South Korean higher education internationalization policies: perceptions and experiences

Our study investigates how Korean universities are designing and implementing internationalization policies to meet the demands of globalization. Relying upon globalization theory we reveal how power is embedded within these internationalization efforts. Indeed, we accept the notion that the United States is the world??s superpower and therefore Korea was compelled to ??Westernize?? in order to become active participants in the highly competitive globalized twenty-first century. Through the perspectives of Koreans and foreigners (e.g., professors, students, government officials, and university administrators), our paper aims to discover and understand Korean values and traditions in comparison and detached from Western theory of globalization and internationalization policies in higher education.     

Relationships among properties of college students’ self-set academic goals and academic achievement

The major purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among properties of college students’ self-set academic goals and academic achievement, using multiple theoretical perspectives. Using a personal goal-based research methodology, college students enrolled in a learning-to-learn course (N?=?130) were asked to list 20 of their goals (academic and/or non-academic). For each of their goals, goal specificity, value, expectation of success and autonomous and controlled motivation were measured and then ratings on each goal property were averaged across students’ academic goals (24.75% of all goals) to predict students’ grade point average (GPA) for the semester. Regression results suggested a positive affect on students’ semester GPA for goal specificity and a negative effect for controlled motivation; the model explained 19% of the variation in GPA. This research may help to inform motivation researchers and educational practitioners who assist college students with goal setting.     

The ABC’s of Chinese: maternal mediation of Pinyin for Chinese children’s early literacy skills

In the present study, maternal Pinyin mediation and its relations with young Chinese children??s word reading and word writing development were explored. At time 1, 43 Mainland Chinese children and their mothers were videotaped on a task in which children were asked to write 12 words in Pinyin (a phonological coding system used in Mainland China as an aid to reading Chinese characters) with help from their mothers. The videotapes were later coded on a scale (adapted from Aram & Levin, 2001) of mothers?? writing facilitation techniques. Scores on this scale of maternal mediation of Pinyin uniquely explained children??s reading of Chinese words, but not writing of Chinese words, after statistically controlling for maternal education and age, and children??s non-verbal IQ, age, and phonological awareness. At time 2, 22 of the children from time 1 were further tested on Chinese word reading and word reading task 1?year later. After controlling for children??s age and non-verbal IQ, maternal Pinyin mediation uniquely explained 6% of the variance in children??s word writing and 7% of the variance in children??s word reading performance at time 2. Results underscore the potential importance of the maternal scaffolding role for reading acquisition both theoretically and practically in a domain not previously explored (i.e., use of a common coding system (Pinyin) for learning to read, rather than word reading itself).     

“Split Screens” and “Spin Rooms”: Debate Modality,Post-Debate Coverage,and the New Videomalaise

This experimental research examines how different presentation modalities in presidential debates and post-debate spin influence the ability to form evaluations about candidates' character, shape perceptions of their incivility, and alter judgments of political trust and news credibility. Results indicate that these experimental factors work together to encourage character judgments, diminish perceptions of candidate civility, and reduce levels of trust in government. In addition, political talk conditioned experimental effects on perceptions of news credibility, with the adverse effects of split screen presentations concentrated among those who talked about the debate. Thus, the negative effects of “in your face” politics conveyed by the “split-screen” modality appear to be most pronounced among those primed to think about performance and those attuned to politics through interpersonal talk.     

The Roles of Different News Media Use and Press Freedom in Education Generated Participation Inequality: An Eight Country Comparative Analysis

This eight-nation comparative study adopts a multi-modal analytical approach in investigating education driven stratification in political participation and the simultaneous roles of various media (print newspaper, television, radio, and social media) and press freedom in influencing this inequality. The findings suggest that informational use of social media, print newspaper, and radio increases the likelihood of participation, but consuming television news inhibits participation. Furthermore, social media use, like radio and television use, exacerbates education-generated inequality. Press freedom as a socio-political factor reinforces the role of the television, print newspaper, and social media in participation inequality. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

Production of a Science Documentary and its Usefulness in Teaching the Nature of Science: Indirect Experience of How Science Works

In this study, we produced a documentary which portrays scientists at work and critically evaluated the use of this film as a teaching tool to help students develop an understanding of the nature of science. The documentary, “Life as a Scientist: People in Love with Caenorhabditis elegans, a Soil Nematode” encompasses the entire process of a scientific investigation by exploring the everyday life of a particular group of scientists. We explored the effectiveness of this documentary in teaching the nature of science by examining the epistemological views of college students toward science before and after viewing. In addition, we collected written responses from the students where they described which aspect of the nature of science they learned from the documentary. The scores of epistemological views toward science increased between the pretest and the posttest (p < 0.01) with the most significant increase being in their views of the role of social negotiation. In the written responses, approximately half of the students suggested that they had learned more about the role which cooperation and collaboration play in the development of scientific knowledge by watching the documentary. The documentary overall provides a valuable instructional context so that students are able to discuss and reflect on various aspects of nature of science within authentic scientific research.     

The recent trends of information organization research in Japan and Korea

In order to analyze and compare the intellectual structure of information organization research in Japan and Korea, this study has carried out frequency analysis and network text analysis of research articles published in the last two years. Analysis showed that the Japanese information organization area has a high frequency of research centered on the concepts of “catalog” and “classification”. In particular, “catalog” is seen to have a high figure in degree centrality by network text analysis, it can be said that the “catalog” concept has extensive connections with a diverse range of subjects in the area of information organization. On the other hand, the Korean information organization research area showed a high frequency and connectivity of subjects related to “classification” rather than “catalog”. The “classification” concept is seen to have extensive connections with other various subjects in the Korean information organization research area.     

Influence of Family Processes,Motivation, and Beliefs About Intelligence on Creative Problem Solving of Scientifically Talented Individuals

Predictive relationships among perceived family processes, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, incremental beliefs about intelligence, confidence in intelligence, and creative problem-solving practices in mathematics and science were examined. Participants were 733 scientifically talented Korean students in fourth through twelfth grades as well as 71 individuals in fifth grade, tenth grade, and former Korean Science Olympians. Across all students, perceived positive family processes directly predicted creative problem-solving practices in mathematics and science and were indirectly predicted through enhancing confidence in intelligence and intrinsic motivation, which, in turn, predicted students' creative problem solving in mathematics and science. Confidence in intelligence was the best predictor of creative problem solving for scientifically talented fifth- and tenth-grade students but not for Olympians. Alternative interpretations, the importance of confidence in intelligence for creative problem solving in mathematics and science, and educational implications are discussed.     

How Can We Support Students’ Learning Experiences in Higher Education? Campus Wide Course Transformation Program Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Innovative Higher Education - The aims of this paper are to examine the breadth of scholarship that emerged from a large-scale university-wide course transformation program between 2011 and 2021,...     

Meeting the Needs of High School Science Teachers in English Language Learner Instruction

This survey study explored high school science teachers’ challenges and needs specific to their growing English language learning (ELL) student population. Thirty-three science teachers from 6 English as a Second language (ESL)-center high schools in central Virginia participated in the survey. Issues surveyed were (a) strategies used by science teachers to accommodate ELL students’ special needs, (b) challenges they experienced, and (c) support and training necessary for effective ELL instruction. Results suggest that language barriers as well as ELL students’ lack of science foundational knowledge challenged teachers most. Teachers perceived that appropriate instructional materials and pedagogical training was most needed. The findings have implications for science teacher preservice and inservice education in regard to working with language minority students.