Faculty members’ perceptions of online program community and their efforts to sustain it

This study investigated faculty members’ perceptions of program community and what they do to support it in online graduate programs. Researchers developed and administered an online survey to ascertain perceptions of program community among education and engineering faculty members at United States, land-grant, research-extensive universities. Three hundred forty-four faculty members responded. Most participants thought that fostering community beyond courses was important. Faculty members used a variety of strategies to accomplish this task, including social media, synchronous communication and advising, face-to-face socials and orientations, and cohort models. Yet, many also relied on classroom strategies. Several participants indicated that they and their students lacked the time, resources or interest to pursue program community and that geographical distance and university reward policies complicated its establishment. Differences via discipline, gender and years of online teaching experience were also reported.     

Coaching, truth induction, and young maltreated children's false allegations and false denials

This study examined the effects of coaching (encouragement and rehearsal of false reports) and truth induction (a child-friendly version of the oath or general reassurance about the consequences of disclosure) on 4- to 7-year-old maltreated children's reports ( N = 198). Children were questioned using free recall, repeated yes–no questions, and highly suggestive suppositional questions. Coaching impaired children's accuracy. For free-recall and repeated yes–no questions, the oath exhibited some positive effects, but this effect diminished in the face of highly suggestive questions. Reassurance had few positive effects and no ill effects. Neither age nor understanding of the meaning and negative consequences of lying consistently predicted accuracy. The results support the utility of truth induction in enhancing the accuracy of child witnesses' reports.     

The Legacy of Early Abuse and Neglect for Social and Academic Competence From Childhood to Adulthood

This study used data from the Minnesota Longitudinal Study of Risk and Adaptation (N = 267) to investigate whether abuse and neglect experiences during the first 5 years of life have fading or enduring consequences for social and academic competence over the next 3 decades of life. Experiencing early abuse and neglect was consistently associated with more interpersonal problems and lower academic achievement from childhood through adulthood (32–34 years). The predictive significance of early abuse and neglect was not attributable to the stability of developmental competence over time, nor to abuse and neglect occurring later in childhood. Early abuse and neglect had enduring associations with social (but not academic) competence after controlling for potential demographic confounds and early sensitive caregiving.     

The CLEM model: Path analysis of the mediating effects of attitudes and motivational beliefs on the relationship between perceived learning environment and course performance in an undergraduate non-major biology course

In this study, the following questions were addressed in an undergraduate non-major biology course using a large lecture format: Is there a relationship between students?? perceptions of their learning environment and course performance, and what roles do motivation and attitudes play in mediating that relationship? The purpose of this study was to test a path model describing the mediating effects of motivation and attitudes on learning environments and course performance. The study considered contemporary understanding of teaching and learning, as well as motivation and attitudes, in suggesting a direction for future reform efforts and to guide post-secondary science education instructors and leaders in the design of learning environments for undergraduate non-major biology courses. Among the classroom learning environment variables assessed in this study, personal relevance was the major contributor to predicting attitudes, motivation and course performance. Although the classroom learning environment had a very weak direct effect on course performance, there was a moderate total effect on self-efficacy and intrinsic goal orientation. The classroom learning environment also had a moderate total effect on attitudes toward biology. Attitudes toward biology had a moderate direct effect on self-efficacy. While attitudes toward biology was significantly correlated with course performance, the direct effect was extremely weak and was dropped from the model. However, attitudes toward biology had a moderate indirect effect on course performance due to the mediating effects of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy had a strong direct effect on course performance and therefore seemed to be particularly important. The model tested in this study explained 33?% of the variance in course performance, 56?% of the variance in self-efficacy, 24?% of the variance in attitudes toward biology, and 18?% of the variance in intrinsic goal orientation. To improve course performance, instructors should focus on building self-efficacy among their students and ensure that students find the course personally relevant.     

