Privacy Recalibration in Personal Relationships: Rule Usage Before and After an Incident of Privacy Turbulence

Although privacy violations can be uncomfortable and disruptive, they have the potential for positive outcomes in relationships if addressed. Using Communication Privacy Management theory as a framework, this study surveyed a community sample of 273 adults to examine their retrospective accounts of privacy violations in personal relationships. Results showed that less than half of the sample offered explicit rules for information management, and the majority of participants blamed the confidant for the privacy turbulence. Findings indicated that people often do not share similar information with the violator in the future, but if they do, less than half offer explicit privacy rules during the privacy recalibration process. Confrontation efficacy was positively associated with initiating a conversation about the privacy turbulence and that people who engaged in privacy recalibration were more likely to report forgiveness and relational improvement and less likely to report relational damage than those individuals who did not.     

Investigating professed and enacted epistemic beliefs about the uncertainty of scientific knowledge when students evaluate scientific controversies

Prior research on epistemic beliefs, that is, individuals’ views about knowledge and knowing, has mainly focused either on individuals’ professed beliefs (as reported in questionnaires) or on their enacted beliefs (as indicated during task processing). However, little is known about the relation between professed and enacted epistemic beliefs. The present study focused on beliefs about the uncertainty of scientific knowledge and investigated both professed and enacted beliefs in the context of evaluations of scientific controversies. Participants were N = 79 university students who first completed a questionnaire that targeted their professed uncertainty beliefs about scientific knowledge. Then, approximately 1 week later, they completed a standardized test in which they evaluated five scientific controversies. Cued retrospective verbal reports were used to measure their enacted uncertainty beliefs while taking the test. Results revealed that professed and enacted uncertainty beliefs were interrelated and that both variables predicted individuals’ performance with regard to the evaluation of scientific controversies. Furthermore, the effect of professed uncertainty beliefs on controversy-evaluation performance was partly mediated by enacted uncertainty beliefs. The findings of the present study point toward novel theoretical insights and educational implications regarding the relations between professed and enacted beliefs about the uncertainty of scientific knowledge and their role in individuals’ evaluation of scientific controversies.

     

Comparative education research framed by neo-institutional theory: a review of diverse approaches and conflicting assumptions

The rise in globalisation studies in comparative education places neo-institutional theory at the centre of many debates among comparative education researchers. However, uncertainty about how to interpret neo-institutional theory still persists among educational comparativists. With this uncertainty comes misinterpretation of its principles, variations and explanatory power. Two problematic misconceptions prevail: (1) the belief that the ‘world culture’ strand is the only version of neo-institutional theory applicable to comparative education research; and (2) the assumption that the global homogenisation of society, culture and schooling is a goal of researchers applying neo-institutional theory to comparative education phenomena. This article addresses these misconceptions, elucidating neo-institutional theory and its applicability to comparative education research. Our findings suggest that neo-institutional frameworks for comparative education research are useful, but that complementary approaches and methods are also necessary.     

Examining the Process and Outcome of Career Counseling for Different Types of Career Counseling Clients

Using cluster analysis, we identified two types of career counseling clients: (a) Clients with moderate levels of career-related distress, discomfort, and uncertainty and (b) clients with high levels of career concerns, personal distress, and stigma about career counseling. The more distressed group expressed lower evaluations of a career counseling session and perceived their counselors as providing fewer action-oriented counseling skills than the less distressed group. No differences emerged in terms of client's perceptions of the therapeutic relationship. The practical implications and limitations of these results are discussed.     

Reinventing grounded theory: some questions about theory,ground and discovery

Grounded theory's popularity persists after three decades of broad‐ranging critique. In this article three problematic notions are discussed—‘theory,’ ‘ground’ and ‘discovery’—which linger in the continuing use and development of grounded theory procedures. It is argued that far from providing the epistemic security promised by grounded theory, these notions—embodied in continuing reinventions of grounded theory—constrain and distort qualitative inquiry, and that what is contrived is not in fact theory in any meaningful sense, that ‘ground’ is a misnomer when talking about interpretation and that what ultimately materializes following grounded theory procedures is less like discovery and more akin to invention. The procedures admittedly provide signposts for qualitative inquirers, but educational researchers should be wary, for the significance of interpretation, narrative and reflection can be undermined in the procedures of grounded theory.     

