The incorporation of hands-on tasks in an online course: an analysis of a blended learning environment

This article describes the design and evaluation of a blended online/face-to-face course completed by more than 6000 learners throughout the United States of America and internationally. The educational impact was monitored using a variety of evaluation strategies. The results, in terms of achieved knowledge and overall satisfaction, indicate that a focus on online instruction combined with face-to-face, hands-on activities showed statistically significant improvement in the learners' understanding of the course material, while also validating the impact of the curriculum in their workplace. As illustrated through the blended course design, this study further showed that online learners with greater improvement in their pre- and posttest scores also exhibited significantly greater likelihood in demonstrating competency in several areas during the hands-on portion of the course. In particular, participants working in the information systems field exhibited the highest mean difference score (21.49) on the pre- and the posttests, while those working in the laboratory had the lowest (12.17). Likewise, the odds that participants who reviewed the course contents sought to further understand their job roles was 58.2 times greater for those in information systems, while it was only 19.0 times greater for laboratory staff, than those who did not review their job roles.     

High School Teachers' Use of Data to Inform Instruction

The expectation that teachers will use student achievement data to improve their instruction is a major feature of national and local reform agendas. The theory of action behind data-driven decision making is a mostly causal model of professional action, whereby teachers diagnose weaknesses and implement solutions. The purpose of this article is to examine how high school teachers, situated within their policy and work contexts, use data to inform instructional decisions. Using a framework that draws upon sense-making and co-construction theories on reform implementation, we analyze qualitative data gathered in 4 urban public high schools in the United States. Findings reveal that the process of data use by teachers is complex, multilayered, and influenced by teacher interpretations and social interactions. Teachers used a variety of forms of data to inform their decision making and struggled to reconcile policies promoting data-driven decision making with local beliefs and practices. Implications for research and policy are discussed.     

Preservice teachers' attitudes toward inclusion: Early childhood education and elementary education programs

Abstract

Teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion of children with disabilities play a central role in the successful inclusion of these children into general education classrooms. This study examined possible predictors of preservice teachers’ attitudes toward (1) persons with disabilities, and (2) inclusion of children with disabilities into general education classrooms. Participants were students majoring in early childhood education and elementary education. Preservice teachers’ attitudes toward persons with disabilities and inclusion were explained significantly by their personal relationships with persons who have disabilities and the number of courses related to special education/teaching strategies taken. However, preservice teachers’ experiences working with persons who have disabilities was not a significant predictor. Further, the relations between preservice teachers’ attitudes toward inclusion and personal experience variables were mediated by their attitudes toward persons with disabilities. This study provides evidence that more effective, practical experiences and course content related to children with disabilities, inclusion, and teaching strategies need to be provided in teacher education programs to support successful efforts with inclusion. This study also suggests that teacher education programs should strive to improve students’ attitudes toward inclusion, as well as toward persons with disabilities.     

A comparison of US and Korean students' mathematics skills using a cognitive diagnostic testing method: linkage to instruction

The purposes of the present study were (a) to compare US and Korean 8th graders' mastery of knowledge and skills in the mathematics test of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 using a cognitive diagnostic testing method and (b) to find links between teachers' instruction and students' mastery of mathematics knowledge and skills. The participants included 740 US and 439 Korean 8th graders who took the Booklet 3 mathematics test. The results showed substantial differences between the US and Korean students' performance in problem restructuring and reasoning, measurement, and geometry. The most helpful instructional strategy for both Korean and US students was encouraging students' independent problem solving. Reviewing, re-teaching, and clarifying content were especially effective for the US students. Implications for teaching and learning are discussed.     

A cross-national analysis of the student- and school-level factors affecting the demand for private tutoring

Private tutoring has become a worldwide phenomenon, yet there is little empirical evidence for the main factors leading the demand for private tutoring across nations. Using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study of 2003, this study classified the countries into four different groups according to the proportion of student participation in private tutoring and student achievement. Then, the study explored student- and school-level factors influencing the demand for private tutoring. From the HGLM analysis, the results revealed that the demand for private tutoring in Korea and Taiwan, which have higher participation rates in private tutoring and high-school-quality levels, is mostly explained by student-level variables (educational aspirations, instrumental motivation, self-confidence, and father’s education) and school context variables (the community size and school SES). Meanwhile, the demand for private tutoring in the Philippines and Romania, both of which have high incidences of private tutoring and low-school-quality levels, varies widely among schools, and many of the school process variables (e.g., the use of remedial classes, amount of school homework, frequency of tests, and the use of grouping by ability) account for the relationships with private tutoring.     

