Effects of a 1-day environmental education intervention on environmental attitudes and connectedness with nature

Besides cognitive learning effects, short-term environmental education (EE) is often regarded as ineffective in intervening with participants' environmental attitudes and behaviour. However, in Germany, school classes often participate in such 1-day EE programmes because they better match the school curriculum in contrast to longer (residential) programmes. We therefore monitored a 1-day outreach EE programme on global climate change to reveal whether environmental attitudes and/or connectedness with nature of tenth graders are affected. Students from German high schools (college preparatory secondary school level, ‘Gymnasium’) (N?=?114) from age 14 to 19 participated in the programme (treatment group). It consisted of two student-centred learning units on the topic of climate change. Additionally, we chose a control group of students who did not participate in the programme. To measure students' environmental attitudes and connectedness with nature, we administered the Two Major Environmental Values (2-MEV) and the Inclusion of Nature in Self scale in a pre-, post- and retention test design. The pre-test was administered 1 week before, the post-test directly after and the retention test 4 to 6 weeks after programme participation. Analyses revealed a positive long-term effect only for utilitarian values (one of the two major environmental factors of 2-MEV) which decreased significantly. Therefore, depending on the programme's content, short-term EE programmes indeed may have an influence on participants' environmental attitudes.     

Young People's Images of Old Age in Chile: Exploratory Research

According to gerontological thought, an important part of senior citizens' disabilities are products of their social exclusion rather than factors associated with their physical or mental health. How these exclusions come about was the purpose of the research reported in this article. The study was conducted among 682 Chilean university students using a semantic differential test. A generalized negative image on old age was observed. The conclusion is that social images of old age affect the well-being of present and future senior citizens.     

Content-Related Knowledge of Biology Teachers from Secondary Schools: Structure and learning opportunities

Teachers’ content-related knowledge is a key factor influencing the learning progress of students. Different models of content-related knowledge have been proposed by educational researchers; most of them take into account three categories: content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge. As there is no consensus about the empirical separability (i.e. empirical structure) of content-related knowledge yet, a total of 134 biology teachers from secondary schools completed three tests which were to capture each of the three categories of content-related knowledge. The empirical structure of content-related knowledge was analyzed by Rasch analysis, which suggests content-related knowledge to be composed of (1) content knowledge, (2) pedagogical content knowledge, and (3) curricular knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge and curricular knowledge are highly related (r_latent?=?.70). The latent correlations between content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (r_latent?=?.48)—and curricular knowledge, respectively (r_latent?=?.35)—are moderate to low (all ps?<?.001). Beyond the empirical structure of content-related knowledge, different learning opportunities for teachers were investigated with regard to their relationship to content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge acquisition. Our results show that an in-depth training in teacher education, professional development, and teacher self-study are positively related to particular categories of content-related knowledge. Furthermore, our results indicate that teaching experience is negatively related to curricular knowledge, compared to no significant relationship with content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.     

Archival objects in motion: historians’ appropriation of sources in nineteenth-century Austria and Switzerland

This contribution examines the social, material, and epistemic practices of historians and their counterparts engaged in the textual and visual reproduction of historical sources in nineteenth-century Austria and Switzerland. The Schweizerische Urkundenregister (1863–1877), a Swiss register of medieval charters, and the Monumenta graphica medii aevi (1859–1883), an Austrian collection of photographic facsimiles of medieval sources, were both intended to make historical sources accessible outside the archives in the framework of national history. The article analyzes institutional collaborations and the social interactions among the actors involved and follows the trajectories of the mobilized archival objects. These projects for national source publications appear as a negotiated social practice, in which archival objects were dislocated conceptually as well as materially in order to be stabilized and reified again in new infrastructures of research. The conflicts surrounding the projects reveal disputes about authority over the archival records, their significance, and the techniques required to represent them properly, and show how the emergence of scholarly source publications accompanied a conscious erasure of older contexts of meaning.     

When the going gets tough: Direct,buffering and indirect effects of social support on turnover intention

We examined the role of social support in turnover intention among new teachers. First, we tested and found evidence for a direct negative relationship between social support and turnover intention. Second, we tested the social support buffer hypothesis, and found that teachers with higher social support had lower turnover intention in the face of higher workload, compared to teachers with lower support. Third, we examined a mediational hypothesis, and found that social support acts indirectly, through job satisfaction in relation to turnover intention. These findings suggest that social support can be a valuable resource for new teachers.     

The integration of old and new technological paradigms in low- and medium-tech sectors: The case of mechatronics

This article addresses the internal transformation of low- and medium-tech (LMT) sectors from a technological perspective, analysing the absorption of radical new technologies by low- and medium-technology (LMT) firms and their integration into frameworks dominated by older technologies. Through an empirical analysis of a cluster of mechatronic companies, the paper highlights some of the main features of the integration process and provides a preliminary assessment of whether the phenomenon is more likely to occur within or between companies, that is through the absorption of new technologies by each firm individually or by means of linkages between specialised mono-technology companies.     

On the role of user-centred evaluation in the advancement of interactive information retrieval

This paper discusses the role of user-centred evaluations as an essential method for researching interactive information retrieval. It draws mainly on the work carried out during the Clarity Project where different user-centred evaluations were run during the lifecycle of a cross-language information retrieval system. The iterative testing was not only instrumental to the development of a usable system, but it enhanced our knowledge of the potential, impact, and actual use of cross-language information retrieval technology. Indeed the role of the user evaluation was dual: by testing a specific prototype it was possible to gain a micro-view and assess the effectiveness of each component of the complex system; by cumulating the result of all the evaluations (in total 43 people were involved) it was possible to build a macro-view of how cross-language retrieval would impact on users and their tasks. By showing the richness of results that can be acquired, this paper aims at stimulating researchers into considering user-centred evaluations as a flexible, adaptable and comprehensive technique for investigating non-traditional information access systems.     

GovQual: A quality driven methodology for E-Government project planning

We present a multidisciplinary methodology for E-Government project planning. The set of expertise needed for the design of E-Government systems includes social, juridical, economic, organizational, and technological perspectives. To properly address such a broad range of influences requires a unique vision. Our long-term aim is to use an integrated approach to examine a number of issues which currently present challenges in many E-Government projects. This paper in particular focuses on social and technological aspects of E-Government. The methodology has four phases: (1) state reconstruction, (2) quality assessment, (3) new quality targets definition, and (4) preliminary operational planning. A case study provides evidence of the feasibility and effectiveness of the methodology.     

Influences on the Construction of Health News: The Reporting Practices of Local Television News Health Journalists

Local television news remains a primary news source for Americans and is a key source of consumer health information. This study explores why local television health journalists cover particular topics and assesses why health journalism newsgathering practices often differ from the normative newsgathering practices of general assignment reporters. Fifteen in-depth telephone interviews were conducted with health journalists from varying geographical regions and media markets. Influence from local hospitals and personal interest in a health topic often determined the health content the journalists produced. Journalists said it was difficult to cover health issues in addition to other newsroom responsibilities.