Facebook Use and Its Role in Shaping Access to Social Benefits among Older Adults

Adults who are 65 years or older have increasingly adopted social network sites (SNSs), Facebook in particular. Yet the ramifications of SNS use in this population remain understudied. Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults (N = 2,003), this study focuses on Facebook users (N = 1,138) and examines patterns of Facebook use by younger (aged 18–65 years) and older users (aged 65 or older), as well as the social benefits associated with older users’ Facebook use. Findings show that older users have different network structures, but the frequency of their visits and engagement in Social Media Relationship Maintenance Behaviors (SMRMB), a measure of perceived likelihood to engage with others via social media, do not significantly differ from those of younger users. Moreover, our results suggest that among older users (N = 98), the number of self-reported “actual” friends on Facebook and SMRMB positively predict perceived support, while SMRMB contributes to perceptions of access to useful information. Overall, the study highlights unique usage patterns and social benefits associated with Facebook use among older adults. As such, its findings provide insights for the future design of technological interventions to help older adults better access social benefits associated with SNS use.     

Teacher-learners' conceptions of learning: Evidence of a "communalist" conception amongst postgraduate learners?

Recently, research on mature students' approaches to learning, conducted within a students'-experiences-of-learning framework, has suggested that these students tend towards being deep-level learners. The studies reported in this paper were focused on the self-reported conceptions of learning of a group of mature students enrolled in a postgraduate degree course. A primary aim of these studies was to assess the extent to which these students reported "sophisticated" conceptions of learning, as might be expected from mature, postgraduate learners. A secondary focus was to assess the extent to which academic context might be said to have influenced learning conceptions over time. The studies suggest that, for this sample of students, quantitative conceptions appear to predominate. In addition, a conception of learning that does not appear to "fit" within the conceptual model used to assess these conceptions is presented and discussed. Empirical data suggesting the stability of these learning conceptions over time is discussed in the light of its implications for teaching on postgraduate degree programmes where students appear to hold quantitative conceptions of learning. But the paper also argues for the need for further research into a conception which holds that learning is a moral obligation or service to a community.     

Transformations in learning and teaching through Initial Teacher Education

In England, little research has been carried out into how pre‐service secondary English teachers transform what they know as they learn to teach. They are seldom asked to reflect explicitly on the connections between the pedagogy of their undergraduate studies and their pedagogical experiences as student teachers. The initial teacher education committee of the National Association for the Teaching of English decided to explore these connections by asking student teachers on English Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in five different university departments of education to respond to a series of questions at the start and end of the academic year 2004–2005. The questions fall into four broad areas: student teachers' experiences as learners at undergraduate level and developing ideas about teaching; the nature of the subject English; tensions encountered during the PGCE course; new learning about teaching. The purpose of this article is to discuss some patterns emerging from the research. The most prominent of these is student teachers' realisation that good teaching comes from teachers seeing themselves as learners. We argue that ‘reflexivity’ ( Moore, 2004 ) is a valuable way to help student teachers begin to understand this transformation from learner into learning teacher.     

Self‐awareness in Young Adults with Down Syndrome: I. Awareness of Down syndrome and disability

The limited literature on awareness of differences and stigma in people with intellectual disabilities is largely sociological, emphasises pathology, and has rarely used a developmental perspective with representative samples. Interviews, photographs and standardised tests were used to investigate such awareness with 77 young adults with Down syndrome and their parents. Awareness and social categorisation were significantly associated with verbal mental age, and closely approximated the typical social‐cognitive developmental sequence. No associations were found between awareness and chronological age, parent telling, gender, and mainstream experience. Only those with verbal mental ages from around 8 years were making relative social comparisons and beginning to form complex social categories of Down syndrome/disability. Around 13% were rated as showing a negative emotional reaction to Down syndrome/disability, and most of these were male. A similar percentage, mostly female and with higher verbal mental ages, discussed concerns and limitations. Even so, they all had high self‐esteem and awareness of Down syndrome and disability did not appear to be a major issue. A number of coping mechanisms to maintain a positive sense of self were suggested. It is argued that both sociological and developmental models are required to inform parent and professional attempts to facilitate self‐awareness.     

Journals metadata: information about content

Metadata is data about data, or information about content. It is important to have standard ways of describing content for efficient resource discovery on the world-wide web, and to tie this in with information about people and rights to build the foundations for e-commerce. The most significant emerging standard is the Dublin Core, which has recently stabilized its simple (minimum) set as DC 1.0. Various organizations (including Wiley) have already been exploring the use of Dublin Core tags in a number of implementations. Other initiatives are taking place to bring all metadata schemes within an overarching data model. As the industry responsible for managing content from commissioning through to authenticated release, publishing should play a major role in metadata creation and promulgation.     

Feasibility,acceptability, and potential efficacy of a childcare-based intervention to reduce sitting time among pre-schoolers: A pilot randomised controlled trial

The aim of this study was to test the feasibility, acceptability and potential efficacy of a childcare-based intervention to reduce total and prolonged sitting time in pre-schoolers. Four centres and 115 pre-schoolers (44 % boys; 4.1y) participated in a 3-month, 2-arm pilot cluster randomised controlled trial. Feasibility and acceptability were assessed through observations and semi-structured interviews. Sitting time, and breaks and bouts of sitting during childcare were assessed using an activPAL accelerometer over a one-week period at pre- and post-test (12wks). EF (inhibition, working memory and shifting) was assessed using the Early Years Toolbox. Intervention fidelity was high for both intervention centres (77 % vs 70 %) and educators reacted positively to the intervention. Proportion of sitting time per day reduced significantly at post-test in both intervention (?5.3%/day,[2.13, 8.50]) and control centres (?6.45 %,[4.20, 8.71]), resulting in a non- significant between-group difference (p = 0.51[2.4, 4.9]). EF scores did not significantly differ between groups (p > 0.05). Modifications to the childcare environment to reducing sitting, particularly the standing workstations, were feasible and acceptable to educators and children. No differences in sitting time between groups were seen; additional changes and longer-term trials are needed to reduce sitting time in pre-schoolers.     

The effects of the kinesthetic-tactile component of the VAKT procedure on secondary LD students' reading performance

Multisensory instructional approaches have been used in teaching handicapped children for many years, but have never been adequately validated. Using a multiplebaseline design and direct measurement of words read and spelled as the dependent variable, this study evaluated the effects of the kinesthetic-tactile component in VAKT instruction. The results indicated that the three secondary LD students read more words correctly after VAKT instruction than after VA instruction, and retained more VAKT instructed words at one-week, three-week, and six-month retention probes. The instruction did not differentially affect the speiling of words. The implications of these findings are discussed.