Teacher Caring and Classroom Behavior: Relationships with Student Affect and Perceptions of Teacher Competence and Trustworthiness

This study investigated the impact of teacher misbehaviors and caring on students' affect, teacher evaluation, and teacher competence and trustworthiness. After reading hypothetical scenarios of teachers engaging in appropriate (or inappropriate) behaviors and communicating caring (or non-caring), students reported perceptions of teacher competence and trustworthiness and affect. Results of the analysis of variance revealed significant main effects for teacher caring and appropriateness on teacher competence and trustworthiness. Although there were interaction effects, the variance accounted for was minimal. Teacher caring was also positively related to students' affect toward the course and the teacher. This study demonstrates that teachers should maintain appropriate classroom behavior and communicate caring towards students to preserve their credibility and affect in the classroom.     

Resampling and Distribution of the Product Methods for Testing Indirect Effects in Complex Models

Recent advances in testing mediation have found that certain resampling methods and tests based on the mathematical distribution of 2 normal random variables substantially outperform the traditional z test. However, these studies have primarily focused only on models with a single mediator and 2 component paths. To address this limitation, a simulation was conducted to evaluate these alternative methods in a more complex path model with multiple mediators and indirect paths with 2 and 3 paths. Methods for testing contrasts of 2 effects were evaluated also. The simulation included 1 exogenous independent variable, 3 mediators and 2 outcomes and varied sample size, number of paths in the mediated effects, test used to evaluate effects, effect sizes for each path, and the value of the contrast. Confidence intervals were used to evaluate the power and Type I error rate of each method, and were examined for coverage and bias. The bias-corrected bootstrap had the least biased confidence intervals, greatest power to detect nonzero effects and contrasts, and the most accurate overall Type I error. All tests had less power to detect 3-path effects and more inaccurate Type I error compared to 2-path effects. Confidence intervals were biased for mediated effects, as found in previous studies. Results for contrasts did not vary greatly by test, although resampling approaches had somewhat greater power and might be preferable because of ease of use and flexibility.     

Representing How Rabbits Quack and Competitors Act: Limits on Preschoolers' Efficient Ability to Track Perspective

This study investigated whether humans have two mind‐reading systems whereby the efficient system, unlike the flexible system, is naturally limited. There were two experiments and the first included adults as well as children (3‐ to 4‐year‐olds; total N = 128). In Experiment 1, all groups efficiently gazed in anticipation of an agent's beliefs about object location but not object identity (an ambiguous figure). In Experiment 2, children showed limits in anticipating a competitive agent's action in terms of his perspective on what is desirable. Flexibility in verbally predicting agents' actions across contexts developed with age. Convergence on signature limits across different ages and methods suggests that indirect anticipations involve minimal mind reading, whereas direct predictions tap a refined understanding of perspective.     

Promoting secondary school students’ evaluation of source features of multiple documents

The current research examined whether instructional activities centering on contrasting cases promoted secondary school students’ evaluations of source features present in a multiple-documents inquiry context. Two hypothetical students’ document evaluation strategy protocols were designed: One featured more sophisticated strategies commonly enacted by experts and better college students and a second featured less sophisticated strategies commonly enacted by secondary school students. A series of classroom-based activities required that students compare/contrast the two protocols to decide which were the best strategies when analyzing multiple scientific documents and why. The findings demonstrated that students who previously participated in the intervention activities included more scientific concepts from more useful documents when generating essay responses from memory, displayed better rankings of the usefulness of the set of multiple documents, and offered more principled justifications based on source feature evaluations of trustworthiness compared to students who instead received typical classroom instruction. We discuss the instructional implications of a contrasting-cases approach in facilitating secondary school students’ usage of source features within multiple-documents inquiry contexts.     

Bilateral arm power imbalance in swim bench exercise to exhaustion

We examined the supposition that swimmers may exhibit an imbalance in bilateral arm power output during simulated swimming exercise. Ten competitive front crawl swimmers (5 males, 5 females; age 20.5+/-2.3 years; height 1.74+/-0.09 m; body mass 72.0+/-16.7 kg; 400 m freestyle swim time 278+/-20.5 s; mean +/- s) performed four incremental (10 W x min(-1)) swim ramp tests on a computer-interfaced biokinetic swim bench ergometer. External power output from each arm was measured continuously to exhaustion. The results showed that, throughout the course of the simulated swim, external power output clearly favoured the left arm (F1,9 = 12.5, P= 0.006). This was especially evident in the final 30 s to exhaustion, when 54.0+/-3.87% of external power output was derived from the left arm versus 46.0+/-3.87% from the right arm. The disparity in external power output was further highlighted when the participants were grouped into unilateral and bilateral breathers. Unilateral breathers (n = 5) produced 57.1+/-2.62% of external power output from the left armversus 42.9+/-2.62% from the right arm (P= 0.001). Bilateral breathers (n = 5) exhibited a more balanced external power output of 51.0+/-1.82% from the left arm and 49.0+/-1.82% from the right arm (P = 0.177). Evidence of power imbalance in the simulated swimming stroke may have important implications for optimizing swim performance. The observed power imbalance may be reduced when a bilateral breathing technique is adopted.     

