The relationships among manager communication openness,nonverbal immediacy,and subordinate motivation

The relationship between managers' communication behaviors (openness and nonverbal immediacy) and subordinates' motivation were examined. Wharton MBA candidates were videotaped participating in an organizational simulation to resolve interpersonal conflict. Subordinates completed self‐report measures regarding openness and motivation; independent coders rated managers' nonverbal immediacy behaviors. Analysis indicated that communication openness was positively and significantly related to motivation, while nonverbal immediacy and motivation was slightly related although not significantly. The positive, yet tentative relationship between openness and immediacy, indicated that these variables occur together. Results of the multiple regression reveals that openness was more predictive of motivation, while immediacy had a more indirect impact.     

Librarian and faculty collaborative instruction: A phenomenological self-study

Several models of librarian and faculty collaboration are found in the professional librarian literature. The literature on collaborative self-study research in university settings suggests collaborative self-study research can improve interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to teaching and research and facilitate the transfer of knowledge. A research librarian and professor of education conducted a phenomenological self-study to examine their multiple roles as researchers and instructors who collaborated to develop, implement, and evaluate distance-delivered instructional services for public school teachers who live and work in remote, rural, and Alaska Native communities throughout the state of Alaska. Several themes emerged from this phenomenological self-study: (a) our interdisciplinary and collaborative efforts resulted in increased opportunities to team teach and conduct future collaborative research; (b) we struggled to communicate effectively with our students via audio-conference; and (c) our beliefs and practices were transformed by our participation in this phenomenological self-study. We believe our collaborative approach to phenomenological self-study research can promote intense self-reflection, stimulate creativity, and facilitate open and honest communication between academic librarians and teaching faculty who engage in collaborative instruction and collaborative research; furthermore, we believe our collaborative approach to phenomenological self-study research can increase the instructional effectiveness of academic librarians and teaching faculty collaborating to teach in distance-delivered higher education.     

Stitching Circuits: Learning About Circuitry Through E-textile Materials

Central to our understanding of learning is the relationship between various tools and technologies and the structuring of disciplinary subject matter. One of the staples of early science education curriculum is the use of electrical circuit toolkits to engage students in broader discussions of energy. Traditionally, these concepts are introduced to youth using battery packs, insulated wire and light bulbs. However, there are affordances and limitations in the way this toolset highlights certain conceptual aspects while obscuring others, which we argue leads to common misconceptions about electrical circuitry. By contrast, we offer an alternative approach utilizing an e-textiles toolkit for developing understanding of electrical circuitry, testing the efficacy of this approach for learning in elective settings to pave the way for later classroom adoption. This study found that youth who engaged in e-textile design demonstrated significant gains in their ability to diagram a working circuit, as well as significant gains in their understanding of current flow, polarity and connections. The implications for rethinking our current toolkits for teaching conceptual understanding in science are discussed.     

The Players They are A-Changin': The Rise of Older MMO Gamers

To learn more about demographic characteristics, play behaviors, and motivations of massively multiplayer online gamers over the age of 50, researchers administered a questionnaire to 32,261 Wizard101 subscribers. Cross-referencing responses with behavioral data recorded by game servers, researchers found that older players were significantly more likely to be women. Older players played longer and underestimated their playtime, they were less likely to play on console and hand-held systems, and they were less likely to cite social, achievement, and player versus player combat motivations. However, older online gamers were more likely to cite self-growth and learning motivations for game play than those under 50.     

A Qualitative Study of Juvenile Offenders,Student Engagement,and Interpersonal Relationships: Implications for Research Directions and Preventionist Approaches

Background factors that correlate with juvenile delinquency are consistent across the interdisciplinary literature base. Yet, information about the process of how risks relate to outcomes, especially within school settings, is limited. Researchers used qualitative methods to examine school and interpersonal experiences from the perspective of juvenile offenders and their families. Sixteen families were recruited from juvenile probation facilities in 2 different geographic regions. Consensual Qualitative Research methods yielded consistent themes, including the central role of advocacy to obtain appropriate school services, the importance of flexibility in discipline policies, classroom experiences that shaped outcomes, and the importance of nonjudgmental social support for the adolescents and their parents. The findings and recommendations for school consultants are presented from a preventionist standpoint, and self-determination theory is discussed in relation to future juvenile delinquency research.     

Beyond the Professional Athlete: Introducing Middle School Students to Sports Related Occupations

Even though the odds are astronomically high against it ever happening, many middle school students harbor hopes of some day playing professional sports. What students frequently fail to realize is that there are numerous sports-related occupations in addition to that of the professional athlete. The classroom career awareness activities presented here are designed to help students discover that there is more to sports than being an athlete.     

The relationship between student engagement with online content and achievement in a blended learning anatomy course

Blended learning has become increasingly common in higher education. Recent findings suggest that blended learning achieves better student outcomes than traditional face‐to‐face teaching in gross anatomy courses. While face‐to‐face content is perceived as important to learning there is less evidence for the significance of online content in improving student outcomes. Students enrolled in a second‐year anatomy course from the physiotherapy (PT), exercise physiology (EP), and exercise science (ES) programs across two campuses were included (n = 500). A structural equation model was used to evaluate the relationship of prior student ability (represented by grade in prerequisite anatomy course) and final course grade and whether the relationship was mediated by program, campus or engagement with the online elements of the learning management system (LMS; proportion of documents and video segments viewed and number of interactions with discussion forums). PT students obtained higher grades and were more likely to engage with online course materials than EP and ES students. Prerequisite grade made a direct contribution to course final grade (P < 0.001) but was also mediated by engagement with LMS videos and discussion forums (P < 0.001). Student learning outcomes in a blended anatomy course can be predicted the by level of engagement with online content. Anat Sci Educ 11: 471–477. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Attributions and Attitudes of Mothers and Fathers in the United States

OBJECTIVE.: The present study examined mean level similarities and differences as well as correlations between U.S. mothers' and fathers' attributions regarding successes and failures in caregiving situations and progressive versus authoritarian attitudes. DESIGN.: Interviews were conducted with both mothers and fathers in 139 European American, Latin American, and African American families. RESULTS.: Interactions between parent gender and ethnicity emerged for adult-controlled failure and perceived control over failure. Fathers reported higher adult-controlled failure and child-controlled failure attributions than did mothers, whereas mothers reported attitudes that were more progressive and modern than did fathers; these differences remained significant after controlling for parents' age, education, and possible social desirability bias. Ethnic differences emerged for five of the seven attributions and attitudes examined; four remained significant after controlling for parents' age, education, and possible social desirability bias. Medium effect sizes were found for concordance between parents in the same family for attributions regarding uncontrollable success, child-controlled failure, progressive attitudes, authoritarian attitudes, and modernity of attitudes after controlling for parents' age, education, and possible social desirability bias. CONCLUSIONS.: This work elucidates ways that parent gender and ethnicity relate to attributions regarding U.S. parents' successes and failures in caregiving situations and to their progressive versus authoritarian parenting attitudes.     

Automated Testing

Web-Teaching deals with all aspects of teaching, using the World Wide Web. Of all of these, the one most likely to have significant impact upon learning is automatic testing. Repeatable testing (formative assessment) has solid research support. Schemes that make extensive use of repeatable testing are not favored by instructors, however, because of the time required for test development, grading, and recording. Web-based automatic testing can automate most or all of the test grading and recording activities. Further, it makes student access easier. The paper addresses dimensions of the issue of automatic, Web-based testing.