Conflict and Friendship Relations in Middle Childhood: Behavior in a Closed-Field Situation

Disagreements between school-aged children were examined as a function of friendship status. 66 same-sex dyads were selected, including equal numbers of "best friends" and nonfriends, who were then observed while playing a board game (a closed-field situation). Conflicts occurred more frequently among friends than among nonfriends and lasted longer. Friends did not talk more during their conflicts than nonfriends, but assertions were used selectively according to friendship and sex: With friends, girls used assertions accompanied by rationales more frequently than boys whereas boys used assertions without rationales more frequently than girls. These sex differences were not evident during conflicts between nonfriends. Results are discussed in relation to the social constraints intrinsic to closed-field competitive conditions as these apply to friendship relations in middle childhood.     

Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research and practice: Balancing expectations of the ‘old’ academy with the future model of universities as ‘problem solvers’

Academics are increasingly required to balance the expectations of the ‘old’ academy with a future model of universities as interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary ‘problem solvers’. This paper highlights changing expectations of academics in producing alternative research outcomes in collaborative, practice‐based research. Through a series of workshops with 20 researchers, preferred research outcomes and tensions in achieving these outcomes were identified. The tensions identified are presented as three dichotomies comprising the tension between: (a) ‘I versus We’ ‐ individual versus team expectations & outcomes. (b) Disciplinary outcomes versus inter‐/transdisciplinary outcomes. (c) Learning versus research objectives for the students and academics involved. These tensions reflect the authors' experiences of working in three international sustainability projects, drawing on lessons learned from these projects, with recommendations for universities seeking to implement interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary doctoral and postdoctoral programmes. Recommendations include the need for formal and informal leadership models, strong communication skills, empathy and willingness to learn from each other. A need for more systemic changes within university administration to better reward and value the breadth and depth of collaborative work, while facilitating open learning cultures and practice‐oriented learning opportunities and curricula across faculties was also identified.     

Cross-linguistic analysis of vocabulary in young children: spanish, dutch, French, hebrew, italian, korean, and american english

The composition of young children's vocabularies in 7 contrasting linguistic communities was investigated. Mothers of 269 twenty-month-olds in Argentina, Belgium, France, Israel, Italy, the Republic of Korea, and the United States completed comparable vocabulary checklists for their children. In each language and vocabulary size grouping (except for children just learning to talk), children's vocabularies contained relatively greater proportions of nouns than other word classes. Each word class was consistently positively correlated with every other class in each language and for children with smaller and larger vocabularies. Noun prevalence in the vocabularies of young children and the merits of several theories that may account for this pattern are discussed.     

School psychology and issues of sexual orientation: Attitudes,beliefs, and knowledge

The purpose of this study was to investigate school psychologists' attitudes toward lesbians and gay males. Aspects of school psychologists' knowledge, beliefs, current practices, and levels of preparedness related to issues of sexual orientation were also explored. A sample of 288 school psychologists (215 females and 73 males, mean age = 44 years) who were members of NASP participated in this study. Participants completed research packets containing a hypothetical case analogue vignette and three questionnaires querying their attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge about issues of sexual orientation. The results indicated school psychologists endorse relatively positive attitudes toward lesbians and gay males, report low‐to‐moderate levels of knowledge about lesbian and gay male issues, are willing to address lesbian and gay male issues on the job, are generally aware of how such issues impact schools, and are inadequately prepared to deal with lesbian and gay male issues. These findings are discussed in relation to their impact on the field and the implications for graduate training. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 201–210, 2004.     

The idea of impact and its implications for academic development work

In the current context of higher education, those working in academic development feel the need to demonstrate the impact that their work makes on achieving desired institutional outcomes. In this paper, we examine the concept of impact, consider the various meanings of impact and review ways that the term has been used rhetorically and conceptually in relation to academic development. We explore our experience of working in an academic development unit (ADU) and what role impact may have played in our motivations and outcomes. Specifically, we document the changes in the focus, format and language of the ADU's annual reports over three years and reflect on what these revealed to us about our approach to academic development work and the idea of impact.

