Emotionally Charged: Exploring the Role of Emotion in Online News Information Seeking and Processing

This study examines how news stories framed in terms of discrete emotions (anger, fear, hope) influence online news message processing and information seeking. Results revealed that participants who read the approach emotion stories (anger and especially hope) spent more time on the story page than those who read the avoidant emotion (fear) story. These two emotional frames also differentially affected the information that people selected post-exposure in emotion-consistent ways. Overall, the findings deepen our understanding of the role that the emotional framing of news stories plays in determining how consumers respond to and selectively engage with online news content.     

Pharmacokinetic Models for Active Learning of Differential Equations

Abstract

We present adaptable activities for models of drug movement in the human body – pharmacokinetics – that motivate the learning of ordinary differential equations with an interdisciplinary topic. Specifically, we model aspirin, caffeine, and digoxin. We discuss the pedagogy of guiding students to understand, develop, and analyze models, progressing in complexity to a system of differential equations. We investigate the effects of parameter values that distinguish various health levels, and dosing that may have toxic effects. Our assignments include modeling in a student-centered, active, and increasingly inquiry-oriented setting through which the mathematics and biology inform and reinforce each other. We include supplemental information regarding inquiry methods, student learning outcomes, a student’s commentary about our activities, and support through mathematical communities such as POGIL and SIMIODE.     

Self-defining as sexually abused and adult sexual risk behavior: results from a cross-sectional survey of women attending an STD clinic

Objective

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with increased sexual risk behavior in adulthood, and this association may be mediated by traumagenic dynamics constructs (i.e., traumatic sexualization, trust, guilt, and powerlessness). However, few studies have investigated whether such relationships hold for women who do not identify as having experienced CSA despite meeting objective criteria that CSA occurred. This study sought to determine whether individuals who met research criteria for CSA and who self-defined as sexually abused differed on traumagenic dynamics constructs and current sexual risk behavior from individuals who met research criteria for CSA and who did not self-define as sexually abused.

Methods

Participants were 481 women recruited from a publicly funded STD clinic. Participants completed a computerized survey assessing childhood sexual experiences and adult sexual risk behavior.

Results

Of the total sample, 206 (43%) met research criteria for CSA. Of the women meeting research criteria for CSA, 142 (69%) self-defined as sexually abused. Women who met research criteria for CSA reported more traumatic sexualization, more trust of a partner, more powerlessness, less sexual guilt, more episodes of unprotected sex, more sex partners, and greater likelihood of sex trading, compared to women who did not meet research criteria for CSA. Among women meeting research criteria, those who self-defined as sexually abused did not differ from those who did not self-define on any of the traumagenic dynamics constructs or on current sexual risk behavior, controlling for CSA characteristics.

Conclusions

Individuals who were sexually abused as children by behavioral research criteria are at risk for engaging in sexual risk behavior as adults, regardless of whether or not they perceive the experience to be CSA. Future research is needed to understand how non-definers perceive these childhood sexual experiences.     

Online Education from the Perspective of Community College Students within the Community of Inquiry Paradigm

This article describes a qualitative inquiry that explored the phenomenon of online learning on a community college campus within the paradigm of Community of Inquiry (CoI). The learning experience of 15 community college students taking fully online courses was examined in-depth for evidence of social, cognitive, and instructional domains identified by CoI as critical components for the facilitation of a meaningful learning experience in computer-mediated environments. Findings conveyed suppressed social, cognitive, and teaching presence; and as a result, a meaningful learning experience was not achieved for the participants. Additionally, first-time online learners manifested a unique learning experience that warrants further investigation. Findings from this study raise questions about the pedagogical soundness of fully online courses for community college students. Future research should examine online learning as a distinct pedagogy and focus more intently on the teaching and learning process.     

The Structure of Discourse in Collaborative Learning

The authors examined the types of discourse structures that emerge during peer learning and the ways in which those structures are related to learning. One hundred and five 5th graders learned about writing conclusions that summarized the results of experiments they had conducted with electrical circuits. In groups of 4, they discussed the quality of 3 conclusions. The discourse structure of the discussions could be readily characterized as a network of arguments and counterarguments. The quantitative measures of the quality of those argument structures were positively related to improvement in the students' ability to write their own conclusions. In addition, the students who simply discussed whether the 3 conclusions were OK or not OK generated less complex argument structures than the students who discussed which of the 3 conclusions was best and which was worst. The results demonstrate the importance of considering the structure of peer discourse as a mediator of what students learn from peer interactions.     

Examining Equivalence of Accommodations on a Statewide Elementary-Level Science Test

This study examined the extent to which the underlying factor structure of the 2005 South Carolina Palmetto Achievement Challenge Tests (PACT) in science for grades 3, 4, and 5 was equivalent for students who were administered the test in a regular (standard) or accommodated form. Three accommodation groups were of interest: students who received any testing accommodations, students who received any testing accommodations excluding those for whom setting was the only accommodation provided, and students who received the oral administration accommodation. Each accommodation group was compared to a matched sample of the regular group. It was found that the science test for a given grade level is appropriately described by the factor model for regular and accommodation groups. Results indicated that the factor structure, factor loadings, and error variances of the science test were similar across the regular and accommodation groups.     

The role of subconcussive impacts on sway velocities in Division I men’s lacrosse players

Abstract

Head impacts resulting in a concussion negatively affect the vestibular system, but little is known about the effect of subconcussive impacts on this system. This study’s objective was to determine if subconcussive head impacts sustained over one competitive lacrosse season, effect sway velocity. Healthy Division I male lacrosse players (n = 33; aged 19.52 ± 1.20 years) wore instrumented helmets to track head impact exposures. At the beginning and end of the season the players completed an instrumented Balance Error Scoring System assessment to assess sway velocity. Score differentials were correlated to the head impact exposure data collected via instrumented helmets when averaged within participant. Paired samples t-tests revealed a post-season increase in sway velocity on the double leg stance, firm surface (p = 0.002, d = 0.59); tandem stance, firm surface (p = 0.033, d = 0.39) and double leg, foam surface (p = 0.014, d = 0.45) A significant correlation was found between change in tandem stance, firm surface sway velocities and linear acceleration (p < 0.001, r = 0.65). It appears subconcussive impacts may result in tandem stance balance deficits. Repetitive head impacts may negatively affect sway velocity, even in the absence of a diagnosed concussion injury.     

Developing Progress Files: A case study

This paper reports the development of a progress file, a tool to promote learning, planning and the recording of achievement, for dental therapists in training and professional practice. Progress files are to become obligatory in higher education in the United Kingdom. The aims of the file, its development and the naturalistic approach taken to evaluation are described; the outcomes are analysed. A number of potential challenges posed by progress files for teaching, learning, assessment, curriculum and policy development in the United Kingdom, and for researching these challenges, are highlighted. Issues relating to employment, self-appraisal, lifelong learning and reflection in learning are considered. The desirability of a discipline or professionally-based file, and for acceptance of flexibility in intent, length and usage of such devices is posited.     

Traditional governance structures ‐ current policy pressures: The academic senate and Canadian universities

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to identify current policy pressures in Canadian higher education and explore their implications for academic decision‐making bodies based on data we obtained in our national study on university senates. We describe two inter‐related sets of public policy pressures that have emerged in recent years in Canada including on‐going financial restraint and a renewed interest in university research. We conclude by reviewing a number of important implications for Canadian university governance in the context of contemporary policy pressures.