Effects of Autonomy-Supportive Teaching on Student Learning and Motivation

Although autonomy-supportive teaching has been linked with increased student performance, this contention has not yet been explored in an experimental study. This article presents a small, pre/post control group experimental study evaluating the effect of procedural and cognitive autonomy-supportive teaching on student learning and motivation during a 7th-grade reform-based science lesson on motion. In a 2 × 2 factorial design, the 4 treatment conditions featured high and low levels of procedural and cognitive autonomy support. As hypothesized, there was no effect of procedural autonomy support. However, to the authors’ surprise—and in contrast with their hypotheses—students in the low cognitive autonomy-supportive conditions learned significantly more, perceived significantly more choice, and rated instruction as more positive than did students in the high cognitive autonomy-supportive conditions. Results are framed in the context of achieving reform in science teaching.     

Interests in School Subjects and Vocational Preference 1

Sjöberg, L. & Drottz, B.‐M. 1983. Interests in School Subject and Vocational Preference. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 27, 165‐182. A group of Swedish high school students rated their interests in school subject areas. Interests were related to perceived effort, ability as regards grades and vocational preferences as well as to perceived job market prospects in the vocations. It was found that interests could be well accounted for by the logical appeal of the subject areas and, to some extent, by their practical value. Interests were related to perceived ability and to perceived effort in structural model analyses applied to intercorrelations. Vocational preferences were only weakly related to interests in subject areas, though most students stated that their choices were based on ‘interest’. Preferences among vocations were correlated especially with individual job market prospects.

     

Cinema and Choric Connection: Lost in Translation as Sensual Experience

The rise of the new information technologies, and corresponding proliferation of signs, images, and information, has contributed to a growing sense of alienation and dislocation. For many, the contemporary moment is an unending and disorienting sea of sensory-symbolic excesses. Lost in Translation is a film addressed to these anxieties. Engaging the film as a sensual experience, we argue that Lost in Translation equips viewers to confront the feelings of alienation and dislocation brought on by the sensory-symbolic excesses of (post)modernity by fostering a sense of choric connection. This sense, we demonstrate, is elicited primarily by the film's material (nonsymbolic, aesthetic) dimensions. Drawing on an analysis of the film's aesthetic elements, we conclude by reflecting on the implications for film studies, rhetorical studies, and everyday life.     

HOW TO CONDUCT A MUSICAL SERVICE IN THE SUNDAY SCHOOL

The purpose of this column is to keep religious educators abreast of relevant significant research in the general field of psychology. Each section describes a group of findings which have been reported in PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS together with titles of these works so that those who wish may go to the original source. This column is written as a service to religious educators by the Union College Character Research Project. All abstracts are used with permission of the periodical, PSYCHOLOGICAL ABSTRACTS. The abstract numbers are Volume 37, Numbers 1‐5. 1963.     

Meta-Analysis of Meta-Analyses in Communication: Comparing Fixed Effects and Random Effects Analysis Models

Thirty-nine meta-analyses obtained from the past 10 years of communication research (1997–2007) were reanalyzed using fixed effects (FE), random effects (RE), and Hunter and Schmidt (HS) meta-analytic methods. The majority of studies (62%) reported use of the HS model in the original analysis. Differences identified between models include (a) greater propensity for Type 1 error under the FE approach, (b) episodes of inflated effect size (ES) under the RE approach, and (c) high levels of heterogeneity in population ESs across studies. Recommendations are made for scholars to appropriately choose and implement meta-analytic models in future research.     

Burge,Elizabeth et al ed (2011) Flexible pedagogy,flexible practice Athabasca U Press (Edmonton,Canada) isbn 978‐1‐926836‐20‐1 348 pp CDN$34.95 (download free of charge) http://www.aupress.ca/index.php/books/120203

In this excellently edited and stimulating book, targeted at all interested in post‐secondary education, practitioners in the fields of flexible pedagogy and distance education across the globe share and critically reflect on experiences of flexibility grounded in the gritty reality of practice. If the content of this book is likely to be relevant to you, I recommend that you arrange to borrow a copy for a while. Marie Martin     

Longitudinal Relations Among Language Skills,Anger Expression,and Regulatory Strategies in Early Childhood

Researchers have suggested that as children's language skill develops in early childhood, it comes to help children regulate their emotions (Cole, Armstrong, & Pemberton, 2010; Kopp, 1989), but the pathways by which this occurs have not been studied empirically. In a longitudinal study of 120 children from 18 to 48 months of age, associations among child language skill, observed anger expression, and regulatory strategies during a delay task were examined. Toddlers with better language skill, and whose language skill increased more over time, appeared less angry at 48 months and their anger declined more over time. Two regulatory strategies, support seeking and distraction, explained a portion of the variance in the association between language skill and anger expression after toddlerhood.