Attitudes of Business Faculty Towards Two Methods of Collecting Teaching Evaluations: Paper vs. Online

Business professors were surveyed to determine their attitudes towards two methods of collecting students' teaching evaluations of faculty--the traditional paper-and-pencil method conducted in class and the online method conducted via the Internet. Faculty preferred the traditional paper method, mainly because they believed it would produce a higher and more accurate response than the online method. Faculty characteristics were examined to determine whether they were related to attitudes towards the online method of collecting teaching evaluations. No characteristics were found to be significantly associated with attitudes towards the online method. Suggestions for future researchers are offered.     

Mobile Agents for Distributed and Heterogeneous Information Retrieval

The heterogeneous, distributed and voluminous nature of many government and corporate data sources impose severe constraints on meeting the diverse requirements of users who analyze the data. Additionally, communication bandwidth limitations, time constraints, and multiple data formats impose further restrictions on users of these distributed data sources. In this paper, we present an Agent-based Complex QUerying and Information Retrieval Engine (ACQUIRE) for large, heterogeneous, and distributed data sources. ACQUIRE acts as a softbot or interface agent by presenting users with a view of a single, unified, homogenous data source, against which users can pose high-level declarative queries. ACQUIRE translates each such user query into a set of sub-queries by employing a combination of planning and traditional database query optimization techniques. ACQUIRE then spawns a set of mobile agents corresponding to these sub-queries, which in turn retrieve the data from various distributed data sources by dynamically optimizing the retrieval strategy as it is carried out. These mobile agents carry with them data-processing code that can be executed at the remote site, thus reducing the size of data returned by the agent. When all mobile agents have returned, ACQUIRE filters and merges the retrieved data and presents the results to the user. While the system is still very much a work in progress, current validation experiments on simulated NASA Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) have demonstrated that complex queries can be effectively decomposed and retrieved by this approach.     

Computers and language learning: misguided assumptions

There has been a rapid increase in the availability of computer assisted instruction (CAI) software for teaching oral language skills. Despite the growing popularity of CAI in education, such an approach to language teaching fragments and isolates language learning from the context of its use and conflicts with current theory and research in language development and learning. The greatest potential for microcomputers in language learning may be as a medium for increasing student opportunities for using language by bringing students and teachers together around a shared activity.     

Self-regulatory climate: A positive attribute of public schools

This study contributes to the development of a positive framework for effective public schools in 2 ways. First, it advances the construct self-regulatory climate as consisting of 3 generative school norms—collective faculty trust in students, collective student trust in teachers, and student-perceived academic emphasis. The authors argue these norms signal a school climate supportive of student psychological needs. Second, they test the predictive validity of self-regulatory climate by empirically examining its relationship with school performance. Results of structural equation modeling support the theory that collective faculty trust in students, collective student trust in teachers, and student-perceived academic emphasis combine to form a self-regulatory climate that has positive consequences for urban school performance.     

Prenatal Maternal Stress,Child Cortical Thickness,and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Prenatal maternal stress predicts subsequent elevations in youth depressive symptoms, but the neural processes associated with these links are unclear. This study evaluated whether prenatal maternal stress is associated with child brain development, and adolescent depressive symptoms using a prospective design with 74 mother child pairs (40 boys). Maternal stress was assessed during pregnancy, child cortical thickness at age 7, and depressive symptoms at age 12. Prenatal maternal stress was associated with less cortical thickness primarily in frontal and temporal regions and with elevated depressive symptoms; child cortical thickness additionally correlated with adolescent depressive symptoms. The observed associations are consistent with the possibility that cortical thickness in superior frontal regions links associations between prenatal maternal stress and adolescent depressive symptoms.     

Stress in international work: Stressors and coping strategies of RNGO international directors

This study examines how international directors in religiously-affiliated nongovernmental organizations (RNGOs) cope with workplace stress. Interviews were conducted with directors from eight RNGOs who oversee programs in seven international regions. Findings reveal they experience three major stressors: difficulties communicating with others abroad, lack of funds, and dealing with constant travel. Overall, directors encounter these unique stressors due to the international demands of RNGO work, including international travel, fundraising for international programs, and intercultural communication. Moreover, they cope with stressors by striving for physical/mental health, pursuing/providing education, putting family first, seeking support, facilitating stakeholder communication, and planning ahead. Directors rely on problem-centered and emotion-centered coping, but they also describe the beneficial outcomes of avoidance-centered coping. Since only a few directors use prayer as a coping strategy, RNGOs must recognize that employees rely on secular and spiritual coping when developing organizational practices and programs related to stress management.