An Analysis of the Relative Influences of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Presidential Debate Viewing on Shifting Confidence in President George W. Bush

This study analyzes the influence of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 in coordination with presidential debate viewing on the outcome variable of confidence in George W. Bush's policy positions. In addition, the combined influence of these competing persuasive appeals is assessed across three political ideology groups: liberals, moderates, and conservatives. There is a statistically significant experimental stimulus-by-political ideology interaction, with Bush making substantial gains among political moderates who viewed Moore's film prior to a Bush-Kerry debate. The study also reveals similar patterns of influence for liberals and conservatives.     

FACULTY DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES IN THE ILLINOIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM

In a time of declining resources and restricted faculty mobility, faculty mobility, faculty development has become increasingly important. This study addressed faculty development activities, their evaluation, and their perceived impact on the improvement of instruction in the community colleges of Illinois. Data gathered through the use of a questionnaire mailed to the chief academic officer of each of the state's community colleges were analyzed and interpreted. It was found that a wide variety of activities — orientation, inservice, professional, individual, and group — are available to faculty members. Orientation activities were viewed as being moderately useful for the improvement of instruction. Respondents saw professional activities as somewhat more useful than inservice activities. With some qualifications, group activities were perceived as being more useful than individual activities. Evaluation efforts, for the most part, are as yet sporadic and unsophisticated.

The results of this study suggest that perhaps the traditional inservice‐type activities may not be the “one best way” to deliver quality faculty development aimed at the improvement of instruction. Faculty‐development planners may want to examine more closely the needs of their faculty in relation to the activities available. In addition to continuing the most useful of the group and inservice activities, attention should be directed toward those individual and professional activities not frequently offered but rated as highly effective in improving instruction.     

Celebrating the Past,Creating the Future: 50 Years of Community College Research

The Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008. This article summarizes the establishment of the Council and sets it in the context of the development of the community college movement. Highlights of research conducted by CSCC members to address contemporary issues facing community colleges are described. A summary of insights offered by members during a 2008 plenary session, research presented at the 50th annual conference, and key community college leaders are described in the context of the historical evolution of community college research and future directions.     

Looking on the bright side: children's knowledge about the benefits of positive versus negative thinking

Five- to 10-year-olds (N = 90) listened to 6 illustrated scenarios featuring 2 characters that jointly experience the same positive event (and feel good), negative event (and feel bad), or ambiguous event (and feel okay). Afterward, one character thinks a positive thought and the other thinks a negative thought. Children predicted and explained each character's emotions. Results showed significant development between 5 and 10 years in children's understanding that thinking positively improves emotions and thinking negatively makes one feel worse, with earliest knowledge demonstrated when reasoning about ambiguous and positive events. Individual differences in child and parental optimism and hope predicted children's knowledge about thought-emotion connections on some measures, including their beliefs about the emotional benefits of thinking positively in negative situations.     

Teacher interactions and effects on group triple problem solving space

ABSTRACT

Research shows that collaborative work promotes student learning and improves social skills, but teachers are still exploring how to best support problem-solving in a small group context, particularly in the science classroom. This study builds on prior research to characterise teacher interactions with small groups in secondary science and analyses how those interactions affect a collectively constructed space – the triple problem solving space (TPSS) – in which group members collectively understand a task (content/cognitive dimension), manage social interactions (social/relational dimension), and co-construct the emotional life of the group (affective dimension). Results of two biology teachers’ interactions with students in small groups working on inquiry and engineering design activities show that most interactions were administrative and had little influence on the group’s TPSS. Teacher interactions that engaged students in monitoring their problem-solving process, however, did have the capacity to increase cognitive work of the group, which subsequently impacted the students’ group affect and social dimension. These findings suggest that interactions focused on cognitive processes have the potential to support all aspects of a group’s TPSS. Though this research is only a first step in understanding the impact of teacher interactions on small group work, implications for teaching practices are discussed.     

The impact of three‐dimensional computational modeling on student understanding of astronomy concepts: a qualitative analysis

In this study, we explore an alternate mode for teaching and learning the dynamic, three‐dimensional (3D) relationships that are central to understanding astronomical concepts. To this end, we implemented an innovative undergraduate course in which we used inexpensive computer modeling tools. As the second of a two‐paper series, this report focuses on the qualitative differences of students' understandings of both spatial and declarative knowledge domains as reflected by their two distinct learning environments — a traditional astronomy classroom and an experimental astronomy course grounded in problem‐solving and modeling with dynamic, 3D, computational modeling software. We found that students who constructed 3D computational models tended to have a more scientifically sophisticated understanding of dynamic spatial relationships, whereas students in the traditional class developed more accurate understandings of the properties and general facts and figures regarding celestial bodies.     

Improving Multiple-Choice Test Performance for Examinees with Different Levels of Test Anxiety

The effectiveness of a strategy for improving performance on multiple-choice items for examinees was assessed. An aptitude-treatment interaction model was used to test the possibility of different treatment effects for examinees with different levels of test anxiety. Undergraduate measurement students responded to the Mandler-Sarason Test Anxiety Scale and to an objective test covering course content. For low-anxious examinees, generation of an answer before selecting a multiple-choice response led to higher test performance; for highly test anxious examinees, there was a slightly negative effect on performance.