced readers' reactions to the coverage. The study suggests stories that provide information on other sources of a contaminant may do little to reduce risk perceptions; however, providing information about the magnitude of the risk at hand relative to other risks had several communication benefits. Both comparisons lead readers to feel more informed about the risk and, thus, better able to make decisions than those who did not see the comparisons. Media implications are discussed.     

An analysis of community involvement in primary schools in Malawi

Through a secondary analysis of standardised test data, the paper reviews community involvement in Malawian primary schools and examines the extent to which it explains variation in pupil test scores. In so doing, the study deconstructs the concept of community involvement, demonstrating that it is not a unitary concept but rather made up of multiple effects which can be categorised into different modes: “learner support”, “financing” and “networking”. The framework developed may help with future research and the results caution policymakers in Malawi on the current reality of community participation and how this relates to existing policy ambitions.     

The Pedagogy of Primary Historical Sources in Mathematics: Classroom Practice Meets Theoretical Frameworks

We analyze our method of teaching with primary historical sources within the context of theoretical frameworks for the role of history in teaching mathematics developed by Barbin, Fried, Jahnke, Jankvist, and Kjeldsen and Blomhøj, and more generally from the perspective of Sfard’s theory of learning as communication. We present case studies for two of our guided student modules that are built around sequences of primary sources and are intended for learning core curricular material, one on logical implication, the other on the concept of a group. Additionally, we propose some conclusions about the advantages and challenges of using primary sources in teaching mathematics.     

Foreign Communication

Australia, Henry Mayer reports on ten recent publications

COMMUNICATIONS LAW AND POLICY IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: EXPERIENCES & REFLECTIONS (International Law Institute, 1330 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036 price not given, paper)

JAPANESE COMMUNICATION STUDIES OF THE 1970S: BIBLIOGRAPHIC ABSTRACTS OF STUDIES PUBLISHED ONLY IN JAPANESE compiled by Hayato Yamanaka, et al. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986—price not given, paper)

DEVELOPMENT AS COMMUNICATION: A PERSPECTIVE ON INDIA by Uma Narula and W. Barnett Pearce (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986—$19.95)

COMPUTER COMMUNICATIONS AND THE MASS MARKET IN CANADA by Barry Lesser and Louis Vagianos (Brookfield, VT: Brookfield Publishing, 1985—$10.00, paper)

SEX-ROLE STEREOTYPING IN THE BROADCAST MEDIA: A REPORT ON INDUSTRY SELF-REGULATION (Ottawa: Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, 1986—pricenot given, paper)     

Toxic Portraits: Resisting Multiple Invisibilities in the Environmental Justice Movement

This essay conceptualizes “toxic portraits,” close-up, in situ photographs of people in toxically assaulted places. Toxic portraits articulate the multiple invisibilities attending environmental injustice through a series of visible indexical signs. As a result, toxic portraits enable spectators to see the precariousness of life as dramatized in human relationships to the environments in which we live. Drawing on the “subjunctive voice of the visual” as a rhetorical heuristic, I conceptualize the productive space created by toxic portraits and ultimately argue that these images invite an ethically inflected response to the dangers of living in a polluted world.     

Parental Nurturance Promotes Reading Acquisition in Low Socioeconomic Status Children

Research Findings: Children require cognitive skills (e.g., phoneme awareness, verbal intelligence) and environmental resources (e.g., stimulation, print exposure) to acquire reading. This investigation examined the additional contribution of parental nurturance to literacy development during the transition from preschool to elementary school. Participants were 77 children attending Head Start, their primary caregivers, and their teachers. A variety of methods were used to measure nurturance (e.g., self-report, laboratory observation, home observation) and reading achievement (e.g., standardized testing and teacher report). Approximately 3½ years later, 52 families and 39 teachers were available for repeat assessments of children's reading achievement. After controlling for the variance accounted for by prior reading ability, phonological awareness, verbal reasoning ability, and home academic stimulation, parental nurturance made a significant unique contribution to children's growth in reading achievement. Results supported the hypothesis that caregiver nurturance can be an important ingredient in the recipe for literacy.

