A Cross-Cultural Test of Implicit Theories of Re-requesting

Extant U.S. research shows that when a persuader’s initial message is rebuffed, the next requesting message will tend to be ruder and more aggressive than the initial appeal. The robustness of these results has rarely been tested cross-culturally. Using conversational constraints theory, we further explicate implicit theories by investigating the perceived importance of constraints of re-requesting styles across two cultural-linguistic groups (i.e., Korean and American English speakers). Consistent with the “rebuff phenomenon,” results revealed that people rated the task constraint (“clarity”) as significantly more important, and the three face-related constraints (“concern for the other’s feelings,” “minimizing imposition,” and “avoiding negative evaluation”) as significantly less important for the second-attempt requesting than for the initial requesting. Some of these tendencies were more pronounced among American English speakers than among Korean speakers.     

Contemporary challenges and changes: principals' leadership practices in Malaysia

This article outlines the findings from a contemporary study of principals' leadership practices in Malaysia as part of the 7 System Leadership Study. Recent policy developments within Malaysia have increased principals' accountability and have underlined the importance of the role of the principals in transforming school performance and student learning outcomes. This article draws upon emerging empirical evidence about principals' leadership practices and highlights some of the challenges associated with the new accountability expectations and demands placed upon principals in Malaysia. It provides a contemporary insight into the way in which principals in Malaysia view their leadership practice. The article proposes that despite the pressure on them to secure better school and student outcomes, principals in Malaysia increasingly view their leadership practices as transformational and distributed.     

Accuracy of Area Model and Number Line Representations of Fractions for Students with Learning Disabilities

Assessment results are used to investigate relations between performance on a fraction number line estimation task and a circular area model estimation task for students with LD in Grades 6–8. Results indicate that students’ abilities to represent fractions on number lines and on circular area models are distinct skills. In addition, accurate fraction magnitude estimation using number lines was more strongly related to other fractions skills (e.g., fraction magnitude comparison) than accurate fraction magnitude estimation using circular area models. Our findings call for greater integration of the number line into early fractions instruction, and highlight the importance of explicitly teaching students to make connections between different visual representations of fractions. Implications for research and practice are presented.     

Beyond Performance: A Motivational Experiences Model of Stereotype Threat

The contributing role of stereotype threat (ST) to learning and performance decrements for stigmatized students in highly evaluative situations has been vastly documented and is now widely known by educators and policy makers. However, recent research illustrates that underrepresented and stigmatized students’ academic and career motivations are influenced by ST more broadly, particularly through influences on achievement orientations, sense of belonging, and intrinsic motivation. Such a focus moves conceptualizations of ST effects in education beyond the influence on a student’s performance, skill level, and feelings of self-efficacy per se to experiencing greater belonging uncertainty and lower interest in stereotyped tasks and domains. These negative experiences are associated with important outcomes such as decreased persistence and domain identification, even among students who are high in achievement motivation. In this vein, we present and review support for the Motivational Experience Model of ST, a self-regulatory model framework for integrating research on ST, achievement goals, sense of belonging, and intrinsic motivation to make predictions for how stigmatized students’ motivational experiences are maintained or disrupted, particularly over long periods of time.     

Structural relationships among self-regulated learning,learning flow,satisfaction, and learning persistence in cyber universities

Learning persistence in a cyber-learning environment is not only an index determining the success or failure of individual learners but also a source of important information to establish the management direction of educational programs in an organization. Accordingly, learners need to be motivated to continue to grow in order to ensure both qualitative improvement and quantitative growth of cyber learning. However, previous research on successful and continuous learning has considered the factors relevant to learning persistence independently from satisfaction and only investigated the correlation and prediction, rather than examining the comprehensive causal relationships. Accordingly, the current study established self-regulated learning as an exogenous variable, and learning flow, satisfaction, and learning persistence as endogenous variables. We investigated the structural causal relationships among these variables by using structural equation model (SEM). We collected data from 594 students in W Cyber University and conducted surveys regarding self-regulated learning, flow, satisfaction, and learning persistence. In the study results, the self-regulated learning ability of cyber-university students directly affected learning flow (β = .420), learning flow directly affected satisfaction, and learning flow (β = .464) and satisfaction (β = .354) directly affected learning persistence. The SEM results showed that learning flow intermediated between self-regulated learning ability and satisfaction and between self-regulated learning ability and learning persistence. In addition, satisfaction intermediated between learning flow and learning persistence. In the concluding remarks, we suggest the necessary strategies for planning and managing a successful learning process for effective cyber education.     

