Motivation and students’ use of learning strategies: Evidence of unidirectional effects in mathematics classrooms

Considerable evidence indicates that student motivation and use of learning strategies are related. There is insufficient understanding, however, about their reciprocal effects—whether motivation affects strategy use, the converse, or whether the effects are bidirectional—and which components of motivation and strategies are involved. A two-wave longitudinal design was used to examine this issue among 9th grade students (N = 306) enrolled in high school mathematics classes during an academic term. A cross-lagged structural model found that students’ self-efficacy in mathematics and value predicted their reported use of learning strategies. There was no evidence, however, that learning strategy use predicted motivation and, thus, support for unidirectional effect of motivation during that time interval. Implications for models of self-regulated learning and instruction are discussed.     

Academic delay of gratification and children's study time allocation as a function of proximity to consequential academic goals

Students (N = 302) in Chinese elementary schools were assessed regarding their academic delay of gratification (ADOG) and reported the time they devoted to non-school study and playtime during an extended interval prior to taking a high-stakes final exam. Students high compared those low in ADOG were more likely to spend time studying and less time playing several weeks prior to the exam. Growth curve analyses verified, however, that this difference diminished as a function of the temporal proximity to the exam, and that the group differences were non-existent just before the exam. Associations between ADOG and students' academic motivation and use of learning strategies replicated those obtained previously with adults in the USA. Results contribute to the general literatures on volition, homework and the dynamics of conflicting goals and action tendencies.     

Classroom and technology-supported help seeking: The need for converging research paradigms

Contributions to this special section represent advances in understanding help seeking as a self-regulated learning strategy that occurs in classrooms, during computer-mediated communications, and when using intelligent systems that provide help to improve learners’ help-seeking skills and knowledge acquisition. Collectively, the research and development contributes information relevant for all phases of the help-seeking process. My comments focus on: (a) features of technology-supported help seeking that have implications for motivation, (b) the need for increased attention to the instructional context in which technology-supported help seeking occurs, (c) a necessary convergence of classroom and technology-supported help-seeking research paradigms, and (d) reconsideration of help seeking as a social-interactive strategy.     

A new age for child protection--General Comment 13: why it is important, how it was constructed, and what it intends?

Children continue to be subjected to high levels of violence (i.e., physical, psychological and sexual maltreatment) throughout the world. International concern about violence against children has increased significantly during the last decade. A Study on Violence Against Children, encouraged by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, conducted under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary General and reported in 2006, has become a rallying call to improve child protection. Child protection practices and systems have been judged to be generally inadequate and, in some cases, destructive. It is widely recognized that business as usual—more of the same—will not do. A General Comment (guide to fulfilling obligations) for Article 19, the central conceptualization of child protection of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, has the potential to promote a worldwide reformulation of child protection priorities, policies, and practices by virtue of the infusion of a child rights approach. It can be a mechanism for framing and promoting the transformational change needed – for a genuine paradigm shift. Here, explication is given for the historical context, rationale, centrality of child rights, process of development, holistic nature, and primary elements of General Comment 13 (GC13): The child's right to freedom from all forms of violence. GC13 embodies and champions a child rights approach to child protection entailing strong support for proactive primary prevention, promotion of good child care, and a commitment to secure the rights and well-being of all children. A child rights-based, comprehensive coordinating framework is recommended for the implementation of GC13.     

The Determinants of Out-Migration Among In-State College Students in the United States

Using national data, this study examined out-migration behavior of college graduates who attended in-state institutions in the United States. Unlike previous studies on the issue of student migration, in which researchers used a single equation approach, the present study employed a multi-level technique to assess the effects of factors from individual, institutional, and state levels on post-graduation migration. The study findings suggest that grant recipients, students who applied to multiple institutions, and college graduates from highly selective institutions are more likely to leave their native states, while Hispanics, college graduates from doctoral institutions, and students who reside in states with higher gross domestic product are more likely to remain in their native states.     

四个范式:欧洲档案学的观念和战略的变化——1840年以来西方档案观念与战略的变化

本报告首先梳理了西方档案理论与档案史,探讨了那些激发档案专业思想、战略及方法的概念,其次又着重阐述了档案鉴定这个由档案工作者从人类文献记录中挑选出很小比例作为档案长久保存的过程。19世纪至今的档案工作者对其工作、职能、活动及社会作用的认识经历了(或者说显示了)四个大的思想框架(或范式),探讨和了解这个背景可以让我们更好地认识和应对我们现在所处的这个数字时代的挑战。     

Do RFIDs (radio frequency identifier devices) provide new ethical dilemmas for librarians and information professionals?

This paper provides an analysis of the current and potential ethical implications of RFID technology for the library and information professions. These issues are analysed as a series of ethical dilemmas, or hard-to-resolve competing ethical obligations, which the librarian has in relationship to information objects, library users and the wider social and political environment or state. A process model of the library is used as a framework for the discussion to illustrate the relationship between the different participants in the library system and it is argued that ethical analysis should involve the identification of future developments as well as current issues. The analysis shows that RFIDs do currently pose some dilemmas for librarians in terms of the conflicts between efficient service, privacy of users and an obligation to protect the safety of society as a whole, and that these are likely to become more problematic as the technology develops. This paper is part 2 of a series of papers on RFIDs and the library and information professions.     

The Rise of Global Publishing and the Fall of the Dream of the Global Book: The Editing of Peter Carey

The article documents the editorial relationship between Peter Carey and his New York based editor for Knopf, Gary Fisketjon, who worked with Carey on his True History of the Kelly Gang. This account provides the basis for a discussion of how globalised publishing, while promising unity—a single text across all territories—has instead introduced a tension into the previously cohesive triad of author, editor, and the single authorized text. As Fisketjon’s experience lays bare, major contemporary texts that are published in multiple editions in different global centers may well proceed through competing or at least parallel editing processes with different presses, different editors, and in different publishing territories. The authorized single edition, even of major literary texts, has been replaced by competing editions. The single edit and editor have been replaced by competing “servant[s] of the writer” (to use Fisketjon’s phrase). Cohesion, while not quite giving way to disunity, gives way to multiplicity and plurality. The experience of the Kelly Gang book is cast against a longer narrative of Carey’s interactions with editors including the University of Queensland Press (UQP) from the 1970s and Faber from the 1980s.     

Nutrition guidelines for strength sports: sprinting, weightlifting, throwing events, and bodybuilding

Strength and power athletes are primarily interested in enhancing power relative to body weight and thus almost all undertake some form of resistance training. While athletes may periodically attempt to promote skeletal muscle hypertrophy, key nutritional issues are broader than those pertinent to hypertrophy and include an appreciation of the sports supplement industry, the strategic timing of nutrient intake to maximize fuelling and recovery objectives, plus achievement of pre-competition body mass requirements. Total energy and macronutrient intakes of strength-power athletes are generally high but intakes tend to be unremarkable when expressed relative to body mass. Greater insight into optimization of dietary intake to achieve nutrition-related goals would be achieved from assessment of nutrient distribution over the day, especially intake before, during, and after exercise. This information is not readily available on strength-power athletes and research is warranted. There is a general void of scientific investigation relating specifically to this unique group of athletes. Until this is resolved, sports nutrition recommendations for strength-power athletes should be directed at the individual athlete, focusing on their specific nutrition-related goals, with an emphasis on the nutritional support of training.