Two instructional designs for dialogic citizenship education: An effect study

Background Despite the renewed interest in citizenship education, relatively little is known about effective ways to realize citizenship education in the classroom. In the literature on citizenship education, dialogue is considered to be a crucial element. However, there is very little, if any, empirical research into the different ways to stimulate dialogue. Aim The main aim of this study is to arrive at an understanding of how citizenship education can be integrated in history classes. The focus is on the effect of a dialogic approach to citizenship education on students' ability to justify an opinion on moral issues. Sample Four hundred and eighty‐two students in the eighth grade of secondary education. Methods Two curriculum units for dialogic citizenship education were developed and implemented. The two curriculum units differed in the balance between group work and whole‐class teaching. Students' ability to justify an opinion was assessed by means of short essays written by students on a moral issue. The effectiveness of both curriculum units was compared with regular history classes. Results Students who participated in the lessons for dialogic citizenship education were able to justify their opinion better than students who participated in regular history lessons. The results further show a positive effect of the amount of group work involved. Conclusion The results of this study indicate that a dialogic approach to citizenship education as an integral part of history classes helps students to form a more profound opinion about moral issues in the subject matter. In addition, group work seems to be a more effective method to implement dialogue in the classroom than whole‐class teaching.     

Teacher–child interactions: relations with children's self‐concept in second grade

This study examined whether teacher–child interactions characterized by teacher involvement, structure, and autonomy support at the beginning of second grade predicted children's global, academic, social, and behavioural self‐concept at the end of second grade. The study was conducted in 30 second grade classrooms with 570 children and their teachers. Data included teacher reports of teacher–child interactions and child reports of self‐concept. Results showed that, when controlling for the initial level of self‐concept, children's social self‐concept was predicted by teacher involvement, structure, and autonomy support. In addition, teacher autonomy support predicted high academic self‐concept. Finally, these teacher–child interaction characteristics did not contribute to the behavioural and global self‐concept. The results were similar for boys and girls. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Green consumerism: The influence of product attributes and values on purchasing intentions

Generally, a majority of consumers support the idea of purchasing green products. However, this is often not translated into actual behaviour. We argue that there is a trade‐off between the influence of product attributes on purchasing decisions, whereby it is assumed that consumers tend to focus on egoistic product attributes first, followed by green product attributes. In two experimental studies (N = 100 and N = 107), we find support for this reasoning: If product attributes fulfil self‐serving motives (low price, familiar or well‐known brand), green product attributes (cruelty free and low environmental impact) influence purchasing intentions more than when self‐serving motives are not fulfilled (high price, unfamiliar or unknown brand). Further, we investigated if and how values weaken or strengthen the influence of product attributes on purchasing intentions. We conclude that biospheric values steer how product attributes influence purchasing intentions stronger than egoistic values. In line with our expectations, we find that if biospheric values are weak, egoistic product attributes are more influential, whereas if biopheric values are strong, green product attributes are more influential. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relational recovery after infidelity as a dual process: A model based on the experiences of female injured partners

In the literature, relational recovery after infidelity is often described as a process going through different consecutive stages towards a reconciliation. We interviewed 25 injured partners and invited them to look back and talk about what helped them to recover from the pain and the conflicts caused by the relational infidelity of their partner. From their stories—through thematic analysis—four themes emerged: 1. talking, 2.the truth, 3. trust and 4. ethical imbalance. It furthermore struck us how the participants described their recovery process as an experience of being oscillated between connection and disconnection. These findings pointed us in the direction of developing a dual process model that fits with our participants' experiences of recovering after infidelity, while emphasizing the dynamic nature of their stories.     

The Role of Teacher Behavior Management in the Development of Disruptive Behaviors: An Intervention Study with the Good Behavior Game

The role of teacher behavior management for children’s disruptive behavior development (hyperactive and oppositional behavior) was investigated using a universal classroom preventive intervention study. Five-hundred seventy children were followed from second to third grade of elementary school. Observations of teacher behavior management and children’s on-task and off-task classroom behavior and peer reports of hyperactive and oppositional behavior were available. Results showed that the reduced use of negative remarks of intervention teachers predicted children’s increase in on-task behavior and decrease in talking-out behavior. These improved children’s classroom behaviors in turn mediated the impact of the intervention on the development of hyperactive and oppositional behavior over the studied period. These results were similar for girls and boys. The results underscore the role of teachers’ classroom management strategies in improving children’s classroom behavior, which, in turn is an important component in the reduction of disruptive behavior development.     

Reducing work-family conflict through different sources of social support

The present study examines the relationship between four sources of social support (i.e., spouse, relatives and friends, supervisor, and colleagues) and time and strain-based work-to-family and family-to-work conflict among 444 dual-earners. Gender differences with respect to the relationship between social support and work-family conflict were examined as well. The relationship between the sources of support and work-family conflict was tested using multiple regression analyses. Results showed that women reported more strain-based work-to-family conflict than men. Social support from spouse and from colleagues were related to family-to-work conflict, while none of the sources of social support were related to work-to-family conflict. Social support from supervisor and from colleagues were related differently to work-to-family conflict (time-based) and family-to-work conflict (strain-based) for men than for women. We conclude that social support is especially important in reducing family-to-work conflict.