Pathways from parental stimulation of children’s curiosity to high school science course accomplishments and science career interest and skill

Curiosity is fundamental to scientific inquiry and pursuance. Parents are important in encouraging children’s involvement in science. This longitudinal study examined pathways from parental stimulation of children’s curiosity per se to their science acquisition (SA). A latent variable of SA was indicated by the inter-related variables of high school science course accomplishments, career interest, and skill. A conceptual model investigated parental stimulation of children’s curiosity as related to SA via science intrinsic motivation and science achievement. The Fullerton Longitudinal Study provided data spanning school entry through high school (N?=?118). Parental stimulation of curiosity at age 8 years comprised exposing children to new experiences, promoting curiosity, encouraging asking questions, and taking children to a museum. Intrinsic motivation was measured at ages 9, 10, and 13 years, and achievement at ages 9, 10, and 11 years. Structural equation modelling was used for analyses. Controlling for socio-economic status, parental stimulation of curiosity bore positive and significant relations to science intrinsic motivation and achievement, which in turn related to SA. Gender neither related to stimulation of curiosity nor contributed to the model. Findings highlight the importance of parental stimulation of children’s curiosity in facilitating trajectories into science, and relevance to science education is discussed.     

Examining the relationship between perceptions of teaching self-efficacy,school support and teacher and paraeducator burnout in a residential school setting

Despite teacher self-efficacy and burnout’s influence on student outcomes, little research has been conducted on teacher self-efficacy and burnout in residential treatment schools. This study attempts to fill this need by examining the self-efficacy and burnout of teachers and paraeducators in a residential treatment school in the United States. We explore the relationships between educators’ perceptions of school supports and educators’ sense of self-efficacy and burnout Our results revealed that while educators’ perceptions of school supports were not related to educators’ sense of efficacy, there was a significant relationship between educators’ perceptions of school supports and reported levels of burnout. Educators who reported lower levels of school supports had high levels of burnout. We discuss implications for larger studies on this topic and for supporting educator well-being in residential treatment schools.     

Effects of a brief but intensive remedial computer intervention in a sub-sample of kindergartners with early literacy delays

Living Letters is an adaptive game designed to promote children??s combining of how the proper name sounds with their knowledge of how the name looks. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was used to experimentally test whether priming for attending to the sound-symbol relationship in the proper name can reduce the risk for developing reading problems in the first two grades of primary education. A Web-based computer program with more intensive practice than could be offered by teachers affords activities that prompt young children to pay attention to print as an object of investigation. The study focused on a sub-sample of 110 five-year-old Dutch children from 15 schools seriously delayed in code-related knowledge. Outcomes support the need for early remedial computer programs, and demonstrate that, without a brief but intensive treatment, more children from the at-risk group lack the capacity to benefit from beginning reading instruction in the early grades. With an early intervention in kindergarten, children with code-related skills delays gained about half a standard deviation on standardized tests at the end of grade 2.     

Stephen Colbert's Civics Lesson: How Colbert Super PAC Taught Viewers About Campaign Finance

This study tests whether exposure to The Colbert Report influenced knowledge of super PACs and 501(c)(4) groups, and ascertains how having such knowledge influenced viewers' perceptions about the role of money in politics. Our analysis of a national random sample of adults interviewed after the 2012 presidential election found that viewing The Colbert Report both increased peoples' perception of how knowledgeable they were about super PACs and 501(c)(4) groups and increased actual knowledge of campaign finance regulation regarding these independent expenditure groups. Findings suggest that the political satirist was more successful in informing his viewers about super PACs and 501(c)(4) groups than were other types of news media. Viewing The Colbert Report also indirectly influenced how useful his audience perceived money to be in politics.     

The declaration of war in World War I: An instrument for socio‐political enactment

The declaration marking the transition from peace to war gives individuals new roles by redefining correct behavior during a period of hostilities. Five specific naming strategies identified in the declarations of war in World War I are investigated in this essay     

Enactment as rhetorical strategy in the year of living dangerously

In The Year of Living Dangerously, the philosophical position that is argued in the film's content is reflected also in the film's form; i.e., the film is an enactment of the argument it makes. Failure to recognize enactment as a viable rhetorical strategy may have led to a failure to recognize the film's rhetorical force. Further study of enactment and its rhetorical effectiveness are suggested.     

General Communications

MASSCOM: MODULES IN MASS COMMUNICATION, (Chicago: Science Research Associates, 1984—series of seven booklets, price not given, paper)

COMPARATIVE BROADCASTING SYSTEMS, by Richard C. Burke (43 pp.)

MASS MEDIA AND POPULAR CULTURE, by Kathleen J. Turner (38 pp.)

MASS MEDIA HISTORY, by Don Pember (57 pp.)

MASS MEDIA AND FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES, by Loy Singleton (43 pp.)

MASS MEDIA LAW, by William L. Rivers (43 pp.)

MASS MEDIA CAREERS, by Joseph Turow (60 pp.)

WRITING TELEVISION CRITICISM, by Bruce E. Gronbeck (44 pp.)

FUNDAMENTALS OF COPY AND LAYOUT, by Albert C. Book and C. Dennis Schick (Chicago: Crain Books, 1984—$14.95)

THE BENEVOLENT DICTATORS: INTERVIEWS WITH ADVERTISING GREATS, by Bart Cummings (Chicago: Crain Books, 1984—$24.95)     

The Profound Sound of Ernest Hemingway's Typist: Gendered Typewriting as a Solution to the Problems of Communication

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the association between women and typewriters first generated and then ameliorated anxieties over the potential unfaithfulness of the writing technology. Typing techniques designed to minimize miscommunication developed in response to fears of and frustrations with the machine. Gendered typewriting reconciled a perception of the typewriter as a powerful means of expression with the desire for a trustworthy mode of communication. Through an examination of literature and typing tutorials, this article shows gender's regulatory function in the pursuit of clear, reliable, and faithful communication processes, suggesting that gender functions primarily as solution to, rather than as a problem for, communication.