Exploring connections between environmental learning and behavior through four everyday-life case studies

Decades of research emphasize that information alone rarely influences environmental behavior. We addressed the question of, “what, then, does influence environmental behavior?” by asking more specifically: what factors mediate the relationship between learning about environmentally related issues and engaging in environmentally related behaviors? Following Yin’s case study approach, we designed a California (USA)-based case study focused on four everyday-life activities: purchasing food, commuting, engaging in leisure activities, and interacting with mobile technology. We grounded the study in four propositions that previous sociological, psychological, and learning sciences research suggested might influence learning–behavior connections in complex everyday-life contexts. To address the propositions across the four cases, we conducted 197 short, semi-structured interviews grounded in a narrative, relational frame. Using thematic content analysis, we found support for three of our propositions as mediators of learning–behavior connections; we also uncovered two emergent themes. Our findings suggest a web of elements that affect learning–behavior connections; those elements offer insights for environmentally related programming.     

Caregiving and Developmental Factors Differentiating Young At-Risk Urban Children Showing Resilient versus Stress-Affected Outcomes: A Replication and Extension

This study tested hypotheses from an organizational-developmental model for childhood resilience. In this model resilience reflects a child's mastery of age-salient objectives, in the face of substantial adversity, by drawing on internal and external resources that enhance processes of adaptation specific to each developmental stage. Interviews were conducted with parents of 122 7- to 9-year-old urban children exposed to multiple risk factors, 69 classified as resilient and 53 as maladjusted. Consistent with predictions generated by the model: (1) characteristics of a child's caregiving system and early development differentiated children with resilient and stress-affected adaptations; and (2) variables reflecting emotionally responsive, competent parenting were direct, proximal predictors of resilient status and mediators of other caregiver resources such as education, mental health, and relational history. Identified predictors of resilient status, including competent parenting and caregiver psychosocial resources, largely replicated findings from a prior study with sociodemographically comparable 9- to 12-year-old children.     

Changes in Rural Libraries and Librarianship: A Comparative Survey

This article offers a repeat of a 2000 survey of rural librarians and how they view librarianship, libraries, and the future of both. The purpose of the 2007 survey was to look for changes and ask questions about community partnerships, staffing, and financial information. The researchers found many similarities between the surveys but a number of distinct changes in behavior and attitudes emerged. These included the shift towards viewing the library as more of a service than a repository of materials, increased dissatisfaction with pay and economic issues; an increase in MLS degree holders; and a trend towards the library being viewed as less vital to the community. The 2007 results showed that almost half of rural libraries engage in community partnerships and that the average rural librarian earns less than $12/hour and has an operating budget of less than $30,000. The changes and results are analyzed along with suggestions for future research.     

“I Know You Don't Know I Know…” Children Use Second‐Order False‐Belief Reasoning for Peer Coordination

Numerous studies have investigated children's abilities to attribute mental states, but few have examined their ability to recruit these abilities in social interactions. Here, 6‐year‐olds (N = 104) were tested on whether they can use first‐ and second‐order false‐belief understanding to coordinate with peers. Children adjusted their decisions in a coordination game in response to either their partner's erroneous belief or their partner's erroneous belief about their own belief—a result that contrasts with previous findings on the use of higher order “theory of mind” (TOM) reasoning at this age. Six‐year‐olds are thus able to use their higher order TOM capacities for peer coordination, which marks an important achievement in becoming competent social collaborators.     

Moral disengagement: A new lens with which to examine children’s justifications for lying

ABSTRACT

The development of children’s lie-telling abilities is considered to be a social and cognitive milestone. While occasional lying is developmentally appropriate, the use of frequent, antisocial lies as a maladaptive problem-solving mechanism can indicate behaviour problems. Since lying is often considered a moral transgression, researchers should examine lying from the perspective of moral theory to understand children’s reasons for lying, which may help to understand how chronic lying develops. A theoretical framework, namely the social cognitive process of moral disengagement (MD) could not only provide new insight into children’s justifications for telling common lies, but also atypical, antisocial lies. This paper aims to describe how MD may be applied to explain children’s justifications for lying, especially antisocial lies, and how adults can address MD by modelling the positive consequences of truth-telling, to promote honesty in children.     

Generating connections and learning with SemNet,a tool for constructing knowledge networks

In this paper we examine the impact of using a Macintosh-based knowledge organization toll SemNet, with prospective elementary and middle school teachers enrolled in an upper division biology course. The course models for students the ways in which they will be able to teach hands-on, minds-on science in K-8 classrooms and provides them with an in-depth understanding of a relatively small number of biology topics. This study examines changes in learning habits, metacognitive processes, retention, retrieval, and learring among students enrolled in this course. Students using SemNet tend to exhibit a significant increase in deep processing as measured by self-report. Also on the basis of self-report, SemNet students appear to acquire some cognitive skills that transfer to other courses, such as identifying main ideas and tying ideas together. SemNet students retained and retrieved nearly twice as much information about a topic, the digestive system, as a reference group. Although neither the SemNet nor the reference group exhibited transfer skills as we meansured them, there is evidence that SemNet student changed their thinking strategies.