Zukunftsaussichten der Lehrveranstaltungsevaluation aus der Sicht von Studierenden, Lehrenden und Evaluationsanbietern

The current reforms of higher education are accompanied by new forms of evaluation-based quality development. In the area of higher education, the evaluation of specific lessons or seminars by students has become an important component of evaluative feedback along with accreditation and multi-level program evaluation. Using a sample of higher education teachers, students and providers of such evaluations (N?=?258), the prospects for development of this instrument (prognosis for 2015) were surveyed and analyzed. The majority of the surveyed stakeholders expect such evaluations to be widely used as compulsory instruments in the future. In contrast, the implementation of scenarios which are seen as empirically sound and sustainable for quality development is seen by the respondents to be less likely. Differences in the perspectives were most clear in respect of developments in the future. Providers of such evaluations were particularly optimistic about the prospects of particular future developments. Regarding the effectiveness of potential evaluation designs, there was little disagreement; they are seen by the majority of respondents as effective.     

Parents and youth with learning disabilities: perceptions of relationships and communication

The study examined perceptions of family relationships and communication in 52 families who have an adolescent child diagnosed with learning disabilities (LD) with a matched group of 52 families who have a child without LD. Parents and youth completed a self-reported Family Relations and Communication Scales assessment. Findings revealed parents perceived their child as either overinvolved or underinvolved with their parents and not sharing the same values and norms as their parents. Findings indicated that parents of youth with and without LD share similar perceptions of both the openness and problematic aspects of family communication. Youth with and without LD reported higher levels of problematic maternal involvement than perceived by the mothers; youth without LD rated their mothers' affective expression higher than reported by their mothers; both groups of youth perceived their mothers' and their fathers' communication as less open and more problematic than reported by their parents.     

The Development of Text Evaluation and Revision Skills

Children in elementary school settings generally do not revise frequently or skillfully, but relatively little is known about the source of their difficulty with revision. 3 studies were conducted to investigate children's developing ability to evaluate and revise problematic texts. In the first 2 studies, fourth-grade (10 years) and sixth-grade (12 years) students were asked to evaluate 3 types of problematic texts and suggest changes to make the texts easier to understand. In the third study, children were asked whether 4 types of revisions improved the comprehensibility of problematic stories. The results showed, first, that older children detected more of the text problems; second, that when younger children spontaneously detected a text problem they were as likely as older children to revise the text adequately; third, that younger children were less able than older children to revise text problems that they had originally overlooked; and, fourth, that younger children overestimated the informativeness of several types of revisions. The results suggest that developmental differences in constructive processing contribute to children's ability to detect and revise text problems.     

Communication Privacy Management Theory: Exploring Coordination and Ownership Between Friends

Researchers in this study explored friends’ boundary coordination and ownership surrounding private information as posed by Communication Privacy Management theory. One hundred pairs of friends (N = 200) completed measures about the risk of a prior disclosure and the degree of discussion about who could/could not know the information. In support of Communication Privacy Management theory, disclosers engaged in greater boundary coordination when the information was riskier. When the information was riskier, disclosers and receivers perceived that the receivers had less ownership rights over the information. Disclosers reported negative emotional reactions to hypothetical dissemination of higher-risk information when they perceived their friends as having less ownership, but positive emotional reactions of lower-risk information when they perceived their friends as having more ownership. Receivers were more likely to disseminate the information when they perceived they had ownership over the information.     

Predictors of Information Seeking about the HPV Vaccine From Parents and Doctors Among Young College Women

This study applied the theory of motivated information management (TMIM) to predict young women's intentions to seek information about the HPV vaccine from their doctors and parents. A sample of 215 women aged 18–25 who have not yet received their HPV vaccinations completed a survey measuring their HPV and cervical cancer risk perceptions, TMIM-related variables (i.e., uncertainty discrepancy, anxiety, outcome expectancy, efficacy, information-seeking intent), and HPV vaccination intentions. Results indicate that positive outcome expectancies, anxiety about uncertainty discrepancy, and HPV risk perception were significant predictors of HPV vaccine information-seeking intent, which in turn predicted HPV vaccination intent.     

