Nurturing Authority

When considering the role of local journalism in a networked media environment, it is crucial to examine how audiences attribute news with the power to define social knowledge. In particular, television news programs need to appeal to audiences by reinforcing a sense of local journalistic authority to assert the parameters of who and what is worthy of coverage. This article presents the findings from interviews with a range of commercial television news viewers in Sydney, Australia. It positions viewership in the context of people’s wider engagement with news, and in relation to their interpersonal and digital social interactions. The paper argues that local audiences have conflicting attitudes to the role of television news, both contesting and re-inscribing the programs with the power to demarcate social, political, and cultural knowledge. It traces how local audiences challenge the ability of news to convey boundaries within the community through processes of exclusion, connecting the contestations to the lived experiences of the individuals. It identifies that television news programs nurture journalistic authority in terms of their local relevance, and it contributes insights on the significance of local news by engaging with the means by which audiences themselves attach social power to journalism.     

Accuracy of metacognitive judgments as a moderator of learner control effectiveness in problem-solving tasks

A possible explanation for why students do not benefit from learner-controlled instruction is that they are not able to accurately monitor their own performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and how the accuracy of metacognitive judgments made during training moderates the effect of learner control on performance when solving genetics tasks. Eighty-six undergraduate students solved self-selected genetics tasks using either a full learner control or a restricted learner control. Results indicated that learner control effectiveness was moderated by the absolute accuracy (i.e., absolute bias) of metacognitive judgments, and this accuracy was a better predictor of learning performance for full learner control than for restricted learner control. Furthermore, students’ prior knowledge predicted absolute accuracy of both ease-of-learning judgments (EOLs) and retrospective confidence judgments (RCJs) during training, with higher prior knowledge resulting in a better absolute accuracy. Overall, monitoring guided control, that is, EOLs predicted time-on-task and invested mental effort regardless of the degree of learner control, whereas RCJs predicted the total training time, but not the number of tasks selected during training. These results suggest that monitoring accuracy plays an important role in effective regulation of learning from problem-solving tasks, and provide further evidence that metacognitive judgments affect study time allocation in problem solving context.     

Teacher-parent relationships: influence of gender and education on organizational parents’ counterproductive behaviors

The present paper examines the influence of parent’s demographics (gender and educational level) and a contextual variable (school grade) on counterproductive parents’ behavior during interaction with teachers. Data were gathered by administering the Italian version of the Challenging Parent Standard Questionnaire (Pepe 2010) to a sample of in-service teachers of both elementary and middle schools (N?=?674). As a result, a sample composed of 150 fathers and 524 mothers showing counterproductive behaviors was obtained. General linear model multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) revealed no statistically significant differences between fathers’ and mothers’ counterproductive behaviors when controlled for the effects of parents’ education and the school grade. Low parental educational levels appeared to be associated with uncooperative and uninvolved behaviors, whereas excessively worried behaviors about a child’s education seems to be associated with a parent having a college degree or more. It must be remarked that parents’ behaviors can be conditioned by expectation about, or reaction to, the behavior of the teacher and the results should be interpreted by considering nonindependence of involved actors. Results are discussed in terms of theory development and parenting programs aimed at improving parent-teacher relationships.     

RESCUR Surfing the Waves: an evaluation of a resilience programme in the early years

ABSTRACT

RESCUR Surfing the Waves is a recently developed resilience curriculum for early years and primary schools in Europe. It seeks to develop in marginalized young learners the requisite competences needed to overcome the various challenges in their lives to achieve academic success and social and emotional wellbeing. The competences include developing a growth mindset, making use of one’s strengths, self-determination, effective communication skills and healthy relationships, and overcoming challenges and obstacles. This paper presents the findings of a study on the implementation of the programme in five kindergarten centres in Malta over a 1-year period. A pre- and post-intervention study in 20 classrooms (97 children) showed an improvement in resilience skills, prosocial behavior and learning engagement, but not in internalized and externalized problem behaviors. A small scale study in two nurture classes at two of the schools found similar findings. The findings suggest that there are indications that the programme as a proportionate universal intervention for early years leads to an improvement in social and academic behaviours, but more rigorous research is needed to substantiate these findings.     

