Teachers’ Perceptions of Professional Incompetence and Barriers to the Dismissal Process

The problem of teacher incompetence is a serious one, affecting large numbers of American public school students. There is a significant discrepancy between estimated rates of incompetent teachers and the number of teachers actually dismissed on grounds of incompetence. This study sought to uncover the perceptions of teachers regarding a definition of professional incompetence, strategies used with incompetent teachers, and barriers to the dismissal process, through the use of a survey with more than 200 elementary school teachers in Virginia and follow-up interviews with seven of these participants. The researcher found that teachers rated classroom behaviors to be the most important factors towards a definition of professional incompetence. The teachers involved also rated the commonness of strategies used with incompetent teachers, placing dismissal among the least common actions taken by administrators, and revealed that they believed union protection, legal and other expenses, and difficulty providing documentation prevented administrators from dismissing incompetent teachers.     

Curiosity, interest and engagement in technology-pervasive learning environments: a new research agenda

This paper identifies the need for developing new ways to study curiosity in the context of today’s pervasive technologies and unprecedented information access. Curiosity is defined in this paper in a way which incorporates the concomitant constructs of interest and engagement. A theoretical model for curiosity, interest and engagement in new media technology-pervasive learning environments is advanced, taking into consideration personal, situational and contextual factors as influencing variables. While the path associated with curiosity, interest, and engagement during learning and research has remained essentially the same, how individuals tackle research and information-seeking tasks and factors which sustain such efforts have changed. Learning modalities for promoting this theoretical model are discussed leading to a series of recommendations for future research. This article offers a multi-lens perspective on curiosity and suggests a multi-method research agenda for validating such a perspective.     

Investigating the quality of interactions and public engagement around scientific papers on Twitter

This study explores science communication on Twitter by investigating a sample of tweets referring to academic papers in five different scientific fields. The specifications of science communicators on Twitter, the characteristics of those who initiate actions (by tweeting), the extent and quality of reactions (retweeting), individual and group interactions, and the distribution of tweets across types of engagement in the process of science communication (i.e., dissemination, consultation, and evaluation) were explored. A broad array of actors is involved in the communication of science on Twitter, with individual citizens and individual researchers playing an important role. In principle, this is promising for creating direct interaction, which can be difficult through more traditional mass media. The vast majority of communication activities regarding academic papers is undigested dissemination with almost no sign of debate, contestation, or collective reflection. Another general finding of this study is that bot accounts play a major role in the science communication landscape on Twitter.     

Setting a Non-Agenda: Effects of a Perceived Lack of Problems in Recent News or Twitter

The mere perception that news has given certain problems more coverage can lead the audience to assume that those problems are more important. Given that the news media, at times, obsesses over relatively trivial matters, and given that the audience is increasingly able to filter media exposure, it is worth asking what happens when audience members perceive that recent media coverage has not emphasized any very important problems. In such cases, audience members might assume that any problems facing the nation must not be particularly important. We explicate this attitude of political complacency, test whether perceived media agendas lacking important problems can influence it, and explore whether complacency helps explain political disengagement. We also explore whether these effects generalize beyond news, to new media gatekeepers such as Twitter. Two experiments tested effects of a perceived absence of important problems in recent news or Twitter content. In the case of news, but not Twitter, this increased complacency in both studies. Study 2 added a no-exposure control and found that effects on complacency were driven by the cueing of nonproblem stories, not by the absence of problem story cues. Both studies validated complacency as a predictor of political disengagement.     

A Symbiosis of Access: Proliferating STEM PhD Training in the U.S. from 1920–2010

Minerva - Over the course of the 20th century, unprecedented growth in scientific discovery was fueled by broad growth in the number of university-based scientists. During this period the American...     

大学生健康教育的现状及对策

随着教育改革的不断深化,高校学生在生活、学习择业等诸多方面的竞争也越来越激烈,从而导致了具有身心疾病的大学生群体不断扩大,其整体健康水平不客乐观.本文就这一问题的现状及形成原因进行分析并提出相应的措施以引起社会各界和广大教育工作者的重视.     

大学生体育与健康教育的现状与对策

采用文献资料法、问卷调查法和数理统计等方法,针对大学生体育与健康教育问题,进行了健康教育知识、健康行为、体育与健康的关系等方面的调查研究,提出了高等院校体育教育中健康教育的必要性及对策与建议.     

我院学生日常活动及膳食调查

为促进高校学生身心健康成长,随机抽取122名学生,对其进行日常活动及膳食情况的调查,结果显示,能量的消耗与摄入处于不平衡状态.对此提出了相应的对策与建议.     

Serious leisure: the sport of target shooting and leisure satisfaction

This study is designed to identify the underlying satisfaction dimensions gained through engagement in target shooting as a serious leisure pastime. The instrument design was based on the Leisure Satisfaction Scale. A total of 5502 useable surveys were collected through the Internet and a website related to target shooting and gun ownership. The results revealed eight dimensions: self-actualization, social interaction, location aesthetic, respite, physical benefit, connection and hedonic pleasure, which supplied the primary satisfiers of engaging in target shooting as a serious leisure activity. The demographic profile and dimensions of satisfaction may serve to dispel commonly held stereotypes of shooting hobbyists and those involved in gun ownership. The findings have important implications for leisure researchers and practitioners, to industry, both leisure and firearm related, and the target shooting community at large. This study adds to the literature of both target shooting and serious leisure.