Mathematics, computers, and young children as a research-oriented learning environment for a teacher candidate

The advent of computer technology in the classroom raised the issue of its appropriate use by teachers and their students alike. It has been recommended that teacher education programs provide more opportunities for teacher candidates’ use of technology including teaching their own technology-enhanced lessons. With a goal of integrating scholarship into student teaching, a teacher candidate enrolled in a graduate program in childhood education carried out a technology-enhanced research project within a professional development school. Examining the impact of the project on the teacher candidate, this article describes how one’s pedagogical content knowledge and technological competence can be developed through a research-oriented teaching experience. The article also demonstrates the emergence of a community of practice that shares the goal of providing learning spaces for the teacher candidate and young children in the context of mathematics enrichment with computers.     

Shoe collar height effect on athletic performance,ankle joint kinematics and kinetics during unanticipated maximum-effort side-cutting performance

Side-step cutting manoeuvres comprise the coordination between planting and non-planting legs. Increased shoe collar height is expected to influence ankle biomechanics of both legs and possibly respective cutting performance. This study examined the shoe collar height effect on kinematics and kinetics of planting and non-planting legs during an unanticipated side-step cutting. Fifteen university basketball players performed maximum-effort side-step cutting to the left 45° direction or a straight ahead run in response to a random light signal. Seven successful cutting trials were collected for each condition. Athletic performance, ground reaction force, ankle kinematics and kinetics of both legs were analysed using paired t-tests. Results indicated that high-collar shoes resulted in less ankle inversion and external rotation during initial contact for the planting leg. The high-collar shoes also exhibited a smaller ankle range of motion in the sagittal and transverse planes for both legs, respectively. However, no collar effect was found for ankle moments and performance indicators including cutting performance time, ground contact time, propulsion ground reaction forces and impulses. These findings indicated that high-collar shoes altered ankle positioning and restricted ankle joint freedom movements in both legs, while no negative effect was found for athletic cutting performance.     

Desalination characteristics for ceramics excavated from Taean shipwreck,Korea

The ceramic artefacts, excavated from ancient shipwrecks, are generally saturated with soluble salts, mainly NaCl, within the porous structure of ceramics. The salinity contents typically exhibit ionic and osmotic pressures to the ceramic microstructures, thus causing significant damages to the integrity of ceramic artefacts. While the utilisation of aqueous soaking methods is commonly accepted for effective desalination processes of ceramics, the relationships between the structural characteristics of ceramics and the desalination efficiency have not been demonstrated. In this study, we examined the desalination processes of various ceramics excavated from the Taean shipwrecks in South Korea to identify major controlling factors for the desalination processes. Our results indicated that the physical properties of ceramics including the water absorption and the pore size distribution greatly influence on the desalination process time and efficiency. It is also found that the surface condition of ceramic samples such as microstructural cracks on the glaze layer is a crucial component of the desalination characteristics. Nevertheless, the small residue of salts such as NaCl crystals were found in the microstructures of some ceramics after prolonged desalination periods. Therefore, it is important to control the humidity and temperature in the conservation environment for desalinated ceramic artefacts even after desalination.     

Mass media and cultural identity: Issues of ethnic co‐existence in India

This study aimed to analyze the respective effects of cognitive and emotional elements on political judgments, and the effects of media use and political talk on those two elements. Along with the cognitive judgment about political and economic issues/policies, we explored the effect of emotional responses to political and economic situations. During this process, we also looked at the effect of media use and interpersonal communication channels. By analyzing survey data gathered in December 2007, it was first found that voters' cognitive judgment and emotional responses to political and economic situations, respectively, affected their evaluation of the incumbent president. Second, emotional reactions such as ‘pride’ in politics, and ‘hope’ and ‘anger’ for economics, showed significant influence on their evaluation of the president's performance. Third, voters' patterns of media use and interpersonal talk appeared to exert significant influences on those cognitive judgments and emotional responses to political and economic reality.     

