Written feedback: Response certitude and durability

This study tested assumptions of a servocontrol model of test item feedback. High school students responded to multiple-choice items and rated their certainty of correctness in each response. Next, learners either received feedback on the items or responded again to the same test. The same items were tested again after 1 and 8 days, with the order to alternatives randomized for half of the subjects in each feedback group. The results generally supported the control model and suggest that response certitude estimates can be treated as an index of comprehension.     

Bazon Brock's Visitors’ School on Documenta in Kassel: Training for Reception of Contemporary Art

This article analyses the problem of reception and interpretation of contemporary art exhibition in the context of Besucherschule (Visitors’ School) invented by Bazon Brock: German philosopher, art historian and a follower of Theodor Adorno. He implemented this practice for the first time on documenta 4 in Kassel (1968) and organised such schools of reception until documenta 9 (1992). The aim of the Visitors’ School was to explain works of contemporary art on display to the public. Brock understood this process as ‘mediation’ in aesthetic education, arguing that dependence on theory was no less problematic for contemporary art perception than the lack of traditional art form. The main symbolic task of art – ‘claim for reality’, was demonstrated by Brock in two ideas: ‘new image‐war’ and ‘speaking image’.     

Hochschulexpansion, Wandel der Fächerproportionen und Akademikerarbeitslosigkeit in Deutschland

The paper investigates the relationship between the expansion of higher education and the development of unemployment among higher education graduates by discipline using time series data. Our results find that the overall relationship between higher education and the world of labor is a recursive one. The relative weight of some disciplines among graduates, changes according to labor market needs, but this reaction is not immediate and subject to a delay. Other disciplines however develop independently of employment prospects. The rising proportion of graduates within these disciplines leads to pressures for change on the labor market. In both cases our data shows that the employment system absorbs the expansion of higher education graduates. This happens through a diversification of employment positions in order to accommodate the expansion of higher education graduates.     

The sub‐culture of music and ICT in the classroom

In this paper the authors utilise findings from the Economic and Social Research Council‐funded InterActive Education project to present a characterisation of the sub‐culture of school music with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in England. They consider the opportunities and challenges ICT presents to the teaching of primary (ages 4–11) and secondary (ages 11–18) classroom music through an investigation of the perceptions, personal philosophies and pedagogical styles of seven teachers with whom they worked over a period of three years. Their work is underpinned by Goodson and Mangan’s definition of subject sub‐culture and they draw on Shulman’s notion of ‘knowledge bases’ in order to categorise and discuss the data. Through the identification and elaboration of key themes, the authors provide a snapshot of the emerging sub‐culture of music and ICT in schools.     

Predicting Disordered Eating Intentions Among Incoming College Freshman: An Analysis of Social Norms and Body Esteem

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between parental influence, peer norms, body esteem, and disordered eating intentions in a sample of incoming college freshmen women. A total of 427 incoming female college freshmen from a private university in the southeastern United States were surveyed as part of a larger study. Results indicated that body esteem moderated the relationship between parent thinness norms, parent encouragement norms, parent communicative norms, peer acceptability norms, and peer prevalence norms on disordered eating intentions. There was no significant interaction between body esteem and peer thinness norms. These results suggest that efforts to prevent disordered eating among college students should include strategies for changing normative influence, both from parents and peers.     

Developmental changes and individual differences in young children's moral judgments

Developmental trajectories and individual differences in 70 American middle‐income 2½‐ to 4‐year olds’ moral judgments were examined 3 times across 1 year using latent growth modeling. At Wave 1, children distinguished hypothetical moral from conventional transgressions on all criteria, but only older preschoolers did so when rating deserved punishment. Children’s understanding of moral transgressions as wrong independent of authority grew over time. Greater surgency and effortful control were both associated with a better understanding of moral generalizability. Children higher in effortful control also grew more slowly in understanding that moral rules are not alterable and that moral transgressions are wrong independent of rules. Girls demonstrated sharper increases across time than boys in understanding the nonalterability of moral rules.     