Effects of an Educational Experience Incorporating an Inventory of Factors Potentially Influencing Student Acceptance of Biological Evolution

This investigation provides an extensive review of scientific, religious, and otherwise non-scientific factors that may influence student acceptance of biological evolution. We also measure the extent to which students' levels of acceptance changed following an educational experience designed to address an inclusive inventory of factors identified as potentially affecting student acceptance of evolution (n = 81, pre-test/post-test) n = 37, one-year longitudinal). Acceptance of evolution was measured using the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) instrument among participants enrolled in a secondary-level academic programme during the summer prior to their final year of high school and as they transitioned to the post-secondary level. Student acceptance of evolution was measured to be significantly higher than initial levels both immediately following and over one year after the educational experience. Results reported herein carry implications for future quantitative and qualitative research as well as for cross-disciplinary instruction plans related to evolutionary science and non-scientific factors which may influence student understanding of evolution.     

The influence of drink temperature on thermoregulatory responses during prolonged exercise in a moderate environment

Abstract

Nine males cycled at 53% (s = 2) of their peak oxygen uptake ([Vdot]O_2peak) for 90 min (dry bulb temperature: 25.4°C, s = 0.2; relative humidity: 61%, s = 3). One litre of flavoured water at 10 (cold), 37 (warm) or 50°C (hot) was ingested 30 – 40 min into exercise. Immediately after the 90 min of exercise, participants cycled at 95%[Vdot]O_2peak to exhaustion to assess exercise capacity. Rectal and mean skin temperatures and heart rate were recorded. The gradient of rise in rectal temperature was influenced (P < 0.01) by drink temperature. Mean skin temperature was highest in the hot trial (cold trial: 34.2°C, s = 0.5; warm trial: 34.4°C, s = 0.5; hot trial: 34.7°C, s = 0.6; P < 0.01). Significant differences were observed in heart rate (cold trial: 132 beats · min^?1, s = 13; warm trial: 134 beats · min^?1, s = 12; hot trial: 139 beats · min^?1, s = 13; P < 0.05). Exercise capacity was similar between trials (cold trial: 234 s, s = 69; warm trial: 214 s, s = 52; hot trial: 203 s, s = 53; P = 0.562). The heat load and debt induced via drinking resulted in appropriate thermoregulatory reflexes during exercise leading to an observed heat content difference of only 33 kJ instead of the predicted 167 kJ between the cold and hot trials. These results suggest that there may be a role for drink temperature in influencing thermoregulation during exercise.     

An improvement on the transient response of tracking for the sampled-data system based on an improved PD-type iterative learning control

An improvement on the transient response of tracking for the sampled-data system based on an improved PD-type iterative learning control (ILC) is proposed in this paper. The developed analog ILC method and the high-gain property tracker design methodology are first combined to significantly reduce learning epochs and overcome the initial condition shift problem and discontinuous reference input in the traditional ILC. Besides, the proposed ILC improves the transient response and decreases the rate of weighting matrices Q$Q$ to R$R$ under the traditional linear quadratic tracker design. First, the off-line observer/Kalman filter identification (OKID) is used to determine the appropriate (low-) order system parameters and state estimator for the physical system with unknown system equation, so that the model-based PD-type ILC can be implemented for practical applications. Then, to improve the transient response and decrease the control effort, the proportional difference type (PD-type) ILC algorithm is combined with the high-gain property linear quadratic tracker (LQT) design to construct the high performance tracker for the model-based sampled-data systems. Furthermore, the discrete-time version high performance tracker design for the unknown stochastic sampled-data system via the iterative learning control method is proposed in this paper based on the Euler method and the digital redesign approach. Finally, some examples are given for illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.     

The expanding role of university patenting in the life sciences: assessing the importance of experience and connectivity

We extend debates about the sources of university capabilities at research commercialization. Drawing upon quantitative data for a panel of 89 research-intensive US universities and interview data from two academic licensing offices, we model the relationship between technology transfer experience, embeddedness in biotechnology industry networks, basic science quality and capacity, and citation impact measures of university life science patents. Technology licensing officers draw upon the expertise of corporate partners to evaluate the potential impact of invention disclosures. The information gleaned through network ties to industry enables well-connected institutions to develop higher impact patent portfolios. Reaping the benefits of such connections, however, requires experience in balancing academic and corporate priorities to avoid the danger of ‘capture’ by industrial interests as overly tight connections limit patent impact. This pattern of diminishing returns to connectivity is robust across multiple citation measures of patent quality.     

Beyond Changing Culture in Small High Schools: Reform Models and Changing Instruction With Project-Based Learning

This study describes the status of small school reforms in U.S. high schools and contemplates their future. It asks how cultural and instructional reforms differ across school reform types. Analyses focus on indicators of teacher and student culture as well as instructional reforms including project-based learning (PBL) and other inquiry-related practices. Findings are based on data from a national survey completed by 395 high school teachers who were responsible for and had used PBL in core academic subjects. Study participants taught in large, comprehensive high schools; in schools that had converted to small learning communities; and in newly created small school start-ups. Some of these small schools and conversions were based on a reform model, and others were not. Teachers in reform model schools reported the greatest number of cultural and instructional reforms, followed by teachers in other small schools. Reform models were particularly strong on instructional reforms and student culture. In general, start-up teachers reported more success implementing reforms than teachers in conversion schools, and teacher culture was reformed much more often than student culture and instruction. These findings help shed light on how widely practices and conditions have spread throughout the broader small schools movement, and which of these (including extensive PBL use) only seem to flourish in schools that subscribe to a holistic reform model.