The career development of black and white South African university students

This study investigates the possible influence of gender and culture on the career maturity and study and work role salience of South African students. Responses to the Life Role Inventory and Career Development Questionnaire of 260 first-year university students (137 white, 123 black) were analyzed. Culture was found to have a significant effect on both career maturity and study and work role salience while gender had no significant effect. Results are related to previous findings from international and South African literature. Implications for counselling are discussed.Paper presented at the International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling Conference, held at the University of Oporto, Oporto, Portugal, 2–5 April 1991.     

Progression Towards Functions: Students’ Performance on Three Tasks About Variables from Grades 7 to 12

Identifying and expressing relations between quantities is a key aspect of understanding and using functions. We are aiming to understand the development of functions understanding throughout school years in Israel. A survey instrument was developed with teachers and given to 20 high and average achieving students from each of years 7–11 and to 10 high achieving students from year 12, a total of 110 students. Our analytical approach is to identify qualitatively what students appeared to do and whether their approaches led to complete solutions. We look for progress in understanding variables and relations between them, and we found that there does not appear to be a strong link between curriculum and informal understandings of variables and covariation, but there are other strengths.     

The status of sign language instruction in institutions of higher education: 1994-2004

Surveys of sign language programs in institutions of higher education in the United States, conducted in 1994 and 2004, are compared to reveal changes over time. Data are presented concerning the institutional environment of programs, program administrators, and instructors. Institutions examined in 2004 were on average 5 years older than those examined in 1994. More institutions accepted sign language for general education and foreign language requirements. Program administrators in 2004 were more likely to have primary duties as teachers rather than administrators, and to have greater understanding of the subject matter. Faculty in 2004 had more education and teaching experience. Full-time faculty showed increases in the proportion who were Deaf and the proportion who were in tenure-track positions. Program staff size increased. Overall, evidence indicates that sign language has become more accepted as an academic discipline and that programs are more entrenched at their institutions.     

Foster Youth Need Sex Ed,Too!: Addressing the Sexual Risk Behaviors of System-Involved Youth

ABSTRACT

The social, economic, and environmental determinants of health include employment, housing, and education; exposure to environmental factors like lead or access to healthy food; and poverty, racism and oppression. Many of these conditions can lead to Adverse Childhood Experiences that may put children and youth at risk for abuse or maltreatment leading to involvement in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. All young people experience important developmental milestones on their path to becoming healthy adults, and while this time of change is full of promise, it can be a time of increased vulnerability or risk. For system-involved youth, navigating this time of change can be fraught with even more challenges or barriers. Without strong family and social networks, they may face increased risk of engaging in high-risk behaviors—such as unprotected sex and sex with multiple partners—as well as unintended pregnancy, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections. Our study examined survey data to assess the overall sexual reproductive health behaviors for youth aged 14–21 in out-of-home care in an urban environment (n = 270; 60.7% male; 82% African American; 7.9% Latinx). Youth were recruited between 2012 and 2016; 76.4% of these teens had had sexual intercourse at some point in their lifetime. Of these, 86.0% were sexually active before the age of 16. Although there were numerous risk factors related to contraception and condom use as well as partner demographics, there were assets or strengths identified. A discussion of how these findings can be utilized to develop effective prevention intervention strategies is provided.     

Key factors affecting conceptual gains from CAL materials

This paper identifies key factors affecting conceptual gains from using a CAL package and their application to a practical laboratory class. Data was collected on over 120 first year students who studied a CAL package as an integral part of their course at two sites of a university. A variety of factors were analysed in order to identify which ones affected conceptual gains. These factors were students' biographical characteristics, design features of the CAL package and the way the CAL was integrated into the curriculum. The key factors that were identified as having an effect on conceptual gains were the students' prior academic attainment, their prior use of email, the WWW and CAL packages, and the way that the CAL package was integrated into the course. Those students, who were most successful in learning from the CAL and applying this learning, had higher academic attainment and had previously used the WWW, email and other CAL packages. They were also better at linking their study of the CAL package to other parts of the course.     

The prevalence of depressive symptoms in children with learning disabilities.

Learning difficulties have been considered to be a symptom of childhood depression by some authors, whereas others have examined depression as a cause of cognitive difficulties, including learning disabilities (LD). This study examined the prevalence of depressive symptoms in a sample of public school elementary children aged 8 through 11, 37 boys and 16 girls, identified as LD by state standards. Of the sample of 53 children, 35.85% scored in the depressed range on the Children's Depression Inventory. Comparison of the children's self-reports and parents' reports of depressive symptoms in their children was not significant. Implications of the results are discussed relative to the role of school personnel and the assessment process in recognizing depressive symptoms in students with LD.     

More than a picture: helping undergraduates learn to communicate through scientific images

Images are powerful means of communicating scientific results; a strong image can underscore an experimental result more effectively than any words, whereas a poor image can readily undermine a result or conclusion. Developmental biologists rely extensively on images to compare normal versus abnormal development and communicate their results. Most undergraduate lab science courses do not actively teach students skills to communicate effectively through images. To meet this need, we developed a series of image portfolio assignments and imaging workshops in our Developmental Biology course to encourage students to develop communication skills using images. The improvements in their images over the course of the semester were striking, and on anonymous course evaluations, 73% of students listed imaging skills as the most important skill or concept they learned in the course. The image literacy skills acquired through simple lab assignments and in-class workshops appeared to stimulate confidence in the student's own evaluations of current scientific literature to assess research conclusions. In this essay, we discuss our experiences and methodology teaching undergraduates the basic criteria involved in generating images that communicate scientific content and provide a road map for integrating this curriculum into any upper-level biology laboratory course.     

Living with Children with an Intellectual Disability: Parents Construct their Reality

This paper reports a study that adopted an interpretivist paradigm as a basis for parents and researchers to co‐create a discourse that outlines life experiences as they relate to parenting a child with an intellectual disability. Repertory grid methodology was employed to inform the process of discourse development. A model of the five interrelated systems of events or issues that impinge upon the perceptions of parents of children with an intellectual disability is proposed. In addition, details about the group's perceptions of those environmental events or issues that are pertinent to living with and caring for a child with an intellectual disability are reported.     

Not just a ‘boy problem’: an exploration of the complexities surrounding literacy under-achievement

This paper examines literacy under-achievement and the limitations of gender-based literacy reforms grounded in essentialist notions of masculinity. It draws on qualitative case-study research conducted in one Ontario secondary school in a working-class community. It focuses on two grade 9 students and their teacher who participated in a larger study which examines how the norms and values associated with school-based literacy practices contribute to under-achievement. The cases highlighted in this paper are employed to raise critical questions about the way in which literacy under-achievement continues to be articulated as a ‘boy problem’. This paper also illustrates how the complex and situated nature of the students’ gendered and classed identities, interwoven with contextual and pedagogical factors, contribute to literacy under-achievement for some boys and some girls. In addition, it argues that the disjuncture between in- and out-of-school literacy practices warrants further study.     

Cheating Partners,Conditional Probability and Contingency Tables

Developing statistical literacy for older school students includes recognizing and interpreting conditional statements in the media. Data on couples' success in predicting whether their partners have cheated provides a motivating context for teachers to lead their students through this process.