The mind behind the message: advancing theory-of-mind scales for typically developing children, and those with deafness, autism, or Asperger syndrome

Children aged 3-12 years (n = 184) with typical development, deafness, autism, or Asperger syndrome took a series of theory-of-mind (ToM) tasks to confirm and extend previous developmental scaling evidence. A new sarcasm task, in the format of H. M. Wellman and D. Liu's (2004) 5-step ToM Scale, added a statistically reliable 6th step to the scale for all diagnostic groups. A key previous finding, divergence in task sequencing for children with autism, was confirmed. Comparisons among diagnostic groups, controlling age, and language ability, showed that typical developers mastered the 6 ToM steps ahead of each of the 3 disabled groups, with implications for ToM theories. The final (sarcasm) task challenged even nondisabled 9-year-olds, demonstrating the new scale's sensitivity to post-preschool ToM growth.     

Attribution,gender orientation,and adaptability: Reconceptualization,measurement, and research results

Within the framework of attribution theory, this study reconceptualized gender orientation and androgyny. The relationships among gender measurement, androgyny, and adaptability were examined with improved measurement procedures. Socially desirable response tendencies were found for self‐attribution of femininity and androgyny but not for adaptability, nor for gender attributions or androgyny of others. A new scoring procedure producing a single continuous androgyny variable was also developed and tested. Meaningful relationships between this androgyny measure, gender orientation, and adaptability were observed. The central hypothesis tested the relationship between perceptions of stable, dispositional factors and behavioral attributions. Findings were consistent with the predictions provided by attribution theory.     

The relationship of supervisor use of power and affinity‐seeking strategies with subordinate satisfaction

Subordinate perceptions of supervisor communication of power (control) strategies and supervisor communication of affinity‐seeking strategies were found to correlate with subordinate satisfaction. Supervisor use of power strategies such as Deferred Reward from Behavior, Self‐Esteem, and Supervisor Feedback were positively correlated with subordinate satisfaction. Punishment from Supervisor, Punishment from Others, Guilt, Supervisor/ Subordinate Relationship‐Negative, Legitimate‐Higher Authority, Legitimate‐Supervisor Authority, Personal Responsibilty, and Debt were negatively correlated with subordinate satisfaction. The results also revealed many affinity‐seeking strategies were positively associated with subordinate satisfaction. Present Interesting Self and Assume Control, when overused by supervisors, led to lowered satisfaction.     

General education: A college dropout

Fifty Famous Painters. By Henrietta Gerwig. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1926. Pp. ix + 416. Price, $3.50.

A Glossary of Three Hundred Terms Used in Educational Measurement and Research. By Charles W. Odell (University of Illinois). Bulletin No. 40, Bureau of Educational Research. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1928. Pp. 68. Price, 50 cents.

Three Problem Children. Narratives from the Case Records of a Child Guidance Clinic. New York: Joint Committee on Methods of Preventing Delinquency, 1926. Pp. viii + 142.

High School Chemistry. By George Howard Bruce. Yonkers, N. Y.: World Book Co., 1928. Pp. x + 550. Price, $1.68.

Psychology for Teachers. By Charles E. Benson, James E. Lough, Charles E. Skinner, and Paul V. West (New York University). Boston: Ginn &; Co., 1926. Pp. x + 390. Price, $2.

Standardizing Teachers' Examinations, and the Distribution of Class Marks. By Robert S. Ellis. Bloomington, Ill.: Public School Publishing Co., 1927. Pp. 170. Price, 75 cents.

The New Human Interest Library. S. E. Farquhar, Managing Editor. Chicago: The Midland Press, 1928. 6 volumes.

The Path of Learning. By Henry W. Holmes (Harvard University) and Burton P. Fowler. Boston: Little, Brown &; Co., 1926. Pp. x + 488.

Fundamentals of Human Motivation. By Leonard T. Troland (Harvard University). New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., 1928. Pp. xiv + 521. Price, $5.

School Training for Gifted Children. By Henry Herbert Goddard (Ohio State University). Yonkers, N. Y.: World Book Co., 1928. Pp. xii + 266. Price, $2.

Parents and Sex Education, By B. C. Gruenberg. New York: American Social Hygiene Association, 1923. Pp. vi + 100. Price, $3.

