Practical Communication Methods

Television Graphics from Pencil to Pixel by Douglas Merritt (New York: Van Nostrand, 1987—$31.95, ISBN 0-442-26469-0)

Footage 89: North American Film and Video Sources (Prelinger Associates, 430 West 14th St., Room 403, New York, NY 10014— $95.00, paper, ISBN 0-927347-01-6)

Modern Radio Production by Lewis O'Donnell, Philip Benoit, and Carl Hausman (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1990—price not given, ISBN 0-534-11622-1)

Stereo Sound for Television by Francis Rumsey (Stoneham, MA: Focal Press, 1989—$24.95, paper, ISBN 0-240-51288-X)

Directing Television and Film by Alan Armer (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1990—price not given, ISBN 0-534-11616-7)

The Use of Microphones by Alec Nisbett (1989, ISBN 0-240-51291-X, 184 pp)

Continuity in Film and Video by Avril Rowlands (1989, ISBN 0-240-51290-1, 161 pp.)

Basic TV Technology by Robert Hartwig (1990, ISBN 0-240-80051-6, 156 pp.)

The Copy Workshop Workbook by Bruce Bendinger (Copy Workshop, 2144 North Hudson, Chicago 60614—$35.00, paper, ISBN 0-9621415-0-X)

Elements of Newspaper Design by Steven E. Ames (New York: Praeger, 1989—$75.00/$19.95, ISBN 0-275-92330-4 hard, 0-275-92464-5 soft)

The Publicity Process edited by Christine Friesleben Goff (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1989—$19.95, paper, ISBN 0-8138-1316-6)

The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print and Sell Your Own Book by Dan Poynter (Para Publishing, P.O. Box 4232, Santa Barbara, CA 93140—$19.95, paper, ISBN 0-915516-66-7)     

Development and validation of a parasocial interaction measure: The audience‐persona interaction scale

This research attempted to develop a multidimensional measure of parasocial interaction. A 47‐item questionnaire derived from qualitative responses was submitted to principal components analysis ‐ resulting in a 22‐item, four‐factor Audience Persona Interaction (API) Scale. The four sub‐scales were: Identification with Favorite character, Interest in Favorite character, Group Identification/Interaction, and Favorite Character's Problem Solving Ability. In the initial analysis, the index and it's subscales were found to be very reliable and positively correlated to program exposure level. In an additional construct validity test, mild linear relationships were found between PSI ‐as measured by the API Scale ‐ and viewing level.     

Building professionalism and employability skills: embedding employer engagement within first-year computing modules

This paper outlines a means of improving the employability skills of first-year university students through a closely integrated model of employer engagement within computer science modules. The outlined approach illustrates how employability skills, including communication, teamwork and time management skills, can be contextualised in a manner that directly relates to student learning but can still be linked forward into employment. The paper tests the premise that developing employability skills early within the curriculum will result in improved student engagement and learning within later modules. The paper concludes that embedding employer participation within first-year models can help relate a distant notion of employability into something of more immediate relevance in terms of how students can best approach learning. Further, by enhancing employability skills early within the curriculum, it becomes possible to improve academic attainment within later modules.     

Gender differences in introductory undergraduate physics performance: University physics versus college physics in the USA

Efforts to ameliorate gender disparity in pursuit of science careers in the USA have focused on equalizing girls' participation in pre-college science courses and out-of-school activities. Our examination of nearly 1500 US college students at 16 universities found that gender and preparation both have an impact on success in introductory college physics courses. In terminal, algebra-based physics females perform better than their male classmates. However, in calculus based introductory college physics courses, which are prerequisite to advanced study in many fields, women do significantly worse than their male counterparts with the same background. For both genders, taking a high school course that limits coverage and concentrates more time in in-depth study is associated with better performance in college physics. We conclude that efforts to ensure the success of women entering the physical sciences should concentrate on increasing the depth and reducing the vast coverage of most high school physics courses as well as addressing the apparent bias in college courses that mark the first step in careers within scientific research and engineering.     

Children's understanding of substances,Part 2: Explaining chemical change

This is the second part of a paper which focuses on the idea of chemical change (see Johnson 2000). The reported data comes from a study which explored the development of children's concept of a substance (ages 11-14). It examines the use of the ideas of elements, compounds and the bonding between atoms to explain chemical change and the intersection of these ideas with 'basic' particle ideas. Evidence is presented which suggests that the particle ideas were the means by which the pupils came to acknowledge the phenomenon of chemical change, having been unmoved by a macroscopic approach which identified substances by melting and boiling point. Furthermore, a basic particle model in which individual particles still retained the macroscopic properties of the substance was found to inhibit an understanding of chemical change. Findings with respect to a burning candle are reported in a separate section. Important implications for teaching are discussed.     

Children's ideas about ecology 1: theoretical background,design and methodology

Abstract

This paper provides an introduction to a study of the ecological understandings of children aged 5‐16 years in schools in the north of England. Children's ideas about selected ecological concepts were elicited through a series of written tasks and individual interviews set in a range of contexts, referred to here as probes. Responses of about 200 pupils, across the age range, were obtained on each probe. In this paper, issues relating to theoretical background, design and methodology are outlined. Two further papers present the major findings of the study: the first reports children's ideas about the cycling of matter between organisms and between organisms and the abiotic environment (Leach et al. in press a); the second reports children's ideas about the interdependency of organisms in ecosystems (Leach et al. in press b).     

Effects of a Cognitive Acceleration Programme in a Low Socioeconomic High School in Regional Australia

This paper presents research on the effects of a cognitive acceleration intervention in science lessons on low socioeconomic students in a government high school in regional Western Australia. Thinking Science Australia is a programme currently being implemented in Australian junior high school classes. The research was conducted for over two years as a case study in one school with students as they entered high school in Year 8 (n?=?71). Findings show that significant cognitive gains were made, with concomitant improvement in the state-wide testing in science when participating students were in Year 9, aged 13 and 14. Teachers reported changes to the ways they teach and described the challenges in implementing the intervention programme.     

Gender Stereotyping and Affective Attitudes Towards Science in Chinese Secondary School Students

This study explores explicit and implicit gender‐science stereotypes and affective attitudes towards science in a sample of Chinese secondary school students. The results showed that (1) gender‐science stereotyping was more and more apparent as the specialization of science subjects progresses through secondary school, becoming stronger from the 10th grade; girls were more inclined to stereotype than boys while this gender difference decreased with increasing grade; (2) girls tend to have an implicit science‐unpleasant/humanities‐pleasant association from the 8th grade, while boys showed a negative implicit attitude towards science up to the 11th grade. In self‐report, girls preferred humanities to science, while boys preferred science to humanities; (3) implicit affective attitude was closely related to implicit stereotype. In particular, implicit affective attitude has a stronger predictive power on stereotype than the other way around, the result of which may have more significance for girls.