The components of professional development include staff development, peer interaction, benchmarking, and individual development. The New York State Association of School Business Officials has responded to demands for downsizing/increased productivity with professional development programs that mix both soft and hard skill development while…

Participants at a British workshop on outdoor education and spiritual development concluded that outdoor programs provide special opportunities for developing spiritual awareness; maximizing relevance to everyday life is essential; and facilitators need good group-work skills. Participants also discussed contemplation versus excitement in outdoor…

Examined longitudinal data from a national survey to explore continuity and change in parent-child relations as children become adults. Results support a social learning view where past relationship patterns persist when families enter a new life stage. The effects of earlier patterns of interaction on later relations proved modest. (RJM)

Explores ways in which college students' community service contributes to citizenship education. A qualitative study over six years, involving interviews, surveys, and observation of students, examined how a more caring sense of self may be enhanced through student involvement. Three major themes in student experiences are discussed: exploration…

Characterizes the telling and learning of political jokes as a powerful socializing tool for children to learn about the world. Maintains that this activity serves as a means of storing and transmitting social knowledge as well as information about the world of public affairs. Includes some representative examples. (MJP)

A study of 89 California Institute of Technology 1943 male graduates revealed that the men were highly productive, gifted individuals who contributed greatly to their scientific fields, maintained stable and satisfying family lives, contributed to their communities, pursued avocations in considerable depth, and found creative means for expressing…

Describes the experience of integrating technology with lesson designs through a laboratory of five computers within the classroom. Relates the progression of this experience in three phases, from intellectual resistance to classroom adaptation to critical advocacy. Provides recommendations and lists the initial findings of the laboratory…

Discusses how adversity provides opportunities for personal and professional growth. Notes benefits of adversity, including enhanced skills and insights, sense of accomplishment, balanced perspective, increased productivity and efficiency, increased sensitivity to others, enhanced sense of humor, better priorities, and personal and professional…

Examined deviancy training as a risk factor for aggression toward female partners among boys and young men in the longitudinal Oregon Youth Study. Found that the relation of adolescent deviant peer association and later aggression toward partners was mediated by antisocial behavior. Observed hostile talk about women with male peers explained…

Predicted children's loneliness and social satisfaction growth curves based on changes in peer victimization status from kindergarten through third grade. Found that trajectories for children moving from nonvictim to victim classification showed increasing loneliness and decreasing social satisfaction. However, moving from victim to nonvictim…

Elaborates on the basic thesis developed by Rothbaum et al., underscoring the significance of the co-constructive process of the self and social relationship. Discusses implications for future cultural psychological inquiry in this area. (Author/KB)

Two experiments used Visual Expectations Procedure to investigate development of expectations in infants up to 12 months old. Reaction time improved and the percentage of anticipations increased between 6 and 9 months using an alternation pattern or a complex pivot pattern, and between 4 and 8 months when using a left-right alternation or a…

The "Quality of Student Life" approach to studies of student satisfaction moves toward a coherent theory of satisfaction, based on an ecological perspective. Exploratory study (n=266) of senior undergraduate students demonstrated viability of this approach and the utility of the instrument developed to measure its dependent outcomes.…

Argues that what matters is not the difference between learning and development, but the dynamic relationships that form the key to understanding. Examined two models of these relationships: (1) a semantic approach, distinguishing five dimensions along which learning and development can be compared; and (2) a mathematical nonlinear growth model…

The Early Coping Inventory was adapted to rate coping behaviors objectively in 114 infants and toddlers in 3 categories. The typically developing children were rated as significantly more effective than children at risk or developmentally delayed. Children at risk received significantly higher coping ratings than did the children with…