Book review

Kamalipour, Y. R., & Mowlana, H. (Eds.). (1994). Mass media in the Middle East: A comprehensive handbook. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press. 333 pages.

Boyd, D. (1993). Broadcasting in the Arab world: A survey of the electronic media in the Middle East (2nd ed.). Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press. 386 pages.

Hoyer, S., Lauk, E., & Vihalemm, P. (Eds.). (1993). Towards a civic society: The Baltic media's long road to freedom. Tartu, Estonia: Baltic Association for Media Research. 366 pages.

Silj, A. (Ed). (1992). The new television in Europe. London: John Libbey. 644 pages.

Noam, E., Komatsuzaki, S., & Conn, D. (Eds.). (1994). Telecommunications in the Pacific Basin. New York: Oxford University Press. 514 pages.

Englis, B. G. (Ed.). (1994). Global and multinational advertising. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. 266 pages.     

The effects of prior reputation and type and duration of charitable donation on celebrities’ personal public relations: an investigation based on attribution theory

Charitable donations made by celebrities are being increasingly reported by news media in South Korea. This experimental study has examined the effects of celebrities’ prior reputations, and the duration and type of charitable donation they perform, on young participants’ evaluations of these celebrities (i.e. motive attribution, attitudes toward the celebrities, and related purchase intentions). The results ascertained the main effects of prior reputation and duration and type of donation on the dependent variables. Most notably, the results also found the interaction effect of duration and type of donation on the participants’ evaluation of motive attribution. That is, participants who were exposed to news stories concerning celebrities’ volunteer efforts, or monetary contributions that involve volunteer efforts, performed over long periods of time reported the highest level of motive attribution. Based on these results, this study discussed theoretical and practical implications.     

Implementation and Evaluation of a Condom Availability Program on a College Campus: Lessons From the Field

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advocate access to condoms as a critical sexual health prevention strategy. The purpose of this article is to discuss the implementation and evaluation of a condom availability program using dispensing machines in residence halls at a Midwestern U.S. university. Undergraduate students (N = 337) living in on-campus housing participated in a survey about their utilization of condom dispensers at the beginning and end of three academic years (2008–2009, 2009–2010, and 2010–2011). Questions also addressed students' attitudes toward the condom dispensers and related sexual behavior. Results indicated that the presence of condom machines did not increase rates of sexual activity (a concern of university administrators), but there was also no improvement in rates of unprotected sex. Overall, students reported high levels of satisfaction with the condom availability program. Implementation challenges are discussed and recommendations for universities and colleges wishing to execute similar programs are provided.     

Monitoring elementary students’ writing progress using curriculum-based measures: grade and gender differences

The purpose of this study was to examine slopes from curriculum-based measures of writing (CBM-W) as indicators of growth in writing. Responses to story prompts administered for 5 min to 89 students in Grades 2–5 were collected across 12 weeks and scored for correct word sequences (CWS) and correct minus incorrect sequences (CIWS). Linear mixed modeling revealed that, for students in Grades 2–3, a linear model with random effects on both intercept and slope fit the data best. For students in Grades 4–5, growth trends varied depending on number of weeks and scoring procedure used. The time point at which slopes were significantly different from zero varied by scoring procedure and grade. Gender was related to intercept and slope for CWS and CIWS in Grades 2–3 and to intercept and linear slope for CWS and CIWS in Grades 4–5. Findings suggest that CBM-W may be appropriate for monitoring student progress, and that gender should be considered in data-based decision making.     

Course-level modeling of preservice teacher learning of technology integration

We introduce an analytic approach to examine preservice teachers' technology integration learning as a process mapped against their technology-related course experience in a technology integration course. The approach assumes that (1) the preservice teachers have common course learning experience; (2) their data are collected pre- and post-course and paired; (3) the sample size is large enough to generate a structural covariance model; (4) the measurement is contextualized to the course characteristics around the types of technology tasks/tools used in the course and whether or not they were explicitly taught. The approach was applied to 368 preservice teachers' paired data to illustrate how the approach addresses the methodological issue of construct validity in TPACK measures, highlights the importance of technology integration course experience, and provides useful insights into a particular technology integration learning to its stakeholders.     

Philosophy of Science and Education

This is a vast and vague topic. In order to do justice to it one has to write a book or maybe more than one. For it can be understood in quite different ways and on different levels For example you may think mainly of the historical aspect, that is how philosophy of science developed in the last hundred or so years and how its influence on education changed; you may think of quite different schools of philosophy, from Marxist or positivist to such exotic but at some places influential philosophic positions like that of Rudolph Steiner; of course, you may limit the subject to special fields like epistemology, theory of scientific methodology, or, what has become fashionable recently, sociology of knowledge which may have a considerable bearing on physics teaching (Collins and Shapin 1983; Jung 1985). Again we may think of the topic treated by a philosopher, a scientist, an educationalist, a teacher, which would mean quite a difference. I am trying here to speak as an educationalist, with the physics teacher in mind: this is my vocational perspective as someone who educates physics teachers. Of course, our main concern is the contribution of science, especially physics, to general education, which integrates many of the special topics mentioned. Philosophy of science comes in because it is not at all clear what science and physics is, and what of it should be taught, and how such chosen parts should be taught. I also take this opportunity to give an idea of the longstanding tradition of this discussion in Germany, connected with names like Wagenshein, Litt, Heisenberg and many others.     

The note of discord: Examining educational perspectives between teachers and Korean parents in the U. S.

This study examined and compared the educational perspectives of Korean parents of elementary school students and their teachers. 430 parents and 143 teachers in the New York metropolitan area participated in the survey and 16 teachers, administrators, and parents were interviewed. The findings indicated that the teachers not only misunderstood the parents' perspectives on the goals of schooling, but also underestimated the parents' ways of supporting their children's education. Regarding the current school/teacher practices, the two groups also expressed different perspectives. We discussed the urgency of educators' critical reflection on diverse cultures and the considerations for increasing parents' school involvement.     

Amotivation and Indecision in the Decision-Making Processes Associated with University Entry

This study developed and tested two models that examined the decision-making processes of adolescents relating to entry into university, in terms of the extent to which they may be amotivated and undecided. The models incorporated variables derived from self-determination theory, expectancy-value theory, and research on occupational indecision. A modified version of a psychometrically rigorous survey instrument was used to collect data from 349 senior high school students attending three high schools in Sydney, Australia. Data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling procedures. The refined versions of both models had good fit. The superior model suggested that: (a) family influences negatively predict amotivation with university entry (b) amotivation with university entry negatively predicts the valuing of interest/enjoyment and income due to university study, a desire for a “good” occupation, and expectations for success, and (c) amotivation with university entry positively predicts indecision with university entry.