Fostering kinship with animals: animal portraiture in humane education

Visual depictions of animals can alter human perceptions of, emotional responses to, and attitudes toward animals. Our study addressed the potential of a slideshow designed to activate emotional responses to animals to foster feelings of kinship with them. The personal meaning map measured changes in perceptions of animals. The participants were 51 students enrolled at a pre-university college in Montreal, Quebec. Major conceptual themes were developed based on students’ responses on the PMM both pre- and post-slideshow. Ninety-two percent changed their perceptions of ‘Animal’ after viewing the slideshow. Pre-slideshow perceptions of ‘Animal’ were described primarily as Pets/Symbols, Biological/Wild Nature, Commodity/Resource, and Dangerous. After the show, the perceptions shifted to Kinship and Sentience/Individuality, with substantial increases in the depth and emotion associated with responses. Thus, viewing animal portraiture improved feelings of kinship with animals and enhanced perceptions of animal individuality in a classroom setting.     

Every Step You Change: A Process of Change and Ongoing Management

ABSTRACT

Established services have the benefit of experienced and knowledgeable staff, confirmed money streams, designated space and resources, and recognized links to users and stakeholders. So when change needs to happen, it requires a great deal of patience, skill, and an unwavering belief in a better future. After more than 30 years operating in a large academic institution, a distance education (DE) library service needed change. Services needed to be added, resources needed to be improved, and overall processes needed to be streamlined and upgraded. This article will reveal the dramatic changes that occurred over the span of 6 months to change this service from an office literally drowning in paper with a “this-is-the-way-we've-always-done-things” orientation to a new paperless service with a Web-based request, monitoring, and statistical tracking system. Screen shots demonstrate how staff track requests and keep separate records for library and distance education departmental reporting purposes.     

Integration of physical health and sensory processing assessment for children with autism spectrum disorder in schools

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often undergo various assessments and evaluations as part of the diagnostic process, identification and classification for special education eligibility, and continued progress monitoring for skill growth. Such evaluations may include cognitive, social and emotional, behavioral, and speech evaluations, among other skill and ability assessments. One other area for assessment that clinicians may consider examining when working on evaluations for individuals with ASD includes the integration of assessments capturing physical and sensory needs. Physical health identifiers that may be included in such evaluations cover physical exercise, sleep, diet and food sensitivities, and elimination. Additionally, sensory evaluations may consider auditory, olfactory, taste, tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive sensory abilities and needs. This practitioner-focused chapter includes a brief review of each of the aforementioned physical and sensory abilities and their connection to ASD. Further, implications for practitioners in their assessment of ASD are explored with practical tips and recommendations for providers to use for their future assessments for ASD.     

SodaConstructing knowledge through exploratoids

In this article, we describe a preliminary study that integrates research on engineering design activities for K‐12 students with work on microworlds as learning tools. Here, we extend these bodies of research by exploring whether—and how—authentic recreations of engineering practices can help students develop conceptual understanding of physics. We focus on the design–build–test (DBT) cycle used by professional engineers in simulation‐based rapid modeling. In this experiment, middle‐school students worked for 10 hr during a single weekend to solve engineering design challenges using SodaConstructor, a Java‐based microworld, as a simulation environment. As a result of the experiment, students learned about center of mass. Our data further suggest that in the process of simulation‐based modeling, rapid iterations of the DBT cycle progressively linked students' interest in the design activities and understanding of the concept of center of mass. We suggest that these rapid iterations of the DBT cycle functioned as exploratoids: short fragments of exploratory action in a microworld that cumulatively develop interest in and understanding of important scientific concepts. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach     

Attachment,Entitlement, and the Impostor Phenomenon in Female Graduate Students

This study examined the utility of attachment and entitlement as predictors of the impostor phenomenon in female graduate students. Findings suggested that individuals with high levels of self‐reliance/self‐assurance entitlement are able to associate positive feedback with stable internal attributes. Those with anxious attachment and narcissistic expectations/self‐promotion entitlement, however, were unable to openly accept positive feedback because of perceived deficits in self‐worth. Implications are discussed for addressing these issues with female college counseling clients.     

Examining the influences of epistemic beliefs and knowledge representations on cognitive processing and conceptual change when learning physics

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of epistemic beliefs and knowledge representations in cognitive and metacognitive processing when learning about physics concepts through text. Specifically, we manipulated the representation of physics concepts in texts about Newtonian mechanics and explored how these texts interacted with individuals’ epistemic beliefs to facilitate or constrain learning. Results revealed that when individuals’ epistemic beliefs were consistent with the knowledge representations in their assigned texts, they performed better on various measures of learning (use of processing strategies, text recall, and changes in misconceptions) than when their epistemic beliefs were inconsistent with the knowledge representations. These results have implications for how researchers conceptualize epistemic beliefs and support contemporary views regarding the context sensitivity of individuals’ epistemic beliefs.     

Intentional Online Discussions in Teacher Education

The goal of a creating civil discourse in teacher education deeply intersects with the ways that students interact in online discussions. However, as discussion shifts to online formats, digital misinformation is becoming widespread and threatens critical and civil communication as cognitive biases emerge in dialogue. The purpose of this case study research was to explore the participants' perceptions of growth and pitfalls while using the six essential elements of an online discussion typology developed as a pedagogical intervention to increase critical thinking and civility in discourse. The findings suggested that participants' responses in online discussions implied some cognitive biases and those participants engaged most often in discussions that were safe, comfortable, and familiar. Nevertheless, in their metacognitive reflections on the typology, participants demonstrated awareness of how these tendencies toward cognitive comfort shortchanged discussions and potential opportunities to develop new perspectives.     

Framing the Work of Art: Spirituality and Career Discourse in the Nonprofit Arts Sector

Based on qualitative data from participant interviews, this study explores how nonprofit arts managers construct the notion of career, and more specifically, how they frame the nature of their work and career choices. Findings revealed that participants employed a spiritual framework of calling, service, sacrifice, and personal rewards to socially construct, understand, and legitimate their nonprofit careers. These framing devices provided the language for participants to make sense of their career decisions and to define their career successes in terms of their own values instead of traditional measures of extrinsic rewards. As contemporary workers place increasing importance on meaningful work, spiritually centered discourse has implications for career theory and organizational practices in both for-profit and nonprofit sectors.