Variables that influence the environmental behavior of adults

This study focuses on understanding the factors that encourage adults’ environmental behavior. This mixed approach methodology study used 10 Likert type questionnaires to collect data about nine cognitive and affective components that might influence environmental behavior. The qualitative data was collected through open questions and interviews. The main sample included 656 participants from amongst Israel’s working population. The questionnaires were found both reliable and valid. Most of the explored cognitive and affective aspects appeared to act as predictors of environmental behavior. The study indicates that environmental behavior is driven by ‘egoistic’ concerns rather than by altruistic views and motivations.     

Global private higher education: an empirical profile of its size and geographical shape

Societies’ relative use of private and public services is an abiding and significant issue of scholarly and policy interest. For higher education, however, there has hitherto been no comprehensive dataset and, accordingly, no extensive, reliable analysis of the private-public distribution. As this article provides both the dataset and the analysis, it allows us to discover both the size and geographical shape of global private higher education. Having grown greatly for decades, the private sector now holds a third (32.9%) of the world’s total higher education enrollment. We find striking patterns of concentration and dispersion. The several largest country systems account for much of the private enrollment but, simultaneously, private sectors now exist in all but a few systems; a stunning 97.6% of the world’s present enrollment is in systems with dual-sector provision. Societies no longer rely exclusively on public provision. We discover too that private enrollment concentrates mostly in developing regions, though it is noteworthy in developed regions as well. Asia and Latin America are the twin giants but in all regions, at least 10% of students are in the private sector.     

Raiders of the lost archives

ABSTRACT

Fantastic Man (2014) and Searching for Sugar Man (2012) mobilize tropes of discovery occurring in the filmed process of collecting and curating the work and identities of two reluctant, elusive, and resistive figures. These documentaries are part of a discourse of collectability marked by the urge to discover and narrate a “quest” that has its precedents in record collecting as obsessive cultural practice and in the fetishizing of obscurity. Furthermore, they can be seen as “performances” of the artiste and repertoire (A&R) process but for a “post-rock” era in which the customary roles of A&R have largely been eclipsed by social, economic, and technological changes to the music industry: the “(re-)discovery” of Onyeabor and Rodriguez exemplifies an increasingly common fusion of, rather than oscillation between, novelty and nostalgia in the music industry, as “old” artists are “newly” discovered through practices of media archaeology aimed at unearthing artifacts of cultural and economic value from an ever bigger and denser digital archive.     

Mapping Educational Equity and Reform Policy in the Borderlands: LatCrit Spatial Analysis of Grade Retention

The purpose of our study is to investigate reform policy, specifically a proposed third grade reading retention policy within the Borderlands. Under this policy, students not performing proficiently on the third grade reading standardized exam will be automatically retained in the third grade. The research methods and approach used in this study include an equity analysis formed by combining two steps across a Borderland county in New Mexico. The first step is a regression analysis to answer if access to early childhood education and access to highly qualified teachers inform differences in third grade reading scores, and the second step uses a LatCrit informed Spatial Analysis to create an equity index, to see how equity varies across the spaces of elementary schools. This allows us to essentially map Third Grade Reading Retention Reform Policy in the Borderlands. The setting of the study is in the U.S. Southwest Borderlands, specifically Doña Ana County, which borders Texas and Mexico, in southern New Mexico. Up to a quarter of the population is under the age of 18, two thirds (66.6%) of the population is Latino, and half of the population speaks a language other than English at home. Implications from this study include, for policy makers, policy considerations that come from a non-deficit thinking perspective and focus on systemic considerations to improving educational equity. Given that the setting demographically mirrors much of the state of New Mexico, as well as demographic shifts across communities throughout the U.S., this study provides further considerations for key systemic changes to improving academic measures like reading scores.     

Word reading fluency: A transfer appropriate processing account of fluency transfer

Word reading fluency, as indexed by the fast and accurate identification of single words, predicts both general reading ability and reading comprehension. This study compared the effects of context training and isolated word training on subsequent measures of word reading fluency. Good and poor readers were given 12 repetitions of two sets of words; 48 new words were learned in each condition. Words were presented in a story during context training and on a computer screen during isolated word training. Target words were read in isolation at test, randomly displayed within a series containing 72 untrained words. Results show that words trained in isolation are remembered longer and read faster when presented in isolation at test compared to words trained in context. Theoretical implications are discussed in relation to transfer appropriate processing.     

