FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE TEACHING OF GOD

The history of education is a worthwhile pursuit within the study of history writ-large, for education is a powerful cultural device that has been manipulated for a variety of social, political, and economic purposes. So, why is it the case that little work has been done to date on the history of American Jewish schooling? This article assesses the state of Jewish educational historiography and suggests that research has been constrained by two major factors: (1) Jewish historians have been reluctant to address educational matters, and (2) Jewish educators have been concerned foremost with the present and future, and not the past.     

How can students’ academic performance in statistics be improved? Testing the influence of social and temporal-self comparison feedback in a web-based training environment

The aim of this study was to examine how social or temporal-self comparison feedback, delivered in real-time in a web-based training environment, could influence the academic performance of students in a statistics examination. First-year psychology students were given the opportunity to train for a statistics examination during a semester by doing online exercises in a web-based training environment. Once connected, students received in real-time either social comparison feedback (their score was compared to the mean score of all first-year students) or temporal-self comparison feedback (their score was compared, week by week, with their own previous score). The fact that students were free to connect to the web-based training environment heightened self-regulation differences such as academic procrastination, which was considered as a moderating variable in this study. Because academic performance was measured, the students’ background in mathematics and statistics was also controlled. Irrespective of the students’ background, the results reveal a positive influence of social comparison feedback on statistics exam performance, but only among students who did not delay doing exercises in the web-based training environment. By contrast, temporal-self comparison feedback did not have any effect on performance. Some recommendations for optimizing the efficacy of web-based training environments can be proposed, taking into account both social comparison feedback and academic procrastination.     

Does Teacher Encouragement Influence Students’ Educational Progress? A Propensity-Score Matching Analysis

Theory suggests that teacher encouragement can aid students’ educational progress, but there are not yet quantitative inferential studies that assess its longer-term impact. With data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), I use propensity-score matching to investigate whether encouragement influences the likelihood of students enrolling in (1) advanced high school (A-level) courses and (2) a university degree course. Model estimates suggest that encouragement does have a significant positive impact on both outcomes. In addition, I investigate whether encouragement effects vary according to parental education and the given student’s prior academic achievement; it appears that the impact is greatest for those students in the middle third of academic achievement as well as those with lower levels of parental education. These findings have important policy implications, especially as it seems that teacher encouragement has the greatest influence on those students most likely to be on the margin for university attendance.     

Forward-Thinking Teens: The Effects of College Costs on Adolescent Risky Behavior

This paper analyzes the effect of college costs on teenagers’ engagement in risky behaviors before they are old enough to attend college. Individuals with brighter prospects for future schooling attainment may engage in less drug and alcohol use and risky sexual activity because they have more to lose if such behaviors have harmful effects in their lives. If teens correctly predict that higher college costs make future college enrollment less likely, then adolescents facing different expected costs may choose different levels of risky behavior. I find that lower college costs in teenagers’ states of residence raise their subjective expectations regarding college attendance and deter teenage substance use and sexual partnership. Specifically, a $1,000 reduction in tuition and fees at 2-year colleges in a youth's state of residence (roughly a 50% difference at the mean) is associated with a decline in the number of sexual partners the youth had in the past year (by 26%), the number of days in the past month the youth smoked (by 14%), and the number of days in the past month the youth used marijuana (by 23%). These findings suggest that the often-studied correlation between schooling and health habits emerges in adolescence because teenagers with brighter college prospects curb their risky behavior in accordance with their expectations. The results also imply that policies that improve teenagers’ educational prospects may be effective tools for reducing youthful involvement in such behaviors.     

Back to school blues: Seasonality of youth suicide and the academic calendar

Previous research has found evidence of academic benefits to longer school years. This paper investigates one of the many potential costs of increased school year length, documenting a dramatic decrease in youth suicide in months when school is not in session. A detailed analysis does not find that other potential explanations such as economic conditions, weather or seasonal affective disorder patterns can explain the decrease. This evidence suggests that youth may face increased stress and decreased mental health when school is in session.     

Developmental continuity in theory of mind: speed and accuracy of belief-desire reasoning in children and adults

On belief-desire reasoning tasks, children first pass tasks involving true belief before those involving false belief, and tasks involving positive desire before those involving negative desire. The current study examined belief-desire reasoning in participants old enough to pass all such tasks. Eighty-three 6- to 11-year-olds and 20 adult participants completed simple, computer-based tests of belief-desire reasoning, which recorded response times as well as error rates. Both measures suggested that, like young children, older children and adults find it more difficult to reason about false belief and negative desires than true beliefs and positive desires. It is argued that this developmental continuity is most consistent with either executive competence or executive performance accounts of the development of belief-desire reasoning.     

An Exploratory Study of Cyberbullying with Undergraduate University Students

Understanding the covert events surrounding the undergraduate students’ experience is essential to educators’ and counselors’ involvement in their success. Research into bullying behaviors has documented victims’ feelings of anger, sadness and poor concentration. Affordable technologies have propagated this concern into cyberspace. This exploratory study evaluated the instances of cyberbullying experienced by undergraduate students. Additionally, the forms of technology utilized in cyberbullying were queried. A 27-item survey was distributed to 120 undergraduate students in social science, technology and education departments. The majority of all respondents (54%) and 100% of male respondents indicated they knew someone who had been cyberbullied. The perpetrators primarily used cell phones, Facebook and instant messaging. The study results provide legitimate concerns regarding the undergraduate students’ exposure to cyberbullying and numerous areas for future research.     

Reasonable suspicion: a pilot study of pediatric residents

OBJECTIVES: To identify pediatric residents' understanding and interpretation of reasonable suspicion, in the context of mandated reporting of suspected child abuse. METHOD: A survey was administered to pediatrics and combined medicine/pediatrics residents. An open-ended question plus three operational frameworks for interpreting likelihood examined how residents conceived of reasonable suspicion. Responses were examined for evidence of a group standard, and also compared for internal consistency. RESULTS: Forty-two of 49 residents completed the survey (86% response rate). There were no significant differences in responses based on age, gender, year of residency, or anticipated practice type. Respondents exhibited wide variation in the thresholds they set for reasonable suspicion. On a Differential Diagnosis scale, 10% indicated that "abuse" would have to rank 1st or 2nd; 45% set the threshold at 3rd or 4th; while 45% stated that abuse could be as low as 5th to 10th and still qualify as reasonable suspicion. Using a Estimated Probability scale, 9.5% indicated that "abuse" would need to be >75% likely before reasonable suspicion existed; 28.5% stated that a 60-70% likelihood was needed; 38% identified the necessary likelihood as 40-50%; and 24% set the threshold as low as 10-35%. In comparing individual resident responses for the two scales, 83.3% were internally inconsistent. CONCLUSION: There was no consensus among pediatric residents with regard to (1) a standard meaning for reasonable suspicion, (2) a standard application of reasonable suspicion, or (3) how likely "abuse" must be before reasonable suspicion can be said to exist. Additionally, many residents' conceptions of reasonable suspicion were internally inconsistent.