The Influence of Education Major: How Diverse Preservice Teachers View Pseudoscience Topics     

Susan Carol Losh  Brandon Nzekwe 《Journal of Science Education and Technology》2011,20(5):579-591

Pseudoscience beliefs (e.g., astrology, ghosts or UFOs) are rife in American society. Most research examines creation/evolution among liberal arts majors, general public adults, or, infrequently, middle or high school science teachers. Thus, research truncates the range of ersatz science thinking and the samples it studies. We examined diverse beliefs, e.g., extraterrestrials, magic, Biblical creation, and evolution, among 540 female and 123 male future teachers, including 325 elementary education majors. We study how these cognitions related to education major and, because popular media often present pseudoscience “information”, student media use. Future elementary educators most often rejected evolution and endorsed “creationism” or Intelligent Design. Education majors held similar beliefs about astrology, UFO landings, or magic. Compared with other education students, elementary education majors watched less news or science television and read fewer popular science magazines. However, religious and media variables explained more variation in creation/evolution beliefs than education major. We discuss implications of our findings for elementary school science education and how teacher educators may be able to affect pseudoscience beliefs among their elementary education students.  相似文献   

Sexual References and Consequences for Heterosexual,Lesbian, Gay,and Bisexual Characters on Television: A Comparison Content Analysis     

Bradley James Bond  Brandon Miller  Jennifer Stevens Aubrey 《Mass Communication and Society》2019,22(1):72-95

A content analysis was conducted to examine sexual references and consequences among lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB), and heterosexual characters on television. The sample was composed of programs portraying an LGB lead or reoccurring character. Results showed that heterosexual and LGB characters engaged in sexual talk and behavior in similar contexts. When discussing LGB sexualities, however, heterosexual characters were disproportionately likely to make jokes; LGB characters were disproportionately likely to discuss coming out. LGB characters depicted in sexual references were more likely to be in dialogue with a heterosexual character than another LGB character. Sexual consequences were more common for heterosexual characters than LGB characters. No gender differences existed in frequency of sexual references or consequences among LGB characters, evidence that the sexual double standard found in previous research may not apply to LGB characters. Results are discussed in terms of potential effects of exposure.  相似文献   

Trust and transformational government: A proposed framework for research     

Frank Bannister  Regina Connolly 《Government Information Quarterly》2011,28(2):137-147

This paper examines the concepts of trust and transformational government, both of which have been the subject of increasing attention in recent times. It explores what trust and transformation mean, or could mean, for government, governance and public administration and whether transformational government is just a feel-good phrase or a genuinely new departure. As part of this, the question of what precisely is being, or could be, transformed is examined. The results of this examination suggest that the expectation that technology-enabled change has the ability to increase citizen trust, thereby transforming government may be too high, but that more research is needed. A framework for such research is proposed.  相似文献   

What makes a word difficult? Insights into the mental representation of technical terms     

Regina Jucks  Elisabeth Paus 《Metacognition and Learning》2012,7(2):91-111

Learning from texts requires reflection on how far one has mastered the material. Learners use such metacognitive processes to decide whether to engage in deeper learning activities or not. This article examines how the lexical surface of specialist concepts influences their mental representation. Lexical encodings that are the concise wordings of a concept (e.g., tension headache or migraine for specific types of headache) provide immediate access to the underlying content. To understand learning contents appropriately, learners have to work on such lexical covers to gain insight into the underlying semantic meaning. It was assumed that a technical term??s origin (either German or classical Latin/Greek) is used systematically as a hint for further elaboration. 41 college students rated the difficulty, familiarity, competence, accessibility, and their knowledge of 17 German-language (GL) terms and their classical language (CL) synonyms. The influence of word frequency was controlled. As expected, results showed that GL terms were perceived to be less difficult than CL terms. Consequently, comprehension of these terms was rated more highly. Analyses of how lexical encoding influenced accuracy of participants?? comprehension judgments showed that participants?? comprehension ratings were less accurate for GL terms. Theoretical and practical implications for learning from written information are discussed.  相似文献   

Does war contribute to family violence against children? Findings from a two-generational multi-informant study in Northern Uganda     

Regina Saile  Verena Ertl  Frank Neuner  Claudia Catani 《Child abuse & neglect》2014

After 20 years of civil war in Northern Uganda, the continuity of violence within the family constitutes a major challenge to children's healthy development in the post-conflict era. Previous exposure to trauma and ongoing psychopathology in guardians potentially contribute to parental perpetration against children and dysfunctional interactions in the child's family ecology that increase children's risk of maltreatment. In order to investigate distal and proximal risk factors of child victimization, we first aimed to identify factors leading to more self-reported perpetration in guardians. Second, we examined factors in the child's family environment that promote child-reported experiences of maltreatment. Using a two-generational design we interviewed 368 children, 365 female guardians, and 304 male guardians from seven war-affected rural communities in Northern Uganda on the basis of standardized questionnaires. We found that the strongest predictors of self-reported aggressive parenting behaviors toward the child were guardians’ own experiences of childhood maltreatment, followed by female guardians’ victimization experiences in their intimate relationship and male guardians’ posttrautmatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and alcohol-related problems. Regarding children's self-report of victimization in the family, proximal factors including violence between adults in the household and male guardians’ PTSD symptom severity level predicted higher levels of maltreatment. Distal variables such as female guardians’ history of childhood victimization and female guardians’ exposure to traumatic war events also increased children's report of maltreatment. The current findings suggest that in the context of organized violence, an intergenerational cycle of violence persists that is exacerbated by female guardians’ re-victimization experiences and male guardians’ psychopathological symptoms.  相似文献   