Undergraduate Laboratory Exercises Specific to Food Spoilage Microbiology

Food spoilage has an enormous economic impact, and microbial food spoilage plays a significant role in food waste and loss; subsequently, an equally significant portion of undergraduate food microbiology instruction should be dedicated to spoilage microbiology. Here, we describe a set of undergraduate microbiology laboratory exercises that focus specifically on food spoilage which were taught in 2 lab periods as part of the undergraduate food microbiology lab curriculum at Cornell University. The lab was broken down into 3 exercises. Two exercises lead students to determine the likely source of contamination in a canned salsa through (exercise 1a) plating and observation of colony morphology and (exercise 1b) determination of the thermal resistance for those isolates. The final exercise (2) involved detection of the spoilage bacterium Alicyclobacillus in apple juice. Spoiled juice demonstrations were also prepared in this exercise for students to observe sensorial changes resulting from spoilage, emphasizing that spoilage is not always visually detectable. Students were able to successfully determine the source of contamination based on the results of their laboratory findings, which they used to make recommendations for production to reduce microbial food spoilage in the canned salsa product. Based on student answers to discussion questions provided following lab exercises, participants were able to (a) identify the significance of microbial spoilage and how spoilage is principally different from food safety, (b) describe varying sensorial changes associated with microbial spoilage, and (c) employ methods and analysis to evaluate sources and type of contamination. Downloadable handouts and stepwise instructions are available as supporting information.     

Are the Notion of Mean and Related Concepts too Difficult for 6th and 7th Grade Biology Students?

Basic statistical concepts are considered to be part and parcel of any modern biological education. Micro‐computer assisted activities may offer new opportunities for the early development of relatively young children's skills and understandings, thus preparing them efficiently for a meaningful secondary school science education. However, the relevant skills and concepts may well be beyond the ken of such children. In this study, we attempted to check the level which could be reached with 6th and 7th grades primary school students (11‐12 years of age), concerning the connected concepts of “mean” and “deviation” from the mean, and some major implications of these concepts. Special learning activities were developed, and an electronic spreadsheet was used as the main tool for the quantitative tasks. A one year period of intensive teacher training preceded the actual experiment. The main results will be delineated, as well as the main responses of the students and of the teachers. Although the schools selected for the experiment (experimental as well as control groups) were located in areas of a relatively high socio‐economic level, there was some heterogeneity in the classes. The results will show that educators are confronted with problems of heterogeneity even in “good” classes, and that finding the appropriate level of intellectual stimulation of different pupils is not an easy task. Some concepts appeared to be at the limit of, or beyond, the abilities of many students, but by no means of all of them.     

The Science of a Sundae: Using the Principle of Colligative Properties in Food Science Outreach Activities for Middle and High School Students

The opportunities for outreach activities for professionals and academics in food science are extensive, as too are the range of participants’ experience levels and platforms for delivery. Here, we present a set of activities that are readily adaptable for a range of students (ages 10 to 18) in multiple platforms (demonstration table and hands‐on workshop). Our activity, collectively called “The Science of a Sundae,” has three units, one for each of the three parts of a sundae: the caramel sauce, the cherry, and the ice cream. In each unit we use these familiar food items to illustrate how colligative properties (or, simply, “solutions” for younger students) impact the chemical, microbiological, and sensorial properties of food. We have used these activities to present to over 1000 students and their parents/chaperones. Grade levels of student participants have ranged from 5th grade through high school, and these activities have been presented in the form of a demonstration table at science events as well as a set of three 45‐minute workshops in a classroom setting. Educational impact of these activities was evaluated with 7th grade students (n = 77) who participated in the 3‐phase workshop. On average, students who took the posttest (after participation in the workshop) scored 36% higher than students who took the pretest (prior to participation in the workshop). These results and instructor observations suggest the merit of this lesson and its adaptability among ages and platforms.