Stereotyped Identification: How Identifying with Fictional Latina Characters Increases Acceptance and Stereotyping

This article applies the concept of stereotyped identification—the idea that cognitively and emotionally identifying with fictional minority characters can simultaneously increase acceptance of minorities while reinforcing stereotypes about how they look, act, and talk—to the context of Latina television characters. Specifically, we employed a national survey measuring participants’ exposure to Latina TV characters; levels of identification with TV characters; and attitudes toward, and stereotypes about, Latinas. Results are consistent with the prediction that through identification, exposure to Latina TV characters is related to more favorable feelings toward Latinas, as well as higher levels of stereotyped views of Latinas as sexualized and melodramatic.     

Research to Practice: Observing Learning in Tinkering Activities

As tinkering and making spaces proliferate in museums, many researchers, practitioners, funders, and policy‐makers seek to understand what constitutes learning‐through‐tinkering. To support discussion of tinkering‐based learning, the Exploratorium sought to articulate and refine a valid, evidence‐based definition of learning in its permanent on‐floor Tinkering Studio. We studied and made videos of fifty learners and their companions in one of three tinkering activities in the Tinkering Studio. A team of researchers and practitioners used the videos to refine frameworks for learning and facilitation (initially developed in a prior project), leading to the identification of four Dimensions of Learning and three broad Facilitation Moves. We created a Tinkering Library of Exemplars that categorizes over one hundred video clips according to these frameworks. The Library may help articulate important aspects of learning and facilitation, give voice to practitioners’ values in defining learning‐through‐tinkering, and lay a methodological foundation for gathering evidence for such learning. The Library is available for download.     

Gaining Visitor Consent for Research III: A Trilingual Posted‐Sign Method

When studying museum visitors, researchers sometimes collect data by video‐ and audio‐taping large high‐traffic areas. In order to inform visitors that they are being recorded, researchers post signs in the area. This article describes the Exploratorium's efforts to design and test trilingual signs that would effectively inform visitors when video‐based research is in progress. Interviews with 255 adult museum visitors, conducted across six versions of the recording area's setup and signage, revealed several effective design elements. The posted sign was more noticeable and welcoming when it included a large headline, a realistic camera icon, and a colorful background. The most effective setup of the area contained many cues to videotaping beyond the large posted sign, such as visible recording equipment and small signs on exhibits and cordons. In the most successful trilingual setup we tested, 92% of visitors leaving the research area knew they had been videotaped.     

Educational Psychology and its Failings: a reply to Olssen

Olssen has recently claimed that educational psychology, being a derivative of mainstream psychology, is a sham, a pseudo‐science based upon outdated positivist philosophy of science and an inappropriate understanding of the social determinants of individual behaviour and of mind. This article argues, firstly, that educational psychology has a certain independence of psychology in general; secondly, that most modem psychology does not rely on positivism; and, thirdly, that whatever the ultimate roots of behaviours and mental phenomena, it is perfectly logical—indeed it is a necessary part of the discipline—for psychologists to concentrate upon studying and working with individuals.     

Content and alignment of state writing standards and assessments as predictors of student writing achievement: an analysis of 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress data

We examined the degree to which content of states’ writing standards and assessments (using measures of content range, frequency, balance, and cognitive complexity) and their alignment were related to student writing achievement on the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), while controlling for student, school, and state characteristics. We found student demographic characteristics had the largest effect on between-state differences in writing performance, followed by state policy-related variables, then state and school covariates. States with writing tests that exhibited greater alignment with the NAEP writing assessment demonstrated significantly higher writing scores. We discuss plausible implications of these findings.     

Self-Directed Learning in Problem-Based Learning and its Relationships with Self-Regulated Learning

This study investigated the role of self-directed learning (SDL) in problem-based learning (PBL) and examined how SDL relates to self-regulated learning (SRL). First, it is explained how SDL is implemented in PBL environments. Similarities between SDL and SRL are highlighted. However, both concepts differ on important aspects. SDL includes an additional premise of giving students a broader role in the selection and evaluation of learning materials. SDL can encompass SRL, but the opposite does not hold. Further, a review of empirical studies on SDL and SRL in PBL was conducted. Results suggested that SDL and SRL are developmental processes, that the “self” aspect is crucial, and that PBL can foster SDL. It is concluded that conceptual clarity of what SDL entails and guidance for both teachers and students can help PBL to bring forth self-directed learners.     

Database choices in endocrine systematic reviews

Objective

The choice of bibliographic database during the systematic review search process has been an ongoing conversation among information specialists. With newer information sources, such as Google Scholar and clinical trials registries, we were interested in which databases were utilized by information specialists and systematic review researchers.

Method

We retrieved 144 systematic reviews and meta-analyses from 4 clinical endocrinology journals and extracted all information sources used during the search processes.

Results

Findings indicate that traditional bibliographic databases are most often used, followed by regional databases, clinical trials registries, and gray literature databases.

Conclusions

This study informs information specialists about additional resources that may be considered during the search process.     

Crying in the first 12 months of life: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cross-country parent-reported data and modeling of the “cry curve”

Crying is an ubiquitous communicative signal in infancy. This meta-analysis synthesizes data on parent-reported infant cry durations from 17 countries and 57 studies until infant age 12 months (N = 7580, 54% female from k = 44; majority White samples, where reported, k = 18), from studies before the end Sept. 2020. Most studies were conducted in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada (k = 32), and at the traditional cry “peak” (age 5–6 weeks), where the pooled estimate for cry and fuss duration was 126 mins (SD = 61), with high heterogeneity. Formal modeling of the meta-analytic data suggests that the duration of crying remains substantial in the first year of life, after an initial decline.     

The Online Studio: Cultures,Perceptions and Questions for the Future

We investigated the impact of the transition to online architectural design studios in response to the COVID-19 pandemic at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The study focussed specifically on student and tutor perceptions of online design studio before the sudden transition to online delivery, and how those perceptions shifted through the initial months of online delivery. We consider the pedagogical context in which the shift to online teaching took place and the evident successes and failures in the early iterations of online studio. We discuss similar and contrasting perceptions in student and tutor groups and observe the changes in these perceptions prior to and after teaching and learning in online studios. The paper concludes with a series of questions directed to the architectural design studio teaching community regarding the apparent inevitability of a future in which both FTF and online-only studios are surpassed with hybrid design studios.