Channel One Revisited: Prospective Teachers and the Role of American Higher Education

This study examined perceptions of college of education students and their experiences with Channel One, a privately-owned news service used in public education. Given that about one-third of middle and high schoolers in the US view the broadcast every school day, the authors surveyed 172 freshmen to discern their views and attitudes toward Channel One programming and commercials and the role colleges and universities might play in relation to this media service. While most studies on Channel One have been conducted from a K-12 point of view, the goal of this study was to reconsider the topic from the perspective of prospective teachers and post-secondary education. A. J. Angulo  is Assistant Professor of Social Foundations, Winthrop University. He received an Ed.D. and Ed.M. from Harvard University. His research interests include history of education, technology and education, and student rights. Susan K. Green  is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, Winthrop University. She received a Ph.D. in social psychology from Loyola University, Chicago and a Ph.D. in educational psychology and research from the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Her interests include classroom assessment, motivational and instructional strategies to promote learning, and multicultural issues in education.     

The developmental relation between cognitive stage and the comprehension of speaker uncertainty.

3 hypotheses were tested concerning the developmental relation between children's concepts of physical uncertainty and their comprehension of a speaker's uncertainty. 2 cognitive tasks of physical uncertainty were used to assign 56 subjects (aged 5-4 to 17-11) to 1 of 3 cognitive stages. 2 tests for comprehension of speaker uncertainty were administered to all participants. The results indicated that cognitive stage was related to (a) comprehension that a speaker could be uncertain, (b) comprehension that uncertainty could be expressed in different degrees or magnitudes, and (c) the internal consistency of judgments made about the relative degree of uncertainty conveyed by an utterance. These findings are interpreted as evidence for the position that development of cognitive stages is structurally related to comprehension of speech act uncertainty.     

Young Travellers and the Children's Fund: some practical notes on an experimental image-based research project

The paper reflects on how photography was used during a small piece of mixed methods qualitative research with some young Travellers and their families. The context for the study was 'Every Child Matters' and the accompanying push aimed to include groups considered as marginalised, such as young Travellers, in mainstream educational provision, as well as to listen to children and involve them in decision-making about service provision and its evaluation. Photography was used experimentally as a kind of participatory methodology to engage young Travellers in the formative evaluation of a Children's Fund project that aimed to increase their participation in formal and informal learning activities. The account discusses some of the outcomes of using the image-based methodology, as well as some of the limitations and dilemmas that emerged.     

The Folk High School: A Contemporary Educational Pathway for Swedish Parliamentarians?

The aim of this study is to explore the contemporary role of the folk high school as an educational pathway for Swedish MPs. Statistics from the folk high school register at Statistics Sweden are analysed. In summary, there are still quite a large number of former folk high school participants in the Swedish parliament (27%, 2014). The MPs’ folk high school participation mainly took the form of short courses. Over time, the folk high schools have increasingly come to be used by members of parties on the left of the political spectrum. The folk high schools are commonly used as meeting places during the MPs’ political career, and thus not only as an educational pathway to power, as emphasised in earlier research.     

Learning science through writing: associations with prior conceptions of writing and perceptions of a writing program

Students in a large undergraduate biology course were expected to write a scientific report as a key part of their course design. This study investigates the quality of learning arising from the writing experience and how it relates to the quality of students’ preconceptions of learning through writing and their perceptions of their writing program that led to their report. Closed‐ended questionnaires investigating student conceptions and perceptions of writing, and approaches to writing, were completed by 121 students. Significant associations were found amongst qualitatively different prior and post conceptions of writing, approaches to writing and achievement. The results of the analyses suggest that the effective support of student experiences of writing reports requires teachers to be aware of the type of conceptions that students bring to their course and the perceptions they hold about the purpose of the writing program in which they are engaged.     

Improving the compositions of students with learning disabilities using a strategy involving product and process goal setting.

This study was conducted to determine if a planning and writing strategy would improve the essay writing of students with learning disabilities. Four participants were taught a strategy designed to facilitate the setting of product and process goals, generation and organization of notes, continued planning during writing, and evaluation of goal attainment. Training effects were investigated using a multiple probe design across subjects. Strategy instruction had a positive effect on students' essay writing performance and knowledge of the writing process, and effects were maintained over time.     

Identifying correlates of reabuse in maltreating parents

Forty-five abusive parents (40 mothers, 5 fathers) in treatment at a large, urban medical center's child abuse program were compared on 22 parent, child, and treatment variables posited to bear on reabuse. While no one variable by itself was strongly associated with reabuse, the data indicated that interactions involving several variables (e.g., income source, marital status, and the abuser's personal abuse history) significantly differentiated between reabusers and nonreabusers. Implications of the findings for research and clinical intervention are discussed.     

Predictors of College Attendance Patterns of Rural Youth

This study investigated patterns of college attendance using data from a nationwide and contemporary sample of 2112 rural youth. We found that more than half of rural youth attended two-year institutions at some point during their college career and about a fourth initially enrolled in a two-year college before enrolling in a four-year college. Results also revealed that parental education, college preparatory track and preparation experiences, and teacher expectations predicted students’ college attendance patterns. Our findings point to the importance of two-year colleges and highlight the influence of family characteristics and students’ schooling experiences in the postsecondary trajectories of rural youth.