Student Content Knowledge Increases After Participation in a Hands-on Biotechnology Intervention

Implementing biotechnology education through hands-on teaching methods should be considered by secondary biology teachers. This study is an experimental research design to examine increased student content knowledge in biotechnology after a hands-on biotechnology intervention. The teachers from both school groups participated in, Project Crawfish, a biotechnology professional development program. Students from both schools completed a pre and post assessment. The classroom was the unit of analysis. When the assessment was analyzed, each school had statistically significant increases in student content knowledge (p < 0.0001 for the intervention school and p = 0.0481 for the control school). When the schools were compared to each other, a p-value of 0.0543 provided a suggestive relationship that the biotechnology intervention school had a larger increase in student content knowledge overall. When the assessment was divided into the five components, the intervention school showed significant increases in all five components. The control school had significant increases in student content knowledge in the PCR and DNA sequencing components (p = 0.0459, p = 0.0043, respectively).     

Selling out (in) sport management: practically evaluating the state of the American (Sporting) Union

When teaching in Sport Management programs professors are often forced to respond to the actions and teachings of professionals in the field. According to the study by Kincheloe & Steinberg many of these normalized and, indeed celebrated, behaviors are actions that are part and parcel of the ‘recovery movement’ which (re)inscribe new forms of colonization, sexism, racism, classism and so on. Given that these performances are often considered ‘good business practice’, it is now more important than ever to challenge these conventions in what has been termed the post-neoliberal moment.

This paper, therefore, analyzes and explains how the mundane recycling of borrowed thought has seeped into America's collegiate educational system—particularly in sport management programs. It does so through a critical examination of Amber's educational and pre-professional experience as an intern for various sporting constituencies. Further, we examine the disguised precedence and obligatory requisites of the sporting industry, which use exploitative and manipulative marketing tactics to fabricate a hyperreal milieu of sporting production and consumption. Given this context, the project at present seeks to (re)evaluate just what we, as teachers, owe our students as they venture into an economy facing ‘hard times’.     

Parent Teacher Education Connection: Preparing Preservice Teachers for Family Engagement

This article describes the Parent Teacher Education Curriculum, a Web-based curriculum focused on instructing teachers about best practices in family involvement and assesses its impact on the knowledge and attitudes of preservice teachers related to family involvement. Pre- and post-measures of preservice teacher candidate knowledge of and attitude toward parent involvement were analyzed using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and paired-samples t-tests. Findings revealed a significant multivariate main effect for the time of knowledge assessment administration (pre vs. post): Wilks' λ = .613, F(6, 449) = 47.308, p < .001, partial eta squared = .387. This suggested that overall Knowledge increased significantly from pre- to post-administration. In addition, multivariate analysis for the time of attitude assessment administration (pre vs. post) was Wilks' λ = .982, F(3, 1548) = 9.65, p <. 001, partial eta squared = .018. This suggested that overall Attitude increased significantly from pre- to post-administration.     

CLASSIFICATION ACCURACY OF ORAL READING FLUENCY AND MAZE IN PREDICTING PERFORMANCE ON LARGE‐SCALE READING ASSESSMENTS

The purpose of this study was to examine whether using a multiple‐measure framework yielded better classification accuracy than oral reading fluency (ORF) or maze alone in predicting pass/fail rates for middle‐school students on a large‐scale reading assessment. Participants were 178 students in Grades 7 and 8 from a Midwestern school district. The multiple‐measure framework yielded classification accuracy rates that were either similar to, or better than, the individual predictors. Specificity was improved using a combined measure of ORF and maze versus individual predictors alone. Educational implications for identifying students in need of reading intervention are discussed.     

