Teachers' emotions and test feedback

A qualitative methodology, grounded theory, was used to examine the thoughts and emotions of teachers who delivered test feedback to students. The goal of this study was to develop a conceptual model of test-feedback processes that was grounded in observational and interview data. Seven college teachers were interviewed and observed as they planned and conducted testfeedback sessions. During the test-feedback sessions, these teachers experienced a variety of negative emotions when they encountered challenges from students in the classroom. Strategies developed by these teachers reflected their attempts to organize test feedback in ways that were consistent with their goals and beliefs, but that also limited their negative emotions and stress during the feedback session. These findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to existing research on teachers' interactive thought and emotion and on the ways that teachers cope with stress in the classroom.     

PIRUS2: individual article usage statistics — developing a practical,global standard

The most granular level at which COUNTER currently requires reporting of usage is for the individual journal. A number of developments have, however, meant that it is now practical to investigate the development of a COUNTER standard for the recording, reporting, and consolidation of usage statistics at the individual article level. The aim of PIRUS2 (Publisher and Institutional Repository Usage Statistics 2) was to take forward the outcomes of the original PIRUS project and build on its recommendations, by developing a prototype service (including technical, organizational, and economic models) that will enable publishers, repositories, and other organizations to generate and share authoritative, trustworthy usage statistics for the individual articles and other items that they host. The PIRUS2 project was completed in June 2011. This article covers the aims, objectives, outputs and recommendations of the project.     

To See the World or Stay at Home: Applying an Integrated Student Choice Model to Explore the Gender Gap in the Intent to Study Abroad

Although interest in study abroad has grown consistently in recent decades, study abroad professionals and higher education scholars have been unable to explain or rectify the long-standing gender gap in study abroad participation. This study applies an integrated model of the student-choice construct to explore differences between male and female intent to study abroad. Results indicate that, not only can various forms of social and cultural capital predict student decisions about curricular opportunities during college such as study abroad, but gender plays a substantial role in altering the ways in which those forms of capital shape student decisions differently. These findings present a range of implications for researchers interested in better understanding the decision making process of college students as well as study abroad professionals and national policymakers intent on narrowing the gender gap in study abroad participation.