Genre systems and “keeping track” in everyday life

Keeping track of what needs to be done and where and when and by whom is a common practice in Canadian households. The documentary tools used to coordinate the work of keeping track in everyday life are the focus of this paper. We consider these documentary tools as belonging to genres. On the basis of four in-depth interviews, observation, and photography, we identify four genres common to all participants: check-ins or status reports, lists, reminders, and calendars. We map examples of these genres to show that they are socially and intertextually connected—in genre systems—with institutions and organizations beyond the home. Archivists have much to gain by applying the concept of genre-as-social-action and using ethnographic methods to study personal records from the creator’s perspective. Such approaches provide insight into the contexts within which personal records are created and used, including the intertextual linkages between personal and institutional recordkeeping.     

Virtual Transgenics: Using a Molecular Biology Simulation to Impact Student Academic Achievement and Attitudes

The transgenic mouse model is useful for studying the causes and potential cures for human genetic diseases. Exposing high school biology students to laboratory experience in developing transgenic animal models is logistically prohibitive. Computer-based simulation, however, offers this potential in addition to advantages of fidelity and reach. This study describes and evaluates a computer-based simulation to train advanced placement high school science students in laboratory protocols, a transgenic mouse model was produced. A simulation module on preparing a gene construct in the molecular biology lab was evaluated using a randomized clinical control design with advanced placement high school biology students in Mercedes, Texas (n?=?44). Pre-post tests assessed procedural and declarative knowledge, time on task, attitudes toward computers for learning and towards science careers. Students who used the simulation increased their procedural and declarative knowledge regarding molecular biology compared to those in the control condition (both p?<?0.005). Significant increases continued to occur with additional use of the simulation (p?<?0.001). Students in the treatment group became more positive toward using computers for learning (p?<?0.001). The simulation did not significantly affect attitudes toward science in general. Computer simulation of complex transgenic protocols have potential to provide a ??virtual?? laboratory experience as an adjunct to conventional educational approaches.     

Motivation and gifted students: Implications of theory and research

An analysis of contemporary motivation theories reveals implications for gifted and talented students. The expectancy‐value framework, intrinsic‐extrinsic motivation theories, goal orientations, self‐efficacy and other self‐perceptions, and attribution theory are described and discussed with respect to implications for the psychology and education of gifted and talented students. Illustrative empirical research on motivation and gifted students is presented, and a model of classroom motivation factors is provided as a practical structure within which to consider instructional practices with this population. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Headteacher visibility and teacher perceptions of headteacher trustworthiness: A comparison of the Ugandan context to existing theory

Students perform better academically in schools with high levels of trust. Yet school leaders primarily responsible for building cultures of trust may not know how to effectively build trust. This research examines how visibility of Ugandan headteachers is related to teachers’ perceptions of headteacher trustworthiness. Using grounded theory, we interviewed 28 Ugandan secondary school teachers in eight schools in Mukono District, Uganda. Findings indicate teachers’ perceptions of headteacher relational trustworthiness were related to headteacher visibility, with perceptions of both relational and competence trustworthiness being moderated by teacher and headteacher personal characteristics. Findings are comparable to U.S.-based research.     

Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Students' Prior Sexual Abuse Victimization

This paper reports findings of an exploratory study surveying 61 students about their prior child sexual abuse victimization. Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) students were surveyed at the beginning and end of a child abuse course and results indicated that 19.7 % of the students reported being sexually abused during childhood. Results also indicated that taking a child abuse course may increase BSW students' self‐awareness regarding prior victimization. The paper discusses how prior child sexual abuse victimization can affect social work students, education, and practice.     

Representing self‐in‐society: education for citizenship and the social‐subjects curriculum in Scotland

The documented social‐subjects curricula for Scottish 5–16 year olds are analysed for representations of ‘self‐in‐society’. Such representations are important in Scotland because it is expected that the new Education‐for‐Citizenship framework will in part be delivered through the social subjects. However, citizenship education is also relevant throughout the UK and beyond and our analysis of the social subjects has wider relevance.

An ideal‐type analysis was used on documents including national guidelines, examination syllabuses, examination papers, and assessor instructions. Our analysis suggests that in these documents: the self is seen as an abstract; people are understood by category; society is the sum of discrete institutions; self‐in‐society is fully defined; and this representation of society is not contested. This representation becomes increasingly exclusive with age/ability and may be linked to assumed modes of curricular division, teaching and assessment. We discuss how this overall picture might affect students’ sense of ‘agency’ in the light of citizenship education. We conclude that the social‐subjects’ curricular representation of self‐in‐society may not fully support the Scottish Education‐for‐Citizenship framework.     

Impulsivity and Academic Cheating

The authors examined the relations between academic cheating and impulsivity in a large sample of adolescents enrolled in high school health education classes. Results indicated that impulsivity predicts academic cheating for students who report extensive involvement in cheating. However, students who engage in extensive cheating are less likely to report cheating when they perceive a mastery goal structure. In addition, both moderate and extensive cheaters report less cheating when they perceive the teacher as being credible.     

PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS' AWARENESS AND EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONS: ASSOCIATIONS WITH PROPOSED STRATEGIES FOR BEHAVIORAL MANAGEMENT IN THE CLASSROOM

This research examined whether prospective teachers’ emotion regulation styles, dispositional empathy, and conceptions of competent student emotion and behavior were predictive of their attitudes about bullying and proposed responses to peer conflict. Overall, participants perceived physical bullying as more serious than verbal and relational bullying. Prospective teachers also expressed higher levels of sympathy for victims and a greater likelihood of intervention in response to physical bullying. Regression analyses demonstrated that valuing emotional competence and the role of teachers in supporting its development were meaningfully associated with expressed support for victims and with proposed responses to the perpetrators of this type of classroom aggression. Interestingly, those respondents who reported higher levels of situationally specific sympathy for victims (and not dispositional empathy) also reported that they would be more likely than their counterparts to intervene on their behalf. The emotional reactivity component of dispositional empathy was, however, positively associated with regulated responses to peer conflict involving a difficult child. The emotion regulation variables, although associated with the outcome measures in correlational analyses, were not unique predictors of prospective teachers’ bullying attitudes.     

Winning at the Publication Game

Prospective authors submitting articles to The Clearing House or other professional journals should realize that publishing success depends, in part, on game strategies. This article by the Executive Editors of TCH identifies ten strategies, based on metaphors from competitive sports, that can help authors win at the publication game.