Seeing Life in their Shoes: Fostering Empathy Toward Victims of Interpersonal Violence through Five Active Learning Activities

As educators of future law enforcement and social service personnel, one of the most important objectives of faculty members within the social sciences disciplines is to foster a sense of empathy toward victims of crime among their students. Empathy toward victims of crime, and domestic abuse in particular, is vastly important as evidence suggests that the reactions survivors encounter upon disclosure influences reporting behavior to law enforcement. Moreover, evidence indicates that by fostering empathy toward domestic abuse survivors among students, social science educators can reduce the endorsement of harmful victim-blaming attitudes that these individuals may otherwise carry with them into their public service. However, despite the importance concerning teaching empathy within the classroom, a dearth of information exists—particularly in the criminal justice pedagogical literature. To address this gap, the objective of this study was to assess several active learning activities designed specifically to foster victim empathy in students. To gather feedback about how these activities affected students, we utilized standard Likert scales as well as several free response questions.     

Photovoice: understanding high school females’ conceptions of mathematics and learning mathematics

Photovoice is a participatory action research tool that is grounded in the literature for critical consciousness (Wang & Burris, 1997). Four creative high school girls who reported struggles with mathematics were given cameras and asked to take photographs to answer the following questions: (1) What is mathematics? (2) What is your ideal learning environment? (3) What things impede your learning of mathematics? Within-case and cross-case analyses of the photographs and interview responses were conducted. Each individual case was analyzed using the work of Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (Women’s Ways of Knowing, 1986) who investigated women’s epistemological perspectives. The girls were either silenced (disconnected from the mathematical knowledge of the teacher), received (lacked confidence to do mathematics independently), or “fragily” subjective (viewed mathematical knowledge as personal rather than imparted by the teacher) knowers of mathematics. The use of photovoice has the power to facilitate the nurturing of silence as it moves toward the “roar which is on the other side of silence” (Belenky et al., 1986, p. 4).     

STUDENT EXPERIENCES WITH MULTICULTURAL AND DIVERSITY EDUCATION

This study of 434 students enrolled at seven southern California community colleges investigated student learning experiences in courses with multicultural and diversity content. Student perceptions of (a) what was learned in courses with multicultural and diversity content, (b) feelings about themselves when learning these types of content, (c) the values learned, (d) the amount of learning achieved, (e) feelings about the teacher, and (f) desire for more courses with multicultural and diversity content were identified. Some research has demonstrated that community colleges are doing very little to provide multicultural educational experiences for students. However, to date, there have been no comprehensive studies of community college students' experiences with multicultural and diversity education. Results of this study indicated that community college students desire courses with multicultural and diversity content. Students' learning experiences are enriched when courses contain these types of content. Although women and members of minority groups are most desirous of multicultural and diversity content, White male students need the experiences. The values taught in these courses seem to enhance the understanding of differences. Although learning about gays and lesbians is problematic for some, students do want to learn more about diversity than what frequently is associated with ''culture.'' Along with multicultural content, information concerning gender, sexual orientation, ageism, classism, and disabilities should be infused into college curricula.     

Assessing physicians' intentions to talk about sex when they vaccinate nine-year-old to 15-year-old girls against HPV

The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine provides physicians with an opportunity to have conversations with girls about sex and sex-related topics. Current research suggests that these conversations are not happening. This study was designed to assess whether physicians would use the HPV vaccination as an opening to communicate with nine-year-old to 15-year-old female patients about sex using the Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework. The study also assessed what sexual health topics physicians were willing to discuss when they vaccinated patients and at what ages they would be willing to discuss each topic. Differences in communication were also examined between older and younger physicians and female and male physicians. A random sample (n = 207) of all family practice and pediatric physicians in a rural, Midwest state in the USA were mailed a survey about the HPV vaccine and their intentions to talk about sex-related topics. Specifically, the survey questions assessed the theoretical constructs: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behaviour control. The results point to physicians' intentions to talk about sex when they vaccinate. Most physicians intended to talk about sexually transmitted infections when they vaccinate against HPV (90.3%). A multivariate linear regression reveals that physicians' intentions to talk about sex are influenced by attitudes (β = 0.18, p < 0.05), subjective norms (β = 0.53, p < 0.001), and perceived behavioural control (β = 0.15, p < 0.05). Physicians intended to talk about a variety of sex-related topics when they vaccinate nine-year-old to 15-year-old girls against HPV. The research indicated that physicians' intentions were high, but do not indicate how well physicians are prepared for this communication with nine-year-old to 15-year-old girls about sex.     