The Impact of Media Use and Cultural Exposure on the Mutual Perception of Koreans and Japanese1 The present research has been conducted by the Research Grant of Kwangwoon University in 2004

This study examines how the use of a foreign country's media and culture influences perceptions of that country. A total of 315 Korean and 290 Japanese college students were surveyed in 2002 to facilitate the author's analysis of the flow of cultural products between Korea and Japan and the impact of their use. Between countries cultural products flow in one direction because of differences in market size and cultural competitiveness. This paper aims to reconfirm the asymmetric flow of cultural products between Korea and Japan. Its results reveal that Korean college students spend 25.40% of their media usage time consuming Japanese media products, whereas only 1.79% of Japanese students devote any time at all to Korean products. Next, studying both domestic and foreign media use, the author examined the effects of asymmetric cultural consumption on how Koreans and the Japanese perceive each other. Perception of a country is described in terms of three variables: cultural affinity, product purchase intention, and preference for the country. Use levels of foreign media, cultural exposure to the foreign country, and social demographics were hypothesized to influence these variables. Traveling experience to the counterpart country and preference for that country's food were measured to represent cultural exposure. Gender was a significant variable influencing cross-cultural perception. For Japanese students, first-hand exposure to Korean culture affected their perception of Korea significantly, whereas Korean students were more strongly affected by media use. Interestingly, Korean students’ domestic media use negatively affected their cultural proximity to Japan, while Japanese students’ domestic media use positively affected their intentions to purchase Korean products.     

Relationships among attitudes and subjective norms: Testing the theory of reasoned action across cultures

This study investigates the relationship between attitudes toward a behavior and subjective norms in the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). Unique to this research, attitudes toward a behavior are divided into social and personal attitudes in order to test an explanation for the moderate to high correlation between attitudes and subjective norms reported in previous research. As expected, only social attitudes toward a behavior are significantly related to subjective norms. The finding indicates that the overlap between attitudes and subjective norms in TRA research occurs when the attitudes studied are social in nature. Additionally, members of a collectivistic culture tend to score higher on subjective norms and social attitudes, but the high score on subjective norms and social attitudes does not necessarily contribute to predicting behavioral intention. It is suggested that cross‐cultural differences on the absolute strengths of attitudes and subjective norms may not translate to the differences in the relative weights of the two components in predicting behavioral intention.     

The Influence of Friends' Instant Messenger Status on Individuals' Coping and Support-Seeking

Although there is an increasing amount of research on social support in cyberspace, little is known about how Internet technologies influence social support among people who share offline personal relationships. The current study examined how friends' instant messenger (IM) status might influence individuals' coping and support-seeking, and what mechanisms could account for those effects. Four hundred and ninety-four college students read and responded to a hypothetical scenario in which they logged onto IM after experiencing a stressful situation. Participants perceived higher levels of self-efficacy, greater stress decrease, and greater likelihood of seeking support from a friend when the friend was said to be online than offline. Perceived social presence mediated the influence of a friend's online status on participants' coping and likelihood of seeking support from the friend.     

3. HISTORY

TIJUANA BIBLES: ART AND WIT IN AMERICA'S FORBIDDEN FUNNIES, 1930s‐1950s edited by Bob Adelman (New York: Simon &; Schuster, 1997—124.00, ISBN 0–684–83461–8, 160 pp.)

HOGARTH AND HIS TIMES: SERIOUS COMEDY by David Bindman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997—$45.00/29.95, ISBN 0–520–21299–1 hard, 0–520–21300–9 paper, 208 pp., photos)

FOR THE LOVE OF PRAGUE by Gene Deitch (Prague: Peter Lemkin, 1997— $20.00, ISBN 80–7205–467–8)

ART IN MOTION: ANIMATION AESTHETICS by Maureen Furniss (Sydney: John Libbey, 1998—$24.95, ISBN 1–86462–038–2)

GEORGE GROSZ: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by George Grosz, translated by Nora Hodges (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998—$17.95, paper, ISBN 0–520–21327–0)

CARTOONING AND COMIC ART IN SOUTHEAST ASIA edited by John Lent (Singapore: Times Academic Press, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science, 25:1, special issue [1997]—$26.50, ISSN 0303–8246, ISBN 981–210–111‐X, 166 pp., illustrations, references)

COMIC ART IN ASIA: HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND POLITICAL ROOTS edited by John Lent (Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters, Asian Pacific Communication, 7:1–2, special issue [1996]—$16.00, ISSN 0957–6851, 86 pp., illustrations, references)

SEAL OF APPROVAL: THE HISTORY OF THE COMICS CODE by Amy Kiste Nyberg (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi “Studies in Popular Culture,”; 1998—$45.00/18.00, ISBN 0–87805–974–1 hard, 0–87805–975‐X paper, 208 pp.)

CELEBRITY CARICATURE IN AMERICA by Wendy Wick Reaves (Washington and New Haven: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in association with Yale University Press, 1998—$45.00, ISBN 0–300–07463–8, 306 pp.)

READING THE RABBIT: EXPLORATIONS IN WARNER BROS. ANIMATION edited by Kevin S. Sandier (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998—$49.00/19.00, ISBN 0–8135–2537–3 hard, 0–8135–2538–1 paper, 271 pp.)

EDITORIAL CARTOONING AND CARICATURE: A REFERENCE GUIDE by Paul P. Somers, Jr. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998— $69.50, ISBN 0–313–22150–2, 205 pp.)