School-based Interventions for Improving Disability Awareness and Attitudes Towards Disability of Students Without Disabilities: A Meta-analysis

Abstract

This article presents the results of a meta-analysis of the effects of school-based interventions for improving disability awareness and attitudes towards disability of students without disabilities in Kindergarten through secondary school grades in the Republic of Korea (South Korea). A total of 20 studies published between 2001 and 2017 were included, covering a sample of 2679 students without disabilities. The overall effect was statistically significant and large (d = 1.335). Specifically, subgroup analyses showed that the effects were large for contact-based interventions, use of materials, role-playing, and human rights interventions in that order. The school-based interventions were significantly more effective in improving attitudes towards disability than disability awareness. The intervention effects did not significantly differ by school levels. Results of meta-regression analyses showed that the number of sessions had significantly more impact than instructional time per session. Limitations, recommendations for future studies, and practical implications are discussed.     

Meta-analysis of the relationship between Internet use and political participation: examining main and moderating effects

Although a growing number of studies are examining the relationship between Internet use and political participation, varying study characteristics make the overall effect size difficult to estimate. Using a meta-analysis, we estimated the mean effect size and tested whether the effect size was influenced by study characteristics. Data for this meta-analysis were derived from 56 papers reporting 63 independent studies. Results revealed that Internet use had a weak relationship with political participation (r_c?=?.22). Moderator analyses demonstrated that type of Internet use, Internet use measure, Internet use for news, type of political participation, sample origin, and survey year significantly moderated the relationship between Internet use and political participation. For instance, Internet use including news (r_c?=?.27) had a significantly stronger relationship with political participation than did Internet use excluding news (r_c?=?.19). European samples (r_c?=?.27) had the largest mean correlation followed by North American samples (r_c?=?.23) and Asian samples (r_c?=?.18) in decreasing order of strength of relationship. The theoretical and methodological implications of the findings are discussed.     

Improved thermal performance of a hydronic radiant panel heating system by the optimization of tube shapes

The thermal performance enhancement of the hydronic radiant floor heating system by tube shape refinements is investigated in this paper. Both analytical and detailed numerical modelings are carried out to predict the performance of the radiant system. While the simple analytical model briefly investigates the possibility of the effect of the tube shape improvement with the parametric analysis, the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code (Ansys/CFX) is used to perform the detailed 3D analysis under different tube shape conditions. The fin thickness, the number of fins, and the tube thermal conductivity turn out to have significant effects on the radiant system performance. The potential energy saving impacts of the tube shape refinements are also discussed. The tube shape improvement turns out to increase the floor surface temperature and to decrease the hot water temperature drop across the system, resulting in heating energy savings.     

Determinants of older Korean adults’ participation in life-long learning programmes and life satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Using Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging data, we examined the influence of older adults’ individual characteristics (i.e. marital status, health and economic status) on life satisfaction, with the mediating effect of older adults’ active participation in lifelong learning. As a result, some individual characteristics appeared to significantly determine both learning participation and life satisfaction. Economic status appeared to function as a significant predictor of older adults’ participation in lifelong learning programmes, which ultimately resulted in a significant improvement in their life satisfaction. Marital status and health were also significant contributors to older adults’ life satisfaction. The mediating model was tenable according to model-data fit indices.     

Effects of different types of instructor comments in online discussions

The current study examined the effects of different types of instructor comments on student engagement in an online discussion. In particular, this study examined three comment types: (1) praise-oriented comments, agreeing with students’ initial messages and recapping their ideas, (2) elaboration-encouraging comments, requesting elaboration on the initial messages, and (3) perspective-widening comments, suggesting different or thought-provoking opinions responding to the initial messages. Seventeen graduate students enrolled in an online course were recruited. A content analysis was employed to evaluate the levels of knowledge construction. Interactivity was measured by the number of posts and idea units. The findings revealed that perspective-widening comments facilitated students’ evaluation on the peer postings and brought up diverse perspectives, contributing to knowledge construction. While elaboration-encouraging comments led to high interactivity among students, praise-oriented comments had no significant effect on the frequency of interactivity.     

