How groups cooperate in a networked geometry learning environment

This paper presents a small group computing environment in which four students each control a different point in a geometric space, such that as a group they collectively manipulate the vertices of a quadrilateral. Prior research has revealed that students have considerable difficulty in learning about the interrelationships among quadrilaterals shapes. In this study, we investigated how a designed environment can help support students’ learning in this area. In particular, in a case study of two student groups, we used the notions of appropriation and objectification to explain how students learned from one another different ways of using the technology and of explaining geometric concepts to progress in their geometric reasoning. When the students did not attain a shared focus of attention, they were not able to appropriate others’ approaches to using the technology or explaining geometric concepts. In one group, although some individuals demonstrated learning gains, when the coordination among the group members fell apart, not all the members were able to benefit. On the other hand, another group which demonstrated more group-oriented behavior—listening to one another, sharing the same focus of attention, engaging in coordinated actions—was able to benefit as a whole and did better overall on individual assessments.     

Dimensions of Norm-Referenced Compulsory School Grades and their Relative Importance for the Prediction of Upper Secondary School Grades

Irrespective of the grading system, grades are the most valid instrument for predicting educational success. Previous studies have shown that criterion-referenced compulsory school grades are multidimensional, reflecting subject-specific dimensions and a common grade dimension, both of which contribute to the predictive validity of grades. This suggests that in addition to knowledge and skills, grades reflect other aspects which might have importance for the prediction of educational success. The purpose of this study was to investigate, using structured equation modeling, whether norm-referenced compulsory school grades display similar patterns of dimensionality and predictive validity to criterion-referenced grades. Possible differences due to gender and parents' education were considered. Participants were 3855 students born in 1972. The results showed that norm-referenced grades are multidimensional, and that both the subject-specific and common grade dimensions contribute to predicting educational success. In the common grade dimension, girls and students with higher educational backgrounds were favored.     

Caregiver instability and early life changes among infants reported to the child welfare system

This study describes the extent of caregiver instability (defined as a new placement for 1 week or longer in a different household and/or with a new caregiver) in a nationally representative sample of infants, followed for 5–7 years. Data were drawn from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), a longitudinal study of 5,501 children investigated for child maltreatment. The analysis sample was restricted to 1,196 infants. Overall, 85.6% of children who were infants at the time of the index maltreatment experienced at least one caregiver instability event during their first 2 years of life. Caregiver instability was associated with the child having a chronic health condition and the caregiver being older than 40 years of age at baseline. The levels of instability reported in this study from infancy to school entry are extremely high. Children with more risk factors were significantly more likely to experience caregiver instability than children with fewer risk factors. The repeated loss of a young child's primary caregiver or unavailable, neglectful care can be experienced as traumatic. Some evidence-based programs that are designed to work with young maltreated children can make a substantial positive difference in the lives of vulnerable infants.     

Investigating Cheaters

This article analyzes the American television program Cheaters. Cheaters advances itself as the most “realistic” of reality programs based on an ethnographic approach to the surveillance and exposure of infidelity. The program offers theoretical lessons in the vernacular of reality television, as it proliferates positions for the subjects in its narrative and raises questions about the relationship between seeing and believing. Every effort to show and tell more destabilizes the possibility of discerning the very truths it purports to uncover. In the process the program offers insights into the limits of reality television and into contemporary socio-cultural epistemology.     

General Communications

Joseph C. Goulden's Monopoly (Pocket Books 77135, 95¢)

Bryce Rucker's The First Freedom (University of Southern Illinois Press, $2.85)

John Phelan's Communications Control (Sheed & Ward, $3.45)

David Manning White's edited collection Pop Culture in America (Quadrangle Books, $5.95/2.45)

Marshall Fishwick and Ray B. Browne's edited Icons of Popular Culture (Bowling Green University Popular Press, $1.00)

Don Fabun's Three Roads to Awareness (Beverly Hills, Calif.: Glencoe Press, $5.95/4.95)     

Net Neutrality and Libraries: Conflicts of Access

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently heard a suit brought against the Federal Communications Commission by Verizon concerning the 2010 Open Internet Rules. These rules were meant to protect consumers and ensure net neutrality by Internet service providers (ISPs). The Court struck down these rules, and now ISPs will have more power about how content is delivered to users. Librarians should be knowledgeable of net neutrality and this ruling, as it potentially affects abilities of users to exercise intellectual freedoms and could impact the library’s ability to provide services to its users.     

A content analytic technique for measuring the sexiness of women's business attire in media presentations

This study describes the development and pretest of a content analytic category scheme for objectively measuring the sexiness of women's business attire in media presentations. In a test of the validity of the category scheme, presentations of women's business attire in television soap operas were compared to real world examples. The television samples were found to be significantly more provocative than the real world attire. In addition, the results of the content analysis of soap opera attire was compared to an intuitive perception of “sexiness.” A significant positive correlation was found between the degree of sexiness as measured by the content analytic category scheme and subject's perception of sexiness.     

A rules‐based study of television's role in the construction of social reality

A qualitative analysis of one couple's conversational uses of mediated content is presented. Observations spanned a two‐year period. Data were categorized according to usage type and then examined from Lull's (1981) rules persective.