Encouraging science through playful discovery

Children are natural investigators. Their innate curiosity and interest in objects, coupled with adult encouragement for them to mess about with these materials, helps, ...children make discoveries that provide a base for scientific conceptual development on which they build for the rest of their lives (McIntyre, 1984, p. 25).Dwight L. Rogers is an assistant professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ralph E. Martin is an associate professor in the College of Education at Ohio University in Athens. Sharon Kousaleos is a kindergarten teacher at River Valley Community School in Athens, Ohio.     

SOCIAL CAPITAL, SOCIAL INCLUSION AND CHANGING SCHOOL CONTEXTS: A SCOTTISH PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT:  This paper synthesises a collaborative review of social capital theory, with particular regard for its relevance to the changing educational landscape within Scotland. The review considers the common and distinctive elements of social capital, developed by the founding fathers – Putnam, Bourdieu and Coleman – and explores how these might help to understand the changing contexts and pursue opportunities for growth.     

African American Women’s Language Use in Response to Male Partners’ Condom Negotiation Tactics

African American women are vulnerable for sexual health risk; thus, condom use is essential. Guided by research linking goals to communicative content, this study explored women’s use of I-, you-, we-, and hedging language during condom negotiation. Female participants (N = 193) engaged in a condom negotiation role play with male confederates, where language use measures were coded. I-language was used the most frequently. Language use differed as a function of men’s tactics, such that women primarily used I-language in response to verbal attacks, you-language in response to seduction, and I- and we-language in response to information seeking. Women who engaged in more recent condom use were more likely to use you-language and, when confederates attacked, they responded with more you-language and less hedging.