Investigative interviews of child witnesses in Sweden

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the structure and informativeness of interviews with 4- to 13-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse in Sweden. METHOD: Seventy-two alleged victims of sexual abuse were interviewed by six experienced officers from one police district in Sweden. Our evaluation focused on the structure of the interviews, the distribution and timing of the investigators' utterance types, and the quantity and quality of the information provided by the children. RESULTS: Content analysis revealed that the interviewers relied primarily on option-posing and suggestive questions--together, these comprised 53% of their utterances--when interviewing the alleged victims. As a result, most of the details (57%) obtained from the children were elicited by option-posing and suggestive utterances. Only 6% of the interviewers' utterances were open-ended invitations, and these elicited only 8% of the information obtained. CONCLUSION: The reliance on option-posing and suggestive prompts may have reduced the accuracy of the information obtained, thereby interfering with the investigations, and reducing the forensic admissibility of the children's statements. This suggests a continuing need in Sweden, as in other countries, for interview practices that enhance the quality of information provided by young victims.     

The effect of being a victim or witness of family violence on the retrieval of autobiographical memories.

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to determine whether greater reliance on general memory retrieval in children was related to depression, and whether family violence affected the specificity of children's memory retrieval. METHOD: We compared children who had experienced some form of family violence with children who had never experienced any form of family violence, based on their responses to questions concerning child-parent and interparental disagreements. RESULTS: As expected, there was a positive correlation between the extent of "generic-categoric" memory retrieval and depression level. There was no evidence, however, that autobiographical memory was affected by family violence. CONCLUSIONS: This study is the first to report significant associations between depression and autobiographical memory style in children. The results suggest that the effect of family violence on children's memory retrieval may be mediated by depression.     

“Don’t Sell Me the Enemy’s Literature”: A Self-Study of Teaching Literature in Politically Fraught Contexts

This article describes a self-study pursuant to a clash between a lecturer and a student concerning the teaching of literature in a politically fraught context. The learning group is composed of Arab and Jewish teachers at a college in northern Israel. The work read by the group expresses a Palestinian perspective. The incident, discussed with reference to the concepts of ethical reading and in-between space, is explained against the background of the lecturer’s professional views and the complexity of teaching literature in a polarized and conflicted society. Analysis of the incident, accompanied by a look at the professional literature, reveals the lecturer’s blind spots as well as the complexity of the situation in which she was acting. Details of the case and the process of its interpretation may serve to enrich the perspectives of literature teacher educators who believe in ethical reading and in constructing an in-between space in their lessons, providing them with insights regarding teaching in contexts fraught with cultural tensions.     

Essential Features of a Teacher Education Programme for Cooperative Learning

What are the main features of a successful programme for preparing teachers to use cooperative learning methods in their classrooms? In seeking an answer to this question, many researchers and educators focus on cooperation as the primary concept

1. (a) Cooperation among faculty members in university or college teacher education programmes to ensure consistency, continuity and a common set of goals for pre‐service teacher education. Some programmes have begun to emphasise the acquisition of competence in the use of cooperative learning methods.

2. (b) Cooperation between universities and schools to enable novice and experienced teachers to practise cooperative learning in the classroom.

3. (c) Cooperation among teachers in given schools to provide mutual support and assistance to maintain the long‐term use of cooperative learning.

Various programmes and projects reported in the relevant literature that have implemented these ideas are surveyed and discussed in this paper.     

Emergent literacy skills for five kindergartners with autism spectrum disorder: a pilot study

In typical development, emergent literacy skills predict successful reading abilities. Code‐related literacy skills may include letter knowledge, print concepts, early writing and early phonological awareness. Meaning‐related literacy skills may include lexical and grammatical ability, story retelling and comprehension. Children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) show, on the most part, poor reading comprehension abilities, yet up to date, research regarding emergent literacy skills in ASD is limited. We conducted a study to investigate a naturalistic, standards‐based national literacy programme, for five kindergartners with ASD, of age 5‐8 years in their kindergarten setting. We implemented an ASD‐adapted intervention as an intensive group treatment over 6 weeks, with a pretest–posttest design to examine emergent literacy gains. The children with ASD demonstrated gains in both code‐related and meaning‐related skills following intervention. The clinical and theoretical implications are discussed regarding the importance of an intensive structured literacy intervention for children with ASD before entering school.     

