Using a college human sexuality course to combat homophobia

The present study seeks to identify factors among university students that may be associated with homophobic attitudes and whether homophobia may be reduced by educational interventions, such as knowledge-based curricula found in college sexuality courses. Participants were 128 undergraduate students attending a small, private university in the northwestern region of the United States. At the beginning and end of the fall semester 2004, survey packets consisting of a demographic questionnaire, the Sexual Opinion Survey, the Homophobia Scale, a sexual knowledge survey, and the Bem Sex Role Inventory were administered to students attending a human sexuality class and a comparison group of students enrolled in professional and social science introductory courses. Relative to the comparison group, homophobia levels significantly decreased over the course of the semester among students attending the sexuality class. The effect of attending the class on reducing homophobia was partially mediated by an increase in self-reported knowledge about sexual matters. Taken together, these results suggest that the knowledge-based curriculum of sexuality courses may play an important role in affecting broader attitudes about sexuality among college students, including attitudes about homosexuality.     

The flow of technological innovation in an R & D department

The flow of technological information, in particular the type of sources and transfer channels for technological information has been a focus of research interest since the very first studies concerning management of research and development. However, the results of these empirical studies, although encouraging and useful to managers, leave several questions unanswered, and even worse, contain some contradictions.In this paper we will try to explain some of these contradictions using the technology characteristics as an contingency factor. The model, which we will present has been tested in a twofold way: questionnaires were used to provide insight into the importance of some sources, while interviews on the basis of standardized problems led us to a better insight into sources and channels.     

Learn to Lead: Mapping Workplace Learning of School Leaders

In recent years policy makers’ interest in the professional development of school leaders has grown considerably. Although we know some aspect of formal educational programs for school leaders, little is known about school leaders’ incidental and non-formal learning in the workplace. This study aims to grasp what workplace learning activities school leaders value most, what work-related questions incite them to learn, what outcomes they achieve through workplace learning and what conditions support workplace learning of school leaders. In order to generate answers to the research questions, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 Dutch school leaders in secondary education, which also served as a form of reflection for the respondents. Results show that school leaders mostly value workplace learning through working on improvement and innovation and through reflection. In addition to outcomes for the school leader, working on improvement and innovation also leads to learning outcomes for teachers, and seems to provide opportunities for teachers to influence changes in the school. On the other hand, teachers take little or no part in reflection. Here, school leaders find peace and stability to reflect with fellow school leaders. If adjusted to a specific context, the methods used in this study might be transferred to other contexts, to study workplace learning of all kinds of leaders.     

The design and validation of an instrument to measure teachers’ professional development at work

After graduation, it is essential for teachers to continue working on their professional development since they need to be prepared for the requirements of tomorrow's knowledge- and technology-based society, a more varied student and pupil population creating new responsibilities, and higher social expectations from schools and the society as a whole. Although attention for teachers’ professional development at work is increasing, the availability of valid survey instruments that measure their participation in professional development at work is still limited. Based on a literature review, such an instrument was designed. This 21-item self-report measure, using a 4-point rating scale, makes an inventory of teachers’ participation in activities contributing to professional development. The purpose of the instrument is to make teachers, school leaders and other stakeholders aware of whether, and to what degree, teachers engage in learning at work. This is important because ultimately the quality of education depends on it. A survey was administered in 9 Dutch primary schools and 15 Dutch secondary schools. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed a six-factor structure, and augments earlier findings in the field. The reliabilities of the six subscales were sufficient to good.     

Development and psychometric evaluation of a new assessment method for childhood maltreatment experiences: The interview for traumatic events in childhood (ITEC)

ObjectiveWe conducted a comprehensive assessment of the reliability and validity of the Interview for Traumatic Events in Childhood (ITEC, Lobbestael, Arntz, Kremers, & Sieswerda, 2006), a retrospective, semi-structured interview for childhood maltreatment. The ITEC aims to yield dimensional scores for severity of experiences of different childhood maltreatment dimensions.MethodsInitial psychometric properties were tested with the pilot version of the ITEC in 362 participants. A second study assessed the revised ITEC in 217 participants, patients and non-patients.ResultsFactor analyses produced the best fit for a five-factor model (sexual, physical and emotional abuse, physical and emotional neglect). The scales had good internal consistency, except for the physical neglect subscale, and excellent inter-rater reliability. The scales were highly associated with equivalent scales of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (i.e., good convergent validity), and showed good correspondence with patient file information (i.e., good criterion validity).ConclusionThese results support the reliability and validity of the ITEC, making it a potentially useful tool for assessing a broad range of traumatic events in childhood.Practice implicationThe first step in therapy for dealing with childhood maltreatment is to map abusive experiences and assess their severity and impact. Since maltreatment is a sensitive topic that is not reported on easily, trauma interviews are promising assessment instruments since they provide the opportunity to probe and clarify. There are hardly any well-validated trauma interviews available that assess the extent of maltreatment in and outside the family in various dimensions. The current study tries to fill this gap by presenting a new trauma interview; the Interview for Traumatic Events in Childhood.     

Learning to prove by investigations: a promising approach in Dutch secondary education

The Mathematics Department of the University of Nijmegen in collaboration with the Graduate School of Education has developed a math course in the field of fractals and dynamic processes for volunteer students in the second phase of secondary education in the Netherlands. The students, of approximately 16 years of age, show a special interest in, and an aptitude for mathematics and informatics. One of the main goals of the course was to highlight the deductive aspect of mathematics, an aspect that is neglected in the ordinary math curriculum of secondary education in the Netherlands. That goal was pursued by giving the students ample opportunity to conduct investigations on their own and in a way that they would be responsible for judging the correctness of their arguments in making mathematical deductions. In that way proving is imbedded in a larger structure and becomes a tool for the students to convince each other. During the courses we searched for the right way for teachers to coach these investigations, that is: to find a balance between mere concentration on guiding the process of the students' investigations and active intervention in the learning process of proving. In this article we illustrate with two examples – the first from the '95–'96 course and the second from the '96–'97 course – in what way we adjusted our coaching. Our results are explorative, but our approach appears promising and we are convinced that investigations as learning environment for proving would also be a valuable part for the regular secondary math education in the Netherlands. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The development of an instrument to measure teachers’ inquiry habit of mind

In the present study the construct inquiry of mind explored and an instrument to measure it is proposed. Using three different samples, explorative and confirmative factor analyses were performed, resulting in three empirical dimensions that correspond to the three theoretical dimensions: 1) ‘value deep understanding,’ 2) ‘reserve judgment and tolerate ambiguity,’ and 3) ‘taking a range of perspectives and posing increasingly focused questions.’ Our findings suggest the teachers’ inquiry habit of mind scale has good psychometric properties making it useful not only for research that investigates teachers’ research attitude and intention to do research but also as an evaluation tool for the development of an inquiry habit of mind in both student teachers and teacher educators (in teacher education) as well as in experienced teachers (participating in professional development).