The Relationship Between College Students' Self-Reports of Class Participation and Perceived Instructor Impressions

The purpose of this investigation was to identify the extent to which college students' self-reports of their in-class participation are related to their impressions of instructors (i.e., credibility, attractiveness, and homophily). Participants were 223 undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory communication course at a large Mid-Atlantic university. Students' self-reports of their in-class participation were positively correlated with perceived instructor social attractiveness, physical attractiveness, background homophily, and attititude homophily, but not with perceived instructor competence, character, caring, and task attractiveness. Furthermore, class size, perceived instructor social attractiveness, and perceived instructor background homophily emerged as significant predictors of in-class participation.     

Subconscious Gatekeeping: The Effect of Death Thoughts on Bias Toward Outgroups in News Writing

This content analysis examined framing and second-level agenda setting in U.S. newspaper pre-election coverage of the 2006 Mexican presidential elections and the new Mexican expatriate voting law. The authors conducted a quantitative analysis of 161 articles and a qualitative analysis of 36 articles in U.S. newspapers from August 2005 through mid-April 2006. Findings indicated that Andrés Manuel López Obrador received more coverage (59.6%) than Roberto Madrazo (27.8%) or the eventual winner, Felipe Calderón (29.1%). Candidate attributes were highlighted more than Mexican domestic or Mexico–U.S. issues. The dominant procedural frame was the election horse race. The main substantive frames were the election as an extension of U.S.–Mexico economic relations and the election as an extension of Latin American leftist/populist movements. The expatriate voting law was characterized as unsuccessful and blamed on apathetic voters, the Mexican government's faulty implementation, and a corrupt system.     

A Cross-cultural Test of the Spiral of Silence Theory in Singapore and the United States1

This study examines the influence of individual-level characteristics on the spiral of silence effect in two countries, Singapore and the United States, making it the first cross-cultural test of the theory and thereby addressing a gap in the literature highlighted by Schefule and Moy (International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 12, 2000, 3–28). In two identical, representative telephone polls of 668 adults conducted in Singapore and 412 adults in Washington, DC, respondents were asked to indicate how likely they would be to discuss publicly two controversial issues: interracial marriage and equal rights for homosexuals. The proposed model for predicting outspokenness adds a variety of new predictors, such as culturally influenced self-concepts, fear of isolation, and communication apprehension, along with other more traditional predictors of outspokenness, such as a person's perception of the opinion climate, media exposure, issue salience, and demographics. The findings provide partial support for the spiral of silence hypothesis in Singapore, but not in the United States. Respondents’ perception of the future opinion climate in Singapore interacted with issue salience to influence their level of outspokenness; American respondents did not exhibit such an interaction effect. In both countries, however, outspokenness was associated with respondents’ perceived importance of the issue and their communication apprehension. Media exposure was not associated with outspokenness in either country.     

Understanding Work/Life Blending: Credibility Implications for Those Who Date at Work

This study examined the credibility implications of employees who date at work. A 2 (status dynamic of the romance) × 2 (sex of the peer) design was used to examine effects of workplace romance on perceptions of credibility. One hundred and forty full-time working adults assessed the credibility of a hypothetical coworker who was involved in a workplace romance. Results indicate that peers who date superiors are viewed as less caring and less trustworthy than are peers who date equal status employees. Sex and status interacted such that women dating superiors versus peers were perceived as less caring and less trustworthy, whereas perceptions of men did not differ based on the status of their relational partners. Limitations and future research are discussed.     

After Transfer: The Engagement of Community College Students at a Four-Year Collegiate Institution

This study investigated how educational experiences between community college transfer students and native students differed at a four-year institution. The study sample included groups of native students and community college transfer students, who were further divided by timing of matriculation to the study institution. Benchmarks from National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) were used to assess the levels of students' collegiate experiences. After controlling for various explanatory variables, timing of matriculation to the senior institution showed significant differences in student engagement. Moreover, enrollment status, such as full- and part-time presented the largest effects on the levels of students' educational involvement regardless of student type.     

