Coping with writing apprehension

Students with high writing apprehension (WA) were exposed or not exposed to visualization (a procedure designed to encourage positive thinking). Those exposed to visualization reported enjoying writing more than those who were not trained to visualize, both immediately and over time. The paper ends with a discussion of these and other results.     

Diabetes Intrusiveness and Wellness Among Elders: A Test of the Illness Intrusiveness Model

ABSTRACT

Technology use is a common constituent of modern life. However, little is known about older adults’ use of technology. This article presents a subset of data collected via the technology deployed in the iStoppFalls randomized control trial. The primary focus lies on questions about digital device/Internet use, ownership, length, and frequency as well as social networking. Data was collected from participants aged 65 years or older. Seventy-eight participants completed a specifically developed technology survey as part of the baseline assessment. Results showed that the majority of subjects owned a computer with men being its main user. Participants used technological devices on a daily basis for more than 1 year. The main reason for using technology was e-mail communication, search engines, text processing, and online shopping. Only a few participants used social network applications, with Google+ and Facebook being the most popular ones. Future work should consider an in-depth qualitative approach to further increase understanding of technology use in older adults.     

Comparison of the Viewing Habits and Preferences of Young Offenders and Representative Schoolchildren

In the light of the introduction of teaching standards in professional values and practice in September 2002, this study compares two sets of data from B.Ed. and PGCE primary courses, in order to examine the existing opportunities for values education within teacher education in one institution. The findings highlight a qualitative difference in the process of personal and professional development experienced by the two groups of students. Implications of the findings for university training partnerships, university tutors and professional studies programmes are then considered. The conclusion reached is that the introduction of teaching standards in professional values and practice may be the next landmark in the process vs. competence debate about teacher education, and may provide the opportunity to put human development back into the heart of teacher education.     

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) policy in Australian higher education: the dynamics of position-taking

The Bourdieuian concept of ‘position-taking’ is applied in this analysis of recognition of prior learning (RPL) policy and practice in Australian higher education. Data from institutional documents and participant interviews indicate that, within RPL policy, the universities selectively employ prevailing discourses of ‘quality’ and ‘equity’ to reinforce or potentially improve their reputation and symbolic power in the field of higher education. There is no common consensus about either equity or quality across the sector, as each university interprets the two concepts for its own benefit. The evidence suggests that, despite rhetoric in government policy implying that both are equally important, quality is a far stronger discourse and policy imperative than equity in RPL policy and practice. Also, RPL policies and practices provide an insight into how the key policy priorities of equity and quality are addressed by universities, when applied to a specific educational process or practice.     

Middle school students’ learning of mechanics concepts through engagement in different sequences of physical and virtual experiments

ABSTRACT

Physical and virtual experimentation are thought to have different affordances for supporting students’ learning. Research investigating the use of physical and virtual experiments to support students’ learning has identified a variety of, sometimes conflicting, outcomes. Unanswered questions remain about how physical and virtual experiments may impact students’ learning and for which contexts and content areas they may be most effective. Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined eighth grade students’ (N?=?100) learning of physics concepts related to pulleys depending on the sequence of physical and virtual labs they engaged in. Five classes of students were assigned to either the: physical first condition (PF) (n?=?55), where students performed a physical pulley experiment and then performed the same experiment virtually, or virtual first condition (VF) (n?=?45), with the opposite sequence. Repeated measures ANOVA’s were conducted to examine how physical and virtual labs impacted students’ learning of specific physics concepts. While we did not find clear-cut support that one sequence was better, we did find evidence that participating in virtual experiments may be more beneficial for learning certain physics concepts, such as work and mechanical advantage. Our findings support the idea that if time or physical materials are limited, using virtual experiments may help students understand work and mechanical advantage.