Measuring Self-Regulation: A Focus on Activity

Ainley and Patrick describe an assessment process designed to “identify self- regulation in action.” In the spirit of this goal, the author offers three suggestions for providing a more holistic and contextual view of self-regulation. These suggestions include (a) expanding the definition of self-regulation used in their studies; (b) measuring self-regulation as a dynamic process rather than as a linear one; and (c) including measures of the context, such as task, interpersonal contacts, and community norms.     

Linguistic awareness skills in grade one children in a French immersion setting

This study examined the ability of children in French immersion and English programs to analyze the internal structure of spoken words in relation to their early reading and spelling abilities in English. Thirty-two children in the first grade were given a modified version of the Auditory Analysis Test, and reading and spelling tasks that included both real words and non-words. Results indicated that French immersion children were more proficient than their English program peers at explicitly analyzing spoken words and that the groups did not differ when reading and spelling orthographically regular real words and non-words. The English program children performed better than their French program peers only when reading orthographically irregular English words. These results demonstrate that second language learning enhances metalinguistic awareness and help to explain why children in immersion programs do not experience long-term difficulty in acquiring English written language skills.     

Suicide Prevention Program on a Diverse College Campus: Examining the Effectiveness of a Peer-to-Peer Model

With the high prevalence of college students experiencing psychological distress, it is becoming increasingly important to provide prevention and early intervention programs in addition to traditional psychological counseling services. This study examined the effectiveness of a suicide prevention program led by peer educators/trainers on a diverse college campus. Twenty-five suicide prevention workshops were conducted with 479 attendees. Preworkshop and postworkshop assessments revealed significant improvements in participants’ knowledge of suicide and resources. Recommendations for campus-wide suicide prevention efforts using diverse peer educators that reflect the students’ demographic and cultural background, recruitment strategies, and utilization of outreach programming in suicide prevention.     

The transfer of content knowledge in a cascade model of professional development

A cascade model of professional development presents a particular risk that ‘knowledge’ promoted in a programme will be diluted or distorted as it passes from originators of the programme to local trainers and then to the target teachers. Careful monitoring of trainers’ and teachers’ knowledge as it is transferred through the system is therefore imperative. This paper focuses on the transfer of content knowledge through an in-service teacher professional development programme and offers an innovative methodology for investigating knowledge transfer, i.e. through insights gained during a mentoring process. The findings suggest that this methodology facilitated assessment of knowledge transfer because it involved the identification of knowledge in practice. The focus on knowledge in practice appeared to avoid a deficit model of trainers’/teachers’ knowledge and revealed that content knowledge was generally being successfully transferred throughout the system. A detailed analysis of different aspects of content knowledge transfer suggested various foci for additional training.     

Entering Initial Teacher Education: science graduates’ views of the interview and selection process

This paper describes ongoing research that builds on earlier studies by the authors that have investigated issues concerning the selection of science graduates to secondary PGCE courses. These studies identified the need for criteria that are understood by tutors and applicants to ensure that candidates from ethnic minority groups are not disadvantaged. The research focuses on the perceptions that science graduates have about the selection process for secondary teacher education courses and seeks to identify whether the procedures used disadvantage any particular groups or individuals. We are interested also in whether there is a mismatch between tutors’ perceptions of the interview process and those of the applicants. During 1995/96 current students and applicants for one year PGCE courses in science were asked how they had prepared for their interviews and for their impressions of the interviewing process. The paper describes initial findings and the implication of these findings.     