Predicting academic achievement by class‐level emotions and perceived homeroom teachers’ emotional support

Using a multilevel approach, this study examined the role of classroom emotional climate on students' academic achievement. Positive and negative emotions and homeroom teachers' support were used to assess the classroom emotional climate on the individual and class levels. To our knowledge, no study to date has investigated these specific aspects of the classroom emotional climate in relation to students' GPA. Data were collected from 73 classrooms in grades 7‐12 (N = 1,641, students; 53% female) across three schools in Israel. Findings revealed that aggregated levels of both positive affect and perceived homeroom teacher support were positively tied to GPA and that aggregated levels of negative affect were negatively tied to GPA. The final model included gender, teacher support, individual and class emotions and explained 14% of within‐class GPA. A central implication of this study is the relevance of having an emotionally supportive homeroom teacher for students' academic achievement.     

Specific binding and magnetic concentration of CD8+ T-lymphocytes on electrowetting-on-dielectric platform

In the quest to create a low-power portable lab-on-a-chip system, we demonstrate the specific binding and concentration of human CD8+ T-lymphocytes on an electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD)-based digital microfluidic platform using antibody-conjugated magnetic beads (MB-Abs). By using a small quantity of nonionic surfactant, we enable the human cell-based assays with selective magnetic binding on the EWOD device in an air environment. High binding efficiency (～92%)of specific cells on MB-Abs is achieved due to the intimate contact between the cells and the magnetic beads (MBs) produced by the circulating flow within the small droplet. MBs have been used and cells manipulated in the droplets actuated by EWOD before; reported here is a cell assay of a clinical protocol on the EWOD device in air environment. The present technique can be further extended to capture other types of cells by suitable surface modification on the MBs.     

Spatial abilities of high-school students in the perception of geologic structures

The specific spatial abilities required for the study of basic structural geology were characterized by quantitative and qualitative data analysis. A geologic spatial ability test (GeoSAT) was developed and administered to 115 comprehensive high-school students. Six of these students were interviewed. An analysis of students' incorrect answers revealed two types of answers: (a) nonpenetrative answers, which were based on external exposures of the structure; and (b) penetrative answers, which indicated attempts at representing internal properties of the structure. Students who tended to give penetrative incorrect answers performed significantly higher than students who tended to give nonpenetrative incorrect answers. The reasoning of students for these types of answers, as determined by interviews, supported the initial assumption that these answers were given by students with different levels of ability mentally to penetrate the image of a structure, which was named visual penetration ability (VPA). The interview findings indicated that the VPA is one of two complementary factors needed to solve the problems of GeoSAT; the other factor is the ability to perceive the spatial configuration of the structure. It is concluded that the teaching and learning process should provide students with assistance in both of these areas. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Teaching Design in Middle-School: Instructors’ Concerns and Scaffolding Strategies

This study deals with engineering education in the middle-school level. Its focus is instructors’ concerns in teaching design, as well as scaffolding strategies that can help teachers deal with these concerns. Through participatory action research, nine instructors engaged in a process of development and instruction of a curriculum about energy along with engineering design. A 50-h curriculum was piloted during a summer camp for 38 middle-school students. Data was collected through instructors’ materials: observation field notes, daily reflections and post-camp discussions. In addition, students’ artifacts and planning graphical models were collected in order to explore how instructors’ concerns were aligned with students’ learning. Findings indicate three main tensions that reflect instructors’ main concerns: how to provide sufficient scaffolding yet encourage creativity, how to scaffold hands-on experiences that promote mindful planning, and how to scaffold students’ modeling practices. Pedagogical strategies for teaching design that developed through this work are described, as well as the ways they address the National Research Council (A framework for K-12 science education: practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2011) core ideas of engineering education and the International Technological Literacy standards (ITEA in Standards for technological literacy, 3rd edn. International Technology education Association, Reston, VA, 2007).     

Academic support model for post-secondary school students with learning disabilities: student and instructor perceptions

ABSTRACT

While post-secondary school students with learning difficulties confront many challenges, there is little research on methods of support. In the current study, the ‘adapted course’ model was qualitatively examined from the perspective of both students and instructors. The main goal was to explore how students and instructors perceived the instruction in adapted courses. Five pre-service students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and three instructors were interviewed. Responses were analysed using subjective analysis, with central content categories identified based on student and instructor statements. Six main themes emerged: (1) small class size; (2) emotional support; (3) adjusted teaching methods; (4) independent practice exercises; (5) instruction by modelling; and (6) instructor characteristics. The current study can inform pedagogical principles on which a support model for post-secondary students with LD can be based. It provides analyses of the effectiveness of one support model and presents the perceptions of both faculty and students. Moreover, the study provides an opportunity to learn about potential components of effective teaching-learning, not only in the specific context of adapted courses, but in any supportive learning situation (e.g. tutoring) or course.