Newer is not necessarily better a reexamination of affective learning measurement

The instrument commonly employed in instructional communication to measure affective learning was subjected to tests of its construct validity as a measure of higher‐order affective learning. The results indicate the instrument is a satisfactory instrument for this purpose. Newer measures of higher‐order affective learning were found to be highly associated with the older measure. Teacher evaluation measures were found to be distinct from both the newer and the older affective learning measures. The construct validity of the commonly used affective learning instrument is good.     

A Defense of Publishing Nonsignificant (ns) Results

An argument is advanced for the propositions that a lack of statistically significant findings does not automatically justify rejecting a scientific article for publication or mean that the findings are necessarily uninformative. Systematically declining publication for nonsignificant results leads to negative consequences that include distorting scientific literatures, making hypotheses and theories less falsifiable, depriving meta-analyses of an accurate sample of prior findings, and encouraging questionable research practices. Providing effect sizes and confidence intervals can make findings more informative, regardless of whether the finding is p < .05.     

A rules‐based study of television's role in the construction of social reality

A qualitative analysis of one couple's conversational uses of mediated content is presented. Observations spanned a two‐year period. Data were categorized according to usage type and then examined from Lull's (1981) rules persective.     

Media violence research: Interpreting the findings

The pages which follow are an attempt to stand back and assess what we know about the effects of media violence in an effort to sort into a usable pattern the results of hundreds of reported studies. Timothy P. Meyer is assistant professor of speech in Mass Communications at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; James A. Anderson is associate professor of radio‐television and director of the Broadcast Research Center at Ohio University, Athens.     

A Methodology for Calculating Prestige Ranks of Academic Journals in Communication: A More Inclusive Alternative to Citation Metrics

The problem of how to rank academic journals in the communication field (human interaction, mass communication, speech, and rhetoric) is one of practical importance to scholars, university administrators, and librarians, yet there is no methodology that covers the field's journals comprehensively and objectively. This article reports a new ranking methodology based in empirical criteria. The new system relates independent measures of the prestige of the field's doctoral departments to information about where faculty members from those departments have published scholarly articles. This new approach identifies the field's most influential journals as those that more frequently publish the work of the field's top scholars and programs as perceived by their peers. This system was used to compute prestige weights (P-weights) for 65 communication journals. P-weights were found to be strongly correlated with ISI Web of Science journal impact factor scores and can be used to identify an overall prestige hierarchy for communication journals as well as prestige rankings by subject specialty.     

‘We're Going to Make You Popular': Popular Collections in the Modern Academic Law Library

One way to promote the relevancy of an academic law library is to create a special collection that generates interest in the patron base; a popular collection is a viable way of reinventing a law library's image in the hearts and minds of the law school community. Popular collections have been championed by general academic librarians because they promote reading and literacy, the use of the library as a place, and such collections represent the shift toward a user focused library model. Using data collected from interviews and analysis of collection development policies this article presents models of popular collections currently in use at academic law libraries, as well as considerations for the creation of such collections.     

Teaching thinking: the case for principles

Abstract

This paper reviews the situation with regard to the teaching of thinking skills as part of the taught curriculum. The case is made for direct teaching of cognitive skills both to meet the particular learning difficulties of children with special educational needs and also to enhance the learning and thinking of all children. The dangers of ‘recipe’ approaches to teaching this aspect of the curriculum are discussed and a ‘principles’ approach is advocated. Some principles are then described which may be used to underpin the designing of problem‐solving activities, through which thinking skills can be taught across the curriculum.     

Nothing about us without us! Youth-led solutions to improve high school completion rates

This Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study represents a collaboration with six students from alternative education to inquire about the experiences of vulnerable youth – students in alternative education and youth who have dropped out of school. Utilizing the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique, youth researchers asked their peers what helped and hindered their retention and success in mainstream and alternative education. Youth researchers engaged in authentic participation and took part in the iterative phases of YPAR – critical reflection and social action. Their involvement empowered them to advocate for their peers by disseminating the results and recommendations to key stakeholders within the community. Youth researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 participants. Overall, the findings show that relationships with staff and peers, flexibility, psychosocial and academic supports, and personal circumstances are vital in helping vulnerable students succeed in school. Engagement in YPAR provided insight into working with vulnerable youth in a manner that promotes agency and social change within educational institutions.     

Early years curriculum: funds of knowledge as a conceptual framework for children’s interests

Children’s interests are frequently cited as a source of early‐years curricula. Yet, research has rarely considered the nature of these interests beyond the play‐based environment of early‐childhood education. This paper reports findings from a qualitative, interpretivist study in two early childhood settings in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Using participant observation, interviews, and documentation, the study examined children’s interests and teachers’ engagement with these in curriculum interactions. Evidence suggested children’s interests were stimulated by their ‘intent participation’ in family and community experiences and encapsulated in the notion of ‘funds of knowledge’. The concept of funds of knowledge provides a coherent analytic framework for teachers to recognize children’s interests and extend teachers’ curriculum planning focus beyond that of a child‐centred play‐based learning environment.