Adolescent Daily and General Maladjustment: Is There Reactivity to Daily Repeated Measures Methodologies?

The present study examined whether repeated exposure to daily surveys about negative social experiences predicts changes in adolescents' daily and general maladjustment, and whether question content moderates these changes. Across a 2-week period, 6th-grade students (N = 215; mode age = 11) completed 5 daily reports tapping experienced or experienced and witnessed negative events, or they completed no daily reports. General maladjustment was measured in 2-week intervals before, at the end of, and 2 weeks after the daily report study. Daily maladjustment either decreased or did not change across the 5 daily report exposures. General maladjustment decreased across the three 2-week intervals. Combined, results indicate that short-term daily report studies do not place youth at risk for increased maladjustment.     

‘The perfect pupil’: changing aims and changing measures of success in school RE

In England and Wales, religious education (RE) in non-faith schools has gradually changed from Christian education to the study of many religions and philosophies. However, the core values of RE have continued to be related to concerns about social cohesion and the building of shared values. The article briefly discusses changes in RE since 1944 and then considers attitudes to RE among a group of year 11 pupils (age 15–16) in one large multicultural comprehensive school, collected through questionnaires and group discussions. The subject name had been changed from RE to Religious Studies (RS) in 2004. The focus here is on pupils’ ideas of ‘the perfect RS pupil’; used as a means to access their understandings of the subject’s aims and their teachers’ expectations. The most popular responses were that the ideal pupil would be knowledgeable about religions and be tolerant and empathetic. This is in accord with the current social and political agenda for RE but lays it open to criticism that tolerance becomes an end in itself encouraging indifference to religions rather than a critical, evaluative perspective.     

The Case for e-Book Literacy: Undergraduate Students' Experience with e-Books for Course Work

This paper investigates how electronic books (e-books) are used for scholarly activity. It focuses on the end-users of e-books in a case study which aimed to establish how scholars use and learn from e-books and the limitations of academic e-books.     

Causal modeling for indirect cost management at universities and colleges

Faculty applications for nonuniversity project funding, relative support requested for research, and the indirect cost rate negotiated for federal research projects are used to forecast overhead one year in advance. They are also used to project the ratio of awarded indirect cost to awarded direct cost. The role of the latter variable in mediating changes in subsequent indirect cost reimbursement is described, as well. By using multiple regression and path analysis, the study demonstrates one way of bridging the gap between theories on indirect cost recovery and statistical methodology. It should be of particular interest to the administrator who seeks to integrate variables which precede overhead reimbursement in time with the university budget process.     

The Superconducting Super Collider's Frontier Outpost, 1983–1988

In 1993, after an optimistic beginning followed by a half-decadeof conflict, the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project wasabandoned. In an era of `Big Science', a major scientificenterprise collapsed. Why? We employ the metaphor of the`frontier outpost' to analyse a critical moment in the history ofthis vastly expensive project, when the physicists who designedthe machine were forced to recognize that traditional post-warscientific values were no longer in harmony with governmentpriorities.     

Microtubules and morphogenesis in plants

Observations made by electron microscopy indicate that part of the machinery used by plants and animals to regulate their growth consists of sub-cellular structures termed microtubules. The system that organises the arrays of microtubules within each cell is therefore a crucial element in the chain of command that determines the pattern of development. Recent progress at this level of analysis is described here, with special reference to plants.     

Humanizing Instructional Videos in Physics: When Less Is More

Many instructors in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields are striving to create active learning environments in their classrooms and in doing so are frequently moving the lecture portion of their course into online video format. In this classroom-based study, we used a two group randomized experimental design to examine the efficacy of an instructional video that incorporates a human hand demonstrating and modeling how to solve frictional inclined plane problems compared to an identical video that did not include the human hand. The results show that the learners who viewed the video without the human hand present performed significantly better on a learning test and experienced a significantly better training efficiency than the learners who viewed the video with the human hand present. Meanwhile, those who learned with the human hand present in the instructional video rated the instructor as being more humanlike and engaging. The results have implications for both theory and practice. Implications for those designing instructional videos are discussed, as well as the limitations of the current study.