Does Time Matter in Improving Mathematical Discussions? The Influence of Mathematical Autonomy

Facilitating students’ transition from less to more mathematically productive engagement in discussions is an important area of investigation. Research on mathematical whole-class discussions has consistently identified facilitating students' mathematical autonomy as a central component of this transition. Additionally, research commonly infers such transitions take time to manifest. The present study examined students' perceived mathematical autonomy and perceived engagement in mathematical discussions over a half year of school. Using hierarchical linear growth-curve modeling, the authors found that although it may take time for students to transition into more mathematically productive engagement in discussions, it may be the development of their mathematical autonomy, rather than mere exposure over time, that facilitates this transition.     

Enhancing resilience in youth through a 10-day developmental voyage

The present study sought to examine the potential for resilience to be enhanced in a group of youth participating in a developmental voyage, and to identify the factors that contribute to increased resilience following the voyage. Two studies are reported. Study 1 revealed that voyage participants experienced increased resilience over the course of the voyage. Study 2 sought to replicate and extend these findings by assessing the extent to which increased resilience was maintained five months following the voyage and was associated with other psychosocial variables (i.e. self-esteem, social effectiveness, self-efficacy, belonging, social support and perceived weather). The findings revealed that increased resilience was maintained five months following the voyage. A regression revealed that the predictors explained 37% of the variance in increased resilience. Increased social effectiveness, self-efficacy and less positive perceptions of the weather were the only variables to make unique contributions.     

Faculty Evaluation as a Liberal Persuasion

Teaching Tips: A Guidebook for the Beginning College Teacher, Seventh Edition: By Wilbert J. McKeachie: D. C. Heath and Company, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1978. Reviewed by Margaret O'Brien, SP.

Staff Development in Higher Education. An International Review and Bibliography, 1979: By David C. B. Teather: Nichols Publishing Company, P. O. Box 96, New York, New York 10024. $30.00. Reviewed by Gary W. Peterson.     

The Sinclair Effect: Comparing Ownership Influences on Bias in Local TV News Content

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the largest owner of U.S. local television stations, has received recent attention due to its apparent political lean and journalistic practices. This study compared the content and quality of national political news stories at Sinclair and non-Sinclair stations in three television markets. Results indicated evidence of a “Sinclair Effect,” whereby Sinclair-owned affiliate stories exhibited more cable news-style elements. Stations generally adhered to traditional journalistic principles, regardless of ownership, but Sinclair stations produced more stories with dramatic elements, commentary, and partisan sources.     

父母恩,金子心

曾几何时,看到一位刚为人母的好友的QQ签名写道"生下孩子,原以为革命已经成功,岂知那只是万里长征的第一步",我一笑置之,心想:养个小P孩有那么难吗?啥能耐都没有的小鬼,还能把人整得死去活来?时至今日,我严正声明:I was wrong!养个小孩,真的可心让你"几多欢喜几多     

给陌生人的爱

这个世界已经变得越来越陌生。每天看电视,读报纸,刷微博,眼睛里充斥的都是"毁三观"的新闻:有毒食品、炫富、见死不救……仿佛小时候一直存留在脑海里的"真善美"只不过是一堆已经褪色的荒诞童话,乏人问津,不合时宜。人间已经冷漠到只剩下相互猜忌和利用的地步了吗?我不敢妄加判断,只是在很多时候,面对很多事,我会不自觉的做出一些"本能反应"。看到地铁站出口的某个行乞者,我会下意识加快脚步,因为脑子里总有个声音在说"他的收入可能比你还高呢";面对向我走来的问路人,我会第一时间扭转     

Counting the nouns: simple structural cues to verb meaning

Two-year-olds use the sentence structures verbs appear in--subcategorization frames--to guide verb learning. This is syntactic bootstrapping. This study probed the developmental origins of this ability. The structure-mapping account proposes that children begin with a bias toward one-to-one mapping between nouns in sentences and participant roles in events. This account predicts that subcategorization frames should guide very early verb learning, if the number of nouns in the sentences is informative. In 3 experiments, one hundred and thirty-six 21- and 19-month-olds assigned appropriately different interpretations to novel verbs in transitive ("He's gorping him!") versus intransitive sentences ("He's gorping!") differing in their number of nouns. Thus, subcategorization frames guide verb interpretation in very young children. These findings constrain theoretical proposals about mechanisms for syntactic bootstrapping.