Practice: The findings have important implications for the design of interventions for children with low reading achievement. By understanding the various ways in which parents foster reading, interventions can be developed to bolster parental nurturance and support the role of nurturance in promoting children's development in all areas, including intellectual and academic functioning.     

Modelling the dynamics of children’s gross motor coordination

ABSTRACT

This study modelled children’s gross motor coordination, investigated sex-differences and identified the effects of fixed and dynamic correlates on motor coordination development. A total of 344 Portuguese children (170 girls), from 6 age cohorts (5 to 9 years of age), were followed consecutively for three years (age range 5 to 11 years) using a mixed-longitudinal cohort design. Birth weight, hand dominance and socioeconomic status (SES) were identified. Gross motor coordination, body mass index, physical fitness (PF) and physical activity (PA) were assessed annually. A sequence of multilevel hierarchical linear models were developed. Model 1 found that age, age², sex, sex-by-age and sex-by-age² were significant predictors (p < 0.05) of gross motor coordination. Boys outperformed girls from 6 years of age onwards. Model 2 found a cohort effect (p < 0.05). Model 3 found that right handers were more coordinated (p < 0.05). When the confounders of body mass index, PF and PA were added to the model (Model 4) it was found that boys and girls had parallel trajectories in their gross motor coordination development. In conclusion children with increasing body mass index were less coordinated, while those who were stronger and more agile had steeper trajectories of gross motor coordination with age.     

Validity and reliability evidence for motor competence assessments in children and adolescents: A systematic review

ABSTRACT

Valid and reliable tests of motor competence are necessary to allow researchers and practitioners to quantify levels of motor competence, identify skill deficiencies, and determine the effectiveness of motor skill interventions. The primary study aim was to systematically review the validity and reliability of scores derived from gross motor competence tests for typically developing child and adolescent populations. The secondary aim of this review was to identify the most prevalent motor skills assessed across all instruments. A search of seven electronic databases identified 57 different skill assessment tools from 107 studies. Construct validity was the most common measurement property examined (60 studies; 56%). Content validity (21 studies; 20%) was the least commonly explored measurement property. Scores derived from the Test of Gross Motor Development – second and third edition had the most support for validity and reliability. The most common skills included in these skill batteries were the overhand throw (n = 33), catch (n = 32), jump (n = 31) and hop (n = 26). Research efforts should focus on: (1) further investigation of measurement properties of existing tools rather than developing new assessments and (2) further investigation of existing tools and their measurement properties in adolescent populations.     

Kinematic and neuromuscular relationships between lower extremity clinical movement assessments*

Lower extremity injuries have immediate and long-term consequences. Lower extremity movement assessments can assist with identifying individuals at greater injury risk and guide injury prevention interventions. Movement assessments identify similar movement characteristics and evidence suggests large magnitude kinematic relationships exist between movement patterns observed across assessments; however, the magnitude of the relationships for electromyographic (EMG) measures across movement assessments remains largely unknown. This study examined relationships between lower extremity kinematic and EMG measures during jump landings and single leg squats. Lower extremity three-dimensional kinematic and EMG data were sampled from healthy adults (males = 20, females = 20) during the movement assessments. Pearson correlations examined the relationships of the kinematic and EMG measures and paired samples t-tests compared mean kinematic and EMG measures between the assessments. Overall, significant moderate correlations were observed for lower extremity kinematic (r_avg = 0.41, r_range = 0.10–0.61) and EMG (r_avg = 0.47, r_range = 0.32–0.80) measures across assessments. Kinematic and EMG measures were greater during the jump landings. Jump landings and single leg squats place different demands on the body and necessitate different kinematic and EMG patterns, such that these measures are not highly correlated between assessments. Clinicians should, therefore, use multiple assessments to identify aberrant movement and neuromuscular control patterns so that comprehensive interventions can be implemented.