Transactional Presence as a Critical Predictor of Success in Distance Learning

This paper argues that, apart from interactive activities, the perceptions of psychological presence that distance education students hold of their teachers, peer students, and the institution can be significant predictors of their learning. The "perception of presence" in this paper is defined as the degree to which a distance education student senses the availability of, and connectedness with, each party. This form of presence is designated here as "Transactional Presence" (TP). In this study, distance education student learning was assessed in the light of students' perceived learning achievement, satisfaction, and intent-to-persist. An analysis of student survey data indicates that a distance student's sense of institutional TP predicts all the selected measures to do with success in distance learning. While a sense of peer student TP is significantly related to satisfaction and intent-to-persist, the effect of teacher TP is found to relate only to student-perceived learning achievement. Implications of the TP construct are discussed with respect to the theory, research, and practice of distance education, along with recommendations for future research.     

The triarchic theory of intelligence and computer-based inquiry learning

Sternberg's (1985) triarchic theory of human intelligence distinguished among three types of intellectual abilities: analytic, creative, and practical. Our study explored the relationships between student abilities and the cognitive and attitudinal outcomes that resulted from student immersion in a computer-based inquiry environment. In particular, we examined outcome variables related to content understanding, problem solving, and science-related attitudes. Results indicated that more practical abilities predicted greater content understanding and transfer of problem-solving skills. High analytic abilities were predictive of content understanding but not transfer of problem-solving skills. High creative abilities predicted problem solving, but were not predictive of performance on content understanding. In terms of science-related attitudes, students who were dominant in practical abilities had significantly more positive posttest attitudes than those dominant in analytic abilities. The results from this study were used to make recommendations regarding design principles used in the subsequent development of computer-based inquiry environments.     

Fertility, relative wages, and labor market decisions: A case of female teachers

This paper examines the effects of fertility and relative wages on occupational choice (teaching versus non-teaching) and labor force participation decisions of female college graduates using selectivity-corrected panel estimations.We find that the presence of a new born baby is not particularly important to the choice of occupation, but significantly discourages female labor force participation, especially among teachers. Higher relative wages are found to effectively attract female college graduates into teaching. College major in education is one of the most relevant determinants for female college graduates to become teachers. Though investing educational expenditures on teachers’ salary seems to be a valid policy, providing incentives for female college students to major in education will be an alterative way to secure teacher supply.     

Tutoring styles that encourage learner satisfaction,academic engagement,and achievement in an online environment

This study was aimed to find which tutoring styles significantly predict learners’ satisfaction with an e-learning service, academic involvement, and academic achievement. The tutoring styles included subject expert, facilitator, guider, and administrator. In this study, 818 Korean sixth-grade students (ages 11–12 years), enrolled in the e-study program, and completed tutoring style and academic satisfaction evaluation surveys. Students’ login and posting frequency in the e-study program were measured to assess their academic involvement. Academic achievement was computed using completion rates and assessment scores. Multiple regression analyses indicated that there is some association between tutoring styles and academic outcomes. Of the four tutoring styles, facilitating tutoring styles particularly showed strong associations with the three outcome variables. Tutors’ guiding activities as opposed to facilitating were not significant contributors to students’ academic outcomes. The effect of tutors’ facilitating styles in an online learning environment was significant as being found in the existent literature.     

International student networks as transnational social capital: illustrations from Japan

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how social isolation in a non-Anglophone context where English is not the main language of instruction for local students but is for international students, has unintended consequences for social capital formation among the latter. What factors influence international student network formation in such places where linguistic barriers are institutionalised and what are their consequences not only during college but beyond, in shaping students’ career plans? Using qualitative interview data with 67 international (originating from Asian countries) and domestic students in Japanese universities, we find that such institutional barriers negatively promote greater isolation of international students but positively encourage the formation of diverse multinational ties – a process through which international students gain ideas, confidence and direction regarding their post-graduation career plans to work transnationally.     

Empowering infants through responsive and intentional play activities

This qualitative case study explored how an infant teacher provided meaningful learning experiences for infants through play and the teacher’s educational rationale behind these experiences. Findings were based on multiple sources of data, including classroom observations (natural observation and videotaped observation) for approximately 12 weeks and a teacher interview. The findings confirmed that infant play is critical for infant learning and development and portrayed the process through which the infant teacher created play spaces for infants and supported infants’ play through both pre-planned, teacher-directed, intentional activities, and child-initiated, emerging play activities. Our study highlighted that the designing of infant play and the learning process needs to be flexible and based on careful observation and reflection in order to meet the rapidly changing needs and interests of a group of infants as well as individual infants.     

Success at Scale: Outcomes of Community-Based Neurodevelopment Intervention (CASITA) for Children Ages 6–20 months With Risk of Delay in Lima,Peru

This study is a randomized controlled trial of a 12-week community-based group parenting intervention (“CASITA”) in Lima, Peru. CASITA improved neurodevelopment in a pilot study of 60 Peruvian children and subsequently scaled to 3,000 households throughout the district. The objective of this study was to assess intervention effectiveness when implemented at scale. A total of 347 children ages 6–20 months (52.7% male, 100% identified as “mestizo”) at risk for developmental difficulties were randomized to immediate or delayed CASITA. At 3 months after enrollment, the immediate arm showed significantly higher overall development, based on the Extended Ages and Stages Questionnaire and Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment scores (Cohen’s ds = .36 and .31, respectively). Programs demonstrably effective at scale could help address children’s development risks worldwide.     

Urban commoning for Jarip (self-standing) and survival: subcultural activism in “Seoul Inferno”*

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the spatial practice of a subcultural activism of the “young radicals” in Seoul, South Korea through the lens of urban commoning. As a cohort of people born after the 1980s, these young musicians, artists, and cultural activists have endeavored to create, produce, and transform urban spaces through involvement in a series of anti-eviction protests. In particular, this study investigates how and why radical musicians, artists, and their associates have negotiated the chasms among their personal lifestyle, collective subculture, and political activism by pursuing their spatial practices for self-standing and survival over the past 10 years. Although not necessarily place specific, several cases are drawn from a group that relocated to the central area of Seoul since the mid-2010s, making its urban activism a subcultural (and transcultural) formation.