Setting a Non-Agenda: Effects of a Perceived Lack of Problems in Recent News or Twitter

The mere perception that news has given certain problems more coverage can lead the audience to assume that those problems are more important. Given that the news media, at times, obsesses over relatively trivial matters, and given that the audience is increasingly able to filter media exposure, it is worth asking what happens when audience members perceive that recent media coverage has not emphasized any very important problems. In such cases, audience members might assume that any problems facing the nation must not be particularly important. We explicate this attitude of political complacency, test whether perceived media agendas lacking important problems can influence it, and explore whether complacency helps explain political disengagement. We also explore whether these effects generalize beyond news, to new media gatekeepers such as Twitter. Two experiments tested effects of a perceived absence of important problems in recent news or Twitter content. In the case of news, but not Twitter, this increased complacency in both studies. Study 2 added a no-exposure control and found that effects on complacency were driven by the cueing of nonproblem stories, not by the absence of problem story cues. Both studies validated complacency as a predictor of political disengagement.     

Review of The Instructional Design Knowledge Base: Theory,Research, and Practice

The Instructional Design Knowledge Base: Theory, Research, and Practice by Rita C. Richey, James D. Klein, and Monica W. Tracey describes the instructional design knowledge base and further provides a taxonomy to frame the elements and related theories, thus approaching ID from both a practical and scholarly perspective. Geared toward the graduate student or scholar and not for the novice in its extensive explanations and source citations, the text should be required reading for all students of instructional design. Concepts are explained clearly and succinctly with well-organized chapters that provide headings and subheadings with introductions and transitional cues. The historical development and current research of each theory and model is well documented, and the references list alone would serve as a helpful reference for the student of instructional design. Scholars of ID will also find thought-provoking the suggestions for future research at the end of each chapter.     

Difficulty and self-efficacy: An exploratory study

Serious games are becoming increasingly popular due to their association with increased learning outcomes when compared to traditional self-regulated learning activities. However, the majority of research examining the outcomes of serious games has focused almost exclusively on learning outcomes. This has resulted in a lack of research examining why these types of games result in increased positive outcomes, such as engagement or performance. This study seeks to address this gap in existing research by examining the relationship between game difficulty and participants’ engagement, performance and self-efficacy in a Pacman style maze navigation game. This required the use of hidden difficulty variations which participants were randomly assigned. Participants engaged with the game over a 5-days practice period. Results from this study suggest that difficulty plays a considerable role in influencing participants’ self-efficacy for the task. Self-efficacy has been consistently linked to positive outcomes such as increased engagement and performance. This highlights the importance of difficulty as a game design factor as well as providing an insight into the manner in which serious games could be further refined in order to increase user’s self-efficacy and associated positive outcomes. Implications for future serious games and self-efficacy research are discussed.     

The Effects of Self‐ and Peer‐Monitoring in Social Studies Performance of Students with Learning Disabilities and Low Achieving Students

This study employed group randomized trials to investigate the effects of self‐ and peer‐monitoring on the academic vocabulary and content knowledge of students with learning disabilities and low achieving students in social studies. Fourth grade students were randomly assigned to either treatment or control groups on a class level. Results indicated that there was a significant interaction effect between the intervention and students’ pretest scores on academic vocabulary acquisition; the intervention was more effective for students with lower scores in the pretest than those with higher scores. In addition, there was a significant intervention effect on content knowledge acquisition; the effect size of the growth of the treatment group on the content knowledge test was significantly larger than that of the comparison group. Teacher interviews also revealed that teachers viewed the intervention positively. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

How Korean students see scientists: the images of the scientist

This study investigated five different aspects (mental image, physical image, source of the image, 'scientists around us', and 'my favourite scientist') of Korean students' images of the scientists. The data, quantitative and qualitative, from the responses of a total of 1137 students from three different groups (age 11, 13and 15) were analysed to calculate the relative frequencies of some identified patterns of responses and to make comparisons between different genders and different age groups. Korean students generally showed, but to a slightly lesser extent, some stereotypical images of the scientist which were revealed in previous studies. These were influenced more by affective and ethical personal characteristics of the scientist than by their cognitive and gifted abilities. Some noticeable age-related and gender-related differences were also found and discussed.     

EUROPEAN DISSERTATION SUMMARIES

To alleviate teachers’ reluctance toward practical work, there has been much discussion on teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, teaching materials, and failsafe strategies for practical work. Despite these efforts, practical work is still regarded as a challenging task for many elementary science teachers. To understand the complexity of teachers’ conflicts in practical work, this study examines teachers’ ideas about teaching and learning that influence teachers’ decision‐making and action on teaching practical work. More important than knowing technical–rational aspects of practical work is to understand the internal contradictions that teachers have to resolve within themselves regarding their capabilities and beliefs about science teaching and practical work. Using stories and experiences of 38 third‐year university students in a science method course in Korea, we seek to understand the conflicts and negotiations that they experience as they make decisions regarding practical work throughout their course. Reflective writings and group discussions on their lived experiences and concerns were used to probe participants’ ideas on teaching using practical work. From written and verbal data, themes were saturated in terms of the aspects which could (dis)encourage their practice. Results suggest that there are multifactorial challenges in pre‐service teachers’ understandings and concerns in practical work. Besides time, materials, and curriculum, pedagogical assumptions and values also compositely challenge the minds of teachers. As the pre‐service elementary teachers negotiated within themselves the importance of science in classroom and social levels, the question is raised about their identities as pre‐service elementary teachers to appreciate the balance between science teaching and practical work.     

Global convergence or national variation? Examining national patterns of classroom instructional practices

The world culture framework posits a convergence in the organisation of education across the world. On the other hand, scholars observing teaching practices inside classrooms find significant variation among nations and regions of the world. This study examined the global change patterns of classroom practices at the between- and within-country levels, drawing on teacher reports from the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study. Results indicate clear between-country convergence toward more student-centred and conceptual instruction. But a nation’s degree of conformity or resistance to this model was contingent upon other nation-specific factors, including centralised curriculum control or world regional location.     

Repeat Consumption of Media Goods: Examining Factors Affecting Repeat Theatrical Viewing of Movies

This study explored the factors affecting repeat theatrical viewing of movies. Integrating content, social influence, and access/competition variables, the analysis reveals that the drivers of theatrical repeat viewing are different from those for box office performance. For example, the effects of genre, transmedia content, and audience review were significant only for the latter and factors such as movie length, critics’ review, and level of news coverage actually played a negative role in the repeat consumption.