Associations between Phenylalanine-to-Tyrosine Ratios and Performance on Tests of Neuropsychological Function in Adolescents Treated Early and Continuously for Phenylketonuria

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a genetic disorder characterized by hyperphenylalaninemia. Treatment involves dietary phenylalanine restriction to prevent mental retardation. Because phenylalanine is involved in tyrosine synthesis and tyrosine is a catecholamine precursor, low tyrosine may lead to brain dopamine deficiencies. Because dopamine is involved in the modulation of prefrontally orchestrated executive functions, deficiencies may lead to executive impairments. Despite treatment, impairments in executive cognitive functions have been reported in young children with PKU. Outcome beyond middle childhood has not been extensively investigated. In this study, PKU-affected adolescents (N = 18) with normal-range IQ scores completed neuropsychological tests, and their performance was compared with unaffected peers (N = 16) and chronically ill controls (N = 17). Results demonstrated that the overall performance of the PKU group did not differ from that of the other two groups, but that performance of the PKU proband was associated with phenylalanine and tyrosine levels, and most strongly with phenylalanine-to-tyrosine ratios at several points in development. These findings provide a preliminary test of the dopamine hypothesis of PKU as it applies to adolescents and young adults.     

Teachers’ views of their school climate and its relationship with teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction

The purpose of this study, in part, was to confirm the factor structure of the School-Level Environment Questionnaire, which assesses six school climate factors that can be considered important for improving schools. The study also tested a research model of the relationships between the school climate, teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The participants included 781 Western Australian high-school teachers in 29 schools. When the data were analysed by means of structural equation modelling, teacher self-efficacy and teacher job satisfaction were both related to school climate dimensions and there was also a relationship between teacher self-efficacy and job satisfaction. These results provide practical information for improving school climate and suggest that it is worthwhile for school principals to consider factors within the school climate and how they might be enhanced.     

Rescuing the Childcare Center: One Community’s Efforts to Manage Change Through Generating and Coordinating Resources

Childcare centers are business organizations and are subject to some of the same issues and problems as any small business. Many childcare administrators have little or no business training, and are unable to embrace change in order to help their programs survive economic problems. This article describes how one community saved their childcare center through collaboration.     

Mathematical myths: Teacher candidates' beliefs and the implications for teacher educators

Abstract

For more than 2 decades, professional, state, and federal agencies have adopted educational standards aimed at improving mathematics instruction. One way of measuring the success of these adopted standards is to examine their impact on the mathematics attitudes and beliefs of students who received their education during this reform period. How teachers approach and implement these mathematics standards is heavily influenced by what they believe about mathematics content and pedagogy. For those who seek to improve mathematics education, examining beliefs regarding mathematics and the factors that influence those beliefs is imperative. In this paper we explore the persistence of teacher candidates' beliefs in myths despite changing educational standards. The beliefs of 76 current elementary teacher candidates were compared to beliefs of 131 elementary teacher candidates from 1990. The results confirm the pervasiveness and persistence of math myths among female elementary teacher candidates.     

Advanced mathematics course-taking: A focus on gender equifinality

High school mathematics achievement predicts future success. Potentially different factors that lead to success for boys versus girls, termed equifinality, are not well understood. Such factors are needed to inform interventions to increase numbers of students taking advanced mathematics courses and going on into science and mathematics careers. With 16,373 diverse tenth grade participants of the 2002 Education Longitudinal Study, we used multi-group logistic regression modeling to investigate advanced mathematics course selection from a social cognitive perspective, testing relations separately by gender. Girls took advanced mathematics courses at significantly higher rates than males. Family background and cognitive factors were related to advanced mathematics coursetaking for both groups. Supporting the equifinality hypothesis, father's expectation, parent communication, and peer academic value were significant for girls yet mother's expectation and parent participation were significant for boys. Implications and future directions are discussed.     

The Co-occurrence of Reading Disorder and ADHD: Epidemiology, Treatment, Psychosocial Impact, and Economic Burden

The co-occurrence of reading disorder (RD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has received increasing attention. This review summarizes the epidemiology, treatment strategies, psychosocial impact, and economic burden associated with the co-occurrence of these conditions. Common genetic and neuropsychological deficits may partially explain the high degree of overlap between RD and ADHD. Children who face the additive problems of both disorders are at greater risk for academic failure, psychosocial consequences, and poor long-term outcomes that persist into adulthood. However, few studies have evaluated interventions targeted to this patient population, underscoring the importance of identifying effective multimodal treatments that address the neuropsychological deficits of RD and ADHD through carefully planned clinical research.     

Constructing instruction for struggling writers: what and how

To respond to the articles in the current issue, I begin with an amalgamated conception of a transactional universe of reciprocal reading and composing processes that includes cognitive and social processes. Next, I situate the four studies in the current issue according to their epistemological emphases in the transactional conception. Three focal epistemological questions are framed as a way of situating each study: (a) what knowledge or processes do researchers emphasize most in the universe of composing processes? (b) Where do the researchers think that knowledge or those processes reside(s)? (c) How does one get or create that knowledge or those processes? Next, beneficial contributions to the field from the four studies are highlighted, and finally, future research directions are suggested.