Implicit attitudes toward children may be unrelated to child abuse risk

Objective

To explore whether adults possess implicit attitudes toward children and whether those attitudes are especially negative among respondents who are high in child physical abuse (CPA) risk.

Methods

The present study used an implicit evaluative priming procedure. In this procedure, participants were instructed to make decisions about the evaluative implications of target words. These words were preceded by photographs of child faces or adult faces displaying positive, neutral, or negative expressions. Reaction times for the evaluative decisions were used as an index of the extent to which photos invoked negative or positive evaluative reactions.

Results

Results from 2 studies, the first conducted on a student sample (N = 90) and the second on a parent sample (N = 95), demonstrated that evaluative congruence between the facial expressions displayed in photographs and the target words facilitated responses. Furthermore, the results suggested that regardless of CPA risk, child faces, relative to adult faces, facilitated responses to negative target words, suggesting an out-group bias. This implicit out-group bias was not moderated by respondents’ CPA risk status.

Conclusions

Faces of children, relative to faces of adults, appear to activate negative information structures that facilitate evaluative decisions of negative stimuli, suggesting an out-group bias. Given that out-group biases typically lead to less favorable treatment of out-group members, additional research is needed to examine the pervasiveness of negative evaluative biases towards children and the potential implications of such biases on children's lives. Further, research examining whether high CPA risk parents and low CPA risk parents differ in how they manage initial negative evaluative reactions is needed.     

Using Picture Books as Paired Texts to Teach Educational Theories

Picture books, when used thoughtfully and artfully, can teach theories to graduate students in literacy and foreign language education. In this article, the authors described how a pair of picture books is used to teach Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development and Krashen's Input Hypothesis in the fields of literacy education and applied linguistics. The authors first introduced the theoretical foundation and rationale of using picture books as paired texts to teach educational theories. Then, from a macroperspective, they described the procedures of designing a class activity with paired picture books. Next, they provided language teachers and educators with a specific sample in which materials, objective, and specific instructional steps are clearly listed. In the end, the authors explained how the article contributes to the field from three perspectives: first, it offers a helpful strategy to language educators who make instruction of theories to graduate students easier; second, it provides insights to language and content area teachers on teaching across the curriculum by using picture books; third, it suggests how teachers can pair other learning mediators with picture books to improve student learning.     

Engaging with holistic curriculum outcomes: deconstructing ‘working theories’

International debates persist about what constitutes desirable outcomes from early childhood education experiences. The New Zealand early childhood curriculum brings together academic and social-pedagogic outcomes as interdependent holistic constructs named ‘dispositions’ and ‘working theories’. These constructs are complex notions that require interpretation by researchers and teachers in order to be recognised as outcomes by those with a vested interest in children's education: parents and policy-makers. This paper engages with the construct of working theories. It explains its genesis and outlines research activity thus far. The paper draws on findings from a two-year qualitative research project exploring children's interests, inquiries and working theories. The paper analyses two vignettes of working theories into mutually constitutive components of knowledge, skills and strategies, and attitudes and expectations. It argues that deconstructing working theories into elements able to be recognised by those outside early childhood education provides a way to demystify these innovative outcomes. Such scrutiny may assist parents and policy-makers to understand ways that the learning they value is present in the early years. Further, holistic outcomes are responsive to research and scholarship on appropriate pedagogy that encourages children to develop identities as learners, identities critical to living in the twenty-first century.     

网络计量学的理论、方法及应用

网络计量学研究的对象包括网络信息直接计量、网上文献信息及相关特征信息计量、网络结构单元的信息计量。网络计量学有其规律和研究工具。它具有内容新颖、广泛和大量运用统计学知识的特点。其研究方法有链接分析法、统计分析法和图论分析法等。网络计量学在网站评价与建设、信息资源开发与管理、网络信息检索,以及数字图书馆资源管理等方面,都有广泛的应用。参考文献12。     

浅探体育专业政治理论课教学的化抽象为形象

任何理论的概括和表述都有其高度的抽象性和严密的逻辑性，这对于体院学生来 说是学习过程中较大的障碍。依据辩证唯物主义认识论的有关原理，研究分析了如何结合体院学 生的固有特点，努力地在政治理沦课教学中化抽象的理论为生动具体的形象，从而增强教学效 果、提高教学质量。     

发展中国家发展之路——反思“自由贸易理论”

通过对自由贸易的历史和现实的考察，反思“自由贸易理论”，既指出其内在缺陷，又指出其适用每件，试图探讨发展中国家在贸易中发展经济的新路径，并对发展本身进行了反思。     

当前马克思主义理论教育的困境与对策分析

受市场经济的影响和冲击,当前我国高校马克思主义理论教育出现了种种困境,如马克思主义理论的主导地位受到挑战和动摇、马克思主义理论教育受到轻视和影响。要走出困境,必须优化家庭、校园环境和社会环境,同时要与时俱进,转变教育理念,改进马克思主义理论教育,以提高马克思主义理论教育的实效性。     

体育专业田径普修课教学优化组合初探

采用教学最优化理论 ,对学时压缩后田径普修课教学进行了探讨 ,认为在既定的教学目标下 ,针对学生体育素质普遍较差的状况 ,应注重教学内容、教学过程、教学方法、教学任务、教学评价的优化组合等 ,进一步实现田径普修课教学的最优化。     

An enquiry into the ethical efficacy of the use of radio frequency identification technology

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the privacy rights dilemma surrounding radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. As one example of ubiquitous information system, RFID has multitudinous applications in various industries and businesses across society. The use of this technology will have to lead to a policy setting dilemma in that a balance between individuals’ privacy concerns and the benefits that they derive from it must be drawn. After describing the basic RFID technology some of its most prevalent uses, a definition of privacy is derived in the context of information systems. To illustrate current attempts at controlling the undesirable side effects of RFID, Lessig’s cyberspace framework is presented. It is found that each of Lessig’s components is inadequate at preventing individual privacy violations in RFID. The main focus within this framework is on the norms of society. The social norm mechanism that addresses privacy issues in cyberspace is the Fair Information Practices Principles (FIPP). After an analysis of these principles, it is posited that the FIPP only deal with procedural justice issues related to data collection and omit distributive and interactional justice reasoning related to the actual beneficial and detrimental outcomes to the individuals whose data is being obtained. Thus, RFID is presented in the context of the tension between the many benefits that are provided by the technology in social exchanges, and the risk it carries of the loss of privacy. The new, expanded framework recognizes both sides of the issue with the ultimate goal of providing a greater understanding of how privacy issues can be addressed with RFID technology.     

面向时代需求 实现范式转变——赖格卢特论信息时代视角下的教学理论演进

教学是帮助学习者构建内化的知识的各种行为。信息时代所出现的变革呼唤着教学新范式。教学新范式既保留了已经被实践证明行之有效的基本教学方法(讲解、示证和练习),同时也鼓励采用变通教学方法(问题教学、项目学习、模拟学习、辅导学习和认知学徒等)。信息时代的教学理论遵循着四项基本原理,这就是个性化与多样性,主动性与自导性,协作性与情感性、整体性与一体化,而技术在记录学习进步、规划学习蓝图、提供学习指导和评估学习效果等方面也起到了不可或缺的保障作用。