Towards emotion awareness tools to support emotion and appraisal regulation in academic contexts

Educational technology research and development - This paper studies learners’ emotion awareness in university level academic contexts as a first step to help learners regulate their...     

Child maltreatment: social representation of the general population and the professionals working with children in the Caribbean area of Colombia

OBJECTIVE: The main objective was to know social representations about child maltreatment (severity, etiology, and intervention strategies) of the general population and the professionals working with children in the Caribbean area of Colombia. METHOD: Sample was composed for 402 participants. From this pool of participants, 111 of them were working in child protection, 95 worked with children but not in the child protection system and 196 pertained to the general population. All participants answered to a questionnaire composed by 86 items. The questionnaire was developed to assess (1) the perceived severity of different typologies of child abuse, (2) opinions about risk factors for child maltreatment and sexual abuse, and (3) opinions about the most adequate ways of intervention with perpetrator of child abuse. RESULTS: Sexual abuse is considered as the most severe typology of child maltreatment and emotional abuse is considered as more severe than physical abuse. No differences between groups were found in perceived severity of typologies of child maltreatment. Differences in the social representation about the etiology of child maltreatment were found. Professionals working in the child protection system give more value to characteristics of parents and to the socio-economic and familiar environment in the etiology of child maltreatment than participants from the general population. Prevention and treatment programs for abusers were considered as the more relevant strategies against child maltreatment. DISCUSSION: Findings of present study suggest that social representations about child maltreatment of general population and professionals from the Caribbean area of Colombia are similar than social representation observed in other regions and countries. It is important to take into account that child labor and child poverty were considered as non-severe typologies of child maltreatment. Moreover, findings suggest that people from general population in the Caribbean area of Colombia have a relevant knowledge about agencies working for child protection.     

Predicting University Students’ Academic Success and Major Using Random Forests

Research in Higher Education - In this article, a large data set containing every course taken by every undergraduate student in a major university in Canada over 10 years is analysed. Modern...     

The ‘individualized’ (woman) in the academy: Ulrich Beck,gender and power

This article considers the tensions and struggles that exist between men and women and between women and women in the academic workplace. The research reported here is a small‐scale case study of 22 academic women from two generations who were interviewed about their career experiences. The theoretical framework is materialist feminism and draws on Ulrich Beck’s model of the ‘individualized individual’ to evaluate its usefulness to researchers for understanding the attitudes and actions of social actors in contemporary society. The article, firstly, examines the ways in which power differentials emerged for the younger female academics through a combination of their age and gender. It then discusses intra‐gender tensions between women in the academy. It is argued that for Beck’s model of an ‘individualized individual’ to be useful in understanding the position of women in the second modernity then a much more complex and nuanced interpretation of power and power struggles is needed than the one he provides. A further key point raised by the article is that feminists need to be more prepared to recognize and engage with power struggles and tensions that exist between women (and feminists) in the academy.     

Being Labeled Nerd: Factors That Influence the Social Acceptance of High-Achieving Students

The present investigation addresses the question of whether certain factors can protect high-achieving students at risk for being labeled a nerd against devaluation. In 2 studies, 125 and 317 students from Grade 8 evaluated vignettes describing average students and students who were called “nerds.” Results indicate that being modest about good grades, being engaged in sports, and being sociable led to higher liking. In students who were labeled nerds, but not in average students, display of effort led to less favorable evaluations. The effects of the aforementioned factors were moderated by the gender of the perceivers and targets. Findings are discussed with respect to gender-role stereotypes and the self presentation of high-achieving students.     

Re-presenting the ‘forgotten estate’: participatory theatre,place and community identity

In this article, we discuss the work undertaken in the first phase of a participatory theatre project which took place on a council housing estate in the Midlands of England, in which residents were invited to share their memories for a production which would present the history of the estate. This community is often characterised as deficient, ageing, welfare-oriented, low in educational attainment and aspiration. Interviews and field notes suggest that there was not a great amount of hope within the community for the success of a participatory arts project such as this. However, the performance attracted a large number of participants who performed to full houses over five nights. Using a place-based approach, we argue that a model of open participation led to the presentation of alternative, more positive, narratives of this community as a place to live.     

Learning from teaching: pre-service primary teachers’ perceived learning from engaging in formal Lesson Study

While there is abundant research reporting the impact of Lesson Study as a professional development framework for qualified teachers, its potential within initial teacher education remains relatively unexplored. We present a particular model of formal Lesson Study which has been experienced annually for a decade by Irish pre-service primary teachers. This study examines the perceived effects on learning of this Lesson Study model on a large sample of pre-service primary teachers (N?=?225) who worked in 45 different lesson study groups over a 10 year period (2008–2017). Data analysis reveals that participants’ perceptions of learning fell within two distinct themes namely ‘An awakening regarding teacher content knowledge’ and ‘Cornerstones of learner-centred practice’, each of which consisted of rich inter-connected sub-themes. As a result of engaging in Lesson Study, participants report an increased awareness of the importance of deep content knowledge in addition to adopting a learner-centred approach to their practice. Participants also believed that Lesson Study enhanced their professional knowledge and skills in the curricular area of focus (mathematics, in this case). While this study focuses on self-report data, these opinions are fundamental given research which proposes that interventions will fail if participants judge them to be ineffective.