Responses of Physically Abused and Nonabused Children to Different Forms of Interadult Anger

Responses to various forms of interadult anger were examined in 2 groups of 6–11-year-olds: 44 low-SES children with a history of physical abuse and exposure to interspousal aggression, and 44 low-SES children exposed to interspousal aggression but with no history of physical abuse or other child maltreatment. Children were presented with videotaped segments of adults in angry and friendly interactions. Angry segments varied on ( a ) the type of anger expression (nonverbal, verbal, verbal-physical), and ( b ) whether anger was resolved. In general, physically abused children reported greater fear than nonabused children in response to all forms of interadult anger. Moreover, abused children appeared particularly sensitive to whether anger between adults was resolved. Findings are discussed with regard factors that may mediate relations between exposure to family violence and the development of psychopathology in children from highly aggressive home environments.     

Effects of a modified mastery learning strategy on achievement,attitudes, and on-task behavior of high school chemistry students

The effects of a mastery learning strategy modified to limit diagnosis to two cycles were tested with high school chemistry students. The results indicate that achievement of mastery learning students was significantly greater than that of nonmastery control students. On-task behavior (academic engagement) of mastery learning students increased in a linear fashion during the study (45 instructional days), while on-task behavior of nonmastery students decreased. Attitudes toward science and science instruction were not significantly different but were positive in both mastery and nonmastery conditions.     

Differences between physical and social sciences in university graduate departments

The greater articulation of scientific fields with well-developed paradigms — in Kuhn's sense of the term — is viewed as facilitating scientific activities within those fields. Contrasting two physical science with two social science fields, earlier research reported greater consensus in the physical sciences, greater willingness to work with graduate students, and large advantages in research support and funding as compared to the social sciences.Data on influence in decision-making indicate that physical science departments enjoy greater autonomy from their central administrations, although physicists in lower-quality departments report some administrative pressures over choices of research areas. While social science departments feel less autonomous from their central administrations, they grant more autonomy to individual members. Decisions related to teaching processes are made differently across fields, with the physical sciences relying more heavily on committees, and the social sciences relying on individual-chairman negotiations.Across all four fields (physics, chemistry, sociology, and political science), departments with relatively high reputations exhibit collegial structures, while departments with lower reputations show marked tendencies toward bureaucratization. These findings hold when size of department or university is controlled, although departments in smaller universities report more administrative influence than those in extremely large ones.It is argued: (1) Departmental autonomy in the physical sciences is enhanced by the visibility of consequences made possible by greater paradigm development. (2) Maintenance of individual autonomy in the social sciences is necessitated by the lower visibility of consequences and the uncertainty of outcomes of those fields. (3) The maintenance of collegiality within universities may depend on visibility of favorable consequences relative to socially approved goals.The authors would like to acknowledge the support of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations; of the Science, Technology, and Society Group at Cornell; and of Cornell University. Requests for reprints should be sent to Janice B. Lodahl, School of Management, Crosby Hall, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, N.Y. 14214.     

Generic Interests and School Subject Choice

While empirical research on school subject preferences and choices has a long history, ‘interest’ has infrequently been invoked as an explanatory construct. Three levels on which interest is conceptualised in educational research are identified. The most general derives from vocational psychology and may be characterised by the themes of Holland’s RIASEC typology. The results of five recent Australian studies in which interests were related to school subject preferences and choices are reviewed, and a series of multi-level models of data from the most recent are presented. The models offer a coherent summary of interest – school subject choice relations and enable accurate estimates to be made of their relative importance across the curriculum fields typically available in the senior secondary years. The consistency in the results of the five studies provides strong support for the hypotheses that school subject preferences and choices are systematically related to interests, and that Holland’s RIASEC themes provide a coherent account of preferences and choices across a broad range of objects, activities and contexts encountered in school and work.     

