Teaching Kindergartners Racial Diversity Through Multicultural Literature: A Case Study in a Kindergarten Classroom in Korea

Research Findings: This qualitative case study examines Korean kindergartners’ literary discussions about racial/cultural diversity during a whole-group read-aloud. Using multiple sources of data, including observations, open-ended interviews, and written materials and children’s artifacts, this study found that (a) the children exhibited a biased attitude toward African characters, and their stereotypical views reflected their allegiance to their social/cultural contexts; (b) literary discussions about race provided the children with valuable opportunities to explore racial diversity, equality, injustice, and freedom; and (c) reading multicultural literature helped the children develop and practice their racial language and literacy skills. Practice or Policy: The findings of the study add several important contributions related to teaching young children multicultural literature. Reading literature should be used to provide a chance to explore real-life problems and critically analyze all of the differences children encounter on a daily basis. Teachers should encourage young children to freely share their views about diverse social issues by creating a space where children feel secure in exchanging different views. In order to create a more supportive literacy surrounding, teachers should understand how profoundly children’s social and cultural environments affect their reading practices.     

Primacy of Broadcast News: A Mediation Analysis of Recall,Attitudes, and Voting Intentions

This study examines how the order and proportion of scene valence within a television news story influence viewers' processing of political information. The results of the study, based on structural equation modeling and Sobel's mediation analysis, suggest that, in a news story about a political candidate, positive information on the candidate is recalled better if he or she is praised at the beginning of the story and then criticized at the end than if he or she is criticized first and praised later. In addition, there was a strong proportion effect. Stories with a high proportion of positive scenes were more likely to increase the participant's recall of positive information and induce his or her favorable attitudes and voting intentions than those with a low proportion of positive scenes.     

The Influence of Thinking Styles on Responses to Supportive Messages

Cognitive-experiential self-theory suggests that individuals with different thinking styles may respond differently to various forms of support during times of stress or difficulty. This possibility was examined in an experiment in which 365 participants read a hypothetical scenario in which they were experiencing a problematic situation, and a friend offered one of three forms of support (advice, emotional support, or emotional support plus advice). The results of the study indicated that highly rational participants tended to respond to advice more positively than less rational participants. In addition, highly experiential participants tended to rate emotional support as higher in quality than less experiential participants.     

Predictors of Localism in Public Television Scheduling in the United States

In the United States, public television claims itself a champion of localism. A prime-time schedule analysis of the Public Broadcasting Service's (PBS) member stations establishes localism scores, and discriminant analysis finds variables that predict differences among stations. Market level variables (income, education, ethnic diversity, geographic component) and organizational level variables (Community Service Grants, membership funding, overall revenue) affect localization of member stations' schedules. This is the first empirical study utilizing a structural operationalization of localism, inclusive of all programming genres, applied to PBS member stations.     

Family functioning and early learning practices in immigrant homes

Poverty‐related developmental‐risk theories dominate accounts of uneven levels of household functioning and effects on children. But immigrant parents may sustain norms and practices—stemming from heritage culture, selective migration, and social support—that buffer economic exigencies. Comparable levels of social‐emotional functioning in homes of foreign‐born Latino mothers were observed relative to native‐born Whites, despite sharp social‐class disparities, but learning activities were much weaker, drawing on a national sample of mothers with children aging from 9 to 48 months (n = 5,300). Asian‐heritage mothers reported weaker social functioning—greater martial conflict and depression—yet stronger learning practices. Mothers’ migration history, ethnicity, and social support helped to explain levels of functioning, after taking into account multiple indicators of class and poverty.     

Higher education development in Korea: western university ideas,Confucian tradition,and economic development

The features of Korean higher education development are related to sociocultural tradition (Confucian tradition), the model university ideas, and economic development in Korea. The modern university ideas adopted in Korean are based on the German model which was established by the Japanese colonial government and drawing on the US university model after the World War II. However, the modern university ideas are intertwined with socio-cultural factors and have been embedded in current Korean universities. As well as the western ideas and the Confucian tradition, the growth of Korean higher education has relied upon the rapid growth of the Korean economy. Education development is well aligned with economic development in Korea thanks to government policy initiatives. This framework can be applied in the analysis of higher education development in other countries. Higher education development cannot be solely explained by individual cultural, historical or economic factor. These three factors are interlinked and influence the development of Korean higher education.     

Tiny noise,big mistakes: adversarial perturbations induce errors in brain–computer interface spellers

An electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) speller allows a user to input text to a computer by thought. It is particularly useful to severely disabled individuals, e.g. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients, who have no other effective means of communication with another person or a computer. Most studies so far focused on making EEG-based BCI spellers faster and more reliable; however, few have considered their security. This study, for the first time, shows that P300 and steady-state visual evoked potential BCI spellers are very vulnerable, i.e. they can be severely attacked by adversarial perturbations, which are too tiny to be noticed when added to EEG signals, but can mislead the spellers to spell anything the attacker wants. The consequence could range from merely user frustration to severe misdiagnosis in clinical applications. We hope our research can attract more attention to the security of EEG-based BCI spellers, and more broadly, EEG-based BCIs, which has received little attention before.     

Horizons,not Boundaries,are the Language of Retirement: Sense of Fulfillment,Fears, and Life Trajectories of Faculty Extendees in the Philippines

This qualitative study probed into (a) the sense of fulfillment, (b) fears and anxieties, and (c) life trajectories of aged working professors recruited from one comprehensive university in the Philippines. Interestingly, findings of the study reveal that respondents were fulfilled and felt successful through the life outputs of their students; their self-worth was witnessed through continued employment and communication to students of ideas, work ethic, and values. Fears and anxieties were rarely felt because of religious commitments and prayers to God. Sense of delight was manifested through the satisfactory academic environment; the possession of supportive systems, including family, friends and community, and their plans of spending their remaining years with the family in leisure activities; and in joining religious organizations.     

Investigating the role of attitude in technology acceptance from an attitude strength perspective

Since Davis et al. originally formulated the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), research on information technology (IT) acceptance has yielded many extended and competing models. Empirical investigation of these models, however, has not consistently supported the mediating role of attitude in predicting user IT adoption, leading some researchers to claim a minimal role of attitude. In this study, we call for attention to the role of attitude in explaining technology acceptance behavior. In developing the research model, we draw on both the concept of attitude strength and previous technology acceptance studies. Empirical examination of our research hypotheses indicates that attitude toward system use fully mediates the effects of salient beliefs on behavioral intention when the attitude is strong, whereas it partially mediates the effects when the attitude is weak. Our findings provide additional insights in predicting technology acceptance behavior.