Understanding probabilistic thinking: The legacy of Efraim Fischbein

The study and analysis of probabilistic thinking, in particular its development in children, is a key element in our attempts to uncover the workings of the human mind and an essential foundation for the development of effective instruction in concepts central to modern models of scientific and social phenomena. This paper honours the contribution of Efraim Fischbein, who died in July 1998, to these endeavours. The first section summarises Fischbein's early work, culminating in his 1975 book The Intuitive Sources of Probabilistic Thinking in Children. The second focusses on three major themes prominent in that book, and elaborated in later work by Fischbein and his colleagues, namely: (a) The role of intuition in mathematical and scientific thinking, (b) The development of probabilistic thinking, and (c) The influence of instruction on that development. In the final section, suggestions are made as to how Fischbein's pioneering work can be built upon, in particular for improving the teaching of probability in schools.This revised version was published online in October 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Sustainability in open access publishing: The ecancer case study

• Innovative business models to complement or replace traditional models of funding academic publishing are currently proliferating.
• Not relying solely on one source of funding is a key factor in sustainability.
• Pay what you can afford (PWYCA) is a new model for article processing charges (APCs) providing both a revenue stream and an opportunity to raise awareness of the cost of publishing amongst authors.
• Treating a journal as part of an overall enterprise rather than as a stand‐alone business contributes significantly to its sustainability.

     

The application of transformational leadership theory to parenting: questionnaire development and implications for adolescent self-regulatory efficacy and life satisfaction

We draw upon transformational leadership theory to develop an instrument to measure transformational parenting for use with adolescents. First, potential items were generated that were developmentally appropriate and evidence for content validity was provided through the use of focus groups with parents and adolescents. We subsequently provide evidence for several aspects of construct validity of measures derived from the Transformational Parenting Questionnaire (TPQ). Data were collected from 857 adolescents (M(age) = 14.70 years), who rated the behaviors of their mothers and fathers. The results provided support for a second-order measurement model of transformational parenting. In addition, positive relationships between mothers' and fathers' transformational parenting behaviors, adolescents' self-regulatory efficacy for physical activity and healthy eating, and life satisfaction were found. The results of this research support the application of transformational leadership theory to parenting behaviors, as well as the construct validity of measures derived from the TPQ.     

A Good Death – Can the Concept Be Applied to Anatomy?

The importance of patient-centered decisions is embedded throughout clinical practice. The principle that the patient is at the center of all decisions has helped form the contemporary approach to death and dying. The concept of a “good death” will naturally mean different things to different individuals, but is based on the foundation of being pain free, comfortable, and able to make informed decisions. Potential donors are faced with many personal, ethical, and often spiritual considerations when they come to think about their wishes after death. One consideration is that of a “good death.” This article explores how the concept of a “good death” may be applied to anatomy. Where first-person consent is in place, the motivating factors frequently include the wish for others to learn from the donation, and this notion may form part of the “good death” for the donor. Such motivations may impact positively on how students feel about dissecting and may provide comfort, assuaging feelings of discomfort, and allowing students to focus on anatomical learning. For donors where second-person consent is in place, the concept of a “good death” must depend on whether the individual wanted to donate their body in the first instance. The notion of a “bad death” may also be considered with body donation where no consent for donation is in place. This article proposes that there is ultimately a place for the concept that a “good death” may involve an individual donating their body to medical education.     

Choice? Factors That Influence Women’s Decision Making for Childbirth

This article reports the findings from a mixed-methods study on factors that influence women’s decisions about birth, with the view that women’s decision making about birth can affect the use of cesarean surgery. Data was collected from focus groups and structured postpartum interviews and was analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research method. The findings relate specifically to the factors reported as influential in making decisions about birth including how the women categorized, prioritized, and/or favored certain types of knowledge about modes of birth. Four major information categories were identified but only stories about birth and/or attending a birth appeared to have a lasting effect on birth choices. These findings have implications for prenatal and perinatal education and nursing practice.     