An investigation of gender differences in Holland’s circumplex model of vocational personality types in South Africa     

Mintram  Kersha  Morgan  Brandon  de Bruin  Gideon P. 《International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance》2020,20(2):293-310

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - We investigated (a) the fit and structural equivalence of Holland’s model of six vocational personality types in a sample of...  相似文献   

Spanish Bilateral Initiatives for Education in Latin America     

Regina Cortina  María Teresa Sánchez 《Prospects》2007,37(2):267-281

The research presented in this article concerns la Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (Spanish Agency for International Cooperation—AECI) and its growing presence in Latin America since the late 1990s. The aim is to evaluate the transformative potential that bilateral funding can have on educational reform in the region. The article starts with a brief history of Spain’s past and present strategies for educational initiatives in Latin America, and then it focuses on three of AECI’s successful projects: basic and adult literacy; gender mainstreaming in development projects; and multicultural and bilingual education. The article explains the effectiveness of Spanish-sponsored projects in Latin America and compares their strategies with those of other bilateral and multilateral donors, such as PREAL. The article concludes by analysing multi-sectoral development efforts that are the foundation of educational strategies sponsored with Spanish funds, based on the grounds that elimination of poverty will not result from projects that focus exclusively on the individual or the family, but rather from those at the community level. AECI’s efforts are directed at cultivating internal capacities already present in the communities through training human resources and deploying financial resources.  相似文献   

A surprising effect of feedback on learning   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Regina Vollmeyer  Falko Rheinberg 《Learning and Instruction》2005,15(6):589-602

As meta-analyses demonstrate feedback effects on performance, our study examined possible mediators. Based on our cognitive–motivational model [Vollmeyer, R., & Rheinberg, F. (1998). Motivationale Einflüsse auf Erwerb und Anwendung von Wissen in einem computersimulierten System [Motivational influences on the acquisition and application of knowledge in a simulated system]. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 12, 11–23] we examined how feedback changed (1) strategies, and (2) motivation during learning, and by doing so improved (3) final performance. Students (N = 211) learned how a dynamic system works and how to reach given goal states for the system. One group received feedback (i.e., knowledge of performance) the other one did not. We expected learners to improve after they received the first feedback. However, we found that learners expecting feedback used better strategies right from the start. Thus, they acquired more knowledge over fewer trials. Although we had also expected effects of feedback on motivation during learning, we could not support this hypothesis.  相似文献   

Motivational Effects on Self-Regulated Learning with Different Tasks   总被引：3，自引：0，他引：3  

Regina Vollmeyer  Falko Rheinberg 《Educational Psychology Review》2006,18(3):239-253

In our cognitive motivational process model (Vollmeyer &; Rheinberg, Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 12:11–23, 1998) we assume that initial motivation affects performance via motivation during learning and learning strategies. These variables are also central for self-regulation theories (e.g., M. Boekaerts, European Psychologist, 1:100–122, 1996). In this article we discuss methods with which the model can be tested. Initial motivation with its four factors challenge, probability of success, interest, and anxiety was measured with the Questionnaire on Current Motivation (QCM; Rheinberg, Vollmeyer, &; Burns, Diagnostica, 47:57–66, 2001). As an indicator for the functional state we assessed flow with the FKS (Rheinberg, Vollmeyer, &; Engeser, Diagnostik von Motivation und Selbstkonzept [Diagnosis of Motivation and Self-Concept], Hogrefe, Göttingen, Germany, 261–279, 2003). We also used different tasks, including a linear system, a hypermedia program, and university-level classes. In general, our methods are valid and with them we found support for our model.  相似文献   

Cultivating student skills in self-regulated learning through evaluation of task complexity     

Regina Belski  Iouri Belski 《Teaching in Higher Education》2013,18(5):459-469

In order to self-regulate, students need to honestly reflect on their learning and to take appropriate corrective action. A simple procedure to cultivate student skills in self-regulated learning, known as the Task Evaluation and Reflection Instrument for Student Self-Assessment (TERISSA) is discussed in this paper. TERISSA guides students through two evaluations of the complexity of a task: the first is undertaken just before solving the task and the second straight after completing the task. This study involved 63 undergraduate students and observed a statistically significant difference (p = 0.007) in performance between the students who did (6.1/10) and did not (4.1/10) use TERISSA during tutorials leading up to an assessment task.  相似文献