The influence of citizen disaster communication on perceptions of neighborhood belonging and community resilience

The Citizen Disaster Communication Assessment (CDCA) measures individual disaster communication activities that are intended to help communities cope across all phases of a disaster. Using the CDCA, this study examined associations among citizen disaster communication, neighborhood belonging, and community resilience using three different samples representing different disaster phases (Pre-event, Event, Post-event). Results indicate that more citizen disaster communication was associated with stronger perceptions of neighborhood belonging and community resilience at the Event and Post-event phases. In terms of specific citizen disaster communication processes that proved important, communication to correct disaster rumors and share stories was associated with greater feelings of belonging. Communication intended to confirm disaster information and tell stories was associated with stronger community resilience perceptions. Overall, results (a) confirm that citizen disaster communication is an important part of the disaster response and recovery ecosystem and (b) offer evidence of concurrent validity for the CDCA.     

Deference to Scientific Authority Among a Low Information Public: Understanding U.S. Opinion on Agricultural Biotechnology

This study uses the contemporary debate over agricultural biotechnologyto conceptualize a theoretical model that can be used to explainhow citizens reach judgments across a range of science and technologycontroversies. We report findings from a mail survey of NewYork State residents that depicts a ‘low information’public relying heavily on heuristics such as value predispositions,trust, and schema to form an opinion about agricultural biotechnology.Science knowledge does play a modest role, with the news mediaserving as an important source of informal learning. Contraryto expectations and past research, we do not find any directeffects for news attention on support for agricultural biotechnology.Deference to scientific authority is a central value predispositionshaping support for agricultural biotechnology. Positively correlatedwith education, deference to scientific authority is the strongestinfluence on support for agricultural biotechnology in our model.Part of the variable's influence is direct, but part of it isalso indirect, as deference to scientific authority is a keypredictor of both trust in the sponsors of biotechnology andgeneralized reservations about the impacts of science. Received for publication July 18, 2005. Revision received December 2, 2005.     

The Birth of a Notion: The Windfalls and Pitfalls of Tailoring an SoTL-like Concept to Scientists, Mathematicians, and Engineers

Despite calls for greater agreement in defining the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), terms that resemble SoTL are proliferating. An NSF-sponsored center for teaching and learning coined its own term, teaching-as-research (TAR), believing it would resonate better with research-active scientists, engineers, and mathematicians. To understand whether this was a wise strategy, we interviewed 43 participants from courses that sought to explain and demonstrate TAR. Our study found that participants defined TAR with varying complexity and that disciplinary concepts generally provided “conceptual handles” for making sense of TAR. However, tailoring a term to particular disciplines entails several challenging tradeoffs.

互联互动的网络学习环境：从网络课程到更广阔的视野

互联网时代的网络学习环境（Networked Learning Environment,以下简称为NLE）,囊括了当下最先进的信息技术,但其理念仍然是那个颠扑不破的古训：学习绝不仅仅止于课堂和考试.在一个真正的NLE中,学生、教师和研究者能在任何时间从任何地方获取任何学习资源.     

Reimagining student employability: a case study of policy and practice transformation

ABSTRACT

Within Australian higher education, there has been an evolving of employability policy, realised in curriculum, at an intersection of the constructs of employment, work-readiness, life-long learning, and career development. The enactment of employability policy has driven an evolution in the practices of higher education in both curriculum and student support. This paper presents a case study of an Australian university which has reimagined the delivery of career and student support services through a framework that envisions preparing students for future worlds of work. The emergent policy framework has transformed organisational structures, human resources, and connections between student support practices and curriculum design. This transformation has generated new intersections of practice and is challenging institutional constructs of expertise. This case study provides transferrable learnings for broader considerations of higher education policy and practice as employability becomes the core driver of student success, and explores layered discourses of policymaking across an institution.     

Multimedia resources designed to support learning from written proofs: an eye-movement study

This paper presents two studies of an intervention designed to help undergraduates comprehend mathematical proofs. The intervention used multimedia resources that presented proofs with audio commentary and visual animations designed to focus attention on logical relationships. In study 1, students studied an e-Proof or a standard written proof and their comprehension was assessed in both immediate and delayed tests; the groups performed similarly at immediate test, but the e-Proof group exhibited poorer retention. Study 2 accounted for this unexpected result by using eye-movement analyses to demonstrate that participants who studied an e-Proof exhibited less processing effort when not listening to the audio commentary. We suggest that the extra support offered by e-Proofs disrupts the processes by which students organise information, and thus restricts the extent to which their new understanding is integrated with existing knowledge. We discuss the implications of these results for evaluating teaching innovations and for supporting proof comprehension.     

