When Talking Differences Makes Us Closer: Communicative Dynamics of Group Salience in Intergroup Contact

Group salience, although a key variable in generalizing contact effects toward the target out-group, often negatively affects the quality of intergroup contact. Countering this pessimistic view, we investigated whether or not communicatively-induced group salience could yield positive contact effects by inducing prosocial intergroup emotions and by increasing relational closeness with the out-group interactant in the context of cross-group friendships. A survey conducted with MTurk participants (N = 331) revealed that communicating group-related topics within intergroup friendships increased prosocial intergroup emotions, which was further predictive of relational closeness and intergroup prejudice. However, relational closeness showed no evidence of mediating the effect of prosocial emotions on intergroup prejudice. The results contribute to intergroup scholarship in expanding the discussion of the influence of communicative dimensions of salience on intergroup relations.     

Learning in the third age: drawing wisdom from reflective stories in community art education

Third-age learning is a subset of lifelong learning enjoyed by individuals in the stage of retirement, and often 60 years or older. Community art education (CAE) for learners in the third age commonly occurs in recreational settings, nursing homes, museums, libraries and places of worship. In addition to these informal learning sites, there are CAE programmes developed within postsecondary institutions that provide opportunities for artistic inquiry and instruction. In the following article, we share a case study involving third-age learners conducted in the 2014/2015 academic year. We begin by briefly describing an innovative CAE programme at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and then discuss a specific initiative undertaken in cooperation with the University’s alumnae extended education programme. Our study explored large questions about motivation, curriculum and pedagogy, but also focused on major themes in lifelong learning and the individual stories of the participants. One participant, named Reto, is featured in this article, and with his collaboration we offer a co-constructed narrative alongside an analysis of themes including personal development and social inclusion. The insights gained through our study have potential broad applicability for the general area of university–community partnerships and for CAE for the growing third-age population.     

Development of Long Live Love+, a school-based online sexual health programme for young adults. An intervention mapping approach

This paper describes the development of a Dutch online programme called Long Live Love+ focusing on positive, coercion-free relationships, contraception use, and the prevention of STIs, using the Intervention Mapping (IM) approach. All six steps of the approach were followed. Step 1 confirmed the need for a sexual health programme targeting young people aged 15 and over enrolled in higher level secondary education. Step 2 resulted in the production of a series of matrices-of-changes, including detailed programme objectives at the behavioural and the psycho-social level. Step 3 involved the selection of relevant methods and applications. Step 4 consisted of programme development, resulting in a sexual health programme with online and offline components, and including interactive exercises. Step 5 focused on adoption and implementation and included the production of a detailed teacher manual. Step 6 involved detailed planning for the process and effect evaluation and included interviews with teachers and focus group discussions with students to evaluate their experiences of the programme. The inclusion of a linkage group – and especially the inclusion of teachers in the development of the programme – turned out to be essential in terms of developing a programme in line with their context and needs.     

Academic Standards,Internationalisation, and the Discursive Construction of "The International Student"

The release in early 2001 of a study of Australian social science academics perceptions of the impact of commercialisation on academic freedom (Kayrooz, Kinnear & Preston, 2001) led to sustained public debate over the issue of academic standards and the internationalisation of higher education in Australia. This debate gave expression to growing disaffection amongst Australian academics with the pressures for increased com mercialisation and entrepreneurialism in their work. In this paper I use the tools provided through the work of Michel Foucault to critically examine the terms of the debate as it was conducted in the public arena. The purpose of this analysis is to explore the ways in which international students were represented in the discourses of academic standards, and the conflation of the alleged decline in academic standards with the internationalisation of higher education, and in particular, with the presence of international students on Australian campuses.     

Starting Points for Lowering the Barrier to Spatial Data Preservation

There is general agreement that spatial data adds particular difficulties to digital preservation due to, for example, the complexity of data models and semantics specific to individual thematic areas. However, there is a lack of literature providing an overview of the challenges and analyzing in particular the effort required to surmount these in combination with the potential added value gained through digital preservation.

The Delphi method was used to evaluate obstacles to archiving geographic vector and raster data serving as a basis for topographic base map creation, seen through the lens of data producers, providers and guardians. Two international Delphi groups were questioned on developments regarding geodata, and their influences on access and preservation.

The mentioned handicaps to preservation were of financial, managerial, legal, and technological in nature. The latter have a higher probability to be surmounted within at least 10 years than non-technological. The study shows that the lack of standardization and the use of proprietary formats is still a central problem. Furthermore, the consciousness about the value of geographic assets is considered most likely to rise early. As a good starting point for improving archiving of spatial data, we also suggest the controlled disposal of superfluous data as a measure to reduce cost.     

The effects of students' academic,financial, and demographic variables on time to the doctorate

The time taken to earn doctorates is of major importance to administrators and faculty. By using stepwise multiple regression techniques, this study predicted time to doctorate from the available demographic, academic, and financial variables and determined the significance of each variable on time to the doctorate. The data for this study came from the National Research Council's Doctorate Records File extract prepared for UCLA. This institution is particularly appropriate for a study of this kind, since it annually awards over 400 doctorates in over 75 different majors. Its doctoral recipients represent the range of academic fields of study. The results of this study indicated that source of support was the most important variable in predicting time to doctorate. Following source of support were postdoctoral plans, number of dependents, sex, and field of study. Together these variables explained a significant amount of variation in the criterion variable.     

Reading comprehension,working memory and higher-level language skills in children with SLI and/or dyslexia

This study examined (1) whether working memory and higher-level languages skills—inferencing and comprehension monitoring—accounted for individual differences among Chinese children in Chinese reading comprehension, after controlling for age, Chinese word reading and oral language skills, and (2) whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) or dyslexia showed deficits in these skills. Eighty-two Cantonese Chinese-speaking children between the age of 7; 8–9; 5 were assessed. Regression analyses on the full sample offered support for the first question. The children were also classified into four groups: Typically-developing (TD; N = 34), specific language impairment-only (SLI-only; N = 18), SLI-dyslexia comorbid (SLI-D; N = 22) and dyslexia-only (D-only; N = 8). Pair-wise comparisons focusing on the second question revealed that both the SLI-only and the D-only group performed worse than the TD group in reading comprehension after controlling for age and nonverbal intelligence. The SLI-only and the D-only group showed a different profile of deficits: only the SLI-only group performed worse than the TD group in working memory, comprehension monitoring, and inferencing. The SLI-D comorbid group did worse than the SLI-only, but not the D-only group, in reading comprehension. The SLI-D comorbid group did not do worse than either single diagnosis group in the higher-level language skills associated with reading comprehension. These findings suggested adopting different intervention approaches for reading comprehension difficulties in children with SLI versus children with dyslexia.