Development of the Educational and Career Interest Scale in Science, Technology, and Mathematics for High School Students

The Educational and Career Interest scale, a self-report instrument measuring high school students’ educational and career interest in STEM, was developed and validated in two studies conducted during 2010 and 2011. Study 1 included data from 92 high school students, in which exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with an initial item pool of 20 items. EFA identified three factors: educational and career interest in science, educational and career interest in technology, and educational and career interest in mathematics. Study 2 utilized data from 658 students to revisit the three-factor model using confirmative factor analysis. The two studies provide strong evidence that the scale is both valid and reliable.     

Which self-presentation style is more effective? A comparison of instructors' self-enhancing and self-effacing styles across the culture

Many studies have investigated how people perceive others' self-presentation styles (such as enhancement and effacement) in forming first impressions and how culture influences the process. Most of those studies have, however, investigated self-presentation styles in the context of informal and intimate interpersonal relations. Few studies have examined the perceptions of self-presentation styles in formal communication contexts such as instruction in classrooms. This study examines how college students from different cultures perceive professors' self-presentation styles in terms of competence and likability with the samples from the Mainland USA, Hawaii, and South Korea. The results from the latent mean analyses showed that professors with self-enhancement were perceived as more competent but less favorable in the Mainland USA and Hawaii, but not in South Korea – self-promoter's paradox was not found, while trade-offs between competence perception and likability seemed to exist. Structural equation models showed that, in explaining the variances of self-presentation perceptions, self-construals were significant variables in the Mainland USA and Hawaii, but not in South Korea. Academic motivations, on the contrary, appeared as significant variables in South Korea only. The implications of the findings are discussed in terms of cultural differences through self-construals in perceiving others' self-presentation styles.     

Cognitive Diagnostic Multistage Testing by Partitioning Hierarchically Structured Attributes

In cognitive diagnostic models (CDMs), a set of fine-grained attributes is required to characterize complex problem solving and provide detailed diagnostic information about an examinee. However, it is challenging to ensure reliable estimation and control computational complexity when The test aims to identify the examinee's attribute profile in a large-scale map of attributes. To address this problem, this study proposes a cognitive diagnostic multistage testing by partitioning hierarchically structured attributes (CD-MST-PH) as a multistage testing for CDM. In CD-MST-PH, multiple testlets can be constructed based on separate attribute groups before testing occurs, which retains the advantages of multistage testing over fully adaptive testing or the on-the-fly approach. Moreover, testlets are offered sequentially and adaptively, thus improving test accuracy and efficiency. An item information measure is proposed to compute the discrimination power of an item for each attribute, and a module assembly method is presented to construct modules anchored at each separate attribute group. Several module selection indices for CD-MST-PH are also proposed by modifying the item selection indices used in cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing. The results of simulation study show that CD-MST-PH can improve test accuracy and efficiency relative to the conventional test without adaptive stages.     

Decentralized sampled-data fuzzy controller design for a VTOL UAV

This study focuses on a sampled-data fuzzy decentralized tracking control problem for a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) under the variable sampling rate condition. To this end, the overall dynamics of the quadrotor is expressed as a decentralized Takagi–Sugeno (T–S) fuzzy model interconnected with each other. Although the proposed decentralized control technique divides the overall UAV control system into attitude and position subsystems, the stability of the entire control system is guaranteed. Besides, in this paper, the model uncertainty, interconnection, and reference trajectory are considered as disturbances acting on the tracking error. To attenuate these disturbances, a novel sampled-data tracking control design technique is derived based on a linear reference model to be tracked and the time-dependent Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF). By doing so, both the stability of the tracking error dynamics and the minimization of tracking performance are guaranteed. Also, the proposed tracking control design method is derived as a linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based optimal problem. Finally, a simulation example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed design methodology.     

An Investigation of the characteristics of classroom

The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of classroom alienated students with the aim of finding means to help them and furthermore to develop preventive measures. Type of personality, level of awareness and area of interest among 7 classroom alienate students were identified through qualitative research methods. Results suggest that classroom alienated students (1) are quiet and passive; (2) are sensitive and defensive; (3) deny that they are alienated at first, but admit later that they are aware of their situation; (4) those with higher levels of awareness tend to have better coping skills; (5) like non-academic activities at school; (6) would like to pursue their careers in the area of arts and sports. Several suggestions will be presented to prevent and solve the issue of classroom alienation in Korea. This study was supported by 1999 Duksung Women’s University This study was supported by 1999 Duksung Women’s University