Mathematical images in advertising: constructing difference and shaping identity, in global consumer culture

Mathematics educators have long emphasised the importance of attitudes, beliefs, and feelings towards mathematics, as crucial in motivating (or not) its learning and use, and as influenced in turn by its social images. This paper is about images of mathematics. Our search for advertisements containing such images in UK daily newspapers, during 2006–2008, found that 4.7 % of editions included a “mathematical” advert, compared with 1.7 % in pilot work for 1994–2003. The incidence varied across type of newspaper, being correlated with class and gender profiles of the readership. Three quarters of advertisements were classified as containing only very simple mathematics. ‘Semiotic discursive’ analysis of selected advertisements suggests that they draw on mathematics not to inform, but to connote qualities like precision, certainty, and authority. We discuss the discourse on mathematics in advertising as ‘quasi-pedagogic’ discourse, and argue that its oversimplified forms, being empty of mathematical content, become powerful means for regulating and ‘pedagogising’ today's global consumers.     

A model to explain information seeking behaviour by individuals in the response phase of a disaster

This Australian study establishes a model that provides a foundation for communication channels and tools selection by agencies in the post-warning response phase of a disaster. The model, developed from disaster and information seeking literature, attempts to predict information source and channel selection by people after their community has received a warning for a disaster. It provides the coding framework for analysis of 51 semi-structured interviews with disaster-affected Australians. The interviews tested the model for accommodation of channels and sources that people chose, found most useful, and used most in bushfire, slow flood, flash flood, and cyclone situations. The order of initial sources was investigated and preliminary information seeking pathways established across disaster types. The disaster information seeking model supports this investigation of information seeking behaviour, though improvements are suggested. The resulting model could guide agency response communication for different disaster types.     

Revisiting the association between reading achievement and antisocial behavior: new evidence of an environmental explanation from a twin study

Previous studies have reported, but not explained, the reason for a robust association between reading achievement and antisocial behavior. This association was investigated using the Environmental Risk (E-Risk) Longitudinal Twin Study, a nationally representative 1994-1995 birth cohort of 5- and 7-year-olds. Results showed that the association resulted primarily from environmental factors common to both reading and antisocial behavior and was stronger in boys. Environmental factors also explained the relation between reading disability and conduct disorder. Leading candidate environmental risk factors weakly mediated the association. For boys the best explanation was a reciprocal causation model: poor reading led to antisocial behavior, and vice versa. In contrast, the relation between reading achievement and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder was best explained by common genetic influences.     

Systems thinking: An experimental course for college freshmen

An experimental interdisciplinary freshman course called The Systems Approach to the Universe was taught at North Carolina State University in the Spring of 1986. The goals of the course were to introduce principles of general systems theory; to provide examples through lectures and readings of applications of these principles in a wide variety of fields and disciplines; and to introduce and provide practice in critical questioning and evaluation. This paper outlines what was done, how it worked, and how the instructors and the students assessed the experience afterwards.He received his B.Ch.E. from the City College of New York, and his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University. Barbara A. Soloman is Coordinator of Advising for the Academic Skills Program and Lecturer in the University Studies Program at North Carolina State University. She received her B.S. in mathematics from the City College of New York and her M.S. in mathematics from North Carolina State University.