Private Higher Education and Economic Development

In Western Europe, especially in Germany, private higher education is generally perceived as an alternative to public higher education for students from relatively affluent families; more broadly, there is a general perception that attending a private higher education institution is correlated to wealth. This perception is influenced by private higher education in the US, which is the world's most visible private system, but also probably the most atypical. In this article, we will analyse the relationship between private higher education attainment and the wealth of nations as reflected by their per capita GDP. We will try to relate the indicators in models that use cross-sectional transnational data as well as time series analysis for four contrasting countries (Chile, Germany, Romania, and the US). We will address two questions: (1) do wealthier nations have a higher percentage of enrolment in private higher education? and (2) does enrolment in private higher education grow with economic growth? Our analysis shows that a simple general relationship between enrolment in private higher education and the wealth of nations does not exist.     

Overcoming Graduate Students' Negative Perceptions of Statistics

Although there has been some attention in the literature to such issues as students' attitudes toward statistics, instructors are still constantly faced with the challenge to engage students; understand their perceptions, motivations, and interests; and deal with their reluctance and negative attitudes toward the field of statistics. The purpose of the present study was to (1) examine students' attitudes toward statistics; (2) identify characteristics of students with the most negative attitudes toward statistics; (3) determine methods of statistics instruction that students most prefer; and (4) present strategies to overcome fears, resistance, anxiety, and negative attitudes and enhance the learning environment. The findings from the study of 195 graduate social work students demonstrate that factors contributing to statistics anxiety include math phobia, lack of relevance to social work, instructor's characteristics, and classroom environment. Among the preferred instructional methods students identified helpful strategies such as instructors' being attentive to students' anxiety, setting a slow course pace, and providing additional tutoring. The study findings suggested three major areas for enhancing statistics learning: (1) fostering environment that is nonthreatening, friendly, and conducive to learning; (2) clarifying statistical concepts in plain terms; and (3) offering practical skills relevant to students' field of specialization.     

Why are written picture naming latencies (not) longer than spoken naming?

The comparison between spoken and handwritten production in picture naming tasks represents an important source of information for building models of cognitive processes involved in writing. Studies using this methodology systematically reported longer latencies for handwritten than for spoken production. To uncover the origin of this difference across modalities, we compared the latencies of spoken picture naming and two written picture naming conditions: one in which the participants could see and monitor their handwriting (visible-condition), and one in which they could not monitor their production (masked-condition). Previously reported differences between spoken and handwritten naming latencies were replicated in the standard visible-condition. By contrast, production latencies were faster in the written masked-condition than in the visible-condition and did not differ from spoken production latencies. These results suggest that longer handwriting latencies, in comparison with speaking latencies, are due to the delayed onset in handwriting in conditions where the sheet is visible. The implications of these results on both written production models and experimental methods are discussed.     

Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Biotechnology of Elementary Education Preservice Teachers: The first Spanish experience

Due to the important impact that biotechnology has on current Western societies, well-informed critical citizens are needed. People prepared to make conscious decisions about aspects of biotechnology that relate to their own lives. Teachers play a central role in all education systems. Thus, the biotechnological literacy of preservice teachers is an important consideration as they will become an influential collective as future teachers of the next generation of children. The attitudes toward science (and biotechnology) that teachers have affect their behavior and influence the way they implement their daily practice of science teaching in school. This study analyzes the attitudes and knowledge of Spanish preservice teachers toward biotechnology. We designed a new survey instrument that was completed by 407 university students who were taking official degree programs in preschool and primary education. Our results point out that although they are aware of biotechnology applications, topics concerning the structure of DNA, management of genetic information inside the cell, genetically modified organism technology and the use of microorganisms as biotechnological tools were not correctly answered. According to our attitude analysis, Spanish preservice teachers could be defined as opponents of genetically modified product acquisition, supporters of biotechnology for medical purposes and highly interested in increasing their knowledge about biotechnology and other scientific advances. Our results show a positive correlation between better knowledge and more positive attitudes toward biotechnology. A Spanish preservice teacher with positive attitudes toward biotechnology tends to be a student with a strong biology background who scored good marks in our knowledge test.