Dans le contexte actuel de l'enseignement supérieur, ceux qui oeuvrent dans le domaine du développement pédagogique ressentent le besoin de démontrer l'impact de leur travail en relation avec les résultats institutionnels escomptés. Dans cet article, nous examinons la notion d'impact, nous étudions ses diverses significations et nous passons en revue les façons avec lesquelles cette notion a été utilisée aux plans rhétorique et conceptuel en lien avec le développement pédagogique. Nous explorons notre expérience de travail au sein d'une unité de développement pédagogique (ADU) et quel rôle l'impact a pu jouer à l'égard de nos motivations et de nos résultats. De façon plus spécifique, nous documentons les changements de focus, de format ou de langage observés dans les rapports annuels de notre ADU sur une période de trois ans et réfléchissons à ce que cela nous a révélé au sujet de notre approche à l'égard du travail de développement pédagogique et de la notion d'impact.     

Classifying university employability strategies: three case studies and implications for practice and research

This qualitative study documents three main strategic models used by Russell Group Careers Services to support students’ preparation for graduate careers. It is framed against the backdrop of a challenging graduate labour market, discussions of employability in the literature and the policy assumption that universities are responsible for developing students’ employability. First, we classify the strategies used at Russell Group universities through a content analysis of Careers Service websites. We then select three case studies representing contrasting patterns of provision. Interviews with Careers Service directors and staff at the case study institutions provide the rationales behind these three different strategies, which we describe as ‘Hands-Off’, ‘Portfolio’ and ‘Award’. Drawing on 17 interviews and analysis of participation data provided by the Careers Services, we compare and contrast the approaches. The first case fills gaps in an esteemed academic system in which most students already have social capital. The second case focuses on segmenting their market to directly serve varied student needs. The third case emphasises partnership with academics and embedding career development within the curriculum. We take a critical perspective on these strategies in relation to major theoretical conceptions of employability found in the literature. Finally, we suggest implications for practices within Careers Services and further research in this underdeveloped field.     

Clicking to Learn During the 2008 Presidential Election: Why Capturing Channel Switching Matters

This article examines the effect that channel switching among news programs has on knowledge of the issue stands of the 2008 presidential candidates. Past studies focused on news-to-non-news-switching found news grazing to be negatively related to levels of political knowledge. Drawing on data from the 2008 National Annenberg Election Study (NAES) the study concludes that: 1) during the 2008 general election many viewers switched from one news program to another; 2) switchers were disproportionately those who reported closely following the election; 3) the level of channel switching was dynamic during the 2008 campaign and peaked during the parties' convention; 4) switching from one news program to another was positively related to knowledge of the candidates' issue stances, in the presence of controls, and 5) the impact of channel switching on knowledge is moderated by how closely one follows the election. The implication of the results and possible directions for future research are discussed.     

General Communication

COMMUNICATION RESEARCH: ISSUES AND METHODS by James A. Anderson (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987--price not given)

MASS MEDIA RESEARCH: AN INTRODUCTION by Roger D. Wimmer and Joseph R. Dominick (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1987---price not given)

SEARCH STRATEGIES IN MASS COMMUNICATION by Jean Ward and Kathleen Hansen (New York: Longman, 1986---$34.95/15.95)

THE KNOWLEDGE INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES: 1960-1980 by Michael Rogers Rubin and Mary Taylor Huber (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986---$40.00)

KNOWLEDGE GENERATION, EXCHANGE, AND UTILIZATION edited by George M. Beal, et al. (Houlder,CO: Westview Press, 1986---$38.00, paper)

OVERLOAD AND BOREDOM: ESSAYS ON THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY by Orrin K. Klapp (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986---$29.95)

INTERNEDIA: INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION IN A MEDIA WORLD edited by Gary Gumpert and Robert Cathcart (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986---$16.95, paper)

MAPPING THE INFORMATION BUSINESS by John McLaughlin and Anne Lousie Antonoff (Cambridge: Harvard University Program on Information Resources Policy, 1986---price not given, paper)