What's in a name? A comparison of methods for classifying predominant type of maltreatment

OBJECTIVE: The primary aim of the study was to identify a classification scheme, for determining the predominant type of maltreatment in a child's history that best predicts differences in developmental outcomes. METHOD: Three different predominant type classification schemes were examined in a sample of 519 children with a history of alleged maltreatment. Cases were classified into predominant maltreatment types according to three different schemes: Hierarchical regression analyses examined whether the HT, SFT, and EHT type classifications contributed to prediction of child behavior problems, trauma symptoms and adaptive functioning. RESULTS: After controlling for demographic factors, the HT definitions predicted four outcomes, while the SFT definitions predicted three, and the EHT classifications contributed to the prediction of five child outcomes. The co-occurrence of multiple types of maltreatment was robustly related to outcomes. However, the HT and SFT classifications predicted outcomes even after accounting for the co-occurrence of multiple maltreatment subtypes. CONCLUSION: A classification scheme that differentiates between type combinations and single maltreatment types may have the greatest predictive validity. Over and above knowing about co-occurrence of maltreatment sub-types, it is important to understand what type, or constellation of types, of maltreatment have been alleged in a child's history.     

Benefits of extracurricular participation in dissection in a prosection‐based medical anatomy program

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extracurricular cadaveric dissection program available to medical students at an institution with a modern (time‐compressed, student‐centered, and prosection‐based) approach to medical anatomy education. Quantitative (Likert‐style questions) and qualitative data (thematic analysis of open‐ended commentary) were collated from a survey of three medical student cohorts who had completed preclerkship. Perceived benefits of dissection included the hands‐on learning style and the development of anatomy expertise, while the main barrier that limited participation was the time‐intensive nature of dissection. Despite perceived benefits, students preferred that dissection remain optional. Analysis of assessments for the MD2016 cohort revealed that dissection participation was associated with enhanced performance on anatomy items in each systems‐based unit examination, with the largest benefits observed on discriminating items that assessed knowledge application. In conclusion, this study revealed that there are academic and perceived benefits of extracurricular participation in dissection. While millennial medical students recognized these benefits, these students also indicated strong preference for having flexibility and choice in their anatomy education, including the choice to participate in cadaveric dissection. Anat Sci Educ 11: 294–302. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Gender and use of instructional technologies: A study of university faculty

Instructional technologies have the potential to help highereducation faculty address increasing demands on their time and energy. Thisstudy investigated technology use by faculty at medium-sized, publicuniversity in the midwestern United States. Because a number of studies haveshown gender differences in technology use, survey data were analyzed alonggender lines. Results showed that males rated their knowledge and experiencewith some innovative technologies higher than did females. For frequency ofuse, no significant differences were found, with the exception of video,where females indicated slightly more frequent use. Both rated technologiesas important to instruction. For factors influencing technology use, femalesrated time to learn a technology, increased student learning, ease of use,training, and available information in discipline as more important than didmales. Such incentives as release time, merit pay, contribution to promotionand tenure, monetary rewards, and recognition by the university were ratedmore important by women, as were the barriers of lack of time and lack ofcontribution to professional advancement. These findings suggest that genderdifferences in technology use by university faculty may exist and need to beaddressed.     

Donor agency support for primary education: Strategies reconsidered

In recent years a number of donor agencies have increased their lending to primary education in developing countries. However, some characteristics of primary schooling make it unsatisfactory for capital aid support, and arguments to increase recurrent funding are always controversial in aid policy circles. Nevertheless, this paper argues that this support should be further strengthened. It briefly reviews the economic case for such an emphasis. It analyses the typical problems faced in primary education, and the policy choices facing national governments. The final section outlines the main opportunities and priorities for increased donor agency support to the primary sector.     

Effective Cost-Sharing Models in Higher Education: Insights from Low-Income Students in Australian Universities

This study examines the global trend in shifting university costs from national governments to individual students and families, with a specific focus on the existing cost-sharing model in Australian higher education. The research examines the manner in which the availability of income-contingent loans (through the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, or HECS) enters into individual cost assessments and evaluative frameworks during the university exploration and search process of low-income Australian youth, and the resulting lessons that might be applied to other national contexts. Semi-structured interviews with 16 participants addressed a broad range of issues related to the development of educational aspirations, and how beliefs and attitudes about cost influenced participants’ understanding and decision-making regarding tertiary enrollment and post-graduate plans. A number of discreet and related themes emerged from analysis of the interviews, including motivations for attending university; pre-university cost considerations; self-assessments of skills, abilities, and personal traits and characteristics; general financial orientation; pre-university experiences and influences; and the role of others including family, peers, teachers and other school staff. The author concludes that the Australian system is worthy of consideration by other nations as a possible mechanism for enhancing access to higher education for individuals who might otherwise not possess the opportunity to participate.     

One-trial excitatory backward conditioning as assessed by conditioned suppression of licking in rats: Concurrent observations of lick suppression and defensive behaviors

Twenty-eight male albino rats were given a single 4-sec 1-mA electric-grid-shock unconditioned stimulus (US). In the same session they received two 12-sec conditioned stimuli (CSs). One CS (explicitly unpaired) terminated 180 sec before the US began; the other (backward paired) began immediately after the US terminated. The CSs used were a 1000-Hz 85-dB tone and an 84-dB click; their roles were counterbalanced. Over the next 2 days, each CS was presented for 2 min while the rats drank from a water bottle. The backward-paired CS was found to suppress licking more than the explicitly unpaired CS. This suppression was accompanied by an increase in defensive behavior (freezing and freeze/nod) and by a decrease in other activity. The suppression did not seem to be due to a maintained or enhanced CS-orienting response reflex, nor could it be attributed to an adventitiously reinforced interfering operant. The results support the presumption made in previous reports that the lick suppression evoked by a backward CS reflected one-trial backward excitatory fear conditioning.     

Re-thinking school–university partnerships: A Swedish case study

All trends in educational reform point away from the traditional isolation of teachers and teacher educators from their colleagues and from other stakeholders towards an increased sense of being in rather than outside the broader community. In the case of relationships between universities and schools, however, co-operation and collaboration is often complicated by their different cultures and traditions. As yet, there have been few systematic attempts to conceptualise the territory for teacher and school level development and change in relation to the sustained strategic roles which universities may play. This paper presents the results of an independent evaluation of an innovative cluster of seven partnership projects between teachers, schools, and researchers and teacher educators in a university in Sweden. It concludes that differentiated strategic partnerships are necessary in order to meet the different, ideological, generative and capacity building needs of schools and teachers.