Preschoolers Continually Adjust Their Epistemic Trust Based on an Informant's Ongoing Accuracy

Children aged 4–7 years (N = 120) played four rounds of a find‐the‐sticker game. For each round, an informant looked into two cups and made a claim about which cup held a sticker. At the end of each round, children guessed the sticker's location, and then the sticker's actual location was revealed. For three of the rounds, the informant accurately reported the sticker's location. But critically, for one round—either Round 1, 2, or 3—she was inaccurate. Children continually adjusted their trust in the informant as they obtained more information about her accuracy. Relations between the informant's pattern of accuracy and children's trust were robust, neither mediated nor moderated by children inferences about her intent or traits.     

The impact of austerity on Irish higher education faculty

Given the impact of austerity on higher education systems, an intellectual concern with the impact of austerity on faculty seems appropriate. In this article, austerity is explored through the everyday lived experience of faculty and its impact on both their personal and professional contexts. This aspect has been under-researched in the higher education literature and addresses the complexities and contradictions that the austerity can create for faculty. The study located in the Republic of Ireland provides an interesting context as the global financial crisis in 2008 resulted in 9 years of austerity measures that impacted on all aspects of the economy and particularly on the higher education sector. A social realist approach using Archer’s morphogenetic framework was employed. The framework facilitated an in-depth understanding of the relationship between structure, culture and agency and how austerity was experienced by faculty within their institutions.     

Children’s levels of contingent self-esteem and social and emotional outcomes

Contingent self-esteem (CSE) describes the degree to which self-esteem is dependent on meeting day-to-day appraisals from oneself and others. This will vary between individuals, ranging from lower to higher CSE. A lower CSE is related to a range of adaptive social and emotional outcomes in adolescents and young adults. This study explores children’s CSE and how this associates with behavioural outcomes. A total of 280 children between the ages of 9 and 11 years completed a composite questionnaire on aspects of their self-esteem and behaviour. Children’s class teachers completed behavioural outcome questionnaires for a random sample of 100 of these children. Based on teachers’ and children’s scores, high levels of global self-esteem were associated with lower CSE and fewer behavioural difficulties. CSE domains of social feedback and physical appearance retained significant associations with behavioural outcomes after controlling for global self-esteem. This may relate to the degree that children depend on the perceived evaluations of others. Implications for educational psychologists are highlighted.     

Dress for fit: An exploration of female activewear consumption

While the female activewear market is growing rapidly, research on activewear consumption and female consumers is lagging. Existing researchers have failed to produce an in-depth understanding of female consumers’ perceptions of activewear, thereby providing limited insights for the activewear industry. Drawing upon brand association theory and the functional, expressive, and aesthetic model, the authors identify important attributes of activewear brands and how attributes lead to benefits pursued by female activewear consumers. Focus groups were conducted with 72 female activewear consumers in Australia. Findings reveal three product-related attributes (functional design, colour, and size and fit) and two non-product-related attributes (price and model imagery) influence the fulfillment of four benefits (mood enhancement, exercise facilitation, healthy and active lifestyle, and physical fit body image). This research contributes theoretical and empirical knowledge about activewear consumption and the vertical structure of brand associations. Findings of this research can help activewear brands deliver benefits to female consumers through improved product designs and marketing strategies.     

Playing surface and UK professional rugby union injury risk

Artificial rugby union playing surface installation is increasing. This prospective cohort study aimed to examine the effect of playing surface on match injury types within 157 players of two UK professional rugby union clubs playing 209 matches (96 on artificial surfaces and 113 on grass) over three seasons. There was no difference in overall injury risk between the two playing surfaces with injury incidence on artificial 80.2 (CI 69.9–91.7) and on grass 81.9 per 1000 match-hours (CI 72.2–92.5), with an incidence rate ratio (RR) of 0.98 (CI 0.82–1.17). There was a higher rate of concussion (RR 0.52, CI 0.34 – 0.78) and chest injuries on grass (RR 0.26 CI 0.07, 0.95), and a higher rate of thigh haematoma (RR 2.25, CI 1.05–4.82) foot injuries (RR 4.12, CI 1.10, 15.40) and injury to players being tackled (RR 1.46, CI 1.00, 2.15) on artificial. Whilst there was no higher injury risk for matches played on artificial versus natural grass surfaces, the higher incidence of concussion and chest injury on grass, and the higher rate of foot injuries on artificial surfaces may be related to tackle and footwear-to-surface interface factors.     

