Biting Behaviors Among Preschoolers: A Review of the Literature and Survey of Practitioners

Biting behavior occurs frequently among young children in child care settings. Research indicates several possible reasons for biting behavior including developmental as well as emotional issues. This study examines procedures that have been established to handle childhood biting by early childhood education child care facilities in a southeastern state of the United States. We were interested in whether these child care providers considered biting a normal developmental behavior or an abnormal, dysfunctional behavior. Additionally, how did their philosophy about childhood biting relate to their handling of biting incidents in their facilities?     

Science and Mathematics Instruction of Beginning Elementary Teachers

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Responses to unpleasant work relationships

The likelihood of use in Rusbult's (e.g., Rusbult & Zembrodt, 1983) typology of exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect responses to romantic relationships was assessed for its general applicability to unpleasant work relationships. Correlational analysis revealed that one's own orientation to an unpleasant work relationship and the perception of the other person's orientation to the problematic relationship were associated with the voice response. Loyalty was associated with one's own orientation to the problematic relationship, as was the neglect response. Status relative to the unpleasant person was found to shape one's responses to the relationship as well. Some correlations varied by gender.     

The influence of clothing on perceptions of infant sex roles

This paper reports an evaluation of presentation skills training for participants from manufacturing, service, production, and research organizations using a repeated‐measures quasi‐experimental comparison‐group design. In addition to posttest assessments of participants’ reactions and learning, participants’ self reports of sixteen behavioral skills were assessed across three time periods. Similar analyses were employed to test for co‐workers’ ratings of program participants’ long‐term improvement. Statistical analyses of participants’ responses (controlling for the number of comparisons) revealed positive reactions to the training, improvement in learning, as well as short‐term behavioral change in eight of the sixteen skills taught. Long‐term change was found in seven of the dependent measures. On‐the‐job change was found in three skills. Taken together, improvement was found in all but two of the skills areas in the training. Analyses of co‐workers’ ratings of participants’ skills also revealed that trainees had improved on twelve of the sixteen presentation skills after the program.     

The effectiveness of project-specific information competence instruction

A faculty member and a librarian collaborated on an information competence workshop designed to enhance the skills necessary to complete a specific class project. Twenty-five students participated in the workshop and reported their skill level and comfort with researching for information at three times: before the workshop, the class session after the workshop, and at the end of the semester when the project was due. Further aspects of information competence instruction and project-specific performance are discussed.     

Educators' Perceptions of NRT Misuse

What has been the impact of high stakes achievement testing on curriculum and testing practice? How serious is the problem of cheating on Standardized achievement tests? What steps can we take to improve the validity of test-based information for a variety of educational purposes?     

Studying the effects of early child care experiences on the development of children of color in the United States: toward a more inclusive research agenda

Evidence is presented of the different cultural and ecological contexts affecting early child care for families of color. It is argued that improvements on previous research require a fundamental shift in how race, ethnicity, and culture as psychological variables are examined. Furthermore, to avoid the pitfalls and failures of previous research, new research must incorporate expanded models of child care and development in childhood. The integrative model of development for children of color proposed by Garcia Coll et al. (1996) is presented as a basis for developing more specific ecological models relevant to addressing child care issues in ethnic minority families. Finally, priority areas for future research are recommended to stimulate and enable child care researchers to adopt a more inclusive view of child care and its effects.     

Public Meetings in Entertainment Television Programming: Using Procedural Justice to Analyze Fictional Civic Participation

Quantitative and qualitative analyses of entertainment television programs depicting public meetings demonstrate that, while citizens are often shown having substantial opportunity to impact local government, authorities are often portrayed negatively. In particular, they are often shown as rude and in a conflict of interest. The categories for this content analysis represent an initial attempt to draw on social psychological theories of justice for communication research into entertainment television content. The research is also meant to demonstrate how fan-generated computer databases of entertainment television content can be used in conjunction with content analysis to fill a gap in political communication research.