Developing and retaining highly qualified teachers are central elements in efforts to improve teaching and learning in the United States. As part of these efforts, higher education institutions are beginning to design comprehensive induction programs for their graduates. The purpose of this article is to describe the development of a conceptual…

There is little question that popular television shows influence the shaping of social norms, identities, and the ways we navigate daily life. High profile shows are also a common magnet for critical attention. No primetime television show has provoked as wide a range of reactions as Fox's "The Simpsons." From shock radio to public broadcasting…

Drawing on a larger ethnographic study of four high school young men, this paper foregrounds high school male-male friendships as a context for examining how heterosexism and homophobia operate to limit and delimit the ways masculinities are constructed. I begin this article by first highlighting an inconsistency between recent school initiatives…

American classrooms are experiencing the largest influx of immigrant students since the beginning of the 20th century (National Collaborative on Diversity in America's Teaching Force, 2004). The U.S. Department of Education says that of the more than 50 million children enrolled in elementary and secondary schools this year, one in every five has…

Until recently, and even in many current research circles, social behavior in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (including those with high functioning autism or Asperger disorder) was considered to be unmodifiable. Mundy, Henderson, Inge, and Coman and McGee and Daly shed new light on this concept of intractability, suggesting that…

A study compared teachers' ratings of autistic symptomatology with those of parents, experienced clinicians and trained raters. The results concluded that quantitative assessments by teachers and parents were a cost-effective method for tracking the severity of autistic symptomatology.

A sample of 341 5 1/2-year-old children participating in an ongoing longitudinal study was the focus of a study on the relation between cardiac vagal regulation and peer status. To assess cardiac vagal regulation, resting measures of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and RSA change (suppression) to 3 cognitively and emotionally challenging tasks…

Tagging is not simply an act of vandalism or violence; it is a social practice with its own rules and codes--a literacy practice imbued with intent and meaning. Three aspects of tagging reflect its nature as a literate practice: (1) The purpose of tagging to achieve particular social goals and group affiliations; (2) The role of talent to be…

Discusses the presence of linguistic norms as regulating language use in social contexts, and distinguishes between statistical and nomothetic norms: denies there is a social nomothetic norm. (CK)

Presents models that ascribe social behavior, such as altruism and parental sacrifices for the young, to a kind of genetic imperative wherein individuals maximize their genetic contribution to the next generation. (GS)

Self-esteem is widely perceived to be important. This study examined the role of self-esteem as a moderator of social behavior in a sample selected to represent a broad range on the self-esteem dimension. Student subjects representing high, medium, and low levels of self-esteem were selected from a large sample (N=1,051) such that those…

Investigated whether children who interact effectively with peers are better able to decenter (take anothers' point of view) in interpersonal areas than children whose peer interactions are less effective. (DP)

Examines the relationship between guilt and reading erotic literature after subjects were exposed to either positive, neutral or negative comments on the literature. (HMV)

In its life as a community, the Evergreen State College requires a social contract rather than a list of specific prohibitions and essentially negative rules. The contract, open to modifications over time and responsive to the changing circumstances sure to attend the institution's future, represents a commitment by each member of the college…