Stereotypical Portrayals of Emotionality in News Photos

This research content analyzed the news photographs of a major U.S. daily newspaper to examine the emotional portrayals of individuals in different gender, age, and ethnic subgroups. A multidimensional measure of emotion (pleasure, arousal, dominance) was used. A total of 1,595 individuals were coded. The results demonstrate that emotionality was stereotyped to some degree, particularly in relation to women, ethnic minorities, and senior citizens. Specifically, African Americans were depicted as excited whereas Asian Americans were seen as calm. Women were portrayed as happy and teens were shown as sad. The results support the social construction of emotion and suggest that the news media play a role in framing and constructing emotional meaning with regard to different subgroups in American society.     

A study of emotional labor in librarianship

Librarianship, like many occupations, requires emotional labor, which is an awareness of job requirements for emotional expression and the strategies used to express those emotions. Research on emotional labor suggests that performing emotional labor results in both positive and negative effects on individual outcomes, such as job satisfaction and job burnout. Since affective events are prevalent in library work and evidence suggests positive outcomes from emotional labor can be fostered, the ways emotional labor is performed in libraries should be studied. This research explores the key components of emotional labor: perceptions of display rules and the emotion regulation strategies of surface and deep acting. Data were collected from a sample of American librarians in 46 states from public, academic, special, and K–12 libraries who completed a survey. Bi-variate and multi-variate correlations, as well as ANOVAs, were used to test relationships among emotional labor constructs, job satisfaction, and job burnout. Results show evidence of significant associations with emotional labor among library employees in both the perception of display rules, as well as in surface and deep acting. Perception of display rules showed mixed results with job burnout and job satisfaction. Surface acting was found to be associated consistently with job burnout and decreased job satisfaction, while deep acting strategies were less strongly associated with negative outcomes. Findings suggest that library managers should clearly communicate display rule expectations to employees and work to build staff support to help meet those expectations. Library employees should be aware of occasions when they use surface acting and work to develop stronger deep acting techniques. The study contributes to an understanding of the influence of emotion management in the library workplace.     

The roles of value predispositions,communication, and third person perception on public support for censorship of films with homosexual content

This study aims to examine the roles of value predispositions, communication, and third person perception on public support for censorship of films with homosexual content in Singapore. Findings from a nationally representative telephone survey of adults showed that the majority of Singaporeans supported stricter censorship of films with homosexual characters. Conformity to norms, intrinsic religiosity, and Asian orientation were positively associated with public support for censorship. Media exposure and perceived negative media effects on self were negatively associated with public support for censorship. Our results supported the perceptual component but not the behavioral component of the third person effect.     

Use of Exam Wrappers to Enhance Students’ Metacognitive Skills in a Large Introductory Food Science and Human Nutrition Course

Research shows that students struggle to develop higher order thinking skills and effective study strategies during the transition from high school to college. Therefore, in addition to teaching course content, effective instructors should assist students in developing metacognitive skills, that is, the practice of thinking about their thinking. An effective assignment that assists students in thinking about their exam performance is the exam wrapper. The objectives of this study were to examine students’ metacognitive skills, evaluate the correlation between study behaviors and student performance, and assess student perception of exam wrappers. Exam wrapper assignments were offered as extra credit after the first 3 exams in a large introductory Food Science and Human Nutrition course, and student responses and exam performance were analyzed. Many students with poor exam performance overestimated their exam scores, indicating students’ self‐assessment skills could be sharpened. However, students demonstrated the ability to make and implement goals to improve study strategies throughout the semester. A modest relationship between use of study strategies and improved exam performance was observed, particularly for students with a B exam average, suggesting that students in the middle of the grade distribution may benefit most from this type of intervention. Finally, most students expressed a belief that exam wrappers helped them improve their study habits and exam scores, and that they planned to use the exam wrapper process in future classes. In summary, this study shows that the exam wrapper is a valued and effective postexam reflection tool for improving students’ self‐reported study habits.