Procrastination in a distance university setting

Procrastination, putting off until tomorrow what should have been done today, is a self-regulation failure that is widespread among students. Although plenty of research has emerged regarding academic procrastination, hardly any research endeavor regarding procrastination in distance university settings exists. This lack of research is even more astonishing when considering that the demands on self-regulation are higher in distance education settings than in traditional university settings. The present (questionnaire) study was intended to shed light on procrastination in an actual distance university setting by exploring its relationship to grades, learning strategies (e.g., cognitive, meta-cognitive strategies), and life satisfaction in students from a distance university in comparison to students from a traditional university.     

Reactions of Negro Children Toward Negro and White Teachers

Student response patterns can provide insights into individual student problems as well as subgroup differences. This paper describes the development of indices for overall aberrancy, tendencies to miss relatively easy items (possible bias, lack of concentration, test anxiety, etc.), tendencies to get correct more difficult items than would be expected based on the total score (possible guessing or unusual learning patterns), and a combination that tells how the latter two tendencies do or do not balance each other. Test results for 368 math students were used to demonstrate the indices. The software is available.     

School social capital and secondary education plans

This article intends to identify the effects of school social capital on the educational plans of students, particularly those staying in school and obtaining an intermediate certificate. It is hypothesised that social capital helps to explain individual educational plans and differences between schools regarding the amount of students with particular educational plans. The analyses are based on a survey of 1638?year 8 Hauptschule students in Germany. The results show that the quality of relationships with teachers is of crucial importance for the educational plans of individual students. Furthermore, differences between schools can be explained by the degree of school expectations. This finding supports the assumption that schools provide different settings, not only for learning processes but also for developing educational aspirations and plans.     

Complementarities of innovation activities: An empirical analysis of the German manufacturing sector

Innovation strategies in manufacturing often involve internal R&D activities as well as external partnerships. Thereby it is not clear if internal and external activities are complements or substitutes. This paper tests for complementarity of different innovation activities, i.e. internal R&D, R&D contracting, and R&D cooperation. The empirical analysis of cross-sectional firm level data of the German manufacturing sector comprises both indirect and direct complementarity tests; it is based on data from the German part of the Community Innovation Survey (CIS 3). The results provide evidence for significant complementarities between internal R&D and R&D cooperation, but cast doubt on the complementarity of internal and contracted R&D, since a productivity effect on firms’ patenting probability or sales with new products cannot be found.     

Gender-specific effects of artificially induced gender beliefs in mental rotation

Men outperform women in the Mental Rotation Test (MRT) by about one standard deviation. The present study replicated a gender belief account [Moè, A., & Pazzaglia, F. (2006). Following the instructions! Effects of gender beliefs in mental rotation. Learning and Individual Differences, 16, 369–377.] for (part of) this effect. A sample of 300 adults, whose gender beliefs about mental rotation were manipulated experimentally (instructions given: men are better, women are better, or no gender differences exist) had to complete the MRT. Artificially induced gender beliefs affected performance and guessing behavior differently in relation to gender. Women's performance followed the gender belief induction but their guessing behavior remained unaffected. Men's performance, however, remained unaffected but their guessing behavior followed the gender belief induction. These findings suggest that gender beliefs affect men and women differently, and they also suggest that a gender belief account cannot (fully) explain gender differences in mental rotation performance.     

Attitude and passion: becoming a teacher in early childhood education and care

By focusing on a collective aesthetics based on sensation and affect, researchers, especially in Stockholm, Sweden, are exploring a pedagogy that opens up space for assemblages of desire, acknowledging the expressions of children who transform themselves and their milieus into a weave of bodies, spaces, signs and media. By analysing this pedagogy, against the background of the theories of Henri Wallon and Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I wish to investigate the concept of a ‘thinner skin mentality’. This willingness to transgress one’s own stabilising attitude, to move towards a greater sensitivity to relational and situational affectivity when accompanying the learning of children, may provide a point of reference for a preschool teacher qualification.     

Improving Chilean In-service Elementary Teachers’ Understanding of Nature of Science Using Self-contained NOS and Content-Embedded Mini-Courses

Understanding nature of science (NOS) is considered critical to the development of students’ scientific literacy. However, various studies have shown that a large number of elementary and secondary science teachers do not possess an adequate understanding of NOS. This study investigated how elementary teachers’ understanding of NOS was impacted through a 1-year professional development program in Chile that included NOS instruction as a theme throughout two types of mini-courses in the program. Twelve teachers attended a 1-year development program focused on improving teacher content knowledge and included the instruction of NOS embedded in two self-contained NOS mini-courses (36 h) and two lessons (3 h each) within five science content mini-courses (30 h). The Views of NOS (version D+) questionnaire and interviews were used to assess teachers’ understanding of NOS at the beginning (January) and end of the program (December). Elementary teachers’ understanding of the creative, inferential, and tentative aspect of NOS showed improvement. According to the teachers’ perceptions, the most significant activities for improving their NOS understanding were decontextualized activities in both types of mini-courses (self-contained NOS and science content mini-courses). The implications for professional development programs are also discussed.     

Parents' views on sexual debut among pre‐teen children in Washington,DC

Objective: Present US parents' perceptions about factors leading to early intercourse and strategies for overcoming them.

Methods: Conducted analysis of eight focus groups with 78 male and female African‐American and Hispanic caregivers of fifth‐graders and sixth‐graders (ages 10–12).

Results: Participants gave the following primary reasons for early sexual activity: lack of structured activities, adult supervision, and communication; and influence of peers, society, and media. They suggested strategies targeting these reasons, and the need for parents, schools, and the community to work together.

Conclusion: Incorporating parents' perspectives would help tailor interventions to the needs of the target population and increase parental support.     

A “Chameleonic” Identity: Foreign-Born Doctoral Students in U.S. Counselor Education

This study explored the interplay between a multidimensional model of acculturation and professional identity development among eight foreign-born doctoral students in U.S. counselor education. Themes generated through an interpretive phenomenological analysis revealed that the participants, while trying to adapt to the Euro-American cultural context of their counselor programs, experienced a sense of conflict, loss, and grief, resulting in what they called a “chameleonic” professional identity. Findings illustrated that for international counseling students, professional identity development is an arduous and complex process deeply intertwined with their acculturation experiences. Implications for counselor programs and future research are further discussed.