Which self-presentation style is more effective? A comparison of instructors' self-enhancing and self-effacing styles across the culture

Many studies have investigated how people perceive others' self-presentation styles (such as enhancement and effacement) in forming first impressions and how culture influences the process. Most of those studies have, however, investigated self-presentation styles in the context of informal and intimate interpersonal relations. Few studies have examined the perceptions of self-presentation styles in formal communication contexts such as instruction in classrooms. This study examines how college students from different cultures perceive professors' self-presentation styles in terms of competence and likability with the samples from the Mainland USA, Hawaii, and South Korea. The results from the latent mean analyses showed that professors with self-enhancement were perceived as more competent but less favorable in the Mainland USA and Hawaii, but not in South Korea – self-promoter's paradox was not found, while trade-offs between competence perception and likability seemed to exist. Structural equation models showed that, in explaining the variances of self-presentation perceptions, self-construals were significant variables in the Mainland USA and Hawaii, but not in South Korea. Academic motivations, on the contrary, appeared as significant variables in South Korea only. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of cultural differences through self-construals in perceiving others' self-presentation styles.     

Determinants of older Korean adults’ participation in life-long learning programmes and life satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Using Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging data, we examined the influence of older adults’ individual characteristics (i.e. marital status, health and economic status) on life satisfaction, with the mediating effect of older adults’ active participation in lifelong learning. As a result, some individual characteristics appeared to significantly determine both learning participation and life satisfaction. Economic status appeared to function as a significant predictor of older adults’ participation in lifelong learning programmes, which ultimately resulted in a significant improvement in their life satisfaction. Marital status and health were also significant contributors to older adults’ life satisfaction. The mediating model was tenable according to model-data fit indices.     

Why Do We Indulge? Exploring Motivations for Binge Watching

This study explored an expanded definition and motivations for binge-watching behavior. In addition to the number of episodes, the amount of time, frequency, and engagement in binge-watched programs were considered for the binge-watching definition. Study findings revealed that over half of the respondents of this study were light binge viewers. In addition, among a total of seven motivations identified in literature, only the entertainment motivation is a significant predictor of binge watching for those with a low level of binge watching, while both passing time and entertainment were found to be significant predictors for those with a high level of binge watching.     

Personality structure of brands on social networking sites and its effects on brand affect and trust: evidence of brand anthropomorphization

The current study explored the personality dimensions of brands on Social Networking Sites (SNSs) using a South Korean sample. Through a series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, six dimensions (i.e. Openness, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Extraversion, Warmth, and Contentiousness) were yielded for brands with SNS presence. The data also produced six dimensions (i.e. Openness, Sincerity, Extraversion, Competence, Agreeableness, and Ruggedness) for brands without SNS presence. The results show that brands with which consumers interact on SNSs have more human-like personalities than brands absent from SNSs, and the personality dimensions affected brand affect and trust to varying degrees.     

Measuring Multidimensional Subjective Well-Being with the I COPPE Scale in a Hispanic Sample

The purpose of this study was to provide initial validity evidence for measuring multidimensional subjective well-being in a Hispanic sample with the Interpersonal, Community, Occupational, Physical, Psychological, Economic (I COPPE) Scale. Participants were 641 English-speaking adults who self-identified as Hispanic. Bi-factor analyses were used to evaluate (a) the a priori measurement theory for responses to the I COPPE Scale and (b) convergent relationships of the seven I COPPE subjective well-being factors with scores from established comparison instruments. There was evidence that (a) the a priori hypothesized measurement theory for responses to the I COPPE Scale emerged in an exploratory bi-factor analysis and (b) the I COPPE subjective well-being factors exhibited convergent relationships with scores from comparison instruments. Use of the I COPPE Scale to derive multidimensional measures of subjective well-being may be of potential utility to future research in the interdisciplinary study of human movement and in a diversity of populations in which health disparities may exist.     

Tutoring styles that encourage learner satisfaction,academic engagement,and achievement in an online environment

This study was aimed to find which tutoring styles significantly predict learners’ satisfaction with an e-learning service, academic involvement, and academic achievement. The tutoring styles included subject expert, facilitator, guider, and administrator. In this study, 818 Korean sixth-grade students (ages 11–12 years), enrolled in the e-study program, and completed tutoring style and academic satisfaction evaluation surveys. Students’ login and posting frequency in the e-study program were measured to assess their academic involvement. Academic achievement was computed using completion rates and assessment scores. Multiple regression analyses indicated that there is some association between tutoring styles and academic outcomes. Of the four tutoring styles, facilitating tutoring styles particularly showed strong associations with the three outcome variables. Tutors’ guiding activities as opposed to facilitating were not significant contributors to students’ academic outcomes. The effect of tutors’ facilitating styles in an online learning environment was significant as being found in the existent literature.