Longitudinal Relations Among Parents' Reactions to Children's Negative Emotions,Effortful Control,and Math Achievement in Early Elementary School

Panel mediation models and fixed‐effects models were used to explore longitudinal relations among parents' reactions to children's displays of negative emotions, children's effortful control (EC), and children's math achievement (N = 291; M age in fall of kindergarten = 5.66 years, SD = .39 year) across kindergarten through second grade. Parents reported their reactions and children's EC. Math achievement was assessed with a standardized achievement test. First‐grade EC mediated the relation between parents' reactions at kindergarten and second‐grade math achievement, beyond stability in constructs across study years. Panel mediation model results suggested that socialization of EC may be one method of promoting math achievement in early school; however, when all omitted time‐invariant covariates of EC and math achievement were controlled, first‐grade EC no longer predicted second‐grade math achievement.     

Eliciting Maltreated and Nonmaltreated Children's Transgression Disclosures: Narrative Practice Rapport Building and a Putative Confession

This study tested the effects of narrative practice rapport building (asking open‐ended questions about a neutral event) and a putative confession (telling the child an adult “told me everything that happened and he wants you to tell the truth”) on 4‐ to 9‐year‐old maltreated and nonmaltreated children's reports of an interaction with a stranger who asked them to keep toy breakage a secret (n = 264). Only one third of children who received no interview manipulations disclosed breakage; in response to a putative confession, one half disclosed. Narrative practice rapport building did not affect the likelihood of disclosure. Maltreated children and nonmaltreated children responded similarly to the manipulations. Neither narrative practice rapport building nor a putative confession increased false reports.     

Testing for the Transfer of Tacit Knowledge: Making a Case for Implicit Learning

Companies are beginning to realize that simply storing data in warehouses and databases is not sufficient to ensure the usefulness of that data or information. As information is processed with a purpose ( Ackoff & Emery, 1972 ), it becomes knowledge. Knowledge exists on many planes; one is the tacit‐explicit plane described by Polanyi (1966) . Knowledge‐based applications are becoming a key factor in determining organizational value. For example, Activity‐Based Costing (ABC) and Knowledge Value Added (KVA) are two methodologies that organizations use to measure explicit knowledge. However, this interest in measuring and managing knowledge creates two important questions. First, do companies include tacit knowledge in their measurements of knowledge? Second, can educators demonstrate that they are helping increase tacit knowledge? This paper posits that companies may not be including the full range of knowledge in their endeavor to measure knowledge in their organizations. To help make a case for including tacit knowledge and implicit learning, an active learning exercise is created to demonstrate a method to quantify and test for changes in both types of knowledge. The results show that the activity created observable changes in explicit and tacit knowledge. Future research will need to concentrate further on understanding how the two types of knowledge interact. For now though, these results demonstrate one way to observe the two types of knowledge and more importantly, point out the need for organizations to find ways to value both implicit and explicit knowledge.     

Applying Information Processing Theory to Supervision: An Initial Exploration

Although clinical supervision is an educational endeavor (Borders & Brown, 2005 ), many scholars neglect theories of learning in working with supervisees. The authors describe 1 learning theory—information processing theory (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968 , 1971 ; Schunk, 2016 )—and the ways its associated interventions may enhance the supervision enterprise.     

The MSU Educational Technology Certificate Courses and Their Impact on Teachers’ Growth as Technology Integrators

The Educational Technology Certificate (ETC.) courses at Michigan State University are a set of three courses that can be taken as a standalone qualification or as the first three courses in the Master’s of Educational Technology degree. Together, the courses emphasize the development of technology skills and advanced mindsets for technology integration in the classroom. In this article, we provide examples of our approach to the teaching of technology skills and mindsets in ways that are adaptable across four distinct modes of instruction (online, hybrid, overseas and faceto-face). We also present student feedback and survey data that inform a critical evaluation of the program’s effectiveness. Findings suggest that the certificate courses help students to gain technological skills, to become more confident users of technology and more likely to help colleagues with tech-related questions. Interestingly, respondents also reported feeling like better teachers, in general, after taking these courses.     

Cable Communications

Cable Television Interconnection (1974, 40 pp., around $4.00, paper)

Educational Uses of Cable Television (1974, 105 pp. price not known, paper)

William G. Shepherd and Thomas G. Gies' Regulation in Further Perspective: The Little Engine that Might (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Co., 1974—$13.50)

Districting: Report of the Advisory Committee on Cable Communications (Metropolitan Council, 300 Metro Square Bldg., 7th and Robert, St., Paul, Minn. 55101—price not given, paper)