Elements of Qualitative Chemical Analysis. A Laboratory Guide. By Wilfred Welday Scott. New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc., 1928. Pp. x +164. Price, $1.60.

Principles and Methods of Junior High School Mathematics. By James Herbert Blackhurst. New York: The Century Co., 1928. Pp. xvi + 355.

The Singing Farmer. By James S. Tippett. New York: World Book Co., 1927. Pp. vi + 90. Price, 68 cents.

The Techniques of Educational Research. By W. S. Monroe and Max D. Engelhart (University of Illinois). Bulletin No. 38, Bureau of Educational Research. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1928. Pp. 84. Price, 50 cents.

A Teacher's Geography. By Mendel E. Branom. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1928. Pp. xviii + 252.     

Beginning Reading and Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP): Past,Present, and Future

In this article, I address issues and trends, past, present, and future, in beginning reading instruction. I also trace the development of a related issue in the broader context of early childhood education: developmentally appropriate practice. Historical changes in reading education for young learners, as well as changes concerning guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice, are addressed. I conclude by suggesting that the fields of reading education and early childhood education share more similarities than differences. With collaborative initiatives, these two fields can strengthen their positive impact on the education of young learners as beginning readers.     

(3) The Canadian Library Scene

Africa has not been a huge success story in the 20th-century library and information world. What, if anything, can the rest of the developing world learn from the African experience? In many countries library and information services are more highly developed than in any countries of Africa. But others share many of the handicaps of library and information services development which characterize African countries. For librarians and information workers from such countries, the African experience may be quite close to home and it may offer some useful lessons.

This paper attempts to outline the state of library development in Africa at the turn of the century in the context of the challenges and opportunities presented on the one hand by the world-wide developments in information technology, and on the other by the hoped for African Renaissance. Six promising responses to these challenges and opportunities are presented.

Africa is a large and diverse continent. In this paper it is not possible to give a historical perspective on library development in Africa. Given limitations of the author's experience, the emphasis is on Anglophone Africa and on the countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and on public, university and national libraries.     

Assessing the influence of personal preferences on the choice of vocabulary for natural language generation

Referring expression generation is the part of natural language generation that decides how to refer to the entities appearing in an automatically generated text. Lexicalization is the part of this process which involves the choice of appropriate vocabulary or expressions to transform the conceptual content of a referring expression into the corresponding text in natural language. This problem presents an important challenge when we have enough knowledge to allow more than one alternative. In those cases, we need some heuristics to decide which alternatives are more appropriate in a given situation. Whereas most work on natural language generation has focused on a generic way of generating language, in this paper we explore personal preferences as a type of heuristic that has not been properly addressed. We empirically analyze the TUNA corpus, a corpus of referring expression lexicalizations, to investigate the influence of language preferences in how people lexicalize new referring expressions in different situations. We then present two corpus-based approaches to solve the problem of referring expression lexicalization, one that takes preferences into account and one that does not. The results show a decrease of 50% in the similarity error against the reference corpus when personal preferences are used to generate the final referring expression.     

“We Feel Connected… and Like We Belong”: A Parent-Led,Staff-Supported Model of Family Engagement in Early Childhood

Early Childhood Education Journal - Although researchers and practitioners have acknowledged that family engagement in children’s schooling occurs in many forms, most studies and program...     

The relationship between students’ preferred approaches to learning and behaviors during learning: An examination of the process stage of the 3P model

Student approaches to learning have been a popular area of research in educational psychology. One useful framework for understanding student approaches to learning is through Biggs’ presage–process–product model. The purpose of this study is to examine the process stage of the 3P model. Undergraduate students (N = 67) thought aloud while reading two science texts, then wrote recalls and answered comprehension questions. As hypothesized, a deep approach to learning was positively associated with making connections, examining the logic in the text, and accurate answers to the comprehension questions. Mediation analyses indicated that behavior during the process of learning explained the positive association between a deep approach to learning and accurate answers to the comprehension questions. No hypotheses regarding a surface approach to learning were supported. The findings from this study support the characterization that students with a deep approach to learning engage meaningfully with their course material. These findings are discussed in the context of the 3P model.