Do allegations of emotional maltreatment predict developmental outcomes beyond that of other forms of maltreatment?

OBJECTIVES: To understand the features of child abuse/neglect (CA/N) allegations in cases with emotional maltreatment (EMT) allegations, as well as the features of the EMT allegations themselves, and to describe any associations of EMT with distinct impairments of children's behavior, emotion and functioning. METHOD: The sample consisted of 806 high-risk children, 545 with one or more maltreatment reports to CPS. The Maltreatment Classification System was used to record the number and severity levels of maltreatment allegations, which compared cases with and without EMT. Multiple regression analyses were conducted using 10 outcome scales from the Child Behavior Checklist, Vineland Screener, and Trauma Symptom Checklist. Successive blocks of predictor variables included demographics, maltreatment classification variables, maternal and family characteristics, and study site. RESULTS: When there were allegations of EMT as well as CA/N in a CPS case-record (by age 8), the CA/N allegations tended to be either more frequent or less severe than those kinds of allegations in cases without EMT. When neglect was alleged to occur with EMT, neglect allegations outnumbered allegations of EMT. However, when sexual abuse allegations were accompanied by EMT allegations, there were more EMT allegations than sexual abuse allegations in the cases. Higher severity ratings for EMT allegations than for physical abuse occurred when cases included any abuse. Distinctive effects of EMT subtypes were found between problems of safety/restriction and self-reported anger symptoms, and between problems of self-esteem/autonomy and posttraumatic stress. CONCLUSION: Differences exist between the CA/N allegations in cases with and without EMT. Having few cases containing only EMT allegations made it difficult to assess distinctive harm associated with EMT. Certain types of EMT allegations were associated with increases in children's anger and posttraumatic stress.     

Negotiating Cross-cultural Education in the Visual Arts

This paper looks at the problems posed by a Eurocentric Visual Arts education in Australia. It illustrates the cultural circumstances that created an environment sympathetic to a move away from an Euro-American cultural emphasis towards a more Asian centred programme. It describes how the Western Australian School of Visual Arts chose a conceptual model appropriate to the task of re-aligning the objectives and content of the teaching of visual art theory at the School. The debates considered essential to the development of a course of study appropriate to the evolving of a post-colonial, multi-cultural Australia are examined. The benefits and problems of the Modernist agenda in Australia are discussed alongside proposals that promote understanding of cultural difference. The intention is to produce graduates who are aware of the relevance of cross cultural negotiation in contemporary Australian art and design practice, and who have a familiarity with current theoretical models of cross cultural negotiation and exchange.     

Measuring University Performance: Never Mind the Quality,Never Mind the Width?

After setting perfmance measurment in the context of the broader changes affecting universities the paper enquires how far the actual measures used to date by British universities reflect that wider environment. Detailed analysis of the indicators concerned indicates that most – particularly those developed by the CVCP/UGC – are narrowly conceived. The research selectivity measures of the UGC/UFC are more ambitious, but even these take little account of 'value-added' issues – and entirely fail to address teaching. Comparison with the best of US practice indicates that greater sophistication is technicalt) achievable. The failure, as yet, of the British system fully to explore issues of quality and relevance may be connected to the different snucture of the higher education sector in Britain, and in particular to the combination of a powerful, economy-minded central government with weak consumer power.     

Differential Grading Standards Revisited

The differential grading standards described by Goldman and Widawski (1976) exist in the same magnitude and in roughly the same order a decade later in a different kind of institution. Major fields that attract as majors students who score higher on SATs employ stricter grading standards. These differential grading standards serve to attenuate the correlation between SAT scores and grades, which is, even in highly selective institutions, substantial.     

IDEA: Identifying design principles in educational applets

The Internet is increasingly being used as a medium for educational software in the form of miniature applications (e.g., applets) to explore concepts in a domain. One such effort in mathematics education, the Educational Software Components of Tomorrow (ESCOT) project, created 42 miniature applications each consisting of a context, a set of questions, and one or more interactive applets to help students explore a mathematical concept. They were designed by experts in interface design, educational technology, and classroom teaching. However, some applications were more successful for fostering student problem-solving than others. This article describes the method used to mine a subset (25) of these applets for design principles that describe successful learner-centered design by drawing on such data as videos of students using the software and summaries of written student work. Twenty-one design principles were identified, falling into the categories of motivation, presentation, and support for problem solving. The main purpose of this article is to operationalize a method for post hoc extraction of design principles from an existing library of educational software, although readers may also find the design principles themselves to be useful. This project was funded by a seed grant from the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies funded by the National Science Foundation (REC # 9720384), and was partially supported by Educational Testing Service. Any opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necesarily of Educational Testing Service.