Order Matters: Sequencing Scale-Realistic Versus Simplified Models to Improve Science Learning

Teachers choosing between different models to facilitate students’ understanding of an abstract system must decide whether to adopt a model that is simplified and striking or one that is realistic and complex. Only recently have instructional technologies enabled teachers and learners to change presentations swiftly and to provide for learning based on multiple models, thus giving rise to questions about the order of presentation. Using disjoint individual growth modeling to examine the learning of astronomical concepts using a simulation of the solar system on tablets for 152 high school students (age 15), the authors detect both a model effect and an order effect in the use of the Orrery, a simplified model that exaggerates the scale relationships, and the True-to-scale, a proportional model that more accurately represents the realistic scale relationships. Specifically, earlier exposure to the simplified model resulted in diminution of the conceptual gain from the subsequent realistic model, but the realistic model did not impede learning from the following simplified model.     

Criteria for the selection,evaluation and application of traditional knowledge in contemporary health practice,education, research and policy: A systematic review

Background

Traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) is highly utilised and draws on traditional knowledge (TK) as evidence, raising a need to explore how TK is currently used.

Objectives

Examine criteria used to select, evaluate and apply TK in contemporary health contexts.

Methods

Systematic search utilising academic databases (AMED , CINAHL , MEDLINE , EMBASE , SSCI , ProQuest Dissertations Theses Global ), Trip clinical database and Google search engine . Citations and reference lists of included articles were searched. Reported use of TK in contemporary settings was mapped against a modified ‘Exploration-Preparation-Implementation-Sustainment’ (EPIS) implementation framework.

Results

From the 54 included articles, EPIS mapping found TK is primarily used in the Exploration phase of implementation (n = 54), with little reporting on Preparation (n = 16), Implementation process (n = 6) or Sustainment (n = 4) of TK implementation. Criteria used in selection, evaluation and application of TK commonly involved validation with other scientific/traditional evidence sources, or assessment of factors influencing knowledge translation.

Discussion

One of the difficulties in validation of TK (as a co-opted treatment) against other evidence sources is comparing like with like as TK often takes a holistic approach. This complicates further planning and evaluation of implementation.

Conclusion

This review identifies important criteria for evaluating current and potential contemporary use of TK, identifying gaps in research and practice for finding, appraising and applying relevant TK studies for clinical care.     

Computer‐assisted tutoring: Teaching letter sounds to kindergarten students using incremental rehearsal

The profound consequences of early reading failure necessitate the provision of early literacy interventions to struggling readers. Many schools struggle, however, to address early reading difficulties because of insufficient human resources. Accordingly, the present study investigated the effectiveness of incremental rehearsal (IR) as a Tier 3 intervention to improve letter sound knowledge and fluency with four kindergarten students. Four participants not making adequate progress toward letter sound fluency benchmarks were selected for an IR intervention targeting letter sounds that was delivered via a computerized tutoring program. All four students improved their letter sound knowledge and fluency. Overall, results indicated that a computer‐aided IR intervention is an effective, efficient, and acceptable intervention. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Explaining Chinese students' academic motivation: filial piety and self‐determination

This study investigated the relevance of filial piety and the three components of self‐determination, namely, competence, autonomy and relatedness, on academic motivation among Hong Kong Chinese secondary school students. A total of 461 students completed the questionnaire which consisted of five scales assessing attitudes towards filial piety, perceived scholastic competence, perceived autonomous support from parents, relatedness with parents and academic motivation. By using structural equation modelling, a predictive model of academic motivation, with filial piety, competence, autonomy, relatedness, age and gender as antecedents, was developed. All variables explained the prediction of academic motivation, with competence acted as the strongest effect, followed by relatedness and filial piety. The findings highlight the important contribution of the three self‐determination theory (SDT) components and the value of filial piety for Chinese adolescents' academic motivation. The implications of the findings for future research and educational practice were discussed.