Tutoring styles that encourage learner satisfaction,academic engagement,and achievement in an online environment

This study was aimed to find which tutoring styles significantly predict learners’ satisfaction with an e-learning service, academic involvement, and academic achievement. The tutoring styles included subject expert, facilitator, guider, and administrator. In this study, 818 Korean sixth-grade students (ages 11–12 years), enrolled in the e-study program, and completed tutoring style and academic satisfaction evaluation surveys. Students’ login and posting frequency in the e-study program were measured to assess their academic involvement. Academic achievement was computed using completion rates and assessment scores. Multiple regression analyses indicated that there is some association between tutoring styles and academic outcomes. Of the four tutoring styles, facilitating tutoring styles particularly showed strong associations with the three outcome variables. Tutors’ guiding activities as opposed to facilitating were not significant contributors to students’ academic outcomes. The effect of tutors’ facilitating styles in an online learning environment was significant as being found in the existent literature.     

Kinematic analysis of shot-putting performed by wheelchair athletes of different medical classes

The aim of this study was to identify those kinematic characteristics that are most closely related to an athlete's medical classification and measured distance of a put. Two S-VHS camcorders (60 fields per second) were used to record the performance of 17 males of different classes. Each participant performed six trials and the best trial for each was selected for analysis. Three-dimensional kinematics of the shot and upper body segments at the instant of release and during the forward thrust (delivery) were determined. The average speeds and angles of the shot at release for different classes (5.3-7.8 m x s(-1) and 21.2 to 34.4 degrees, respectively) were smaller than those exhibited by elite male able-bodied throwers. The height of the shot at release, the angular speed of the upper arm at release, the range of motion of the shoulder girdle during the delivery, and the average angular speeds of the trunk, shoulder girdle and upper arm during the delivery, were all significantly correlated with both the classification and measured distance (P < 0.05). The results indicate the importance of achieving a high average angular speed for each upper body segment during the delivery.     

Towards an understanding of the use of an institutional repository with integrated social networking tools: A case study of PocketKnowledge

Transaction log analysis (TLA), content analysis, and grounded theory procedures were used to explore the use of an institutional digital repository and social networking website by the academic community of a graduate school of education in the northeastern United States. Three successive years of usage records were gathered and analyzed to determine: (a) the numbers and categories of persons signing up to use the repository during each school semester, (b) the type of content being archived and its rate of growth, and (c) the possible influence of the repository on collaborative, online and open access scholarship within the institution. Findings show a steady increase in the usage of the repository for archiving and sharing digital resources, and an item-tagging scheme that suggests user preference of the resource as a platform for enhancing professional rather than personal interests. User interactivity by way of textual scholarly discussions on the repository platform is however almost nonexistent.     

Drivers and inhibitors of SaaS adoption in Korea

The concept of software as a service (SaaS) has received considerable attention in recent years, and an increasing number of countries have consequently promoted the SaaS market. However, those countries without mature SaaS markets have experienced many SaaS-related problems. To facilitate SaaS adoption, we first analyzed Korea's newly established SaaS market. We then employed a method based on the two-factor theory in order to classify the SaaS market into adoption-driving and adoption-inhibiting areas. From the adoption-driving area perspective, the results of the method demonstrate the validity of the consumerization phenomenon and the PEST analysis. Customer factors in the consumerization phenomenon and economic factors in the PEST analysis were the most important drivers of SaaS adoption. From the adoption-inhibiting area perspective, customer factors as well as supplier and environment factors inhibited SaaS adoption; according to the PEST analysis, social, economic and political factors inhibited SaaS adoption. These results have important implications for Asian countries with newly established SaaS markets, including Australia, China and Singapore.