Motion Pictures and Photograph

Reese V. Jenkins' Images & Enterprise: Technology and the American Photographic Industry, 1839 to 1925 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975—$20.00)

R. C. Smith's Antique Cameras (North Pomfret, Vt.: David & Charles, 1976—$12.95)

Gerald Mast's A Short History Movies (Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill, 1976—$7.50, paper)

Lix-Anne Bawden's The Oxford Companion to Film (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976—$24.95)

John Brosnan's Marie Manic: The Story of Special Effects in the Cinema (New York: New American Library Plume Books, 1976—$3.95, paper)

Ronald Gottesman and Harry Geduld (eds.) The Girl in the Hairi Paw:King Kong as Mtyh, Magic, and Monster (New York: Avon Books, 1976—$5.95)

Guy Phelps' Film Censorship (London: Victor Gollancz, 1975—about $10.00)

James Robert Parish, et al. Film Directors Guide: Western Europe (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1976—$11.00)

James Robert Parish and Don E. Stanke's The Swashbucklers (New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1976—$19.95)

Andrew Sarris' The John Ford Movie Mystery (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1976—$8.95)

Laurence Goldstein and Jay Kaufman's Into Film (New York: Dutton, 1976—$19.95/12.95)

Daniel Arijon's Grammar of the Film Language (New York: Hastings House, 1976—$27.50)     

Canon 35 as viewed by the Illinois Judiciary

As heartening as the Oklahoma picture may have been to broadcasters, the story is a different one in other states. This is the report of a similar survey, of Illinois judges, in which a wholly opposite opinion to that of their Oklahoma colleagues as expressed.     

Book reviews

Jerry L. Salvaggio, ed. The Information Society: Economic, Social, and Structural Issues. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989. 143 pages. Hardcover, $24.95.

Lee B. Becker and Klaus Schoenbach, eds. Audience Responses to Media Diversification: Coping With Plenty. Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1989.     

Coloniality and Education: Negotiating Discourses of Immigration in Schools and Communities Through Border Thinking

In this article, we examine the discursive construction of knowledge about immigration in two geographic spaces whose “border” many students navigate: a school context meant to support English Language Learners and an out-of-school faith based organization serving immigrant communities. We draw on the concept of “border thinking” (Mignolo, 2000, p. 18) to understand how colonial histories continue to influence contemporary educational contexts. Through examples from students’, community members’, and educators’ interactions with available discourses of immigration, we elaborate on the implications of community knowledge for revising school practices to represent a fuller complexity of immigration experiences.     

Examining a Grade-Level Math CBM Designed for Persistently Low-Performing Students

Students with disabilities participate in two major measurement systems. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act emphasizes working within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework to identify and monitor the progress of low-performing students. Persistent low-performing students also may be eligible for some form of an alternate assessment for accountability purposes. Working within these two systems, educators need technically sound measures to inform decision making. This study presents scaling results from a Curriculum Based Measurement tool designed within an RTI framework and specifically for persistently low-performing students. We use the phrase “persistently low-performing students” to refer to a specific group of students who have been identified with a nonsevere learning disability and who perform well below grade-level expectations. Key findings indicate that items appear to function well in the lower tail of the distribution of students' estimated ability level. Further, the distribution of items is positively skewed, resulting in many accessible items that are most informative for low-performing students. Results provide initial validity evidence for the measurements as one source of data for progress monitoring within an RTI framework and the identification of persistent low-performing students who may be eligible for a large-scale assessment option other than the general grade-level assessment.     

International Differences in Information Privacy Concerns: A Global Survey of Consumers

We examine three possible explanations for differences in Internet privacy concerns revealed by national regulation: (1) These differences reflect and are related to differences in cultural values described by other research; (2) these differences reflect differences in Internet experience; or (3) they reflect differences in the desires of political institutions without reflecting underlying differences in privacy preferences. Using a sample of Internet users from 38 countries matched against the Internet population of the United States, we find support for (1) and (2), suggesting the need for localized privacy policies. Privacy concerns decline with Internet experience. Controlling for experience, cultural values were associated with differences in privacy concerns. These cultural differences are mediated by regulatory differences, although new cultural differences emerge when differences in regulation are harmonized. Differences in regulation reflect but also shape country differences. Consumers in countries with sectoral regulation have less desire for more privacy regulation.