Prominent Messages in Television Drama Switched at Birth Promote Attitude Change Toward Deafness

The study at hand employed a pre- versus posttest experimental design to test the effects of television drama Switched at Birth on viewers’ attitudes toward deafness. This program tells the story of two teenage girls (one of whom is deaf) and their struggles to relate to their peers and families after discovering they were switched as newborns. Two hundred eleven female adults completed pre- and postexposure measures utilizing Cooper, Rose, and Mason's (2004 Cooper , A. , Rose , J. , &; Mason , O. ( 2004 ). Measuring the attitudes of human service professionals toward deafness . American Annals of the Deaf , 148 , 385 – 389 .[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) Attitudes to Deafness measure, the items of which were categorized according to thematic dimensions. After exposure to one of three episodes, viewers’ attitudes toward deafness significantly improved overall, although significant differences in attitude changes varied by episodes and dimensions. The three thematic dimensions that were most strongly represented in the program (social interaction, deafness as a handicap, and language issues) appeared to show the strongest attitude change. Positive attitude changes were observed on social interaction and deafness as handicap dimensions, which was consistent with program content depicting positive deaf-hearing friendships and capable deaf characters. However, attitudes on the language issues dimension showed a negative shift, possibly due to the way that deaf characters communicated with hearing characters onscreen.     

Comparison of student performance using web and paper‐based homework in college‐level physics

Homework gives students an opportunity to practice important college‐level physics skills. A switch to Web‐based homework alters the nature of feedback received, potentially changing the pedagogical benefit. Calculus‐ and algebra‐based introductory physics students enrolled in large paired lecture sections at a public university completed homework of standard end‐of‐the‐chapter exercises using either the Web or paper. Comparison of their performances on regular exams, conceptual exams, quizzes, laboratory, and homework showed no significant differences between groups; other measures were found to be strong predictors of performance. This indicates that the change in medium itself has limited effect on student learning. Ways in which Web‐based homework could enable exercises with greater pedagogical value are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 1050–1071, 2003     

Abuse and deprivation in failing adoptions

Twelve children seen in psychiatric consultation by the authors over a 3-year period were failing in their adoptive placements. All twelve had been adopted as older children (average age at adoption 5 . Ten out of the12 were males. A retrospective case review demonstrated that all the children shared several common characteristics: (1)a history of both neglect and abusive treatment during at least the first two years of life, (2) a behavioral pattern that wasintermittently provocative and punishment seeking, and (3) an ability to elicit a sense of bewilderment and betrayal in theadoptive parents. Twenty-one months was the average duration of the adoption before the families sought the consultation. These adoptive families were all considered competent by the agencies involved. All had raised other natural and adoptive children successfully. Treatment offered by the authors seemed to be helpful in salvaging 4 of the 12 adoptive placements. The authors present these cases as a way of drawing attention to much needed research, both in better understanding the early attachment process in “older child” adoptions, and in better understanding the relative impact of abuse in influencing the child's subsequent attachment capacities.     

Student factors related to learning in biomechanics

The aim of this study was to identify the student behaviours and characteristics that are related to learning biomechanical concepts. The Biomechanics Concept Inventory (BCI) was given to 53 kinesiology majors before and after an introductory biomechanics class together with a survey of student behaviours to determine factors that assisted in learning. Analysis of scores from 49 students showed significant (P < 0.001) improvement following instruction. Variables that significantly (P < 0.05) and uniquely correlated with improvement were grade point average (r = 0.46) and student interest in biomechanics (r = 0.41). Thirty-one percent of the variance in learning could be accounted for by these two variables, with no distinctive associations with student behaviours like course reading, hours studying, and credits earned in maths and physics. However, grade point average was significantly correlated with several student behaviour variables. Consequently, student learning of biomechanical concepts is likely a complex phenomenon with individual learning related to variables that interact with student interest and overall academic ability.     

Variability of impact kinematics and margin for error in the tennis forehand of advanced players

The kinematics of the racket and ball near impact in tennis forehands were studied to document typical variation in successful and unsuccessful shots, in order to determine biomechanically meaningful differences in advanced players and confirm models of groundstroke trajectories. Seven tennis players (six males and one female) were videoed from the side at 180 Hz as they performed 40 forehand drives on an indoor tennis court. Vertical plane kinematics of the racket and ball near impact were analysed for sub samples of successful and unsuccessful shots for each subject. Most racket kinematic variables were very consistent (mean CV< 6.3%) for successful shots, so bio mechanically meaningful differences in angles and velocities of the racket and ball (3° and 2 m s⁻¹) near impact could be detected between successful and unsuccessful shots. Four subjects tended to miss long and three subjects missed shots in the net that were reflected in initial ball trajectories. Mean (SD) initial trajectories for long shots were 9.8° (1.4°), while netted shots were 0.7° (1.1°) above the horizontal. The initial ball trajectories and margins for error for these subjects were smaller than those previously reported (Brody, 1987) because players tended to select mean ball trajectories close to one error than another, differing amounts of topspin, or incorrect lift and drag coefficients for tennis balls had not been published when this model was created. The present data can be used to confirm if recent models (Cookeet al., 2003; Dignallet al., 2004) more closely match actual performance by advanced players.