CHILDREN'S ATTITUDES TOWARD THE ELDERLY: AN INTERGENERATIONAL TECHNIQUE FOR CHANGE

This investigation examined changes in children's perceptions of the elderly following an intervention in the frequency of contact that school‐aged children had with old people. Elderly persons served as tutors in a reading tutorial program for a period of two months. Pre‐and postintervention measures of attitudes and reading skills were taken from the children; measures of morale were obtained among the elderly sample. Evaluations of the program were also provided by the elderly, the children, school principals, and teachers. An analysis of variance revealed a significant interaction effect of group by test, suggesting that even a relatively brief intervention can modify children's perceptions of the aged. Although there were no significant changes in the responses of the elderly subjects as measured by objective questionnaires, the majority of the tutors reported that they were happier and felt more involved in the community while working in the program.     

Self-generated drawings for supporting comprehension of a complex animation

The perceptual and cognitive processing demands involved in comprehending complex animations can pose considerable challenges to learners. There is a tendency for learners to extract information that is highly perceptually salient but neglect less conspicuous information of crucial relevance to the building of a quality mental model. This study investigated the effectiveness of self-generated drawing for learning from an animation illustrating a scientific phenomenon, the so-called “Newton’s Cradle.” Participants were 199 students in grade seven, randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: self-generated drawing, traced/copied drawing, and no drawing. All participants were asked to produce an explanation of the animation for both immediate and delayed posttests. The results revealed the superiority of self-generated drawing in supporting animation comprehension at both testing times compared to the other two conditions, which did not differ from each other. In addition, comprehension of the animation was related to the quality of self-generated drawings. Specifically, the depiction of information characterized by low perceptual salience but high conceptual relevance to the phenomenon predicted comprehension and retention over time.     

Role of anomalous data and epistemological beliefs in middle school students’ theory change about two controversial topics

The question of theory change is crucial in knowledge construction, particularly in the process of conceptual change. This study was designed to investigate two factors that, in addition to initial theory preference, may play a crucial role in the process of theory change, that is, students’ interpretation of anomalous data on two controversial topics (the dinosaur extinction and the construction of the Giza pyramids in Egypt) and their epistemological beliefs about the nature of knowledge. Canonical correlation analyses suggested for both topics an association, stronger for the dinosaur extinction topic, between (a) acceptance of anomalous data (rated both as valid and inconsistent with the held theory), initial theory preference, epistemological belief in Certain Knowledge and (b) theory change. Data obtained from structure coefficients in canonical correlation analyses indicate that acceptance of anomalous data significantly contributed the most to theory change whereas the epistemological belief contributed the least. Finally, educational implications are drawn.     

Integrating Faith and Learning in the Western Civilization Classroom

This essay reflects on the author's efforts to incorporate a distinctly Christian worldview into the design and pedagogy of a two-semester western civilization survey sequence, two courses required of all students as part of a General Education curriculum. While drawing on the extensive and growing secondary literature on the integration of faith and learning, this essay examines more concrete efforts to embed such issues into the syllabi, required readings, assignments, and class discussion of a particular set of courses. The author explores various avenues for engaging students in the difficult but rewarding effort to let Christian truths inform both historical scholarship and a general understanding of the past.