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The incorporation of social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools has been shown to improve academic and psychological health of students. Research has been limited regarding implementation of SEL programs in rural communities, where student needs are heightened. The current study examined factors that could impact teachers' intentions to be early adopters of a SEL curriculum in a rural community. Seventy-six teachers provided self-report data regarding perceptions of professional strengths, school climate, school resources for student support, ability to educate diverse students, ability to teach specific SEL domains, and intentions to be an early adopter of a SEL program. Present results indicated positive perceptions of school climate, one's ability to teach diverse students, and one's ability to teach self-management skills positively predicted intentions to be an early adopter of a SEL curriculum. Implications for rural schools are explored and recommendations for adoption of SEL curricula in rural schools are provided.

Alcohol-intoxicated suspects’ confessions are admissible in U.S. courts; however, it is unknown how jurors evaluate such confessions. Study 1 assessed potential jurors’ perceptions of intoxication in interrogative contexts. Many respondents were unaware that questioning intoxicated suspects and presenting subsequent confessions in court are legal, and respondents generally reported they would rely less on intoxicated than sober confessions. In Study 2, potential jurors read a case about a defendant who had confessed or not while sober or intoxicated. Participants who read about an intoxicated defendant perceived the interrogation as more inappropriate and the defendant as more cognitively impaired than did participants who read about a sober defendant, and as a result, they were less likely to convict. Furthermore, intoxicated confessions influenced conviction decisions to a lesser extent than did sober confessions. Findings suggest that investigators might consider abstaining from interrogating intoxicated suspects or else risk jurors finding confessions unconvincing in court.

Although researchers have explored social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools, the research on rural schools is limited. In this study, the authors explore parents' feedback on the impact of an SEL program on their children in rural schools.

Project/problem-based learning (PBL) can provide an effective model for school reform when implemented with fidelity. In the report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm," it was recommended that if the U.S. is to remain competitive in the 21st-century economy, there must be a serious effort to "enlarge the pipeline of students who are prepared to enter college and graduate with a degree in STEM" (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, & Institute of Medicine, 2007, p. 6). The report included the recommendation that states develop statewide specialty STEM high schools (National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, & Institute of Medicine, 2007, p. 6). In 2010, the Texas Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Academy (T-STEM) initiative was implemented to develop specialty STEM schools similar to those described in "Rising Above the Gathering Storm." The primary instructional strategy of T-STEM academies is problem- and project-based learning. In the STEM context, PBL is well suited as a primary pedagogy for STEM learning. This paper examines the following questions: What outcomes occur when PBL is implemented in a low performing school district? What is the role of PBL in school improvement? What are the challenges to implementing PBL with high fidelity?

Quixoteism is a motive that leads people to undertake challenging actions as an instrumental goal toward an ultimate goal of improving the welfare of the world. The present research tests whether the activation of a Quixoteism motive increases a person's willingness to perform extraordinary helping behaviors. In Study 1 (N = 66), the centrality of values linked to Quixoteism (i.e., the Transcendent-Change Constellation, TCC) predicted actual commitment to help, but only when this behavior was challenging. In Study 2 (N = 175), the centrality of TCC measured one month earlier was associated with a preference for challenging helping behaviors, but only when the ultimate goal of Quixoteism was previously primed (i.e., awareness of worldwide problems). This is the first work to focus on analyzing the association between Quixoteism and behaviors that involve a challenging helping (chivalrous) action., Author(s): Sergio Villar [sup.1] , Luis Oceja [sup.1] , Sergio Salgado [sup.2] , Eric Stocks [sup.3] , Pilar Carrera [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000000119578126, grid.5515.4, Departamento de Psicología Social, Universidad [...]

Recently, empathic concern was separated into the components of sympathy and tenderness (Lishner et al. 2011 (See CR27)). So far, these two emotional experiences have been assessed as episodic emotional responses, as the existent dispositional measures remain blind to such distinction. The aim of the present research is to develop and validate a dispositional measure that captures the personal disposition to feel sympathy, tenderness, and personal distress. This new scale is called Sympathy, Tenderness and Distress Dispositional Scale (SyTeD). In Study 1, we developed and tested the internal consistency and factor structure of the English version of the scale in the United States. In Study 2, we translated the scale into Spanish and tested its content and criterion validity in Spain. In Study 3, we tested the predictive validity of the sympathy-tenderness distinction within a helping vs. a care-based scenario in the United Kingdom (SyTeD-English version). In Study 4, we tested the predictive validity of the sympathy-tenderness distinction in a real helping situation in Spain (SyTeD-Spanish version). The results across these four studies suggest that the SyTeD is a useful measure of dispositional sympathy and tenderness that allows studying further different types of prosocial behavior (i.e., help vs. care)., Author(s): Belén López-Pérez [sup.1] , Pilar Carrera [sup.2] , Luis Oceja [sup.2] , Tamara Ambrona [sup.2] , Eric Stocks [sup.3] Author Affiliations: (Aff1) 0000 0000 8508 6421, grid.146189.3, Department of [...]

The impact of the New Tech Network (NTN) design on several academic measures was tested on ninth graders in four schools in one state located in the Southeastern United States. Research questions explored the extent to which achievement test scores, dual credits earned, and dropout rates differed between ninth grade students in high fidelity NTN schools and similar students in traditional schools. A quasi-experimental design using student-level variables from the state's PowerSchool database was conducted in order to test hypotheses related to the research questions. Results suggest that, when implemented with fidelity to the model, there was a significant effect of NTN on achievement test scores as students in NTN schools scored higher on both the End of Course (EOC) Math and English Language Arts (ELA) tests compared to students in control schools. This effect remained after controlling for poverty, race, and preexisting achievement level. Students in NTN schools also were slightly more likely to earn dual credit compared to similar students in control schools. However, there was no effect of NTN participation on dropout rate as students in NTN schools were more likely to be retained in their current grade level and not moving to the next grade level compared to students in control schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00682.x Byline: Luis Oceja (2), Eric Stocks ([dagger]), David Lishner ([double dagger]) Abstract: We tested the hypothesis that people are more likely to offer aid when the beneficiary of help is congruent with the entity that initiates prosocial action. In 2 experiments conducted in 2 different countries, participants were approached in naturalistic settings with an appeal for help. The target in need (individual vs. individual among others with the same need) and the beneficiary of potential help (individual vs. group) were manipulated. Results revealed that participants were more likely to offer aid when the target in need and beneficiary of help were congruent. The present research offers insight into perceptual factors that affect prosocial behavior in situations involving more than one victim. Author Affiliation: (*)Psicologia SocialUniversidad Autonoma de MadridCantoblanco UniversidadMadrid, Spain ([dagger])University of Texas at Tyler ([double dagger])University of Wisconsin Article note: (2) Luis Oceja, Departamento de Psicologia Social y Metodologia, C/ Pavlov 6, Ciudad Universitaria Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain. E-mail: luis.oceja@uam.es