The Social Construction and Psychological Assessment of Creativity

The paper underlines the conceptual disunity present in the field of creativity research and introduces a relational concept of creativity of products that stresses the socially defined character of this aspect of creativity. The proposed definition implies that creativity cannot be conceived as an ability of persons, as a characteristic of thinking processes, or as a neuronal function. Referring to the well‐known investment theory of creativity and to the so‐called creativity tests, the paper explicates additional consequences of a socially construed creativity concept and considers the status of empirical research on creativity within a social constructionist framework.     

The importance of design in learning from node-link diagrams

Diagrams organize by location. They give spatial cues for finding and recognizing information and for making inferences. In education, diagrams are often used to help students understand and recall information. This study assessed the influence of perceptual cues on reading behavior and subsequent retention. Eighty-two participants were assigned to one of four versions of a node-link diagram. The diagram consisted of header cells on the left and on top. These header cells organized the information in the body cells, which were connected by arrows. We used a between-subjects design with diagram orientation (header types on top or on the left) and cues orientation (arrows top–down or left–right) as independent variables. Reading process was measured through eye-tracking. Learning performance was assessed with a post test. The results showed that perceptual cues and header content had an additive effect on reading behavior. The reading patterns were strongest when the arrows and category headers both pointed in the same direction. This was reflected in recall. Participants performed better on post-test questions oriented on categories.     

Retrieval practice after multiple context changes,but not long retention intervals,reduces the impact of a final context change on instrumental behavior

Recent evidence from this laboratory suggests that a context switch after operant learning consistently results in a decrement in responding. One way to reduce this decrement is to train the response in multiple contexts. One interpretation of this result, rooted in stimulus sampling theory, is that conditioning of a greater number of common stimulus elements arising from more contexts causes better generalization to new contexts. An alternative explanation is that each change of context causes more effortful retrieval, and practice involving effortful retrieval results in learning that is better able to transfer to new situations. The current experiments were designed to differentiate between these two explanations for the first time in an animal learning and memory task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the detrimental impact of a context change on an instrumental nose-poking response can be reduced by training the response in multiple contexts. Experiment 2 then found that a training procedure which inserted extended retention intervals between successive training sessions did not reduce the detrimental impact of a final context change. This occurred even though the inserted retention intervals had a detrimental impact on responding (and, thus, presumably retrieval) similar to the effect that context switches had in Experiment 1. Together, the results suggest that effortful retrieval practice may not be sufficient to reduce the negative impact of a context change on instrumental behavior. A common elements explanation which supposes that physical and temporal contextual cues do not overlap may account for the findings more readily.     

Exploration of direct and indirect associations of system-level policy-amenable variables with reading literacy performance

As expectations of the economic impact of educational attainment are soaring (Hanushek & Woessmann, 2009 Hanushek E. A., & Woessmann, L. (2009). Do better schools lead to more growth? Cognitive skills, economic outcomes, and causation (NBER Working Paper, No. 14633). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and conjectures about successful national educational reforms (Mourshed, Chijioke, & Barber, 2010 Mourshed, M., Chijioke, C., & Barber, M. (2010). How the world's most improved school systems keep getting better. Retrieved from http://www.mckinsey.com/client_service/social_sector/latest_thinking/worlds_most_improved_schools[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) are welcomed by educational policy-makers in many countries, a careful assessment of the empirical evidence for these kinds of claims is needed. In this article, we present a methodology that was applied to an international data set. A multi-level model of education was used to present a hypothetical scenario, indicated as the “implementation scenario”. The scenario was tested on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 data set by means of multi-level structural equation modelling. Although we find some evidence for direct effects and some support for straightforward implementation, the overall impact of malleable conditions at the system and school level appears disappointingly small. A theoretical strand of literature that would account for “limited malleability” is referred to in discussing these results.     

KILLER AND VICTIM ISSUES: ISSUE COMPETITION IN THE AGENDA-SETTING PROCESS OF GERMAN TELEVISION

The capacity of the mass media to cover issues as well as thecapacity of recipients to be concerned about issues is limited.The coverage on and the concern about new issues will consequentlyremove old issues from the agenda of both the mass media andthe general public. The present study investigates two modelsof this process of issue competition. The equal-displacementmodel assumes that a rise of one issue in the media by a givennumber of stories is matched by an equal fall in all other issuessumming up to a similar number of issues. The restructuringmodel assumes that unexpected, surprising or otherwise newsworthyevents create killer issues that move several other issues completelyoff the agenda and leave others untouched. A content analysisof all news shows of the two major TV stations in Germany and53 weekly surveys regarding 16 different issues covering thewhole year 1986 shows that—within the media agenda—therewere no killer issues affecting the coverage of the TV stations.In the public agenda, however, some killer issues could be identified.Coverage of these issues increased public concern about themand decreased concerns about other issues. Consequences of theseresults for agenda-setting theory and for politics are discussed.     

Nontraditional degree options for nurses: A model program

The Institute for Personal and Career Development of Central Michigan University offers external degree programs for adult learners utilizing nontraditional study. The competency-based programs described in this paper include credit given for the educational background and relevant career-life experiences of registered nurses in Michigan. The curriculum options most often chosen by nurses culminate in a BS degree in Community Development with a concentration either in school health or in public health and a BS degree in Management and Supervision with a concentration in health care administration.