Terra Populus: Workflows for Integrating and Harmonizing Geospatial Population and Environmental Data

The Terra Populus project (TerraPop) addresses a variety of data management, curation, and preservation challenges with respect to spatiotemporal population and environmental data. In this article, we describe our approaches to these challenges, with a particular focus on geospatial data workflows and associated provenance metadata. The goal of TerraPop is to enable research, learning, and policy analysis by providing integrated spatiotemporal data describing people and their environment. To do so, TerraPop is assembling a globe-spanning and temporally extensive collection of high-quality population and environmental data, ensuring good documentation, and developing a Web-based data access system that enables users to assemble customized integrated data sets drawing on a variety of data sources and formats. We describe TerraPop's collection strategies, detail the geospatial workflows involved in preparing data for ingest into the project database and those used to transform data across formats for dissemination, and discuss the system used to capture and manage provenance metadata throughout the project. A key aspect of the project is the development of global current and historical administrative unit boundaries that can be linked to census data. These boundaries serve as the linchpin of TerraPop's data integration strategy, and constitute an important data set in their own right.     

Looking for Mature Faith in the Missions of Religiously Affiliated Institutions of Higher Education

In this study, we investigated Benson, Donahue, and Erikson's (1993) concept of faith maturity as expressed by institutions of higher education (IHE) claiming religious affiliation. We examined the institutional mission statements of 87 schools affiliated with six Protestant denominations in search of evidence of their intention to develop the Vertical (V) and Horizontal (H) dimensions of faith maturity (Benson, Donahue, & Erikson, 1993). Contrary to this conceptualization of a mature faith, expressions of V and H dimensions were negatively correlated. There was considerable variability in the expression of both V and H dimensions, with Southern Baptist institutions being highest in the V dimension, and United Church of Christ and Lutheran institutions being highest in the H dimension. Although expression of V and H characteristics did not match Benson et al.'s definition of a mature faith, there was some evidence these dimensions corresponded with institutional practices related to relevant student experiences. Overall, the H dimension was emphasized in the mission statements more than the V dimension. These findings have implications for reviewing institutional practices regarding student curricular and co-curricular experiences.     

Enacting post-reflexive teacher education

The purpose of this article is to re-conceptualize Schön’s call for a phenomenology of practice – moving away from reflection and towards post-reflexion – by explicitly drawing on philosophical and methodological tenets of phenomenology, specifically some of Vagle’s theorizing of a post-intentional phenomenology. Finally, we use this conception of post-reflexion to articulate a set of three concrete post-reflexive pedagogies of teacher education – An Affective Pedagogy; A Post-Reflexive Entangled Pedagogy; and An Interrogated “Assumptions of Normality” Pedagogy.     

Social-emotional effects of early childhood education programs in Tulsa

This article assesses the effects of Tulsa, Oklahoma's early childhood education programs on social-emotional outcomes, examining teacher ratings of children's behavior from the Adjustment Scales for Preschool Intervention and a measure of attentiveness using fixed effects regressions with propensity score matching. The sample includes 2,832 kindergarten students in 2006, of whom 1,318 participated in the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) pre-K program and 363 participated in the CAP of Tulsa County Head Start program the previous year. Program participation was associated with lower timidity and higher attentiveness for TPS pre-K alumni and a marginally significant reduction in timidity for Head Start alumni. Results were similar for the free lunch-eligible subsample. We conclude that high-quality, school-based preschool programs can enhance social-emotional development.     

Socialization of coping with community violence: influences of caregiver coaching, modeling, and family context

A socialization model of coping with community violence was tested in 101 African American adolescents (55% male, ages 9-13) and their maternal caregivers living in high-violence areas of a mid-sized, southeastern city. Participants completed interviews assessing caregiver coping, family context, and child adjustment. Caregiver-child dyads also discussed a film clip depicting community violence. Parental coaching (caregivers' strategies suggesting how to cope) and child-reported coping were coded from the discussion. Coaching, modeling (caregivers' own coping), and family context each contributed to children's coping with violence. Children's problem-focused coping in response to violence had the strongest associations with changes in their adjustment 6 months later. Implications for interventions with youth and families are discussed.