THE ANTECEDENTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF ACADEMIC EXCUSE-MAKING: Examining Individual Differences in Procrastination

Students from two colleges (n = 546) differing in admission selectivity completed measures of academic procrastination and excuses. Procrastination was higher among students at the selective college than students at the nonselective college. Academic procrastination was motivated by task aversiveness for students at the selective college and by fear of task failure and fear of social disapproval for students at the nonselective college. At the nonselective college only, procrastinators compared to nonprocrastinators reported more often using both legitimate and fraudulent excuses in college and during the current semester. Participants reported that excuses were self-generated for the purpose of gaining more assignment time and that most instructors did not require proof for excuses. The characteristics of courses and instructors likely to promote excuse-making by both procrastinators and nonprocrastinators also were examined. These results reflect the need by administrators and personnel to consider individual and situational differences when implementing student-centered intervention programs.     

They think all of this is new: Leveraging librarians' project management skills for the digital humanities

ABSTRACT

This article will explore how to develop the holistic project management planning (PMP) mindset in different parts of the library when undertaking digital humanities (DH) projects. PMP skills do exist within libraries and librarians, but organizational alignment typically does not allow for the most effective applications of librarians' PMP skills to DH projects. This article will explore how the skills of public services librarians, technical services librarians and administrative librarians align with the PMP phases and the challenges that each kind of librarian has to overcome in completing successful DH projects.     

Mathematical Formalism as a Means of Occupational Closure in Computing — why ‘hard’ computing tends to exclude women

In this paper the failure of equal opportunities initiatives in computing is discussed. Reasons for the increasing exclusion of women from the higher levels of computing are considered, together with the implications of this problem for the profession as a whole. The paper identifies aspects of computing which have resulted in the definitions of good and bad, desirable and undesirable, real and unreal computing. From this perspective it considers areas of business computing and research findings which indicate that both the present business needs and future trends show that these unlegislated decisions are not appropriate. The solution reached is that the emerging canon in the computer science curriculum places an inappropriate emphasis on ‘hard’ areas such as mathematical formalism. More incorporation of arts‐based skills and skills traditionally associated with women would actually result in a curriculum more likely to meet the needs of the computing and information technology industries. If the emphasis in the curriculum and the rewards system should change to allow for this positive action in terms of curriculum, promotion and advertising will be required, together with a more widespread acknowledgement of what attributes actually contribute to successful computing at a professional level.     

An investigation into students' use of a computer-based social learning space: lessons for facilitating collaborative approaches to learning

Provision of computers in universities for self‐study is taken for granted and is seen as a “must have” educational resource, yet it is very expensive to fund. Students report that they use the Internet as their first stop in approaching research tasks. Learning theorists posit the important role of social interaction in contributing to learning. The use of collaborative methodologies such as group work also illustrate the importance, and perceived beneficial role of, learning with others. However, in general, student access to computers for self‐study in UK Higher Education is provided through large rooms furnished with serried ranks of computers, which do not allow or encourage computer‐based collaborative working. This study addresses this mismatch between approaches to learning and the way universities make computers available to learners. The University of Wolverhampton provides a social learning space with 24 computers on four fishbone‐shaped tables, in a room without any restrictions on talking, eating, or drinking. It was provided so as to encourage learners to work collaboratively and to be able to integrate the use of a computer whilst doing so. This paper reports the initial findings of a study into its use, through questionnaires, observational data, and interviews. Has the provision of a computer‐based collaborative learning space positively affected approaches to computer‐based self‐study? The results of this study inform how best Higher Education institutions might provide computer access to learners so as to encourage collaborative working and positively affect student approaches to their learning.     

Predicting student success by modeling student interaction in asynchronous online courses

Early-warning intervention for students at risk of failing their online courses is increasingly important for higher education institutions. Students who show high levels of engagement appear less likely to be at risk of failing, and how engaged a student is in their online experience can be characterized as factors contributing to their social presence. Social presence begins with teacher-student and student-student interaction in online courses. Fortunately, student interaction data can be gleaned from learning management systems, used to model and predict at-risk students at an early stage. This research addresses an existing model for predicting at-risk students to test a previous hypothesis that a holiday effect is a contributor for failure. A new analysis then presents an alternative approach, one that tests the frequency of student interaction rather than amount of interaction as a preferable indicator.     