The State of Criminal Justice Bachelor’s Degree Programs in the United States: A Descriptive Profile of Programs Housed in For-Profit Institutions

While for-profit colleges and universities (FPCUs) have long existed in the U.S., most were small, closely held companies (CHCs). Beginning in the 1990s, a new FPCU emerged that was owned by publicly traded companies (PTCs). While FPCUs owned by CHCs and PTCs offer baccalaureates in criminal justice (BCJ), little is known about the characteristics of these programs. To address this gap, the current study analyzed the population (N = 79) of FPCUs offering BCJ programs during academic year 2015–2016 by type of corporate owner. Analyses included comparisons of the two types of FPCUs on three categories of variables: institutional, departmental, and curricular characteristics. Implications of the results for baccalaureate education in criminal justice and future research on the role of FPCUs in criminal justice are presented.     

Improving moral reasoning among college students: a game-based learning approach

Considering a company’s limited time and resources, an effective training method that improves employees’ ability to make ethical decision is needed. Based on social cognitive theory, this study proposes that employing games in an ethics training program can help improve moral reasoning through actively engaging learners. The experimental design with an ethic board game as the experimental group and ethics instructions as the comparison group was conducted to examine the effectiveness of a game-based ethic training method on improving moral reasoning. Results show that using games in an ethics training program significantly decreases respondents’ importance rating on issues associated with lower stages of an individual’s cognitive moral development (CMD) and increases their importance rating on issues associated with the highest stage of CMD. In addition, a game-based ethics training program was found to produce significantly greater change on the importance rating towards issues associated with the middle stage of CMD than a non-game based ethics training program. These findings suggest that a game-based ethics training program could effectively develop moral reasoning, and shape moral views better than a non-game-based training program. Discussions and suggestions for future research were included to conclude this study.     

Engaging undergraduate students in a co-curricular digital badging platform

Digital badging continues to garner attention in the educational community. What remains to be seen is how badging will interact with traditional curricular elements. While concerns have been raised about using badges as extrinsic motivators in coursework, there are alternate areas of application for digital badging. Badges may actually serve to motivate and empower student learning and engagement outside of the formal curriculum. This action research was conducted to guide the implementation of a badging system at Maranatha Baptist University. It explores the concept of using digital badges as a platform for recognizing learning experiences in co-curricular education. More specifically, it seeks to determine how to best optimize a co-curricular digital badging system for maximum student engagement through a combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. Student focus groups were used with a mixed-methods methodology of collecting data on potential student interest and involvement in a digital badging environment. The quantitative portion compares intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivations for participating, while the qualitative section consists of a coded analysis of student discussion of co-curricular digital badging.     

Anatomy education in a changing medical curriculum in India: Medical student feedback on duration and emphasis of gross anatomy teaching

Authors report here a survey of medical student feedback on the effectiveness of two different anatomy curricula at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. Undergraduate medical students seeking the Bachelor in Medicine and Bachelor in Surgery (M.B.B.S.) degrees were divided into two groups by the duration of their respective anatomy curriculum. Group 1 students had completed a longer, 18‐month curriculum whereas Group 2 counterparts followed a shorter, 12‐month curriculum. Students' responses to a questionnaire were studied. Analysis of feedback from Groups 1 and 2 contrasted the effectiveness of the two anatomy curricula. The coverage of gross anatomy was rated adequate or more than adequate by 98% of Group 1 and 91% of Group 2. A desire for greater emphasis on gross anatomy teaching was expressed by 24% of Group 1 and 50% of Group 2 (P = 0.000). Two‐thirds of all students felt that the one‐year program was not adequate, and 90% of Group 1 and 74% of Group 2 felt that clinically oriented anatomy teaching required more emphasis. Dissection was helpful or very helpful for 94% of Group 1 and 88% of Group 2. This study suggests that a better understanding of gross anatomy was gained from a course of longer duration (18 months with 915 contact hr vs. 12 months with 671 contact hr). Students who completed the longer anatomy course had greater appreciation of the need for clinically oriented anatomy teaching and dissection. Anat Sci Educ 2:179–183, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.