From Data Collectors to Data Producers: Shifting Students’ Relationship to Data

This paper contributes a theoretical framework informed by historical, philosophical and ethnographic studies of science practice to argue that data should be considered to be actively produced, rather than passively collected. We further argue that traditional school science laboratory investigations misconstrue the nature of data and overly constrain student agency in their production. We use our “Data Production” framework to analyze activity of and interviews with high school students who created data using sensors and software in a ninth-grade integrated science class. To understand the opportunities for students to develop act with and perceive agency in data production, we analyze in detail the case of one student as she came to use unfamiliar technologies to produce data for her own personally relevant purposes. We find that her purposes for producing data emerged as she worked, and that resistances to her purposes were opportunities to act with and perceive her own agency, and to see data in new ways. We discuss implications for designing science learning experiences in which students act as agents in producing and using data.     

The natural provenance: ecoliteracy in higher education in Mississippi

Researchers suggest there is an increasing apathy in the study of natural history in academic settings and in the scientific community. However, most studies of environmental knowledge do not address knowledge of local flora and fauna; they are concerned with the knowledge of environmental issues or broad ecological knowledge. Ecoliteracy established local natural history as fundamental to environmental knowledge and seeks to determine the knowledge of local environments and factors associated with that knowledge. This study investigated ecoliteracy in Mississippi, determining knowledge of local flora and fauna of undergraduate and graduate students at the largest universities. Ecoliteracy levels in Mississippi were low. Students had a rudimentary knowledge of local flora and fauna, despite coursework in natural history. Students majoring in wildlife and fisheries and biology had more advanced knowledge of local flora and fauna than non-biology majors. Students were most knowledgeable of reptiles and amphibians, and least of fish and endangered species. The number of environmental courses taken and environmental sensitivity were positively correlated with ecoliteracy, and were strong predictors of ecoliteracy. Ecoliteracy was influenced by coursework and experience with degree programs including fieldwork. Natural history knowledge was deficient at Mississippi universities. Researchers suggest reintroducing coursework focused on ecoliteracy.     

Incorporating technologies into a flexible teaching space

Higher education institutions are increasingly exploring how they can use emerging technologies to develop and enhance the learning experiences offered to students. These activities have mainly focused on developing student‐centred facilities. The University of Warwick has taken the next step by developing a space (the Teaching Grid) specifically designed to meet the needs of teaching staff across the institution. This paper describes how the Teaching Grid supports teachers by providing a flexible experimental space together with a rich collection of established and new technologies, and with comprehensive staff support. We analysed the use of the facility during the first 30 months of operation, using data collected from 119 case studies, in order to present a perspective on how they have used the technologies and how this has impacted on their teaching practice. We present a taxonomy that provides a concrete framework to support future analysis of and comparisons between such spaces.     

Youth,skills development,and work in the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2012: Learning from Asia or for Asia?

The article underlines the historic importance of the treatment of skills development, finally, by the Education for All Global Monitoring Report (GMR) team. Among the many challenges in its analysis are the multiple and overlapping meanings of the word skill, and the consequent difficulties of quantifying and monitoring efforts at skills development. The positioning of skills development within secondary education is a further area of huge diversity and contestation. Beyond this, the claimed relationships between skills and growth require careful teasing out. As important as any, however, are the relations amongst skills, work, and employment (and unemployment) in both the urban and rural informal sectors. The article argues that although GMR 2012 breaks a great deal of new ground in addressing skills development, it ends up being rather a school-based account of skill; very little attention is given to post-school skills development in the further education and training colleges of many societies. Equally, it underplays the impact of the wider macroeconomic environment on skills development. Finally, the article suggests that much can be learned from Asia, as well as for Asia, in this crucial world of skills development.     

The work avoidance goal construct: Examining its structure,antecedents, and consequences

Work avoidance goals have been relatively neglected in the literature with most research focusing on mastery and performance goals. The central aim of this study was to examine the structure, antecedents, and consequences of the work avoidance goal construct. Four studies were conducted. Study 1 investigated the construct validity of work avoidance, while Study 2 focused on its antecedents. Using a longitudinal panel design, Study 3 examined the impact of work avoidance—alongside mastery and performance goals—on engagement and achievement, while Study 4 explored its relationship to broader well-being outcomes. Results showed that work avoidance was distinct from mastery and performance goals. Entity theory of intelligence positively predicted work avoidance goal pursuit, while teacher and peer support buffered against it. Pursuing work avoidance goals was found to be associated with less engagement, lower grades, and greater negative affect. The impact of work avoidance on achievement and well-being outcomes seem to be more salient compared to the oft-examined mastery and performance goals. Implications are discussed.     

Robespierre: High priest of the Jacobins

During the turbulence of the French Revolution, a small foppish provincial lawyer arose to preach a rhetoric of virtue designed to legitimize Jacobin rule. Assuming a Christlike ethos, Maximilien Robespierre inspired a cult that met weekly to read his speeches and sing hymns of praise. The Festival of the Supreme Being marked the climax of Robespierre's reign of virtue.     

Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? The Effect of Race-Related Visual and Verbal Exemplars on Attitudes and Support for Social Policies

The present study experimentally assesses the relative influence of visual and verbal exemplars on news readers’ judgments regarding use of emergency room health care services by undocumented immigrants and uninsured U.S. citizens. Assumptions from exemplification theory and theories of information processing guided the investigation. A series of two studies found that pictures and personal stories have comparable effects on perceptions of and attitudes about the issue. Furthermore, conflicting personal stories and pictures embedded in the same news item nullify each other's effect.     

Political bias in the news coverage of Taiwan's first presidential election: A comparative analysis of broadcast TV and cable TV news

This research examines how TV reported the campaign and the candidates during Taiwan's first‐ever presidential election in 1996.

A content analysis of evening news coverage of six TV stations indicated that the state‐owned broadcast TV stations were far more likely than the privately owned cable TV stations to give a greater amount of coverage and soundbites to the ruling party presidential and vice presidential candidates, using the ruling party officials as principal news sources. The TV Stations’ coverage also contained more news favourable to the ruling party candidates than to other candidates.

The future may well see a turning point in TV election coverage as well as in general news coverage in Taiwan. The three state‐owned broadcast TV stations face competition from privately owned cable TV stations and may soon be confronted with the loss of public trust and audience, unless they can provide fair and balanced news free from government control.     

The Value of Communication Science

In communication science, the distinction between applied and basic research is often accompanied by a discussion of the relative value of each. However, the idea that there is a value distinction to be made between applied and basic research is fundamentally inconsistent with scientific epistemology. Rather than different modes of inquiry with different relative value, communication science is a whole, constituted by applied and basic researchers who focus on different goals of science: to explain, to predict, and to control. An example is provided of a highly successful communication intervention created via the cooperation between applied and basic scholars.