Looking for inhibition of return in pigeons

We conducted four experiments in order to investigate whether pigeons' responses to a recently attended (i.e., recently pecked) location are inhibited. In Experiments 1 and 2, stimulus displays were similar to those used in studies of inhibition of return (IOR) with humans; responses to cued targets tended to be facilitated rather than inhibited. In Experiments 3 and 4, birds were presented with stimulus displays that mimicked clusters of small grains and were relatively localized, which should have been more appropriate for detecting IOR in pigeons. The results from these experiments again provided evidence for facilitation of responding to cued targets, rather than for IOR.     

Conflict and Friendship Relations in Middle Childhood: Behavior in a Closed-Field Situation

Disagreements between school-aged children were examined as a function of friendship status. 66 same-sex dyads were selected, including equal numbers of "best friends" and nonfriends, who were then observed while playing a board game (a closed-field situation). Conflicts occurred more frequently among friends than among nonfriends and lasted longer. Friends did not talk more during their conflicts than nonfriends, but assertions were used selectively according to friendship and sex: With friends, girls used assertions accompanied by rationales more frequently than boys whereas boys used assertions without rationales more frequently than girls. These sex differences were not evident during conflicts between nonfriends. Results are discussed in relation to the social constraints intrinsic to closed-field competitive conditions as these apply to friendship relations in middle childhood.     

Peer selection and influence on children’s reading skills in early primary grades: a social network approach

This longitudinal study from Grades 1 to 4 investigated (a) the extent to which children select peers based on similarity in reading skills and (b) the extent to which children are influenced by the level of their peers’ reading skills. The sample consisted of 1003 Finnish children in Grades 1–4, for whom reading fluency and comprehension were assessed. The same children were interviewed about their self-concept of reading ability at the end of kindergarten. The results of social network analysis showed that children had a tendency to choose new friends based on earlier similarity in reading fluency but not in reading comprehension. Furthermore, children became more similar to their friends in reading fluency and reading comprehension. Children with a high self-concept of reading ability and high reading fluency were particularly likely to be positively influenced by peers with high reading fluency.     

Effective compiler error message enhancement for novice programming students

Programming is an essential skill that many computing students are expected to master. However, programming can be difficult to learn. Successfully interpreting compiler error messages (CEMs) is crucial for correcting errors and progressing toward success in programming. Yet these messages are often difficult to understand and pose a barrier to progress for many novices, with struggling students often exhibiting high frequencies of errors, particularly repeated errors. This paper presents a control/intervention study on the effectiveness of enhancing Java CEMs. Results show that the intervention group experienced reductions in the number of overall errors, errors per student, and several repeated error metrics. These results are important as the effectiveness of CEM enhancement has been recently debated. Further, generalizing these results should be possible at least in part, as the control group is shown to be comparable to those in several studies using Java and other languages.     

Bringing Dinosaur Science to the Junior Girl Scouts Through a College Service-Learning Project

Undergraduate students in an introductory-level geoscience course successfully designed and conducted a science badge day for the Junior Girl Scouts. With national concerns that girls turn away from science at a young age, a service-learning project was incorporated into a college course with the end result providing a group of girls a positive and fun science-learning experience. A number of science and technology badges exist for the Girl Scouts, yet not many of these badges have been completed because of a lack of confidence the troop leaders have in teaching science and a paucity of scheduled science events for the leaders to take their girls. Junior Girl Scout troops were invited to the Pennsylvania State University Delaware County campus to complete a series of hands-on dinosaur science activities that allowed them to earn the Science in Everyday Life badge. At the conclusion of the badge event, the girls reported a greater interest in science, a desire to learn more science, and a desire to complete additional science-related Girl Scout badges.