The Parent Threat Inventory: development, reliability, and validity

OBJECTIVE: The goal was to develop a retrospective inventory of parental threatening behavior to facilitate a better understanding of such behavior's role in the etiology of psychological distress. METHOD: Inventory items were developed based on theory and 135 students' responses to a question eliciting examples of threatening parental behavior. Following item development, two additional student samples (n = 200 and n = 603) completed batteries of self-report measures. Responses were used to eliminate unstable or redundant items from the inventory and to examine the inventory's psychometric properties. RESULTS: Factor analysis of the inventory revealed three factors, accounting for 66.2% of variance; this factor structure is compatible with theory, and consistent across maternal behavior scores, paternal behavior scores, and combined maternal and paternal scores. Cronbach's coefficient alphas indicated acceptable internal consistency; Pearson correlation coefficients indicated acceptable 4-week test-retest reliability. Moderate intercorrelations with two retrospective measures of childhood experiences suggested construct validity. Regression analyses demonstrated the ability of the inventory to predict both anxious and depressive symptomatology and lifetime symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorder. Normative data on combined parent scores, maternal scores, and paternal scores are also presented. CONCLUSIONS: Initial psychometric testing of the Parent Threat Inventory (PTI) suggests it is a reliable and valid tool for investigating the developmental antecedents of adult psychological distress. Further research should focus on addressing two limitations: (1) lack of normative and psychometric data on men and women suffering from clinical disorders, and (2) lack of validation by parental reporting.     

Beauty and Character: Values Beyond Beauty in Architecture

Formalist conceptions of aesthetic goals began to give way from the 17^th century on to rationalist accounts of experience. Beauty as described as essential by Renaissance thinkers was reconceived as just one possibility, with the sublime in Burke's account as another. In the early 20^th century Clive Bell again asserted a formalist position with his argument for significant form. The weakness of the formality position, and the need for a richer, more contextual account of aesthetic goals and experience is argued with reference to the idea of thick and thin concepts as applied by Bernard Williams to ethics, Wittgenstein's attention to the way in which language is used in a specific context, and Scruton's emphasis on an informed conception of the object of aesthetic attention. Beauty, in Alberti's procedural account if not in his version of the Platonic ideal, can be seen to continue to have critical value. The idea of character, however, offers a broader range of possibilities for experience and of goals for design.     

‘Beyond 2015’, within the modern/colonial global imaginary? Global development and higher education

Efforts to emphasize higher education’s role in development have grown in recent years, but important questions remain about the motivations and effects of these initiatives. In this paper, we employ the concept of a ‘modern/colonial global imaginary’ to consider the impact of the enduring power relations and uneven politics of knowledge in the relationship between higher education and development. Specifically, we consider the Association of Commonwealth Universities’ (ACU) ‘Beyond 2015’ campaign, which was launched in anticipation of the new UN Sustainable Development Goals. We argue that despite the ACU’s intention to provide ‘a platform for diverse voices, particularly from the global South’, the campaign was structured in a way that discouraged dissenting perspectives. More broadly, we consider available possibilities and limitations for challenging mainstream development agendas.     

Education of deaf children and the politics of recognition

The ideological basis for education of deaf children has changed during the last few decades. In Norway, the new curriculum is emphasizing bilingual and bicultural ideas. In many ways, this can be regarded as an example of what Charles Taylor calls the "politics of recognition." Taking an excerpt of an interview with a deaf student as a point of departure, this article discusses problems when heavily emphasizing a cultural approach.     

Why Do Students Misbehave? An Initial Examination of Antecedents to Student Misbehavior

The current study utilized constant comparative thematic analysis to uncover antecedents of student misbehavior from the perspective of collegiate instructors. Results indicated nine distinct antecedents of student misbehavior that were classified into three distinct categories: deficiency antecedents, belief antecedents, and external antecedents. These findings extend previous research on antecedents of student misbehavior by forwarding a more nuanced classification structure that centers on attribution theory as an explanatory mechanism. Overall, by understanding the potential reasons that underlie student misbehavior, educators can create more meaningful and enriching experiences for students by thoughtfully addressing these problematic behaviors and the underlying conditions that promote them.     

Causal Connections Between Mathematical Language and Mathematical Knowledge: A Dialogic Reading Intervention

The acquisition of early mathematical knowledge is critical for successful long-term academic development. Mathematical language is one of the strongest predictors of children's early mathematical success. Findings from previous studies have provided correlational evidence supporting the importance of mathematical language to the development of children's mathematics skills, but there is limited causal evidence supporting this link. To address this research gap, 47 Head Start children were randomly assigned to a mathematical language intervention group or a business-as-usual group. Over the course of eight weeks, interventionists implemented a dialogic reading intervention focused on quantitative and spatial mathematical language. At posttest, students in the intervention group significantly outperformed the students in the comparison group not only on a mathematical language assessment, but on a mathematical knowledge assessment as well. These findings indicate that increasing children's exposure to mathematical language can positively affect their general mathematics skills. This study is an important first step in providing causal evidence of the importance of early mathematical language for children's general mathematical knowledge and the potential for mathematical language interventions to increase children's overall mathematics abilities.     

Introducing technology education: Using teachers' questions as a platform for professional development

This paper explores the issues and concems identified by a small group of teachers implementing technology ideas using the national document,A Statement on Technology for Australian Schools (Curriculum Corporation, 1994a), represented in four key questions they posed as a result of reflection upon their existing ideas and practices, early in the study. These same issues and concerns framed their later experiences as the study progressed. The case study of one of the teachers is used, to illustrate how the teachers implemented technology education working from their own perspectives and tackling issues and concerns that made sense to them. By reviewing the teachers' own questions about technology implementation, it is becoming, clear that what may be important for professional development in technology education is related to the questions that the teachers themselves are asking about their own, beliefs and practices.     

Chiming in on Museums and Participatory Culture

Abstract The deep trove of information available on the Internet and the expanding connections it affords to new communities online have been a transforming force in museums in the recent past. A single individual can publish thoughts and ideas to an audience of millions with a few simple clicks of a button. The cultural sector has made great strides in adopting these same methods to advance the missions and content of our organizations; however, a rise in participatory culture poses a number of challenges for the role of museums and our place in the evolving culture of our community. A debate surrounding the changing nature of authority and the participatory expectations of society is central to defining how museums can meaningfully engage with contemporary audiences. When making decisions that define how audiences play a role or not in their organizations, museums must consider the far‐reaching consequences of these choices on the relationships they have with their communities.