Self-efficacy from the perspective of adolescents with LD and their specialist teachers

This study used qualitative methodology to investigate the self-efficacy beliefs of early adolescents with learning disabilities (LD). We conducted a series of focus group interviews with 28 Grade 8 and 9 students with LD and individual interviews with 7 specialist LD teachers. Content analyses of the student and teacher data resulted in 2 a priori and 3 inductive themes: self-efficacy, calibration and levels of self-efficacy, students' self-awareness, attributions for failure, and problems and solutions. The students viewed themselves as low in self-efficacy and generally accurate in the calibration of their efficacy and performance, whereas the teachers viewed the students as overconfident about academic tasks. In contrast to the teachers, the students viewed verbal persuasion as a valued source of self-efficacy. Students attributed their failures to lack of effort, whereas their teachers attributed student failure to uncontrollable deficits. Problems and solutions related to student motivation were discussed from student and teacher perspectives.     

Validating the Hornik & Woolf approach to choosing media campaign themes: Do promising beliefs predict behavior change in a longitudinal study?

Hornik and Woolf (1999) proposed using cross-sectional survey data to prioritize beliefs to address with communication campaign messages. The empirical component of the approach combines evidence of (1) association of beliefs with intentions and (2) current level of beliefs to calculate a “percentage to gain” as the potential promise of a belief. However, the method relies on cross-sectional data; its conclusions are open to challenge. Here, a panel study assesses whether the calculated promise of a belief actually predicts future behavior change. A nationally representative sample of 3,204 U.S. youth and young adults were interviewed twice, six months apart. Sixteen beliefs about the benefits and costs of smoking cigarettes are compared with regard to their percentage to gain (calculated from cross-sectional data) and their ability to account for subsequent cigarette use. A belief’s cross-sectional percentage to gain is substantially associated with its ability to predict subsequent behavior change (r = .53, p < .05).     

昆明青年环境价值取向与生活方式的调查分析

采用英国研究者在吉尔弗得社会调查中的同一问卷,对昆明市16～25周岁不同工种和学历的青年群体进行了问卷抽样和随机调查。调查集中于3个方面：1．探究昆明地区青年人在环境问题上的行为和意识;2．了解昆明地区青年人的基本生活方式和消费行为;3．分析昆明地区青年人的环境意识与物质主义的生活方式的关系。调查显示：昆明地区的青年人有较好的环境意识,大多数青年人对待环境的行为是友好的,但由于就业的难度,使得青年人在就业与环境保护之间处于两难境地;当所涉及的问题与所谓的“个人经济收入”有关时,青年们对这类问题的回答采取了犹豫的态度;在生活态度上昆明青年没有太强烈的倾向于物质主义的生活方式。     

Promoting student flow and interest in a science learning game: a design-based research study of School Scene Investigators

Educational technology research and development - We report on a design-based research study that was conducted over three iterations. It chronicles the design, development, and implementation of...     

When Changing from Merit Pay to Variable/Bonus Pay: What Do Employees Want?

ABSTRACT This study examines potential responses to a change in an employee reward system from permanent merit pay increases to one‐time bonus payments. Removing long term risks associated with escalating pay is an increasingly common compensation strategy. Often overlooked, however, are employee perceptions of reward fairness under such conditions of change. Receiving lump sum payments in lieu of permanent merit pay increase may de‐motivate employees. There has been little or no research conducted on this topic. In this study, using samples of practicing HR managers and university students, an equity questionnaire gathered data on the perceived equivalence between a permanent merit pay increase and what might be demanded by employees as a single payment in its replacement. An analysis of the data collected indicate an approximate 1:2 ratio is needed, such that a proposed lump‐sum payment of $2400 would be perceived as a fair replacement for a permanent merit pay allocation of $1200 per year. Our research indicates that this 1:2 ratio holds for both high and low job satisfaction levels.     

Deaf Queer world-making: A thick intersectional analysis of the mediated cultural body

Nyle DiMarco, a Deaf, sexually fluid celebrity, helps audiences reimagine ways of being through mediated representations of his cultural body. Within the framework of a critical intercultural communication study and through a thick intersectional approach, we analyze DiMarco’s personae as texts across three TV shows: America’s Next Top Model, Dancing with the Stars, and Difficult People. First, we attend to his moments of sexual fluidity. Next, we attend to his moments of Deaf Gain. Finally, we attend to his character’s denouncing of the hearing homonormative. Through each performance, a Deaf Queer world-making is conjured, offering discursive possibilities beyond the normative.