DIAGNOSING AND TREATING THE PROBLEMS OF ABLE MALADJUSTED CHILDREN

Current research demonstrates that maladjusted children can be treated successfully if skilled and timely help is brought to bear on their needs. The methods used to assist in this programme of rehabilitation and sometimes prevention of maladjustment are delineated in the paper. Of the 100 children treated to date, 90% achieved higher levels of performance in school and later in society and, most especially, vocationally. Of the 100 able children who acted as a control group, only 20% achieved such success. Many became maladjusted adults and in some areas also suffered from difficulties with personal relationships, including a lack of success in their marriage and in parenting.     

Distributional effects of educational improvements: Are we using the wrong model?

Measuring the incidence of public spending in education requires an intergenerational framework distinguishing between what current and future generations—that is, parents and children—give and receive. In standard distributional incidence analysis, households are assumed to receive a benefit equal to what is spent on their children enrolled in the public schooling system and, implicitly, to pay a fee proportional to their income. We show that, in an intergenerational framework, this is equivalent to assuming perfectly altruistic individuals, in the sense of the dynastic model, and perfect capital markets. But in practice, credit markets are imperfect and poor households cannot borrow against the future income of their children. We show that under such circumstances, standard distributional incidence analysis may greatly over-estimate the progressivity of public spending in education: educational improvements that are progressive in the long-run steady state may actually be regressive for the current generation of poor adults. This is especially true where service delivery in education is highly inefficient—as it is in poor districts of many developing countries—so that the educational benefits received are relatively low in comparison with the cost of public spending. Our results have implications for both policy measures and analytical approaches.     

Exploring youth engagement in agricultural development: the case of farmers’ children in the Philippines as rice crop manager infomediaries

Purpose: This paper explores the intersections between community development and youth development in an initiative that mobilized farmers’ children as Rice Crop Manager (RCM) infomediaries (information mediators). RCM is an ICT-enabled nutrient management application.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The study engaged 30 farmers’ children in high school level from the provinces of Pangasinan, Isabela, Camarines Sur, Iloilo, Bukidnon, and Davao del Norte from November 2016 to October 2017. They interacted with the research team (the authors) and the RCM-SMS platform that sends text messages regarding fertilizer recommendations. A staff member from the Agricultural Training Institute (ATI) also called the students for some follow-up questions. The research team conducted three rounds of interviews with the students concerning the messages and calls that they received and what they did with the information.

Findings: This study finds that farmers’ children can perform infomediary roles quite effectively. Academically excellent children and those involved in farm work performed best.

Practical Implications: The study provides guidance on similar initiatives tapping young people in agricultural development.

Theoretical Implications: This paper finds that while Community Youth Development (CYD) Theory provides a powerful lens in understanding community and youth development intersections, some identified outcomes may overlap and may not be very easy to observe. Hence, the identified outcomes may be revisited for clarity and to make them more all-encompassing.

Originality/Value: The paper documents actual parent-child interaction when the latter is mobilized to serve as an infomediary to access nutrient management-related information on rice.     

The construct validity of Institutional Commitment: A confirmatory factor analysis

The present study examined the underlying structure of the variable Institutional Commitment by testing for the convergence, or lack thereof, among different indicators of the construct as represented by three theoretical frameworks (Tinto, 1975, 1987; Bean, 1985; Huselid and Day, 1991). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that Institutional Commitment could be decomposed into two multiple indicators of the same latent construct: a general factor that groups items related to institutional quality, practical value of an education, utility of an education, fit between student and institution, and loyalty to the institution and another factor represented by items indicating similarity of values (Affinity of Values). Moreover, the study established the predictive validity of each subcomponent on different outcomes related to student persistence. While Institutional Commitment was found to have a significant direct effect on both students' intents to persist and actual persistence behavior, Affinity of Values was not as equally predictive of measures of student retention.Paper presented before the 1991 ASHE Annual Meeting. Boston, Massachusetts.     

Faculty development in medicine: A field in evolution

This article focuses on the evolution of faculty development in medicine. Of note, improving teaching in medical education is not a new concept. At a minimum, it was seriously discussed by pioneers like George Miller and Steve Abrahamson as early as the 1950s [Simpson & Bland (2002). Stephen Abrahamson, PhD, ScD, educationist: A stranger in a kind of paradise. Advances in Health Science Education Theory Practice, 7, 223–234]. By 2005, significant numbers of medical school faculty have participated in teaching improvement methods [Clark et al. (2004). Teaching the teachers: National survey of faculty development in departments of medicine of US teaching hospitals. Journal General Internal Medicine, 19, 205–14]. Yet, views of the importance and value of faculty development have evolved slowly. Fortunately, we are now in a more receptive era for program developers to assist faculty in their difficult roles.     

Amnesia induced by hypothermia as a function of treatment-test interval and recooling in rats

In Experiment I, a repeated tests procedure was employed to assess hypothermia-induced amnesia of a footshock experience. Rats tested 4 h after training treatment showed no memory loss, but amnesia was present at 24 h. Although recovery of memory was obtained when the same animals were cooled 2 h prior to a 50-h test, repeated testing also tended to attenuate amnesia. In Experiment II, independent groups were tested at 6 or 50 h after training treatment. Again, memory of the footshock was present at the short, but not at the long, interval. Recooling shortly prior to the 50-h test eliminated amnesia. Experiment III indicated that the return of memory produced by recooling did not persist if testing was delayed. These findings suggested that hypothermia may function as an important contextual cue for memory retrieval.     

How do parents learn about adolescents' experiences? Implications for parental knowledge and adolescent risky behavior

Cluster analysis was used to identify groups defined by the patterning of fathers' and mothers' sources of knowledge about adolescents' experiences in a sample of 179 families with adolescents (M = 16.5 years). Three clusters emerged for fathers (relational, relies on spouse, relies on others) and mothers (relational, questioners, relies on others). Cluster membership was associated with socioeconomic status, work hours, personal characteristics, and parent-child relationship quality. Longitudinal path analyses revealed that knowledge sources predicted levels of knowledge, which in turn predicted risky behavior 1 year later, indirect paths that were more consistent for fathers than for mothers. Although direct associations between sources of knowledge and subsequent risky behavior were scant, when fathers relied on spouses, youth engaged in less risky behavior.     

Student teachers' reflections on their learning process through collaborative problem solving in geometry

This paper reports research that focuses on student teachers' reflections on their learning process in a collaborative problem-solving context. One group of students with limited mathematical backgrounds worked on two problems in geometry without teacher intervention. We focus on two episodes from the group dialogues. In the first episode (section 5) the students basically reflect on two key issues. The first reflection is related to the concern of making problem-solving tasks too difficult in general while the second reflection has to do with the concern of participation in the solution process. The students discuss how they can give hints or introduce particular ideas before presenting a solution in order to stimulate colleague participation, thus promoting the understanding of the solution process. The second episode (section 6) illustrates the reflection of students on their preparation as future teachers of mathematics. They emphasise that the experience of getting stuck with a problem may help them to better understand the frustration pupils experience while working on unfamiliar problems in classroom. Based on the experience of getting stuck, the students reflect on how they could motivate themselves as well as pupils to work on mathematical problems. They suggest that a good strategy is to start working on an easier problem. If they succeed in coming up with a solution to that problem, they think that it is then more stimulating to proceed to a difficult one.     

Meaning in life and school guidance programs: Adolescents’ voices from Hong Kong

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This study provides insights into how Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong interpret the concept of “meaning in life.” Data...