Engaging Earth- and Environmental-Science Undergraduates Through Weather Discussions and an eLearning Weather Forecasting Contest

For students who major in meteorology, engaging in weather forecasting can motivate learning, develop critical-thinking skills, improve their written communication, and yield better forecasts. Whether such advances apply to students who are not meteorology majors has been less demonstrated. To test this idea, a weather discussion and an eLearning weather forecasting contest were devised for a meteorology course taken by third-year undergraduate earth- and environmental-science students. The discussion consisted of using the recent, present, and future weather to amplify the topics of the week’s lectures. Then, students forecasted the next day’s high temperature and the probability of precipitation for Woodford, the closest official observing site to Manchester, UK. The contest ran for 10 weeks, and the students received credit for participation. The top students at the end of the contest received bonus points on their final grade. A Web-based forecast contest application was developed to register the students, receive their forecasts, and calculate weekly standings. Students who were successful in the forecast contest were not necessarily those who achieved the highest scores on the tests, demonstrating that the contest was possibly testing different skills than traditional learning. Student evaluations indicate that the weather discussion and contest were reasonably successful in engaging students to learn about the weather outside of the classroom, synthesize their knowledge from the lectures, and improve their practical understanding of the weather. Therefore, students taking a meteorology class, but not majoring in meteorology, can derive academic benefits from weather discussions and forecast contests. Nevertheless, student evaluations also indicate that better integration of the lectures, weather discussions, and the forecasting contests is necessary.     

Comparison of online and classroom-based student evaluations of instruction

In recent years, colleges have been moving from traditional, classroom‐based student evaluations of instruction to online evaluations. Because of the importance of these evaluations in decisions regarding retention, promotion and tenure, instructors are justifiably concerned about how this trend might affect their ratings. We recruited faculty members who were teaching two or more sections of the same course in a single semester and assigned at least one section to receive online evaluations and the other section(s) to receive classroom evaluations. We hypothesised that the online evaluations would yield a lower response rate than the classroom administration. We also predicted that there would be no significant differences in the overall ratings, the number of written comments, and the valence (positive/neutral/negative) of students’ comments. A total of 32 instructors participated in the study over two semesters, providing evaluation data from 2057 students. As expected, online evaluations had a significantly lower response rate than classroom evaluations. Additionally, there were no differences in the mean ratings, the percentage of students who provided written comments or the proportion of comments in the three valence categories. Thus, even with the lower response rate for online evaluations, the two administration formats seemed to produce comparable data.     

Influences on peer evaluation in a group project: an exploration of leadership,demographics and course performance

Collaborative learning strategies are widely used in higher education to deepen learning, promote team-building skills and achieve course learning objectives. Using peer evaluation is an important strategy to ensure that engaged and active students are rewarded for their efforts, and to discourage loafing within groups. However, less is known about what biases may influence students’ peer evaluations. In this paper, we investigate what variables students may (consciously or unconsciously) use to evaluate their peers. We explore the role of sex, race, course performance and group leadership on peer evaluation. We also investigate whether these variables correlate with students’ final course grade. We found that students who reported being leaders in groups were evaluated higher than peers who reported being followers, and that course performance positively correlated with peer evaluations. White students received higher peer evaluations than students of colour. This difference reflects trends in group leadership and course performance, with more white students than students of colour reporting being leaders in groups and receiving higher grades.     

Assessing faculty performance using student evaluations of teaching in an uncontrolled setting

This paper provides new evidence on the disparity between student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings when evaluations are conducted online versus in‐class. Using a multiple regression analysis, we show that after controlling for many of the class and student characteristics not under the direct control of the instructor, average SET ratings from evaluations conducted online are significantly lower than average SET ratings conducted in‐class. Further, we demonstrate the importance of controlling for the factors not under the instructor’s control when using SET ratings to evaluate faculty performance in the classroom. We do not suggest that moving to online evaluation is overly problematic, only that it is difficult to compare evaluations done online with evaluations done in‐class. While we do not suppose that one method is ‘more accurate’ than another, we do believe that institutions would benefit from either moving all evaluations online or by continuing to do all evaluations in‐class.     

The induction of academic staff to a university: processes and products

Interviews with 55 new Lecturers at an Australian university focussed upon early experiences in the institution and attitudes and perceptions regarding teaching and student evaluations. Interview data were used to describe the induction perceived by the Lecturers. Expectations for induction experiences and based on background characteristics of Lecturers were used as criteria in one form of evaluation of the induction process. Evidence of effects of induction processes upon orientations to teaching was used as a second form of evaluation. Help in learning about the institution and special consideration in workload were found to favour the more academically qualified rather than the reverse. Help in solving problems favoured the less academically qualified, those without employment experience in the university, those appointed on probation and those with less impressive publication records. Some evidence was found that special consideration in workload, and the perception of unexpected opportunities were conducive to desirable orientations to teaching. Lecturers who were less self-assured about their teaching competence tended to report participation in development activities more than others.     

