Make no exception,save one: American exceptionalism,the American presidency,and the age of Obama

This paper explores the circumstances under which U.S. presidents have invoked American exceptionalism in major speeches and how this concept has culminated in the Obama presidency. We find that U.S. presidents have increased their invocations of American exceptionalism since the Second World War and that they have relied heavily on this concept in times of national crises. Moreover, we demonstrate the overwhelming propensity of President Obama, relative to his predecessors, to emphasize American exceptionalism. We argue that this is due to the double-crisis nature of his presidency – two major wars and a recession – in addition to the racial bind that he has endured throughout his presidency. We reflect on the implications for other minority politicians and the broader American public.     

Confronting,Challenging, and Changing Teachers' Beliefs: Implications from a Local Systemic Change Professional Development Program

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Who Influence Men to Go to Therapy? Reports from Men Attending Psychological Services

The degree to which men's current or most recent access to professional psychological help was influenced by others, and their future independent help-seeking intentions were measured. Seventy-three males currently accessing, or who had recently accessed a mental health service, completed a questionnaire that asked about their pathway to care and future help-seeking intentions. Ninety-six percent of participants reported their decision to seek help was influenced to some degree by others, with G.P's, and intimate partners most influential. Thirty-seven percent indicated that without this influence, they would not have sought help at all. Once in therapy, treatment helpfulness was a significant predictor of future help-seeking intentions for a personal-emotional problem or suicidal thoughts, irrespective of the pathway to care.     

Learner motivation for MOOC registration and the role of MOOCs as a university ‘taster’

Despite the widespread adoption of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), no business model has emerged to make them sustainable from an institution standpoint. Using MOOCs as a marketing platform shows promise; but for this to succeed, it is necessary to understand the motivations of those who undertake them and to demonstrate how these same motivations can be better satisfied through enrolment in a fee-paying university course. We discuss the motivations for students as they progress through a MOOC and the factors that might lead to subsequent university enrolment. Our arguments are informed by MOOC statistics, the AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) marketing model, and the literature on adult education, technology adoption, goal seeking and consumer value. We argue that most students are led to MOOC enrolment through close alignment of the course topic and subject matter with their personal goals and through the establishment of an attractive value proposition. Progress in the MOOC depends on whether this goal alignment is maintained, and whether the value assumptions of students are met or exceeded. We predict that subsequent university enrolment will most likely occur when the MOOC experience is both satisfying and representative of the university experience, and where the increased time and financial commitment demanded by formal study is offset by the greater likelihood of attaining the focal goal. For this strategy to succeed, it will be necessary for the host institution to actively work with MOOC students to create an awareness of appropriate fee-paying courses and to promote the benefits of university study. This has implications for the way institutions market their courses to MOOC students.     

Centers for disease control and the epidemiology of violence

Violence is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. The Center for Health Promotion and Education, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has begun to apply epidemiologic techniques to study the problems of child abuse, child homicide, homicide, and suicide. CDC's involvement in these areas has evolved in association with significant shifts in emphasis in public health policy and planning, from areas of acute and infectious diseases to areas of chronic diseases and premature mortality. We have recently addressed the problems of reporting biases and definitional variability in regard to child abuse and have characterized child homicide in the United States. We are currently epedemiologically investigating the underrecording of child homicide in this country. Our future work will include delineation and evaluation of programs to prevent violence toward children and examination of the relationship between intrafamilial violence and extrafamilial, noncrime related violence.     

Psychical contexts of subjectivity and performative practices of remuneration: teaching assistants’ narratives of work

A range of sociological work has theorized neoliberal regulative regimes, suggesting the contradictions contained in the enactment of policy and foregrounding the painful effects of these processes on subjectivities produced within performative school cultures. This paper contributes to this body of work by tracing the movement of desire in teaching assistants’ subjective relations to workplace practices of remuneration. We do this through an analysis of a series of group- and individual-free associative interviews with teaching assistants working in primary schools. Drawing on a Lacanian account of the way processes of identification channel affect, as desire, through signifying chains within a discursive field, we explore the associative chains of meaning that overdetermine the subjectivities produced within performative practices of remuneration. We suggest that the complex and contradictory chains of signification embodied in the school environment constitute a space where fragile teaching assistant subjectivities reiterate previous relations to an ambiguous Other.     

Inferring Student Learning Behaviour from Website Interactions: A Usage Analysis

Web-based learning environments are now used extensively as integral components of course delivery in tertiary education. To provide an effective learning environment, it is important that educators understand how these environments are used by their students. In conventional teaching environments educators are able to obtain feedback on student learning experiences in face-to-face interactions with their students, enabling continual evaluation of their teaching programs. However, when students work in electronic environments, this informal monitoring is not possible; educators must look for other ways to attain this information. Capturing and recording student interactions with a website provides a rich source of information from data that is gathered unobtrusively. The aim of this study was firstly to explore what information can be gained from analysing student interactions with Web-based learning environments and secondly to determine the value of this process in providing information about student learning behaviours and learning outcomes. This study has provided critical information to educators about the learning behaviour of their students, informing future enhancements and developments to a courseware website and the teaching program it supports.