The lack of representation of educational psychology and school psychology in introductory psychology textbooks

The first goal of this study was to look at the representation of educational and school psychology in introductory psychology textbooks. Research into the representation of other sub‐fields of psychology has been conducted but no research has looked specifically at educational or school psychology. The second goal was to compare the representation of educational and school psychology in introductory psychology textbooks to see if one or the other is receiving more coverage. Third, the textbooks with the most coverage were listed in order to aid educational and school psychologists teaching introductory psychology courses in selecting textbooks that adequately cover material from their sub‐fields. A total of 57 introductory psychology textbooks were content analyzed: 65% of the introductory psychology textbooks had educational psychology material and 65% had school psychology material. However, in the textbooks containing this material the educational and school psychology material made up only .29% and .19% of the textbooks’ total content.     

Reducing the Matthew Effect: Lessons from the ExCELL Head Start Intervention

Evidence shows that the Matthew effect is a persistent problem among early education interventions. The current study examined the degree to which the ExCELL (Exceptional Coaching for Early Language and Literacy) language and literacy professional development intervention for Head Start preschool teachers, shown in prior research to improve teacher quality and increase preschoolers’ vocabulary skills, narrowed the vocabulary disparities between children with higher and lower knowledge at preschool entry. Research Findings: Results of a randomized control trial showed that the ExCELL program was more effective than a business-as-usual Head Start model at increasing the skills of children with the most limited vocabulary and reducing the Matthew effect, closing the gap between children with the lowest and highest initial vocabulary skills over the preschool year. Moreover, classroom instructional process quality in ExCELL settings was a key factor in this achievement. Practice or Policy: When teachers are trained to expose young children in poverty to high-quality classroom instruction (especially regarding process quality), preschoolers can learn substantial amounts of new vocabulary, and those with the lowest initial skills can begin to catch up to their more knowledgeable peers.     

An Exploration of Transportation and Psychological Reactance in Organ Donation PSAs

The present study expands on prior work on the use of narratives in persuasive communication by examining students’ (N = 201) reactions to six organ donation public service announcements (PSAs). Reactions to the type of appeal, donor-focused or recipient-focused, were also explored. Results indicated that being immersed in the PSA was positively associated with message reactions and negatively associated with threats to overall freedom of choice when deciding whether or not to become an organ donor. Those perceived threats partially mediated the relationship between immersion into the story of the PSA and message reactions, such that increased threats were associated with reduced message reactions. Individuals exposed to the recipient-focused appeals were more interested in the narrative of the PSAs than those exposed to donor-focused appeals. Results are discussed in the context of future message and campaign development.     

Media Framing of Capital Punishment and Its Impact on Individuals' Cognitive Responses

It is well known that mass media have the ability to frame a sociopolitical issue in specific ways, which can have considerable impact on the public's thoughts and perceptions regarding the issue. Through analyzing coverage of capital punishment in the New York Times since 1960 and then conducting an experiment in which we assessed individual-level responses to differently framed news stories, we show (a) the dramatic emergence of a new “innocence frame” within the past 10 years that accentuates imperfections in the justice system, and (b) the much greater impact of this frame on individuals' thoughts—in particular on those who favor the death penalty—when compared to the traditional morality-based frame. We suggest that the latter finding can be explained because individuals tend to resist changing their interpretations of issues based on arguments that contradict their core moral or religious beliefs; however, they seem quite receptive to new information along dimensions that they previously had not considered. This research also implies that U.S. trends toward lower sentencing rates and eventual public opinion changes are likely to continue as long as media and public discussion remains focused on questions regarding flaws in the justice system.     

Predictors of Localism in Public Television Scheduling in the United States

In the United States, public television claims itself a champion of localism. A prime-time schedule analysis of the Public Broadcasting Service's (PBS) member stations establishes localism scores, and discriminant analysis finds variables that predict differences among stations. Market level variables (income, education, ethnic diversity, geographic component) and organizational level variables (Community Service Grants, membership funding, overall revenue) affect localization of member stations' schedules. This is the first empirical study utilizing a structural operationalization of localism, inclusive of all programming genres, applied to PBS member stations.