Children’s academic achievement and goal orientations: does the ethnic membership matter? / Rendimiento académico y orientación a las metas: el papel de la etnicidad

This study explored how ethnic membership relates to children’s academic achievement and goal orientations and whether there are ethnic differences in how goal orientations are linked to academic achievement. Further, we investigated whether these relations vary based on the geographical region where ethnic groups live. The sample included 361 children (179 girls), age 12–15 years, from two regions in Romania, Banat (n = 237) and Moldavia (n = 124). Ethnic differences in academic achievement were found only between majority and Hungarian minority ethnic groups who live in different areas, whereas ethnic differences in goal orientations were found between minority and both groups of majority children (living in the same and in different geographical regions). The strengths of the associations between goals and academic achievement were not significantly different based on ethnic and regional background. The findings highlight the importance of cultural (i.e., ethnicity) and contextual (i.e., regional area) factors in relation to children’s achievement and motivation (i.e., goal orientations). Additionally, our findings show that the relations between academic achievement and goal orientations are similar across the analysed ethnic and regional groups.     

Classroom environment,achievement goals and maths performance: gender differences

This study investigated how gender shapes the relationships between classroom environment, achievement goals and maths performance. Seventh-grade students (N?=?498) from five urban secondary schools filled in achievement goal orientations and classroom environment scales at the beginning of the second semester. Maths performance was assessed as an average grade four months later. The results indicated gender differences in the perception of teacher and peers support, achievement goals and maths performance. The effects of goal orientations, teacher and peers support on achievement were moderated by gender. Furthermore, the interaction between classroom environment and performance goals on maths grades varied with gender. In the boys’ sample, performance-avoidance goals interacted with teacher support, while in the girls’ sample, performance-approach goals interacted with peers support in predicting maths grades. The educational implications of these gender differences are discussed.     

Intelligence beliefs,goal orientations and children’s academic achievement: does the children’s gender matter?

This study evaluated how gender is related to children’s intelligence beliefs, goal orientations and academic achievement and whether there are gender differences in how intelligence beliefs and goal orientations are related to academic achievement. The participants, 362 seventh grade students (55.8% girls; Mage = 13.20, SD = .57 years), completed measures regarding their intelligence beliefs and goal orientations at the beginning of the second semester and the grades were collected at the end of the semester. Girls reported higher scores on incremental belief, mastery goal and higher achievement but lower levels of performance avoidance compared to boys. The relations between intelligence beliefs and academic achievement were fully mediated by both performance goals. Further, there were no gender differences in the associations among intelligence beliefs, goal orientations and achievement. The findings reveal that goal orientations are a mechanism that might explain why intelligence beliefs are linked with academic achievement in early adolescence.     

Water dispersed polymers for textile conservation: a molecular, thermal, structural, mechanical and optical characterisation

With the aim of identifying new water dispersed polymers for textile conservation, the structure and properties of three commercial polyacrylates and one commercial polyvinylacetate were analysed. The characteristics of these materials, not previously used in the conservation and restoration fields, were compared with that shown by Primal AC33 and Mowilith DMC2 and SDM5, widely used as consolidating or adhesive agents of ancient textiles. To achieve a thorough characterisation of each polymer, molecular, thermal, structural and mechanical investigation techniques were applied on film samples, obtained from polymer water dispersions through water casting at room temperature and/or compression moulding. The photo-oxidative resistance of these materials was also assessed by artificial weathering of water cast films and by measuring the Yellowing Index (YI) as a function of the exposure time under xenon-arc lamp. Collected data were used to appropriately compare the performances shown by these polymers when applied on artefacts consisting of natural fibres. In particular it was found that, among the products not previously used in the conservation and restoration fields, a high potential for carrying out treatments on textiles is shown by the samples commercialised with the trade names of Acrilem RP6005 and Acrilem 30WA. These products, in fact, exhibit properties that make them suitable as substitutes for Primal AC33 and Mowilith DMC2 and SDM5, respectively, depending upon conservation needs. It was very interesting to note that Acrilem 30WA, also after aging, shows YI values lower than that shown by Mowilith DMC2 and SDM5.     

Nonword reading and other reading-related skills in Down syndrome

The performance of children and young adults with Down syndrome (DS) on reading subskills and nonword reading was investigated. The performance of the participants with DS (N = 42) was compared to that of typically developing (N = 36) peers matched on fluid intelligence abilities. The study accounted for the different depths in orthography presented by the two languages. The independent samples t-test, Mann–Whitney U-test, ANCOVA and correlation analysis were used to analyse the data. This study identified that the participants with DS had several strengths, such as nonword reading, visual discrimination (VD) and phonological awareness. Verbal short-term memory, visual perceptual processing skills other than VD and rhyming skills were identified as weaker in DS compared with the control group. Results call for educators to expose readers with DS to a phonological approach to reading while accommodating difficulties in VSTM.