Motivational influences on school‐prompted interest

Some argue that the goal of education is to influence out‐of‐school learning activity, yet little research exists on how teachers can help students develop an interest in a topic and continue to pursue that interest outside of school. The current study tested classroom context variables from self‐determination theory (teachers’ autonomy support) and from achievement goal theory (teachers’ mastery goals) that may predict students’ school‐prompted interest above and beyond students’ mastery goals and self‐efficacy. Survey data were collected from 178 high school students in 15 mathematics classes. Hierarchical multiple regression revealed that students’ perceptions of a teacher who focuses on mastery goals account for little variance above and beyond students’ own motivation, whereas perceived teachers’ autonomy support emerged as a significant predictor. While the results are correlational and do not support causal claims, they suggest that teachers who support student autonomy might foster school‐prompted interest.     

发展超常教育需要解决的三个问题

大多数的文化都重视人的才智,然而,很少有国家能够形成持久的文化氛围让这种才智自由发展。缺乏通用定义,过分强调超常学生的学习成就以及缺乏相关的学术研究和评价机制是造成这种困境的原因。要营造超常教育文化氛围,需要找到天赋、天才以及创造力等概念的通用定义;同时,必须承认天才是一个多层面的复杂概念而非仅仅是学习成就上的或者认知性的。另外,必须有效地做好成果的评估工作以及超常儿童的扎实培育和后天开发工作。     

Preschoolers Continually Adjust Their Epistemic Trust Based on an Informant's Ongoing Accuracy

Children aged 4–7 years (N = 120) played four rounds of a find‐the‐sticker game. For each round, an informant looked into two cups and made a claim about which cup held a sticker. At the end of each round, children guessed the sticker's location, and then the sticker's actual location was revealed. For three of the rounds, the informant accurately reported the sticker's location. But critically, for one round—either Round 1, 2, or 3—she was inaccurate. Children continually adjusted their trust in the informant as they obtained more information about her accuracy. Relations between the informant's pattern of accuracy and children's trust were robust, neither mediated nor moderated by children inferences about her intent or traits.     

The impact of austerity on Irish higher education faculty

Given the impact of austerity on higher education systems, an intellectual concern with the impact of austerity on faculty seems appropriate. In this article, austerity is explored through the everyday lived experience of faculty and its impact on both their personal and professional contexts. This aspect has been under-researched in the higher education literature and addresses the complexities and contradictions that the austerity can create for faculty. The study located in the Republic of Ireland provides an interesting context as the global financial crisis in 2008 resulted in 9 years of austerity measures that impacted on all aspects of the economy and particularly on the higher education sector. A social realist approach using Archer’s morphogenetic framework was employed. The framework facilitated an in-depth understanding of the relationship between structure, culture and agency and how austerity was experienced by faculty within their institutions.     

Children’s levels of contingent self-esteem and social and emotional outcomes

Contingent self-esteem (CSE) describes the degree to which self-esteem is dependent on meeting day-to-day appraisals from oneself and others. This will vary between individuals, ranging from lower to higher CSE. A lower CSE is related to a range of adaptive social and emotional outcomes in adolescents and young adults. This study explores children’s CSE and how this associates with behavioural outcomes. A total of 280 children between the ages of 9 and 11 years completed a composite questionnaire on aspects of their self-esteem and behaviour. Children’s class teachers completed behavioural outcome questionnaires for a random sample of 100 of these children. Based on teachers’ and children’s scores, high levels of global self-esteem were associated with lower CSE and fewer behavioural difficulties. CSE domains of social feedback and physical appearance retained significant associations with behavioural outcomes after controlling for global self-esteem. This may relate to the degree that children depend on the perceived evaluations of others. Implications for educational psychologists are highlighted.     

Dress for fit: An exploration of female activewear consumption

While the female activewear market is growing rapidly, research on activewear consumption and female consumers is lagging. Existing researchers have failed to produce an in-depth understanding of female consumers’ perceptions of activewear, thereby providing limited insights for the activewear industry. Drawing upon brand association theory and the functional, expressive, and aesthetic model, the authors identify important attributes of activewear brands and how attributes lead to benefits pursued by female activewear consumers. Focus groups were conducted with 72 female activewear consumers in Australia. Findings reveal three product-related attributes (functional design, colour, and size and fit) and two non-product-related attributes (price and model imagery) influence the fulfillment of four benefits (mood enhancement, exercise facilitation, healthy and active lifestyle, and physical fit body image). This research contributes theoretical and empirical knowledge about activewear consumption and the vertical structure of brand associations. Findings of this research can help activewear brands deliver benefits to female consumers through improved product designs and marketing strategies.     

Playing surface and UK professional rugby union injury risk

Artificial rugby union playing surface installation is increasing. This prospective cohort study aimed to examine the effect of playing surface on match injury types within 157 players of two UK professional rugby union clubs playing 209 matches (96 on artificial surfaces and 113 on grass) over three seasons. There was no difference in overall injury risk between the two playing surfaces with injury incidence on artificial 80.2 (CI 69.9–91.7) and on grass 81.9 per 1000 match-hours (CI 72.2–92.5), with an incidence rate ratio (RR) of 0.98 (CI 0.82–1.17). There was a higher rate of concussion (RR 0.52, CI 0.34 – 0.78) and chest injuries on grass (RR 0.26 CI 0.07, 0.95), and a higher rate of thigh haematoma (RR 2.25, CI 1.05–4.82) foot injuries (RR 4.12, CI 1.10, 15.40) and injury to players being tackled (RR 1.46, CI 1.00, 2.15) on artificial. Whilst there was no higher injury risk for matches played on artificial versus natural grass surfaces, the higher incidence of concussion and chest injury on grass, and the higher rate of foot injuries on artificial surfaces may be related to tackle and footwear-to-surface interface factors.     

The State of Criminal Justice Bachelor’s Degree Programs in the United States: A Descriptive Profile of Programs Housed in For-Profit Institutions

While for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) have long existed in the U.S., most were small, closely held companies (CHCs). Beginning in the 1990s, a new FPCU emerged that was owned by publicly traded companies (PTCs). While FPCUs owned by CHCs and PTCs offer baccalaureates in criminal justice (BCJ), little is known about the characteristics of these programs. To address this gap, the current study analyzed the population (N = 79) of FPCUs offering BCJ programs during academic year 2015–2016 by type of corporate owner. Analyses included comparisons of the two types of FPCUs on three categories of variables: institutional, departmental, and curricular characteristics. Implications of the results for baccalaureate education in criminal justice and future research on the role of FPCUs in criminal justice are presented.     

Improving moral reasoning among college students: a game-based learning approach

Considering a company’s limited time and resources, an effective training method that improves employees’ ability to make ethical decision is needed. Based on social cognitive theory, this study proposes that employing games in an ethics training program can help improve moral reasoning through actively engaging learners. The experimental design with an ethic board game as the experimental group and ethics instructions as the comparison group was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a game-based ethic training method on improving moral reasoning. Results show that using games in an ethics training program significantly decreases respondents’ importance rating on issues associated with lower stages of an individual’s cognitive moral development (CMD) and increases their importance rating on issues associated with the highest stage of CMD. In addition, a game-based ethics training program was found to produce significantly greater change on the importance rating towards issues associated with the middle stage of CMD than a non-game based ethics training program. These findings suggest that a game-based ethics training program could effectively develop moral reasoning, and shape moral views better than a non-game-based training program. Discussions and suggestions for future research were included to conclude this study.