The relationship between disgust,state-anxiety and motivation during a dissection task

Emotions influence motivation, but emotions, such as disgust, have attracted less attention in learning research. We assessed the influence of disgust measured as trait and specific state component, state anxiety and self-efficacy on intrinsic motivation during the dissection of a fish using a pre-/post-design in science teacher students. Anxiety and disgust had a negative influence on motivation. Students with more experience in dissections reported lower pressure. Anxiety after the lesson was influenced by prior anxiety and by animal reminder disgust. Specific state disgust after the dissection was predicted by prior specific state disgust, core disgust and state anxiety. State anxiety and specific state disgust decreased during the dissection. The future commitment to use dissection at school was solely predicted by interest; competence and pressure failed the significance level marginally.     

Attitudes Towards the Elderly Among German Adolescents

Many societies are encountering significant changes in their population structure as the number of older people is increasing while children and adolescents become fewer. This study examines pupils' attitudes towards elderly people in Germany. A total of 935 pupils (458 boys, 477 girls) participated in this study. Grade distribution was as follows: 192 (5th grade), 148 (6th grade), 208 (7th grade), 219 (8th grade), and 168 (9th grade). We provide evidence for two underlying latent factors, “prejudice” and “appreciation.” The “prejudice” factor contained prejudices and negative attitudes towards old people, and the “appreciation” factor contained items that were positively related to old people. On average, pupils valued old people. Based on a multivariate general linear model, we found a significant influence of gender, grade, and distance to grandparents. Girls valued old people higher, thus rating them higher on the appreciation scale. However, effect size was comparably low. No differences existed concerning the prejudice scale. Grade effects showed that prejudice increases and appreciation declines with increasing age. Distance to their grandparents significantly influenced the attitudes. Pupils with grandparents in the near vicinity valued old people more than pupils with their grandparents farther away. We suggest implementing intergenerational educational programs in primary school and in 5th and 6th grade in Germany.     

Towards an integrated model for developing sustainable assessment skills

One of the goals of current education is to ensure that graduates can act as independent lifelong learners. Graduates need to be able to assess their own learning and interpret assessment results. The central question in this article is how to acquire sustainable assessment skills, enabling students to assess their performance and learning throughout life, and preparing them to meet their own future learning needs. This article presents an integrated model for developing sustainable assessment skills, consisting of three components: conditions necessary for the development of sustainable assessment skills, elements of sustainable assessment and instructional methods for guiding students in the development of sustainable assessment skills. The article concludes with suggestions for future research to further develop the proposed model.     

“Split Screens” and “Spin Rooms”: Debate Modality,Post-Debate Coverage,and the New Videomalaise

This experimental research examines how different presentation modalities in presidential debates and post-debate spin influence the ability to form evaluations about candidates' character, shape perceptions of their incivility, and alter judgments of political trust and news credibility. Results indicate that these experimental factors work together to encourage character judgments, diminish perceptions of candidate civility, and reduce levels of trust in government. In addition, political talk conditioned experimental effects on perceptions of news credibility, with the adverse effects of split screen presentations concentrated among those who talked about the debate. Thus, the negative effects of “in your face” politics conveyed by the “split-screen” modality appear to be most pronounced among those primed to think about performance and those attuned to politics through interpersonal talk.     

Formative assessment in an online learning environment to support flexible on-the-job learning in complex professional domains

This article describes a blueprint for an online learning environment that is based on prominent instructional design and assessment theories for supporting learning in complex domains. The core of this environment consists of formative assessment tasks (i.e., assessment for learning) that center on professional situations. For each professional situation, three levels of situational complexity are defined, and within each of these three levels, tasks are offered that differ in the degree of support offered to the learner. This environment can support (beginning) professionals in complex domains in gaining insight into the available repertoire of behavior in professional situations, as well as into the quality and effectiveness of that behavior (assessment criteria), while simultaneously helping them to develop insight into the standards that their own behavior should (eventually) match.     

