Training the use of interactive videos: effects on mastering different tasks

This study was concerned with identifying prerequisites for the successful use of videos that offer different levels of interactivity. In a homework scenario, 64 ninth graders participated either in a search training demonstrating the efficient use of features facilitating the selection of relevant information or in a control training focusing on the integration of new information with prior knowledge. Following the training, the participants used either a common video that allowed them to control the transient flow of the information via stop and browsing or an enhanced video that additionally facilitated the localization of information via chapter selection and an index. Overall, the students wrote two essays (Essay 1: summary; Essay 2: argument) and performed a search task. The study revealed that, independent of the training condition, students benefitted from the enhanced video for the search task which merely required naming isolated facts. Moreover, in a summary task, the enhanced video resulted in the consideration of information from more different chapters when the task required gathering information from the video; however, this broader consideration of chapters only translated into naming more information after the search training. The data of a second essay requiring inferences about the video’s contents (argument) were not analyzed due to a floor effect. Taken together, these results indicate that the characteristics of a task as well as the students’ knowledge of respective search strategies need to be considered when implementing interactive features in video environments.     

The Bertelsmann AG: An Exploratory Case Study on Synergy Management in a Globally Acting Media Organization

By the multiple usage of immaterial resources across organizational and national market borders, globally acting media conglomerates are able to achieve outstanding synergies. For this reason, they are expected to realize higher margins of profit than smaller-size, nondiversified media firms. However, no empirical evidence has been found for a positive correlation between a firm's size or its presence in many businesses of the media industry and its economic performance until now. Consequently, possible synergies do not seem to be fully exploited in many cases. This article analyzes how to institutionalize and implement synergy management in decentralized media organizations. For these purposes, we first develop a basic understanding and then conduct an exploratory case study on Bertelsmann's approach, which overcomes the stress ratio between corporate coordination and independent action at the operational level. Distinguishing various product types and triggers, this case study renders the process of synergy management more precisely and illustrates how to arrange responsibilities between organizational units. Finally, by relating the results of the case study to the body of literature, we work out patterns of responsibility assignment and drivers of success for strategic integration. In contrast to operational integration, the latter may lead to synergies due to cross-divisional cooperation and business development.     

K-12 Students' Perceptions of Scientists: Finding a valid measurement and exploring whether exposure to scientists makes an impact

This study was launched from a National Science Foundation GK-12 grant in which graduate fellows in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) are placed in classrooms to engage K-12 students in STEM activities. The investigation explored whether the STEM Fellows' presence impacted the K-12 students' stereotypical image of a scientist. Since finding a valid instrument is critical, the study involved (1) determining the validity of the commonly administered Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) against a newly designed six-question survey and (2) using a combination of both instruments to determine what stereotypes are currently held by children. A pretest–posttest design was used on 485 students, grades 3–11, attending 6 different schools in suburban and rural Maine communities. A significant but low positive correlation was found between the DAST and the survey; therefore, it is imperative that the DAST not be used alone, but corroboration with interviews or survey questions should occur. Pretest results revealed that the children held common stereotypes of scientists, but these stereotypes were neither as extensive nor did they increase with the grade level as past research has indicated, suggesting that a shift has occurred with children having a broader concept of who a scientist can be. Finally, the presence of an STEM Fellow corresponded with decreased stereotypes in middle school and high school, but no change in elementary age children. More research is needed to determine whether this reflects resiliency in elementary children's perceptions or limitations in either drawing or in writing out their responses.     

Context modulation of learned attention deployment

In three experiments, we investigated the contextual control of attention in human discrimination learning. In each experiment, participants initially received discrimination training in which the cues from Dimension A were relevant in Context 1 but irrelevant in Context 2, whereas the cues from Dimension B were irrelevant in Context 1 but relevant in Context 2. In Experiment 1, the same cues from each dimension were used in Contexts 1 and 2, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3, the cues from each dimension were changed across contexts. In each experiment, participants were subsequently shifted to a transfer discrimination involving novel cues from either dimension, to assess the contextual control of attention. In Experiment 1, measures of eye gaze during the transfer discrimination revealed that Dimension A received more attention than Dimension B in Context 1, whereas the reverse occurred in Context 2. Corresponding results indicating the contextual control of attention were found in Experiments 2 and 3, in which we used the speed of learning (associability) as an indirect marker of learned attentional changes. Implications of our results for current theories of learning and attention are discussed.     

DEVELOPMENT, EVALUATION, AND VALIDATION OF A PAPER-AND-PENCIL TEST FOR MEASURING TWO COMPONENTS OF BIOLOGY TEACHERS’ PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE CONCERNING THE “CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM”

One main focus of teacher education research concentrates on teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). It has been shown that teachers’ PCK correlates with teaching effectiveness as well as with students’ achievement gains. Teachers’ PCK should be analyzed as one of the main important components to evaluate professional development programs. On this account, it is necessary to develop standardized measures of biology teachers’ topic-specific PCK that are labor-efficient. This paper presents a study on the development, evaluation, and validation of a paper-and-pencil test to measure biology teachers’ declarative PCK on the topic of blood and the human cardiovascular system. The development of the test was based, among other considerations, on a review of research literature on PCK and an analysis of 50 videotaped biology lessons. The final test instrument was comprised of 15 items distributed across 2 scales. The findings of the main study—with 93 preservice and in-service biology teachers and 12 biologists—confirmed that this measure of biology teachers’ declarative PCK was reliable, objective, and valid. In-service biology teachers scored higher on the test than preservice teachers (effect size Cohen’s d, 0.65) on one hand and, also, than biologists (Cohen’s d, 1.00) on the other hand. Future versions of this test should explore enlarging the scales and measuring procedural aspects of PCK.     

Combining verbal and visual cueing: Fostering learning pictorial content by coordinating verbal explanations with different types of visual cueing

Instructional Science - Multimedia learning scenarios in which a picture is the main focus often use combinations of verbal and visual cueing. Based on models of picture processing and multimedia...     

Contribution to risk assessment in football by video analysis of overstepping boundary line events

The aim of this paper was to investigate prerequisites for safety equipment in the surrounding area of soccer playing-fields. Therefore, the frequency and location of overstepping boundary line events (OBEs) occurring when football players are crossing the boundary lines and leaving the regular field. Commercial television video footage of 28 matches in UEFA European Championship 2012 and of 46 matches in FIFA World Cup 2006 were analysed. To accurately identify portions of playfield outline where an OBE occurred, the four different field lines, two Goal lines and two Side lines were divided in 46 segments, defined as “boundary-line-segment” (BLS). Statistical analysis was used to prove if OBEs were uniformly distributed over all playfield BLSs. The results indicated remarkable differences in OBE frequencies among football field areas. In particular, goal-line-BLSs have shown to be the most critical zones of the pitch outline, with different number of OBEs on the two goal lines. This opposes the expected symmetry in OBE distribution as a consequence of the usually adopted directions of football playing and equal boundary areas surrounding goal posts. Furthermore, absolute OBE frequencies on Side line near to the technical area appeared to be greater than the homologues on the opposite side line. The distribution pattern of OBEs over all BLS can be explained by two main influencing effects: the side line effect (SLE—players behave differently at the sideline of the technical area compared to opposite side line because of different distance to advertisements boards) and the leg side effect (LSE—most players prefer to use their right leg to kick the ball). Findings in terms of OBE frequencies should be taken into account to establish right priority of actions for safety intervention by responsible and technicians of Sports fields.