Are students really connected? Predicting college adjustment from social network usage

The rapid growth in popularity of social networking sites has spurred research exploring the impact of usage in a variety of areas. The current study furthered this line of research by examining the relationships between social network usage and adjustment to college in the academic, social, personal-emotional and university affiliation domains. Realising the number of students with social networking accounts, some universities have developed strategic plans for social media. Thus, this study also compared two universities, one with a social media strategic plan and one without, to determine if the planning process had an influence on students. Results indicated that social network usage was related to college adjustment. Specifically, those students who reported higher rates of social media use reported lower levels of adjustment to college in all domains. However, there were no differences between the two universities, indicating that having a social media strategic plan does not influence students in the area of college adjustment. These results are discussed in light of retention rates and changing practices within higher education.     

Social capital in the classroom: a study of in-class social capital and school adjustment

Social capital is generally considered beneficial for students’ school adjustment. This paper argues that social relationships among pupils generate social capital at both the individual and the class levels, and that each has its unique effect on pupils’ performance and well-being. The sample in this study consists of 1036 children in 60 first-grade classes in 46 Dutch elementary schools. Multilevel regression results show that a substantial proportion of the variance in school adjustment can be attributed to the class level and that both individual-level and classroom-level social capital have substantial effects on school adjustment. At the individual level, the size of one’s network is more important than its structure. At the collective level, social capital also has a ‘dark side’ because it can have negative effects on adjustment, lowering the academic performance in a class.     

Fostering Social and Emotional Skills for Well-Being and Social Progress

Children need a balanced set of cognitive, social and emotional capabilities to adapt to today's demanding, changing and unpredictable world. OECD countries and partner economies recognise the importance on the holistic development of individuals. However, there are big gaps between stakeholders' knowledge, expectations and practices on how to foster such skills. This paper presents evidence on the importance of social and emotional skills; on how policy makers and schools are currently enhancing and monitoring such skills; and, on the existing gaps between knowledge, expectations and practices to mobilise these skills. The paper concludes by pointing ways in which education stakeholders can do more to better develop and mobilise the skills that drive individual's well-being and social progress. The paper draws on findings and frameworks that are being published in a full OECD report entitled ‘Skills for Social Progress: the Power of Social and Emotional Skills’ in the first half of 2015.     

Predicting Day-to-Day Changes in Students’ School-Related Affect From Daily Academic Experiences and Social Interactions

This study examined the role that everyday academic successes and failures—and the interactions with family members and peers that follow these events—play in predicting day-to-day changes in children's emotional responses to school. Middle school students (N = 101; mean age = 11.62 years) completed daily assessments of their academic experiences, performance disclosures, perceptions of emotional support, and school-related affect. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling. Results indicated that students’ daily academic experiences and social interactions varied by both sex and interaction partner, and that students’ daily academic experiences and social interactions were predictive of day-to-day changes in both positive and anxious affect. The implications of these findings for students’ interpersonal relationships and school adjustment are discussed.     

Educating child practitioners: a (re)turn to the university disciplines

This paper analyses a specific disjunctive policy space in Scotland involving the current key children's social and educational policy agenda, Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC), and a recent national report on teacher education, the ‘Donaldson Report’. In four main parts, the paper first introduces and applies in policy review and analysis a capitals frame to identify the policy–practice discontinuities currently inherent in the ‘GIRFEC-child practitioner education’ policy space, exemplified by the Donaldson Report. Then, the same capitals frame is applied to examine the capitals resources demanded in the particular ‘child–child practitioner education’ policy space previously delineated. Next, examples of policy disconnects amongst current child practice and practitioner education policy production and implementation, which warrant a concerted integrative cross-sector project to ensure coherent social and intellectual capital relations at all levels, are discussed. Finally, the paper calls for the governing professional registration bodies and universities involved in the education of child-sector practitioners to engage in the redesign of university programmes underpinned by principles of transdisciplinarity and transprofessionalism. The methodology is policy sociology and policy text analysis.     

Inequality in Ethiopian higher education: reframing the problem as capability deprivation

The revitalization of Ethiopian higher education (HE) has been underway since the early 2000s. As well as the economic optimism evident in the ‘knowledge-driven poverty reduction’ discourse, social equity goals underscore the reform and expansion of the system. Notwithstanding the widening participation and the equity policy provisions put in place, the problem of inequality has persisted along the lines of ethnicity, gender, rurality and socio-economic background. This paper reviews major equity policy instruments and highlights the enduring inequalities in Ethiopian HE. It argues that this persistence is related in part to the ways in which the problem is represented in policy, and that redressing the problem necessitates framing inequality as capability deprivation rather than as issues of access and disparities in enrolment.     

新媒体语境特征与用户态度关系构建的实证研究

通过对上海市民进行抽样调查,并使用结构方法模型对新媒体语境下的受众社会态度倾向进行实证研究,得出如下结论：新媒体语境通过社会懈怠对用户风险偏好和群体极化倾向产生正向影响,对责任与公平意识、道德发展以及亲社会倾向产生负向影响;媒体接触频率在新媒体与社会懈怠关系中具有显著正向调节作用,而媒体接触的多样性在其中的调节作用并不明显;在主效应和调节作用中,均表现出对男性的影响大于对女性的影响,其影响大小随着年龄的增加而呈减弱趋势。     

论18世纪英国的家族地产

18世纪,在英国拥有家族地产是一种主流社会风气,它是以家族为单位的地产占有及支配方式。家族地产由土地和住宅两个部分组成,两者所承担责任各有不同,但都已超脱单纯经济作用。在父系观念、家族保障思维影响下,家族内部形成以直系继承者为主体、其他家族成员为旁支的地产权益分配形式,并对家族主要地产进行保护。家族地产造成英国土地逐渐集中在大土地家族手中,他们对土地采用消极占有态度,这既不利于土地农业生产效率的提高,也不利于地产资源在市场中多向流动。     

西方现代社会德性思想的分歧及其启示

西方现代思想家研究了许多社会德性方面的问题,在社会的首要价值是自由还是基于自由的公正、共同体的价值高于个人的价值还是相反、对“代议制”民主加以完善还是以“参与制”民主取而代之、法律是否要以道德为基础、道德重在个人的德性品质还是社会的规范、社会应奠基于理性之上抑或非理性之上等问题上存在着重大分歧。西方现代社会德性思想也有一些共同特点和局限,但它是人类思想宝库中极其重要的组成部分,有其独特的价值和优势,无论对现代西方社会还是对现代国际社会都具有重大意义。