Australian Research on Classroom Environment: State of the Art

1981 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 238-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry J. Fraser

International work involving the measurement and investigation of perceptions of psychosocial characteristics of school classrooms has firmly established classroom learning environment as a thriving field of study. Furthermore Australian educational researchers have made sizable and distinctive contributions to this research effort. This paper provides an overview of overseas work on the development and use of classroom environment instruments, reports normative and validation data from the use of new or modified scales among large Australian samples, and reviews the Australian research in the area. In particular, Australian research has involved predictive validity studies of outcome-environment relationships, use of environment perceptions as criterion variables, investigation of differences between student and teacher perceptions of actual and preferred environment, person-environment fit studies of relationships between student learning and actual-preferred congruence, and practical attempts to facilitate environmental change. Taken together, Australian studies provide much evidence which supports the validity of various classroom environment instruments, which attests to their usefulness as sources of both predictor and criterion variables for a variety of educational research purposes, and which suggests promising new directions for future research.

SAGE Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824402199065
Author(s):  
Matthew Canham ◽  
Clay Posey ◽  
Delainey Strickland ◽  
Michael Constantino

Organizational cybersecurity efforts depend largely on the employees who reside within organizational walls. These individuals are central to the effectiveness of organizational actions to protect sensitive assets, and research has shown that they can be detrimental (e.g., sabotage and computer abuse) as well as beneficial (e.g., protective motivated behaviors) to their organizations. One major context where employees affect their organizations is phishing via email systems, which is a common attack vector used by external actors to penetrate organizational networks, steal employee credentials, and create other forms of harm. In analyzing the behavior of more than 6,000 employees at a large university in the Southeast United States during 20 mock phishing campaigns over a 19-month period, this research effort makes several contributions. First, employees’ negative behaviors like clicking links and then entering data are evaluated alongside the positive behaviors of reporting the suspected phishing attempts to the proper organizational representatives. The analysis displays evidence of both repeat clicker and repeat reporter phenomena and their frequency and Pareto distributions across the study time frame. Second, we find that employees can be categorized according to one of the four unique clusters with respect to their behavioral responses to phishing attacks—“Gaffes,” “Beacons,” “Spectators,” and “Gushers.” While each of the clusters exhibits some level of phishing failures and reports, significant variation exists among the employee classifications. Our findings are helpful in driving a new and more holistic stream of research in the realm of all forms of employee responses to phishing attacks, and we provide avenues for such future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 317-332
Author(s):  
Katrien Vandevelde ◽  
Elfi Baillien ◽  
Guy Notelaers

PurposeThis study tested whether person-job fit (PJ-fit), person-group fit (PG-fit) and person-organization fit (PO-fit) relate to exposure to and enactment of workplace bullying (WB), mediated by strain and conflict.Design/methodology/approachData from 1,077 employees were analysed using multiple mediator structural equation modelling (Mplus 8.0).FindingsPJ-fit, PG-fit and PO-fit all related to WB. PG-fit accounted for most explained variance. PJ-fit, PG-fit and PO-fit related to bullying through strain; only PG-fit also related to bullying through conflict.Research limitations/implicationsPE-fit is valuable to parsimoniously investigate WB's multi-causal nature; and strain and conflict partially explain the associations. Future research may shed more light on the direction of these effects.Practical implicationsSo far, scholars assumed that job design prevents WB (work-environment hypothesis). This study revealed that prevention should also focus on the fit between employee and group/organization.Social implicationsWB has high societal costs. The authors introduce a new angle to WB prevention. To counteract WB, practitioners should also look at PJ-fit, PG-fit and PO-fit. This is not only important for recruitment, but also for tenured employees (e.g. because of changes in employees' needs, the job, the group or the organization).Originality/valueThis study was the first to investigate the multi-causal nature of both WB exposure and enactment, by applying the lens of PE-fit, and testing explanatory mechanisms.


Author(s):  
MoonSook Kim ◽  
YeSil Kim ◽  
Soonmook Lee

The purpose of this study is to meta-analyze the relationships between the emotional labor and job-related variables such as burnout, turnover intention, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment among Korean emotional workers. In total, there were 11835 employees from 43 studies that were meta-analysed in the present study using Hunter and Schmidt(2004)’s and Borenstein et al.(2009)’s procedures. It was revealed that emotional labors, depending on whether they were surface acting or deep acting, have different relationships with criterion variables. That is, the surface acting was positively related with emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and turnover intention. In contrast, the deep acting was negatively related with emotional depersonalization and positively related with organizational commitment. It was revealed that professionality of service was a thoretical moderator and source of papers was a methodological moderator. Comparing with a meta-analytic study in Western literature, it was shown that deep acting strategy would bring desirable results to organizations in terms of the relationships between emotional labors and criterion variables such as burnout, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. Lastly, implications and limitations of the study, and directions for future research were discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte E. Pugsley ◽  
R. E. Isaac ◽  
Nicholas J. Warren ◽  
Olivier J. Cayre

