Treating abused children: Some clinical and research aspects of work carried out by the national advisory centre of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the United Kingdom

A study of the initial phase of intensive work with families indicated that whilst outreach techniques had dramatically reduced physical injury there was long-term distortion in the child's relationship with mother (parent) less amenable to change. The most recent phase of work has concentrated on direct treatment for the abused child, using a multidisciplinary team that includes a play specialist and child psychotherapist in addition to the social workers involved. Out of a total number of 66 children seen between April 1977 and December 1979 it was alarming to find that almost all were emotionally disturbed; even if the abuse did not reoccur they remained with considerable problems. The study highlights the degree of emotional disturbance suffered by these abused children and how they can be helped by focusing on their particular treatment needs. It is important to assess all children in the family situation and not to miss the quiet, depressed, withdrawn child who might not have been the subject of the initial referral. In some instances the needs of the child may outweigh those of the family and the focus of treatment must be on the child.     

Academic help-seeking in the university setting: The effects of motivational set,attributional style,and help source characteristics

We examined university students' academic help-seeking under task-involved and ego-involved classroom conditions. The effects of these motivational sets on frequency of help-seeking were expected to depend on students' attributions for failure. Use of two types of help sources was investigated: (1) an instrumental help source that imparted useful strategies to the help-seeker, thereby allowing him or her to retain responsibility for solving the problem; (2) an executive help source that disclosed the solutions, thus relinquishing the help-seeker of the responsibility for independent problem-solving. We found that ego involvement increased executive help-seeking in students who attributed failure to low ability, but not in students who made effort attributions. Moreover, task involvement produced more instrumental help-seeking than ego involvement in all students regardless of their attribution style. Since executive help-seeking can impede academic development by inhibiting skill acquisition and by fostering dependence on a help source, university teachers should consider classroom strategies that promote task involvement.Support for this research was provided to Jamie-Lynn Magnusson by The University of Manitoba Research Funds Committee and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Support was provided to Raymond P. Perry by Franz E. Weinert, the Max Planck Institute, Munich. Portions of this paper were presented at the meetings of the American Educational Research Association. This paper is based on research conducted for a doctoral thesis submitted by Jamie-Lynn Magnusson, under the supervision of Raymond P. Perry, to the Department of Psychology at The University of Manitoba.     

基础法语教学中法语文学的作用--以《法语》教材为例

从上世纪90年代初开始,国内众多高校选择外语教学与研究出版社出版的《法语》作为法语专业本科阶段的教材。该文研究了该教材中法语文学类课文的分布和占比,分析了该教材缺少该类课文的原因及对学习法语的中国学生所产生的影响,评估了通过文学类课文教授基础法语的方法及前景,建议在法语教材中增加适合学生语言水平的法语文学类课文。     

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...     

Use of Computer Modeling of Site-Directed Mutagenesis of a Selected Enzyme: A Class Activity for an Introductory Biochemistry Course

For an introductory undergraduate biochemistry class, we developed an interactive, out of classroom, team project that would allow students to gain a better understanding of protein structure and function. This project involved the use of the molecular visualization program RasMol and computer simulated site-directed mutagenesis of selected amino acids of the enzyme, Uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase. Survey data from students after completion of the project indicated that they had developed a more complete understanding of protein three-dimensional structure leading to functionality.     

Exploring the relationship between homework task difficulty,student engagement and performance

This article considers the relationship between differential homework task difficulty, student engagement and performance across four Irish post-primary school sites. A total of 236 participants completed all elements of this study. All participants were junior cycle students, aged between 12 and 16 years. The study employed a standardised test–retest approach, with a one week interval between tests. Between testing, participants were randomly subdivided into three cohorts. Each cohort received homework questions of different difficulty levels to complete for one week. The results of this study found that Cohort A, who received the least difficult homework tasks, completed the most non-compulsory questions. Although Cohort A demonstrated higher levels of engagement, no statistically significant difference was found in the change in performance scores of the three cohorts. The results highlight the negative impact of increased task difficulty on student engagement with independent homework tasks. The findings suggest that in order to support student engagement it is important that teachers afford ample opportunity for student success when designing self-directed tasks such as homework.     

African American Fathers in Low Income, Urban Families: Development, Behavior, and Home Environment of Their Three-Year-Old Children

This study examined the relationship between paternal roles, regardless of residence, and the well-being of 175 3-year-old children from low income, African American families. There were no differences in children's cognition, receptive language, behavior, or home environment related to father presence. Fathers (or father figures) were identified in 73% of the families, and 64% participated in an interview and videotaped observation. The relationships between paternal roles (parenting satisfaction, economic support, nurturance during play, child care, and household responsibilities) and children's cognitive skills, receptive language, behavior, and home environment were examined. After controlling for maternal age, education, and parenting satisfaction, there were significant relationships between paternal roles and each index of children's well-being, suggesting that fathers' contributions were unique. Fathers who were satisfied with parenting, contributed financially to the family, and were nurturant during play had children with better cognitive and language competence; fathers who were satisfied with parenting and employed, had children with fewer behavior problems; and when fathers were living with the child, the home was more child-centered. Neither the biological relationship of the father nor the parents' marital status entered into the models. These findings support ecological theories linking paternal involvement with children's well-being and argue for the institution of family-oriented policies that promote positive father involvement.     

Possible factors influencing Asian students' degree of participation in peer-facilitated online discussion forums: a case study

This study investigated possible factors that might influence the degree of student participation in asynchronous online discussion forums. Degree of participation refers to the number of messages posted by the students. Data were collected from 41 forums, students' reflection logs, and students' interviews. Of these 41 forums, the top third forums (n = 14) in terms of the highest frequency of participant postings were identified. Fourteen less frequent forums were randomly chosen from the remaining forums. We also assessed the quality of the discussions found in both the more frequent and less frequent groups by examining the levels of knowledge construction exhibited in the online postings. We found that that the quality of contributions in the more frequent group was greater than those found in the less frequent group in terms of higher knowledge construction levels. Quantitative analyses showed that the duration of the discussion could not account for the difference between the two groups. Instead, the more and less frequent forums differed in terms of group size, as well as the frequency of two habits of mind displayed by the student facilitators: (a) is aware of own thinking, and (b) is accurate and seeks accuracy. Qualitative analyses of the reflection logs and interviews suggested several other important factors that could also influence students' decision to participate: (a) familiarity with the facilitator, (b) mutual obligation to help each other, (c) knowledge about the topic, and (d) availability of time. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are provided.