The good,the bad,and the unexpected: Violating audience expectations in Clint Eastwood’s speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention

Courses: Communication Theory, Nonverbal Communication, Public Speaking

Objective: At the end of this activity, students should be able to define key components of expectancy violations theory and apply the theory to analyze violations that occurred in Clint Eastwood’s speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention.     

Doing research on mobile devices: An undergraduate case study

To investigate how undergraduates use library and scholarly resources through their mobile devices, the authors surveyed 138 undergraduate students at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in the spring 2014 semester. The results confirmed that they want to search databases and journals on their mobile devices. By examining the functionalities of mobile-friendly databases, we identified the challenges and barriers to using mobile devices to search electronic databases and find articles. The results of this study were used in generating recommendations for the design, capabilities, and resources of future mobile websites.     

Effects of autonomous motivational priming on motivation and affective responses towards high-intensity interval training

This study examined the effect of autonomous motivational priming on motivation, attitudes and intentions towards high-intensity interval training (HIT). Participants (N = 42) performed a graded exercise test to determine their peak aerobic power (W_PEAK). At a subsequent testing session, participants were randomised to complete either an autonomous or neutral motivational priming task followed by a 10 × 1 HIT exercise protocol, alternating 1-min bouts of hard (70% W_PEAK) and light (12.5% W_PEAK) exercises for 20 min. Participants primed with autonomous motivation reported greater enjoyment, P = .009, η_p² = .16, and perceived competence, P = .005, η_p² = .18, post-exercise compared to those in the neutral priming condition. Participants in the autonomous motivational priming condition also reported more positive attitudes, P = .014, η_p² = .14, towards HIT; however, there was no difference between the conditions for task motivation during HIT or intentions, P = .53, η_p² = .01, to engage in HIT. These findings highlight autonomous motivational priming as a method of enhancing affective and motivational experiences regarding HIT.     

Conservation from conception: Commissioning an installation by Cai Guo-Qiang

Over a period of six years, the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art and Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang developed and realized the major art installation Heritage (2013). The artwork comprises 99 life-sized imitation animals congregating at a waterhole and covers 1104 m² of floor space. This paper reviews aspects of the commission, construction, and completion of Heritage – a very large-scale, technically complex contemporary installation. From commission to acquisition, the project was a highly collaborative undertaking and is an interesting example of unconventional conservation. This paper, written from curatorial and conservation perspectives, describes this cooperative endeavour.     

Self‐efficacy in undergraduate students with dyslexia: a mixed methods investigation

It may be thought that gaining a place at university confers self‐belief on students with dyslexia; after all, they have succeeded in their academic studies. Our research explored self‐efficacy beliefs in university students with and without dyslexia. An Academic Self‐Efficacy Scale and a Sources of Academic Self‐Efficacy Scale were completed by 44 university students. These scores were compared between dyslexic and non‐dyslexic students. Interviews were conducted with eight participants to gain a fuller understanding of how their self‐efficacy beliefs develop. Undergraduate students with dyslexia scored lower than students without dyslexia on four out of the five measures of academic self‐efficacy. The dyslexic students reported role models, teachers and school performance as factors influencing their motivation toward academic work. The research suggests that university students with dyslexia still need interventions to help boost their self‐efficacy profiles, despite the level of success they have achieved in gaining a place at university.     

Prompting teachers’ constructive reflection: pupils’ questions as critical incidents

Constructive reflection is seen as an important ingredient in the professional development of teachers, in order to stimulate significant change in approaches to classroom practice and the general provision of science education in schools. This paper explores the use of pupils’ questions in provoking ‘critical incidents’ in the professional lives of teachers. It is suggested that pupils’ questions can be both indicative of their own conceptual change as well as being sophisticated prompts for teachers to examine their own thinking. Case studies of two teachers ‐‐ one primary and one secondary ‐‐ are used to illuminate how such critical incidents can lead to changes in teacher thinking, resulting then in changes in classroom practice in science. Suggestions are made for the use of pupils’ questions as critical incidents in the professional development of teachers.     

Performing desires: The dilemma of aspirations and educational attainment

The authors critique the mechanistic notion of aspirations running through much research and policy‐making on educational and vocational outcomes. They present a performative model, with individuals drawing on limited social resources to express aspirations within constrained contexts. This argument is illustrated by discussion of the findings of large‐scale empirical investigation of the aspirations of 490 young people in three UK schools. Five themes from this analysis are presented and it is argued that these need to be explored in order to enrich and expand our understanding of young people's expression of aspirations.     

Novel Approaches to Examine Passage,Student, and Question Effects on Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is influenced by sources of variance associated with the reader and the task. To gain insight into the complex interplay of multiple sources of influence, we employed crossed random‐effects item response models. These models allowed us to simultaneously examine the degree to which variables related to the type of passage and student characteristics influenced students’ (n = 94; mean age = 11.97 years) performance on two indicators of reading comprehension: different types of comprehension questions and passage fluency. We found that variables related to word recognition, language, and executive function were influential across various types of passages and comprehension questions and also predicted a reader's passage fluency. Further, an exploratory analysis of two‐way interaction effects was conducted. Results suggest that understanding the relative influence of passage, question, and student variables has implications for identifying struggling readers and designing interventions to address their individual needs.