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Teachers were asked to identify and rank 10 preferred stimuli for 9 toddlers, and a hierarchy of preference for these items was determined via a direct preference assessment. The reinforcing efficacy of the most highly preferred items identified by each method was evaluated concurrently in a reinforcer assessment. The reinforcer assessment showed that all stimuli identified as highly preferred via the direct preference assessment and teacher rankings functioned as reinforcers. The highest ranked stimuli in the direct assessment were more reinforcing than the teachers' top-ranked stimuli for 5 of 9 participants, whereas the teachers' top-ranked stimulus was more reinforcing than the highest ranked stimulus of the direct assessment for only 1 child. A strong positive correlation between rankings generated through the two assessments was identified for only 1 of the 9 participants. Despite poor correspondence between rankings generated through the teacher interview and direct preference assessment, results of the reinforcer assessment suggest that both methods are effective in identifying reinforcers for toddlers.

We compared the effects of two antecedent strategies commonly used in early childhood settings to increase compliance during activity transitions: a warning condition, in which children were informed of the transition 2 min before it began, and a condition in which children were allowed access to a toy during the transition. Both antecedent interventions were ineffective when implemented alone; however, when these strategies were combined with extinction, improvements in compliance were observed for all children.

Making government services more responsive to the needs of citizens is an ongoing preoccupation of public administration. Doing so in a federal system presents particular challenges and has led to efforts to integrate service delivery across two or more orders of government or into what some have called "citizen-centred federalism." This article offers a critical evaluation of this concept by emphasizing the need to distinguish between instrumental and organic conceptions of both citizenship and federalism. Doing so reveals that much of what has been done to date by way of service integration deals only with a limited subset of all the services that governments provide. It also suggests that some Canadians may be willing to sacrifice efficiency in order to preserve or strengthen local autonomy and identity and that Canadians who hold an instrumental conception of federalism may well be willing to entertain quite dramatic changes as to who does what if this means more effective delivery of public goods. Finally, this analysis suggests that, for some citizens, the key criterion for evaluating any given proposal to provide public goods is much less one of efficiency and much more (or at least equally) one of federalism and strengthening the institutions and practices of federation. Mieux adapter les services gouvernementaux aux besoins des citoyens est une preoccupation permanente de l'administration publique. Dans un systeme federal, cela presente des defis particuliers et a donne lieu a des efforts pour integrer la prestation de services dans deux paliers de gouvernement ou plus ou dans ce que certains ont appele un << federalisme axe sur le citoyen >>. Cet article offre une evaluation critique de ce concept en soulignant le besoin de faire une distinction entre les conceptions instrumentale et organique a la fois de la citoyennete et du federalisme. Cela revele qu'une grande partie de ce qui a ete fait jusqu'a present en matiere d'integration de services ne s'applique qu'a un sous-ensemble limite de tous les services fournis par le gouvernement. Cela laisse egalement entendre que certains Canadiens pourraient etre prets a sacrifier l'efficience afin de preserver ou renforcer l'autonomie et l'idenfite locales et que ceux d'entre eux qui ont une conception instrumentale du federalisme pourraient envisager des changements radicaux au sujet de qui fait quoi si cela signifie une prestation plus efficace des biens publics. Enfin, cette analyse donne a penser que, pour certains citoyens, le critere cle pour evaluer une proposition de prestation de biens publics est beaucoup moins l'efficience mais avant tout (ou du moins tout autant) le federalisme et le renforcement des institutions et des pratiques de la federation., Citizen-centred federalism avoids the clash over ideas by starting at the other end of the spectrum. It focuses our attention on how a service is delivered (Ambrose, Lenihan, and Milloy [...]

Teachers were asked to identify and rank 10 preferred stimuli for 9 toddlers, and a hierarchy of preference for these items was determined via a direct preference assessment. The reinforcing efficacy of the most highly preferred items identified by each method was evaluated concurrently in a reinforcer assessment. The reinforcer assessment showed that all stimuli identified as highly preferred via the direct preference assessment and teacher rankings functioned as reinforcers. The highest ranked stimuli in the direct assessment were more reinforcing than the teachers' topranked stimuli for 5 of 9 participants, whereas the teachers' top-ranked stimulus was more reinforcing than the highest ranked stimulus of the direct assessment for only 1 child. A strong positive correlation between rankings generated through the two assessments was identified for only 1 of the 9 participants. Despite poor correspondence between rankings generated through the teacher interview and direct preference assessment, results of the reinforcer assessment suggest that both methods are effective in identifying reinforcers for toddlers. DESCRIPTORS: concurrent operants, direct assessment, indirect assessment, preference, reinforcer assessment, teacher report, toddlers

We compared the effects of two antecedent strategies commonly used in early childhood settings to increase compliance during activity transitions: a warning condition, in which children were informed of the transition 2 min before it began, and a condition in which children were allowed access to a toy during the transition. Both antecedent interventions were ineffective when implemented alone; however, when these strategies were combined with extinction, improvements in compliance were observed for all children. DESCRIPTORS: compliance, extinction, transitions, warnings

Canada may be among the oldest federations in the world but this says nothing about the strength of federalism in Canada. Based on the results of public opinion polling and roundtables with provincial government officials, this article argues that the political culture of federalism in Canada is quite weak. With the notable exception of Quebec, Canadians in general and the provincial government officials who work on their behalf demonstrate little understanding of the basic logic of federalism or, when they do, are willing to trade off federalism values against concerns about efficiency, private goods, and meeting the needs of clients and consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]