Assessors’ approaches to portfolio assessment in Assessment of Prior Learning procedures

In an effort to gain better understanding of the assessment of prior informal and non‐formal learning, this article explores assessors’ approaches to portfolio assessment. Through this portfolio assessment, candidates had requested exemptions from specific courses within an educational programme or admission to the programme based on their prior learning. The assessors judged the portfolios according to set rating criteria, and subsequently discussed their approaches. Their decision‐making processes, perception of portfolio use in the Assessment of Prior Learning (APL), deciding factors in portfolio assessment and use of the rating criteria were key elements in this discussion. The results show that they do use the rating criteria as an indicator in decision‐making, but have mixed perceptions regarding the fairness of APL portfolio assessment. They perceive the portfolio evidence in combination with sound argumentation as the deciding elements in portfolio assessment.     

Emotional Climate and Behavioral Management during Sleep Time in Early Childhood Education Settings

The majority of children cease napping between 3 and 5 years of age yet, internationally, the allocation of a sleep time during the day for children of this age remains a practice in many early childhood education (ECE) settings. These dual circumstances present a disjuncture between children's sleep needs and center practices, that may cause conflict for staff, increase stress for children and escalate negative emotional climate in the room. Testing this hypothesis requires observation of both the emotional climate and behavioral management used in ECE rooms that extends into the sleep time. This study was the first to apply the Classroom Assessment and Scoring System (CLASS) Pre-K (Pianta, La Paro, & Hamre, 2008) to observe the emotional climate and behavioral management during sleep time. Pilot results indicated that the CLASS Pre-K functioned reliably to measure emotional climate and behavioral management in sleep time. However, new sleep-specific examples of the dimensions used were developed, to help orient fieldworkers to the CLASS Pre-K rating system in the sleep time context. The CLASS was then used to assess emotional climate and behavior management between the non-sleep and sleep time sessions, in 113 ECE rooms in Queensland, Australia. In these rooms 2.114 children were observed. Of these children, 71% did not sleep at any point during the allotted sleep times. There was a significant drop in emotional climate and behavioral management between the non-sleep and sleep-time sessions. Furthermore, the duration of mandated sleep time (a period of time where no activities are provided to non-sleeping children) accounted for significant independent variance in the observed emotional climate during sleep-time. The CLASS Pre-K presents a valuable tool to assess the emotional climate and behavior management during sleep-time and draws attention to the need for further studies of sleep time in ECE settings.     

The Role of Perceptions of Media Bias in General and Issue-Specific Political Participation

Despite a large body of literature documenting factors influencing general political participation, research has lagged in understanding what motivates participation regarding specific issues. Our research fills this gap by examining the interplay of perceptions of media bias, trust in government, and political efficacy on individuals' levels of general and issue-specific political participation. Using survey data with indicators related to general political participation, our results demonstrate that perceptions of media bias overall are negatively related to general political participation. Moreover, this relationship is an indirect one, mediated by trust in government and political efficacy. Using survey data with indicators of issue-specific political participation in the context of stem cell research, our results show that—contrary to the relationship found for general political participation—perceptions of media bias are directly and positively associated with issue-specific participation. Implications for political participation and media bias theories are discussed.     

Content and timing of feedback in a web-based learning environment: effects on learning as a function of prior knowledge

This study investigated the effectiveness of different types of feedback content (elaborate versus global) and feedback timing (immediate versus delayed) for learning genetics in a web-based learning environment as a function of learners' prior knowledge. It was hypothesized that learning outcomes of students with low prior knowledge would be fostered by immediate elaborate feedback, whereas those of students with more prior knowledge would be enhanced by delayed global feedback. Students' perceptions of the feedback they received were explored. Results showed a significant positive effect of global feedback on learning outcomes for higher prior knowledge learners, although those who received elaborate feedback gave a higher appreciation rating. The findings are discussed in terms of implications for the design and delivery of feedback in web-based learning environments.