Biological maturity status,body size,and exercise behaviour in British youth: A pilot study

In this study we examined the performance during, and the physiological and metabolic responses to, prolonged, intermittent, high-intensity shuttle running in hot (～30 C, dry bulb temperature) and moderate (～20 C) environmental conditions. Twelve male students, whose mean (s x ) age, body mass and maximal oxygen uptake (V O 2m ax ) were 22 ± 1 years, 69.8 ± 01.8 kg and 56.9 ± 1.1 ml . kg ?1 . min ?1 respectively, performed intermittent high- and low-speed running involving five sets of ～15 min of repeated cycles of walking and variable speed running followed by 60 s run/rest exercise until fatigue. The total distance completed in the hot and moderate trials was 8842 3790 m and 11,280 214 m respectively (P < 0.01). This decrement in performance occurred even though no differences existed in the level of dehydration, rating of perceived exertion, blood glucose and lactate, plasma free fatty acid and ammonia concentrations between the two trials. However, water consumption was almost twice as great in the hot trial (hot vs moderate: 1.18 ± 0.12 vs 0.63 ± 0.07 l . h ?1 , P < 0.01). Rectal temperature (hot vs moderate: 39.4 ± 0.1 vs 38.0 ± 0.1 C, P < 0.01) and heart rate (hot vs moderate: 186 ± 2 vs 179 ± 2 beats . min ?1 , P < 0.05) were higher at the end of the hot condition than at the same point in time in the moderate condition. The correlation between the rate of rise in rectal temperature and the distance completed during the hot condition was -0.94 (P < 0.01); for the moderate condition it was -0.65 (P <0.05). The reduced performance in the hot condition was associated with high body temperature; the precise mechanisms by which the performance decrement was brought about are, however, unclear.     

Estimating changes in hydration status from changes in body mass: Considerations regarding metabolic water and glycogen storage

Abstract

The potential for imprecision in the estimation of hydration status from changes in body mass has been outlined previously but the equations derived from these derivations appear inconsistent. Reconciliation of body mass loss in terms of sweat loss and effective body water loss is possible from specific equation sets provided that gains and losses of both body mass and water used in the derivation of sweat loss and to derive effective body water loss are in inclusive equation sets. This is obligatory so that mass and water changes as quantifiable determinants are consistent with both internal processes and external gains and losses. Thus, body mass loss, substrate oxidation, metabolic water, and all the terms used in simultaneous equation sets have to be reconciled not only as identical variables but mathematically balance exactly. The revised equation for effective body water loss given here is different from that originally proposed. Metabolic water is part of body mass loss corrected for substrate oxidation, fluid ingestion, and respiratory water to derive sweat loss and it may not be justified to also include water associated with glycogen as releasable bound water. Accordingly, our calculated effective body water loss is substantially a greater loss than originally supposed but clearly still less than the simple balance between mass loss and fluid ingested.     

Argumentation: A strategy for improving achievement and revealing scientific identities

In this paper we explore the relationship between learning gains, measured through pre‐assessment and post‐assessment, and engagement in scientific argumentation. In order to do so, this paper examines group discourse and individual learning during the implementation of NASA Classroom of the Future’s BioBLAST!® (BB) software program in a high school biology classroom. We found that the argumentative structures, the quality of these structures, and the identities that students take on during collaborative group work are critical in influencing student learning and achievement in science. We provide recommendations for instructors implementing argumentation in their science classrooms, and provide suggestions for the development of future research in this area.     

“It's That Easy”: Designing Assignments That Blend Old and New Literacies

This article recounts what happened when one of the authors, a pre-service teacher, introduced a digital multimodal composition project in her 9th-grade inclusion English classes to support junior high students as they read the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Rather than regard new literacies as competing with print literacy for attention, the authors argue that teachers serve students best when they design assignments that blend old and new literacies in ways that allow them to coexist and inform one another.