Students’ Approaches to Summarisation

This paper considers the role that students’ approaches to learning play in summarising text, and in learning from summarisation. Students’ approaches to learning are characterised in terms of their relative reliance upon deep and surface processing. Two forms of summarisation are studied: the familiar text present summarisation, in which students have access to the text while summarising, and the less familiar text absent summarisation, in which students are warned that the text will be removed after they read it, but before they summarise it. It is predicted that text absent summarisation will facilitate deeper processing for students who normally adopt a deep approach and who are able to write competent summaries, and that these effects will be more apparent for the more difficult text. The results confirm the hypotheses and indicate that the two types of summarisation encourage different processes. Discussion focuses upon the relative merits of the approaches to learning and of the two forms of summarisation. It is concluded that the effects of students’ approaches to learning play a powerful role in summarisation, and need to be studied with respect to other learning activities.     

A typology of undergraduate students' conceptions of size and scale: Identifying and characterizing conceptual variation

The importance of “size and scale” in nanoscience and engineering has been recognized by both scientists and science educators. A solid understanding of this concept is key to the learning of nanoscience. Students, however, have been reported to have considerable difficulty grasping this concept; yet little is known regarding their state of understanding. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a series of studies that were aimed at exploring the different ways students conceive of “size and scale” in the context of undergraduate nanoscience and engineering courses. Informed by Variation Theory of Learning (Marton and Booth, 1997), we identified four major categories (with two sub‐categories within each) of student conception—fragmented, linear, proportional, and logarithmic. These conception categories, together with the aspects of variation that characterize and distinguish them, are summarized in a typology. In addition to serving as a diagnostic tool to describe students' understanding, this typology can also be used to guide the development of instructional interventions that facilitate students to move toward a more sophisticated understanding of “size and scale.” © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 512–533, 2011     

A study of technical signs in science: implications for lexical database development

Both classroom instruction and lexical database development stand to benefit from applied research on sign language, which takes into consideration American Sign Language rules, pedagogical issues, and teacher characteristics. In this study of technical science signs, teachers' experience with signing and, especially, knowledge of content, were found to be essential for the identification of signs appropriate for instruction. The results of this study also indicate a need for a systematic approach to examine both sign selection and its impact on learning by deaf students. Recommendations are made for the development of lexical databases and areas of research for optimizing the use of sign language in instruction.     

Relating Preschool Quality to Children’s Literacy Development

Preschool classrooms were investigated to determine the extent to which quality is related to children’s literacy development. The study included 24 classrooms of 428 prekindergarten children in a large, urban Midwestern school district. Results suggest that global classroom quality and literacy environment quality are strongly related. Literacy environment quality and children’s literacy abilities are also related. Differences in classroom quality were found to have an impact on children’s literacy scores—the higher the quality, the higher the scores. This article also describes lessons learned from the investigation and provides suggestions for teachers and administrators for improving quality to enhance literacy development.     

Perceptions of social‐sexual communication at work: The effects of message,situation, and observer characteristics on judgments of sexual harassment

Social‐sexual communication at work may contribute to either the initiation of an organizational romance or sexual harassment. We examined forces that influence perceptions of sexual messages as harassing rather than flirtatious. We presented 94 working adults with questionnaires soliciting workplace attitudes and experiences. Then, participants reviewed newsletters describing male and female coworkers in a fictitious organization. Finally, participants evaluated the degree of sexual harassment evident in six hypothetical interactions wherein one of the employees introduced in the newsletter makes a suggestive remark to his or her coworker. Newsletters and questionnaires manipulated the explicitness of messages, the initiator's status as supervisor versus subordinate, the attractiveness of the message initiator and target, and the initiator's sex. Message explicitness accounted for 88% of the variance in perceptions of harassment. A five‐way interaction among message and situational cues suggested that perceptions of sexual harassment are also influenced by contextual information. Females rated highly explicit messages as more harassing than did males, and individuals who were more accepting of socializing or dating between coworkers rated scenarios as less harassing. Exposure to socializing at work had a curvilinear association with perceptions of harassment such that low to moderate exposure corresponded with perceptions of greater harassment and moderate to high exposure was associated with lower ratings of sexual harassment. The discussion highlights applications for sexual harassment training programs within organizations.     

Teens,Libraries, and Social Media: Myths and Reality

This article presents a brief overview of research relating to teens, libraries, and social media. It also summarizes a recent multimethod study of how public and school libraries fit into U.S. teens’ increasingly online information lives. The study results debunk five popular myths about teens and social media and reveal many positive ways that teens are using social media to connect with peers and adults and to seek and share information. The article concludes with a discussion of the role that libraries can play in designing services and programs to encourage teens to engage in positive social media use.     

Responses to changes in relational uncertainty within dating relationships: Emotions and communication strategies

Guided by the appraisal theory of emotion, this paper examines how various emotions shape communication strategies within romantic relationships. Events that changed people's relational uncertainty levels provide the context for the investigation. Participants in dating relationships (N = 141) described their experience of relational certainty and uncertainty increasing events. Relational certainty increases coincided with relatively high levels of happiness, and relational uncertainty increases corresponded with heightened degrees of anger and sadness. Integrative behaviors were a frequently reported response to both kinds of events. Consistent with appraisal theory, specific emotions were associated with particular strategies; however, some effects were moderated by the type of event. The discussion highlights the utility of appraisal theory for understanding how romantic partners manage fluctuations in relational uncertainty.