Risks, rules, and roles

Summary Based on ten years of fieldwork with a focus on macro-micro linkages from organizational ethos and structure to language behavior and roleplaying, this report centers on institutional changes that affect cognitive, social, and linguistic development of youth. Argued here is the resilience of those young people who find their way to youth-based (as distinct from youth-serving) organizations during their out-of-school lives. These organizations provide an institutional force to fill the voids left by intergenerational communication and nurturance breakdowns and an absence of meaningful work for youth in community and family life. Part 1 gives an overview of areas of interaction, work, and support that institutions fail to give in post-industrial societies and sets up the framework to view the fact that some youth create an institutional force through youth-based organizations that take over key socialization roles. Here crossage peers become their own agents to create an ecology of learning significantly different from customary agents of transmissive socialization. Part 2 answers the questions of what happens in this ecology of learning, and how learning works in youth-based organizations that place high emphasis on the real work of production and performance. Within these organizations that offer a type of liminal zone between childhood and full entry into adult life, youth take risks, play roles, and set their own rules in order to achieve a group goal of excellence in performance. Part 3 looks at language use within these organizations and addresses the means by which youth-based organizations remain dynamic and responsive to the rapidly changing dimensions of youth needs. Part 4 sets out certain changes necessary in the thinking of adults about models of socialization and their role in helping to make possible learning ecologies young people will see as effective. Part 5 pulls together the macro and micro dimensions of the findings to highlight the importance of research on the ways that rules, roles, and risks play within the work of learning.

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Zusammenfassung Risiken, Regeln und Rollen. Jugendperspektiven zur Lernarbeit in der Gemeindeentwicklung Basierend auf zehn Jahren Feldforslchung mit dem Fokus auf den Makro-Mikro-Zusammenh?ngen zwischen organisationaler Struktur und dazugeh?rigem Ethos einerseits und Sprachverhalten und Rollenspiel andererseits konzentriert sich dieser Beitrag auf den institutionellen Wandel, der sich auf die kognitive, soziale und sprachliche Entwicklung der Jugend auswirkt. Auff?llig ist die Selbstbehauptungskraft derjenigen Jugendlichen, die in ihrer au?erschulischen Freizeit den Weg zu jugendzentrierten Einrichtungen finden. Diese Organisationen vermitteln eine institutionelle Macht, die die Leere der intergenerationellen Kommunikation, der Bildungsabbrüche und der fehlenden Aufgaben für Jugendliche im Familien- und Gemeindeleben füllt. Abschnitt 1 gibt zum einen einen überblick über Interaktionsbereiche, die Arbeit und Unterstützung, die Institutionen der postindustriellen Gesellschaft nicht geben, und zeigt dann auf, welche institutionelle Kraft manche Jugendliche durch Engagement in jugendzentrierten Initiativen entwickeln, denen Schlüsselfunktionen in ihrer Sozialisation zukommen. Hier werden altersgemischte Peergruppen ihre eigenen Interessenvertreter, um eigene Lernumgebungen zu schaffen, die sich signifikant von den herk?mmlichen, auf Stoffvermittlung bestehenden Ans?tzen unterscheiden. Teil 2 beantwortet die Fragen, was in diesen Lernumwelten geschieht und welch wichtigen Platz Lernen in diesen jugendzentrierten Einrichtungen mit ihrer deutlichen Betonung von ernsthafter produktorientierter Arbeit und Darstellung einnehmen. In diesen Projekten mit ihrem Angebot für den Zeitraum zwischen Kindheit und vollst?ndigem Eintritt in das Erwachsenenleben akzeptieren Jugendliche Risiken, spielen Rollen und setzen sich Regeln, um hervorragende Gruppenergebnisse, z. B. bei einer Theateraufführung, zu erreichen. Abschnitt 3 betrachtet die Sprache, die in diesen Organisationen benutzt wird, und benennt die Mittel, mit deren Hilfe jugendzentrierte Einrichtungen dynamisch bleiben und auf die raschen Wechsel der jugendlichen Bedürfnisse antworten. Teil 4 beschreibt einige notwendige ?nderungen im Denken der Erwachsenen hinsichtlich der Sozialisationsmodelle und beschreibt ihre Rolle für die effektive Gestaltung von Lernumgebungen für junge Menschen. Im fünften Abschnitt werden Forschungsergebnisse der Makro- und Mikroebene zusammengefasst, um die Wichtigkeit der Forschung zu unterstreichen, die darüber aufkl?rt, welche Rolle Regeln, Rollen und Risiken in der Lernarbeit spielen.

     

Explicating factual and subjective science knowledge: knowledge as a mediator of news attention and attitudes

Communication scholars have conflicting views on the relationship between exposure to science news and knowledge, and its subsequent influence on attitudes. Such mixed sentiments could arise from the vague definition of knowledge. Therefore, this paper explicates science knowledge into factual knowledge and subjective knowledge. It also compares the mediating roles of both types of knowledge between news attention and public support for science and technology (S&T). A survey of 967 Singaporeans showed that news attention was positively related to both factual and subjective knowledge. The findings revealed a stronger relationship between subjective knowledge and news attention than factual knowledge and news attention. Additionally, factual knowledge was positively related to public support for S&T, but subjective knowledge was negatively related to public support for S&T. The contrasting directions of these associations demonstrate that factual and subjective knowledge are two distinct dimensions of knowledge. Practically, the findings can inform policymakers and communication practitioners about effective public education and engagement initiatives. This study also provided guidelines for newsmakers in news reporting about S&T.     

The Primary School Child's Language of Emotions

Plutchik's theory of emotion states that primary emotions, namely joy, acceptance, anger, fear, sadness, surprise, expectation and disgust, are experienced by all individuals from birth. Literature claims that primary school children (aged 9‐12 years) are capable of verbalising emotions. This research outlines the steps taken to identify a language of emotions which is understood and used by primary school children to express emotional experience. A sample of 444 English‐speaking, white boys and girls aged 9‐12 years was used. As a result, verbal statements were identified as being part of the child's language pertaining to the emotions of joy, anger, fear, sadness and interest. The children showed less agreement about statements expressing disgust, acceptance and surprise.     

CS preexposure: Latent inhibition and Pavlovian conditioning of heart rate and eyeblink responses as a function of sex and CS intensity in rabbits

Male and female rabbits received Pavlovian conditioning in which a 1, 216-Hz tone served as the CS and a 3-mA paraorbital electric shock train served as the US. Eyeblink (EB) and heart rate (HR) CRs were assessed. Half of the animals received prior exposure to the CS, while half were restrained in the chamber for a similar length of time but did not receive prior CS exposure. Different groups of each sex received three different CS intensities including 60, 75, and 90 dB (SPL) during both preexposure and conditioning. The results revealed that latent inhibition of the EB CR occurred only at the intermediate CS intensity, as indicated by a significant impairment of EB conditioning in this group. However, the magnitude of the decelerative HR CR was attenuated by prior CS exposure at all three CS intensities. Females showed faster EB conditioning than males, but latent inhibition occurred in both sexes. These results suggest that somatomotor and autonomic systems are affected differently by prior CS exposure.