Interpretations of child compliance in individuals at high- and low-risk for child physical abuse

OBJECTIVE: Our studies compared individuals at high- and low-risk for child physical abuse on measures of social information processing. METHOD: Two studies were conducted using similar methods. Twenty-eight childless women in Study 1 and 36 mothers in Study 2 read vignettes of parent-child interactions in which the child's level of compliance was difficult to interpret. Participants were asked a series of questions about the child's behavior and their own reactions. RESULTS: Accuracy and bias in identifying compliant behavior were assessed using a signal detection paradigm. In both samples, high- and low-risk participants did not differ in their overall accuracy in identifying children's behaviors. However, they used different evaluation standards such that high-risk participants were biased toward seeing more noncompliance and low-risk participants were biased toward seeing more compliance. High- and low-risk participants also made different types of errors in interpreting children's behavior. Low-risk participants were more likely to misinterpret noncompliant behavior as compliant, and there was a trend for high-risk participants to not perceive compliant behavior when it occurred. There were no differences in reported disciplinary responses in either study and the results for affective reactions were mixed. CONCLUSIONS: Specific differences in social information processing between high- and low-risk individuals replicated across samples, suggesting a reliable association between evaluation standards and risk of child physical abuse. However, the absence of differences in reported discipline and inconsistent findings on affective reactions indicate the need to identify the mechanism through which cognition influences parenting behavior.     

Locus of control, academic achievement, and Follow Through in Appalachia

The present study explored the development of locus of control in rural Appalachian Follow Through participants and in lower and middle-class comparison groups. The IAR was administered to 249 first-, third-, and sixth-grade children along with standardized achievement tests. Contrary to previous research, participation in Follow Through did not enhance internality; no social class differences were revealed. A significant social class by sex interaction was found. Strong support was not found for a developmental trend. The patterns of correlations between locus of control and achievement indicated a stronger relationship for the lower-class samples rather than for the middle-class as has been previously reported. Implications concerning different developmental antecedents in Appalachian homes as a function of sex-role socialization as well as the nature of future intervention research are discussed.     

Using the theory of planned behaviour framework to understand Tasmanian dairy farmer engagement with extension activities to inform future delivery

Purpose: To identify and understand factors influencing farmers’ decisions to engage with extension activities. To understand farmer segments and how these factors vary in order to develop recommendations for future extension delivery.

Methodology: Qualitative data was obtained through semi-structured interviews with 30 Tasmanian dairy farmers. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) framework was used to identify and explore factors influencing farmer engagement intentions and behaviour.

Findings: There was a negative effect of social influence on experienced farmers’ intention to re-engage with extension, due to the belief extension activities were targeted to less experienced, younger farmers. Perceived control factors limiting engagement included lack of confidence about existing knowledge, resulting in farmers perceiving extension activities as confronting.

Practical implications: Key factors influencing intention to engage and continued engagement with extension were identified. These findings will inform future design and targeting of extension activities to improve initial and continued engagement. Subsequent recommendations are presented.

Theoretical implications: Previous TPB studies on adoption as an outcome of extension have typically focused on quantifying adoption predictions, rather than exploring how social factors interact and influence intentions and behaviours. This paper demonstrates how the TPB can be qualitatively applied to better understand farmer decision making, in this instance with respect to their initial and continued engagement with extension.

Originality/value: This paper demonstrates how the TPB can provide an evidence-based framework to qualitatively explore farmer intentions and behaviour. This approach has led to new insights into farmer decision making that will inform improvements in future extension development.     

Measuring poly-victimization using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire

OBJECTIVE: Children who experience multiple victimizations (referred to in this paper as poly-victims) need to be identified because they are at particularly high risk of additional victimization and traumatic psychological effects. This paper compares alternative ways of identifying such children using questions from the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ). METHODS: The JVQ was administered in a national random digit dial telephone survey about the experiences of 2,030 children. The victimizations of children 10-17 years old were assessed through youth self-report on the JVQ and the victimizations of children 2-9 assessed through JVQ caregiver proxy report. RESULTS: Twenty-two percent of the children in this sample had experienced four or more different kinds of victimizations in separate incidents (what we term poly-victimization) within the previous year. Such poly-victimization was highly associated with traumatic symptomatology. Several ways of identifying poly-victims with the JVQ produced roughly equivalent results: a simple count using the 34 victimizations screeners, a count using a reduced set of only 12 screeners, and the original poly-victimization measure using follow-up questions to identify victimizations occurring during different episodes. CONCLUSION: Researchers and clinicians should be taking steps to identify poly-victims within the populations with which they work and have several alternative ways of doing so.