Why Users Share the News: A Theory of Reasoned Action-Based Study on the Antecedents of News-Sharing Behavior

Social media have become an integral part of online news use, affecting how individuals find, consume, and share news. By applying the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), this study investigates the effects of motives, attitude, and intention on news-sharing behavior among German social media users (n = 333). Findings show that news-sharing attitude and subjective norms have a positive effect on news-sharing intention, which in turn has a positive effect on actual news-sharing behavior. Taken together, we see that a new media behavior in the early phases of its societal diffusion—like social media news sharing in Germany in 2015—can mainly be explained by a rational choice logic and is rooted in the motives of socializing and information seeking. This finding thus reflects the double nature of social media as a means for both information retrieval and social grooming.     

Out of Sight, (Not Yet) Out of Mind: The Impact of Tie Strength on Direct Interaction and Social Surveillance Among Geographically Close and Long-Distance Facebook Friends

Social networking sites are considered a valuable resource to maintain existing friendships even over considerable distances. The present study emphasizes tie strength as a crucial determinant for the use of interactive and passive features among 302 active Facebook users and friends of different relational closeness (close friends vs. casual friends vs. acquaintances) as well as a moderator for the impact of physical distance. As expected, tie strength affected direct interaction linearly, whereas social surveillance followed a quadratic trend. Furthermore, moderation analyses revealed less frequent direct interaction between close friends and stronger surveillance of casual friends’ profiles as physical distance increases. These results indicate different functions in relationship maintenance for both behaviors as direct interaction aims at nurturing current relationships, while surveillance serves as a catalyst for promising future communications. As a consequence, physical distance influences direct interaction adversely due to emerging constraints but also contains informational value encouraging information-seeking behaviors.     

Masculinity Politics, Myths and Boys' Schooling: A Review Essay

This essay reviews two recently published American books about masculinity politics—Michael Kimmel's pro-feminist Manhood in America and his edited collection The Politics of Manhood —in order to comment critically on the current debate underway in various parts of the world on 'boys' and their schooling which sees them as the 'new victims' of the educational process.     

Developing Middle School Students’ Interest in Learning Science and Geology Through Slowmation

Research in Science Education - Given that interest is associated with learning in educational research, understanding how its development can be supported in different learning contexts represents...     

A large-scale test of the relationship between procrastination and performance using learning analytics

Abstract

Many studies have found a relationship between students’ self-reported procrastination and their grades. Few studies have used learning analytic data as a behavioural measure of procrastination in order to predict performance, and there is no systematic research on how this relationship may differ across assessments or disciplines. In this study we analyse nine years’ worth of institutional electronic submission records, a total of 73,608 assignment submissions, to examine the relationship between submission time and grades across assignments, students, courses, and disciplines in higher education. A significant negative relationship was found overall, with students who submitted closer to the deadline obtaining lower grades, however the size of the relationship was negligible, accounting for less than 1% of the variance in grades. The relationship varied significantly depending on student, assignment, course and discipline.     

Practicum Placement in a Counseling-Employment Agency for Disadvantaged Youth

In order to emphasize the development of skills in helping the culturally disadvantaged, graduate students were given practicum placement in a Department of Labor-financed agency which gave counseling and employment training to disadvantaged youth. Students attended staff meetings, interviewed staff members concerning the work they performed, and discussed client contacts with caseworkers, in addition to interviewing agency clients. Increased awareness of problems, broadened conceptualizations, and expansion of interpersonal skills were seen as advantages of the practicum. Limitations included some lack of goal clarity and inefficiency of time use in dealing with this clientele.     

Let's Talk About Maths: The Role of Observed “Maths‐Talk” and Maths Provisions in Preschoolers' Numeracy

Developmental cognitive neuroscience highlights the importance of interactions between children and their environment. As young children spend increasing time in childcare, it is key to investigate the impact of “maths‐talk” and maths provisions in preschools. Qualitative insights from early educators indicate a greater bias toward counting activities than would be expected given the Early Years curriculum. In addition, we quantified the observed breadth of preschool practitioners' maths language (e.g., place‐value language), setting‐based maths provisions (e.g., quality of maths‐related activities), and their relation with children's early numeracy skills. In settings with greater practitioners' breadth of maths language, children display greater cardinality skills although our data call for the further investigation of parental socioeconomic status and education. We conclude with a discussion on the need to operationalize children's maths learning environments as diversely as possible. Enriching practitioners' skill sets may be an effective and needed way of improving early maths outcomes.     

Bursting paradigms: a colour wheel of practice-research

ABSTRACT

In this article, I question practice as a research paradigm by exploring its position in relation to non-positivist qualitative methodologies. Frayling’s [1994. Research in art and design. Royal College of Art Research Papers, 1(1), 1993/4] distinctions between research into, through, and as (for) practice are expanded to explore overlaps between these approaches. I argue for the need to understand the nuances of different epistemologies and ontologies that underpin diverse disciplinary approaches to practice-research. This is done through an analysis of a selection of Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded projects to find out how they are using and/or embedding practice in the research process. The resulting Colour Wheel of Practice-Research illustrates a spectrum of positions of practice in relation to research, suggesting existing research paradigms are bursting at the seams and that the “disciplinary matrix” of practice might offers other ways of knowing. The reason I have chosen to focus primarily on AHRC-funded projects is because it explicitly states its support of “practice-led research” and that it “remains dedicated to this area of research”. This article aims to add to knowledge of how and why practice-research is of continuing interest to research councils, universities, and those identifying as practice-based/led researchers.