Since the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans in 1998 by Fire and Mello et al., strides have been made in exploiting RNAi for therapeutic applications and more recently for highly selective insect pest control. Although triggering mRNA degradation in insects through RNAi offers significant opportunities in crop protection, the application of environmental naked dsRNA is often ineffective in eliciting a RNAi response that results in pest lethality. There are many possible reasons for the failed or weak induction of RNAi, with predominant causes being the degradation of dsRNA in the formulated pesticide, in the field or in the insect once ingested, poor cuticular and oral uptake of the nucleic acid and sometimes the lack of an innate strong systemic RNAi response. Therefore, in the last 10 years significant research effort has focused on developing methods for the protection and delivery of environmental dsRNA to enable RNAi-induced insect control. This review focuses on the design and synthesis of vectors (vehicles that are capable of carrying and protecting dsRNA) that successfully enhance mRNA degradation via the RNAi machinery. The majority of solutions exploit the ability of charged polymers, both synthetic and natural, to complex with dsRNA, but alternative nanocarriers such as clay nanosheets and liposomal vesicles have also been developed. The various challenges of dsRNA delivery and the obstacles in the development of well-designed nanoparticles that act to protect the nucleic acid are highlighted. In addition, future research directions for improving the efficacy of RNA-mediated crop protection are anticipated with inspiration taken from polymeric architectures constructed for RNA-based therapeutic applications.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory G. Taylor ◽  
Stephen W. Smith

Verbal aggression (VA) is among the most prevalent forms of problem behavior in schools with detrimental effects for both perpetrators and victims, yet little is known about VA among students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Accordingly, we surveyed 279 teachers of students with behavioral disorders to examine the prevalence, frequency, locations, bystander presence and interactions, student responses, and teacher assigned consequences for verbal aggressiveness. A majority of teachers indicated daily student-to-student and student-to-adult VA with students frequently reporting, complaining, or seeking advice. Teachers noted that VA takes place in multiple locations, with at least one bystander present, and they observed victim verbal retaliation and physical assaults. Teacher responses included redirection and verbal warnings. Few teachers reported instruction of alternative prosocial behaviors. We discuss the potential implications of these findings and the impact teacher perceptions may have on strategy selection when addressing VA. We propose a few areas for future research including teachers’ level of concern about the harmfulness of VA, the intent to harm when students with EBD engage in VA, the need for specialized teacher training, and the development of a conceptual framework to inform an integrated and substantive view of the VA phenomenon.


1992 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Grimshaw

Many academic and practical traditions have been brought to bear upon the field of business information systems in an attempt to understand a rapidly changing subject. The insights provided by traditional disciplines to an essentially multi-disciplinary subject is essential and very healthy. However, there is a danger of proliferating many different, overlapping frameworks of information systems. There is a need to review the frameworks and suggest a way of integrating several approaches. The future research effort depends upon a consistent set of data being available and discussed. This paper reviews previous frameworks used to promote the understanding and discussion of information systems. The one-dimensional approach is rejected in favour of a three-dimensional approach built around three basic questions characterized as the three Ts. What tasks does the information system have to perform? What technology can best deliver the systems? In what timeframe are we operating? The paper concludes by suggesting an integrated taxonomy, based on the three Ts as the basis for future research and discussion.


Author(s):  
Rachel S Rauvola ◽  
Cort W Rudolph ◽  
Lena K Ebbert ◽  
Hannes Zacher

Abstract Person–environment (PE) fit, a broad constellation of constructs related to an individual’s congruence with their work environment, is of great interest to research and practice given its implications for positive work outcomes and sustainable employment. Informed by a life-span perspective, particularly socioemotional selectivity theory, the present studies investigated potential age-conditional effects of PE fit types (person–job [PJ], person–group [PG], and person–organization [PO] fit) on work satisfaction. In two studies, a policy-capturing approach was used in which participants read a series of work scenario vignettes and then rated their hypothetical work satisfaction in these scenarios. In Study 1, these cues varied by fit type and levels of fit (i.e., low, medium, high), while in Study 2, they varied by fit type and level in addition to goal type (i.e., socioemotional, instrumental). It was expected that PJ fit would be more important for work satisfaction of relatively younger participants and PO fit would be more important for relatively older participants; potential age-conditional PG effects were explored as well. Findings provided support for the assumption that PO fit is more important for older individuals’ work satisfaction, while PJ and PG fit manifested mixed results; moreover, we did not find significant effects of goal type as anticipated in Study 2. These results are interpreted in light of existing theory, and future research directions and potential applications are discussed.


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