Martin to Brown

The rise of the modern Black Lives Matter movement can be traced back to two key events, the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin and the 2014 death of Michael Brown. Research routinely showed that mainstream media’s narrative choices marginalize and delegitimize protesters and their causes, a pattern known as the protest paradigm. This study provides a longitudinal examination of how the same mainstream media system varied in their coverage of similar events and the degree to which journalists challenged the predicted paradigms conceptualized in other academic work. A content analysis of national newspaper coverage revealed that news before the judicial rulings focused on protesters’ tactics (violence versus peaceful) and changed to the realm of ideas (grievances and demands) after the assailants were considered not guilty of wrongdoing. No progression was found in legitimizing coverage of protests between the two cases.     

Analyzing Cataloging Job Descriptions: Are Cataloging Jobs Disappearing,Changing, or Merging?

Abstract

To determine the state of the cataloging job market, this study compares job advertisements from August 2016-August 2018 advertising for jobs with cataloging in the title, metadata in the title, and cataloging and metadata in the title. Given ongoing concerns about the impact of metadata jobs on the cataloging job market, this study asks the questions: Are cataloging jobs in fact “disappearing” and becoming metadata jobs? Are entry-level jobs disappearing, perhaps contributing to the idea that there is a lack of qualified catalogers? Is there a difference in position level between cataloging and metadata job advertisements that can account for a lack or perceived lack of available cataloging jobs? Are there more entry-level or mid/supervisory positions advertised? Are cataloging and metadata jobs really separate, or should they be considered one position called cataloging and metadata?     

Teaching Multistep Equations with Virtual Manipulatives to Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities

Students with learning disabilities often struggle with the academic demands presented in secondary mathematics curricula. To combat these students’ struggles, researchers have studied various pedagogical practices and classroom technologies for teaching standards covered in subjects such as algebra and geometry. However, as the role of computer‐ and tablet‐based technologies in education grows, some areas of study, such as the use of virtual manipulatives, lack exploration. This study sought to assess the benefits of virtual manipulatives to teach secondary students with a learning disability in mathematics how to solve multistep algebraic equations. A multiple baseline design across three participants demonstrated a functional relation between the use of a virtual manipulative balance and teaching students to acquire, maintain, and generalize the skill of solving multistep algebraic equations. Results provide new evidence demonstrating virtual manipulatives as a beneficial age‐appropriate technology to teach higher order mathematical concepts to secondary students with a learning disability.     

Access's Unsung Hero: The [Impending] Rise of Embedded Metadata

The “Advances in Library Data and Access” column examines technological advances internal and external to libraries. The focus is on how library data is created and used. The strength of the column is its broad, international focus and contributors are encouraged to explore issues and recent advances in information technology relevant to their geographical region, as well as the larger, global audience. Interested authors are invited to submit proposals and articles to the column editor at moulaisonhe@missouri.edu. Please include “IILR Submission” in the subject line of the e-mail.     

The Interaction of Early Maternal Responsiveness and Children's Cognitive Abilities on Later Decoding and Reading Comprehension Skills

This longitudinal study evaluated the extent to which maternal responsiveness across early childhood and children's cognitive skills predicted children's 8-year decoding and reading comprehension skills for children who varied in biological risk (term, n = 83; preterm, n = 155). Patterns of maternal responsiveness during infancy (6, 12, and 24 months) and preschool (3 and 4 years) revealed 4 maternal clusters that varied in consistency and level of maternal responsiveness. Although not predictive of decoding skills, the interaction between children's 4-year cognitive ability and maternal responsiveness cluster predicted children's reading comprehension skills at 8 years of age, regardless of risk. Although consistently high levels of maternal responsive parenting across early childhood related to literacy outcomes for all children in the study, responsive parenting had a stronger relation to later reading comprehension skills for children with lower cognitive abilities, particularly when mothers demonstrated high responsiveness in children's infancy.     

Problems of Interdisciplinarity: Evidence‐Based and/or Artist‐Led Research?

Art education as a distinct academic discipline is relatively recent and closely related to the growth of specialist teacher qualification programmes in university education departments. Opportunities for art teachers to engage in research were first provided in advanced diploma courses and specialist masters programmes set up in university education departments. Later these were followed by specialist doctoral degrees. Since the majority of such programmes are located in education departments, research training has tended to be social science based. Recently there has been a flurry of publications by art and art education specialists devoted to explaining and extolling the idea of art practice as an alternative paradigm. This article analyses and discusses this development and the status of research in the specialist field, drawing on the author's recent experience of carrying out two systematic reviews of studies in art education. It examines strengths and weaknesses in the two research paradigms and suggests ways forward for improving training in art education research.     

Effectiveness of Multimedia Pedagogical Agents Predicted by Diverse Theories: a Meta-Analysis

Multimedia pedagogical agents are on-screen characters that allow users to navigate or learn in multimedia environments. Several agents’ characteristics may moderate their instructional effectiveness, including appearance, gender, nonverbal communication, motion, and voice. Here, we conducted a meta-analysis to test hypotheses from diverse theories predicting the effects of these agents’ characteristics. We tested predictions of cognitive load theory, cognitive theory of multimedia learning, computers are social actors, social agency theory, uncanny valley, and the action observation network. Our meta-analysis of 32 effect sizes (N?=?2104) revealed a small overall effect (g+?=?0.20), showing that learning with multimedia pedagogical agents was more effective than learning without these agents. As predicted by the redundancy effect of cognitive load theory and the coherence principle of cognitive theory of multimedia learning, 2D agents (g+?=?0.38) tended to be more effective than 3D agents (g+?=?0.11). As predicted by the computers are social actors hypothesis, most of the agents’ characteristics, including nonverbal communication, motion, and voice, appeared not to moderate their effectiveness. We conclude that multimedia pedagogical agents help learning through multimedia, and that students may be able to learn similarly from different types of agents.

     

WHAT GOOD IS GRATITUDE IN YOUTH AND SCHOOLS? A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META‐ANALYSIS OF CORRELATES AND INTERVENTION OUTCOMES

The development of gratitude in youth has received increasing attention during the past several years, and gratitude‐based interventions have often been recommended for use in schools. Yet, the empirical status of the correlates of gratitude and the effects of gratitude‐based interventions on youths’ outcomes remains unclear. The present study addressed this ambiguity by systematically reviewing and meta‐analyzing original empirical journal articles investigating gratitude in youth through September 2014 (N = 20). Findings from the meta‐analysis of correlates indicate small‐to‐moderate convergent and discriminant evidence for gratitude as a subjective well‐being indicator in youth, yet other results indicate that gratitude measures have relatively poor test–retest reliability and/or predictive validity and that they have questionable concurrent validity with other gratitude measures. Moreover, findings from the meta‐analysis of intervention outcomes indicate that gratitude‐based interventions are, as a whole, generally ineffective and that much more intervention research is warranted. Implications of these findings for theory, future research, and the practice of school psychology are discussed.