The Spiral of Violence: Equity of Violent Reprisal in Professional Wrestling and its Dispositional and Motivational Features

Though lacking empirical evidence, professional wrestling has been criticized for portraying excessive violence in harmful contexts. This study focused on the equity of violent reprisal perpetrated by liked versus disliked protagonists with socially sanctioned or unsanctioned motives. Results of a quantitative content analysis show that most violent interaction sequences were over-retributive. Violence that was not part of match competition was routinely initiated for normatively unsanctioned motives and showed predominant patterns of escalating violent retribution. These patterns held across perpetrator disposition. Thus, liked characters regularly aggressed for normatively unacceptable reasons. The consequences of these portrayals are discussed.     

On economic productivity in broadcasting

This is the fifth in a series on the economics of broadcasting written by Kenneth Harwood. Articles on the “ecology” of broadcasters (Vol. 6, No. 3), distribution of payrolls (7:4), “On Earning a Non‐Profit” (11:1), and “On Public Broadcasting for Private Profit” (11:3) already have appeared in the Journal. Dr. Harwood is professor and dean in the School of Communications and Theater of Temple University, chairman of the board of Broadcast Foundation of California, and an active member of numerous professional associations. For a dozen years he served as an officer or director of the APBE.     

The call of conscience,rhetorical interruptions,and the euthanasia controversy

Emmanuel Levinas writes of how the “call of conscience”; is a “primordial discourse”; that “interrupts”; the routines and language‐games that help organize and give meaning to a person's everyday existence. Levinas thus provides a way of thinking about the relationship between the call of conscience and rhetoric that advances what rhetorical theorists have so far claimed about this relationship. This essay develops the position that the call of conscience is a rhetorical interruption in its purest form. A case study is offered to illustrate how such an interruption manifests itself in the debate over the justifiability and social acceptability of physician‐assisted suicide. The specific rhetorical transaction in question occurred in cyberspace and lasted five months; it began when members of a disability civil rights group known as “Not Dead Yet!”; conducted what their opponents described as an “invasion”; of an electronic mailing list operated by the Euthanasia Research and Guidance Organization.     

Transformational School Leadership Effects: A Replication

Most school restructuring initiatives assume significant capacity development on the part of individuals, as well as whole organizations; they also depend on high levels of motivation and commitment to solving the substantial problems associated with the implementation of restructuring initiatives. Transformational approaches to leadership have long been advocated as productive under these conditions, and evidence suggests that transformational practices do contribute to the development of capacity and commitment. Much less evidence is available, however, about whether these socio-psychological effects actually result in organizational change and enhanced organizational outcomes. Survey data from an achieved sample of 1818 teachers and 6490 students from 94 elementary schools in one large district were used to replicate an earlier study of the effects of transformational leadership practices on selected organizational conditions and student engagement with school. Similar in most respects to our earlier study, results demonstrated strong significant effects of such leadership on organizational conditions, and moderate but still significant total effects on student engagement.     

The influence of wait‐time on classroom learning

This study describes a lesson in which students engaged in inquiry in evolutionary biology in order to develop a better understanding of the concepts and reasoning skills necessary to support knowledge claims about changes in the genetic structure of populations, also known as microevolution. This paper describes how a software simulation called EVOLVE can be used to foster discussions about the conceptual knowledge used by advanced secondary or introductory college students when investigating the effects of natural selection on hypothetical populations over time. An experienced professor's use and rationale of a problem-based lesson using the simulation is examined. Examples of student misconceptions and naïve (incomplete) conceptions are described and an analysis of the procedural knowledge for experimenting with the computer model is provided. The results of this case study provide a model of how EVOLVE can be used to engage students in a complex problem-solving experience that encourages student meta-cognitive reflection about their understanding of evolution at the population level. Implications for teaching are provided and ways to improve student learning and problem solving in population genetics are suggested.     

Teacher research as professional development for P–12 educators in the USA[1]

This article reviews selected research related to the professional development impact of school-based teacher research programs for P-12 educators in the USA. Following the presentation of a framework that describes the dimensions of variation in P-12 teacher research in the USA, the article examines the results of several studies of school-based teacher research programs and identifies several conditions under which school-based teacher research becomes a transformative professional development activity for teachers.     

The Influence of Class-Size Variations on Cognitive and Affective Learning of College Freshmen

The influence of class-size variations on cognitive and affective learning was measured by use of a 15-concept semantic differential scale and a teacher-made test. A Non-equivalent Control Group design was employed with two groups of college freshmen (N = 320). After attending a weekly lecture, 160 Ss were divided into eight permanent discussion sections (twenty Ss each) for two weekly meetings. Small-group discussions emphasized critical examination of feelings and their impact on evaluation of personal, social, and professional problems. The remaining 160 Ss (serving as a control) were divided into three conventional classes (fifty-five Ss each) for similar purposes. No significant differences were revealed from an ANOCOVA (analysis of covariance) analysis. Within the limits of this study, it appeared that large-group lectures combined with small-group discussions, were as effective as conventional classes of fifty to sixty Ss.     

Emotional arousal of beginning physics teachers during extended experimental investigations

Teachers often have difficulty implementing inquiry‐based activities, leading to the arousal of negative emotions. In this multicase study of beginning physics teachers in Australia, we were interested in the extent to which their expectations were realized and how their classroom experiences while implementing extended experimental investigations (EEIs) produced emotional states that mediated their teaching practices. Against rhetoric of fear expressed by their senior colleagues, three of the four teachers were surprised by the positive outcomes from their supervision of EEIs for the first time. Two of these teachers experienced high intensity positive emotions in response to their students' success. When student actions/outcomes did not meet their teachers' expectations, frustration, anger, and disappointment were experienced by the teachers, as predicted by a sociological theory of human emotions (Turner, J. H. (2007). Human emotions: A sociological theory. London, England: Routledge). Over the course of the EEI projects, the teachers' practices changed along with their emotional states and their students' achievements. We account for similarities and differences in the teachers' emotional experiences in terms of context, prior experience, and expectations. The findings from this study provide insights into effective supervision practices that can be used to inform new and experienced teachers alike. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50:137–161, 2013     

Why Men Run

The philosophical groundwork of modern (naturalistic) physical education is based on the doctrines of dualism and empiricism—together, empiricistic dualism. Dualism has taught that the intellectual and physical aspects of our experience are qualitatively distinct substances. Empiricism has argued that all knowledge has its origin in, and takes the fundamental form of sensory experience, of experience rooted in bodily sensations. On first inspection, both dualism and empiricism give the impression of promoting a respectful regard for the body and its main expressions, including physical education. They tend to get physical education widely advocated and widely practiced. They do not, however, succeed in promoting a fully humanistic regard for physical education, and they thus prove ultimately unfavorable to its practice. Dualism stands in the way of a balanced interpretation of humanity's intellectual and physical parts; empiricism fails to account for the balanced contributions of reason and sense to human consciousness. The one-sided philosophical basis of modern physical education is therefore opposed to an authentically human practice of physical education and is in the greatest need of reformulation.