What do second-order judgments tell us about low-performing students’ metacognitive awareness?

According to the unskilled and unaware effect (Kruger and Dunning 1999), low-performing students tend to overestimate their performance. Differentiating the assessment of metacognitive judgments into performance judgments (PJs) and second-order judgments (SOJs), PJs of low-performing students tend to be inflated, while their SOJs are usually lower than those of high-performing students (Händel and Fritzsche 2016; Miller and Geraci 2011). This suggests some level of awareness. The present study investigated whether low-performers’ lower SOJs actually indicate metacognitive awareness. We studied SOJs after adequate and inadequate PJs, and investigated whether low-performers’ lower SOJs are made by default or whether their lower SOJs differ in a similar magnitude compared to those of high-performers (indicating metacognitive awareness). We address this issue by disentangling student and item effects via generalized linear mixed models. Reanalyzing the data of Händel and Fritzsche (2016) from N?=?116 students, we found that SOJs depended on the students who provided the SOJ and on the items on which the SOJ was made. Overall, SOJs depended on the PJs and on the interaction of performance and PJs, but not on the performance itself. Separate analyses for students of different performance levels revealed that low-performing students showed less awareness, indicated by a non-significant interaction effect of performance and PJs. Thus, it takes mixed models to tell the whole story of low-performing students’ lower SOJs.     

Responsible anger management: The long bumpy road

Julia, Darryl, and Shantal are all learning very different ways to deal with angry feelings.Unpleasant feelings are like weeds. They don't go away when we ignore them; they grow wild and take over. (Beattie, 144).Marian Marion is Professor of Human Development and Early Childhood Education, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Menomonie, WI.     

Children’s recall and motivation for an environmental education video with supporting pedagogical materials

This study examined recall (Rcl) differences of high, average and low achieving fifth-grade elementary students (72) for an environmental education video with supporting pedagogical materials. In addition, it assessed the motivational level of all students. Recall assessment was carried out one-week and twenty-weeks after intervention. Main findings suggest comparative Rcl results for all achievers and high motivation for the designed video and pedagogical materials. Implications for future research and for an integrative materials’ design approach are presented.     

Books on Research Methodology

Mary N. Barton and Marion V. Bell's compilation Reference Books: A Brief Guide (Baltimere: Enoch Pratt Free Library, $1.25)

Martha L. Hackman's The Practical Bibliographer (Prentice-Hall, $5.95 cloth, $2.95 paper)

Hubert M. Blalock An Introduction to Social Research (Prentice-Hall, $5.95 cloth, $2.95 paper)     

A survey on the light-fastness properties of organic-based Alaska Native artifacts

A series of light-fastness tests were conducted on a group of ethnographic objects that will be on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution Arctic Studies Center, a recent addition to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center in Alaska. The objects surveyed belong to the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. This work was designed as a feasibility study on the use of a micro-fading tester as a non-contact and non-destructive technique to evaluate the light-stability of materials present in ethnographic collections. A broad range of objects containing a wide variety of materials were selected for the study. The materials investigated included a variety of dyes applied on silk, cotton, and wool substrates along with some unusual materials such as tanned skin and seal gut skin. The results from this investigation have allowed establishing exhibition recommendations taking into consideration the sensitivity of each object, light levels in the museum building, and estimated light exposures based on the duration of the exhibit. The micro-fading tester has proven to be a very useful tool for determining the light-stability of ethnographic materials without causing any harm to the objects. Objects containing equivalent materials are usually classified under a general category based on their probable sensitivity to light. However, micro-fading test results have permitted the detection of dissimilarities among some of these objects, which could be associated to variations in prior fading histories, the quality of raw materials, and different preparation methods.     

Combining Economic and Conjoint Analysis to Determine Optimal Academic Services

In today's era of global competition, organizations must manage their functions and activities in a manner such that they are responsive to customers' needs and can provide excellence in service to the customer while also being efficient and cost conscious. These issues are extremely common in corporate organizations, but such concerns are equally relevant in service industries, including institutions of higher education. This study is conducted at a private, undergraduate institution of higher education. We utilize focus group evaluation and conjoint analysis combined with economic analysis in the form of a newly designed preferred utility economic cost diagram to pick the ideal services that should be provided to enrolled students at the institution. The package of ideal services accounts for preferred utility expressed by students and a new methodology (preferred utility function) to balance these against financial considerations to optimize services and financial gains for a college adult education program. This combination of focus groups and mathematical techniques can be easily employed by educational institutes.     

Mentoring the gifted: a conceptual analysis

Mentoring is considered among the most effective pedagogical measures, yet it is rarely used in gifted education. One of the main reasons for this neglect seems to be the lack of a thorough analysis of its conceptual foundations from the point of view of giftedness research. This contribution starts with a discussion of conceptual and definitional issues pertinent to mentoring gifted individuals. An ideal definition is proposed, followed by a review of the effectiveness of mentoring programs. Existing mentoring programs rarely take full advantage of the educational potential inherent in mentoring. Next, the conditions and characteristics of effective mentoring are analyzed. From a general pedagogical point of view, mentoring should allow full use of the “Learning Triad” of modeling, instruction, and provision of learning opportunities and satisfy the “Big Four” effective learning processes (improvement‐oriented learning, individualization, feedback, practice). Mentoring can promote excellent development of the whole actiotope of a gifted individual.