Parents’ spontaneous evaluations of children and symbolic harmful behaviors toward their child

Parents’ evaluations of children are believed to be a cognitive contributor to their subsequent child-directed harsh or physically abusive behaviors. The current research examined whether parents’ (N = 100) evaluations of children were moderated by either (a) the child behavior on which the evaluation was based and (b) parents’ measured risk for child physical abuse. The study also explored whether parents’ evaluations of children were related to their tendencies to symbolically harm their child. The current study also used a novel method to indirectly assess parents’ evaluations of children: A modified Affect Misattribution Procedure. Contrary to a priori expectations, negative evaluations of children were stronger for parents who were at low risk, relative to high risk, for child physical abuse. Nonetheless, we observed that high-risk parents were more likely than low-risk parents to inflict symbolic harm onto their child. In an exploratory analysis we observed that parents who formed more overall negative evaluations of children engaged in more symbolic harm to their child. Although high-risk parents were more likely to symbolically harm their child than low-risk parents, this effect does not seem to be due to high-risk parents’ negative child evaluations from negative child behaviors.     

Sustainability behaviors among college students: an application of the VBN theory

While Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory has been widely applied to various populations, it has seldom been tested on college students. This study extends VBN theory to examine what socio-psychological factors influence sustainability behaviors among university students. Undergraduate students are an interesting and novel population, as they are still forming their values and beliefs, and therefore may be more open to engage in sustainability efforts. This study assessed five sustainability behaviors: (a) support for political candidates who say they will strengthen environmental policies, (b) recycling, (c) electricity use, (d) food selection, and (e) transportation choices. Findings support the notion that one’s values matter in environmental decision-making, but that different values are associated with different behaviors. Those who adhere to biospheric and altruistic values were more likely to engage in a range of sustainability behaviors whereas those who adhere to egoistic values were less likely to engage in most behaviors. Those who adhere to traditional or openness to change values showed mixed results. We discuss the theoretical application, practical recommendations for behavior change campaigns, and offer suggestions for future research.     

Neoliberalism, globalization, and creative educational destruction in Taiwan

In this article, the authors argue that educational technology is chiefly and increasingly being used as a tool for the privatization of education and the commodification of people by way of top down evaluative structures put in place by governments in collusion with neoliberal interests. This analysis began as a study that sought to illuminate the reasons why teachers in Taiwanese technical colleges have been reluctant to integrate educational technologies for actual instruction. However, what the authors actually found was that teachers in Taiwan are experiencing a forced obsession with top down evaluations and these evaluations are locking teachers in what may be called an amplifying causal loop. By looking up the proverbial food chain of the top–down evaluations, the authors found socio-political and economic forces at work that were less Taiwanese and more global in scope and character and less about teachers and classrooms and more about the rise of educational administration for neoliberal advancement. This article argues that a collusion between neoliberal interests, an obsession with evaluation, and the uninterrogated implementation of educational technologies are giving rise to processes that are wreaking havoc on the Taiwanese education system and similar processes are at work throughout the world.     

Lower secondary school teachers' judgements of pupils' problems

Lower secondary school teachers from six different schools in one Norwegian municipality reported on the prevalence of problems among pupils entering lower secondary school and types of problems among pupils in Grades 8–10. Teachers report that the transition from Elementary to Lower secondary school is problematic for approximately 30% of the pupils. About 70% of the teachers report that 25% or more of pupils transitioning to Grade 8 lack academic experiences and skills and have problems following directions. There is also a tendency for teachers who report higher values on professional (un)certainty about pupils' learning and on two efficacy variables included in the study, to be more favourably inclined towards inclusion of children who are perceived as having learning or behaviour problems. Additionally, teachers who report higher values on efficacy scales tend to report lower values on problems among pupils, and teachers who are less favourable towards inclusion report higher numbers of pupils having problems. The results are discussed in relation to schools as workplaces and professional development for pre‐service and in‐service teachers.