How Do Individuals in a Radical Echo Chamber React to Opposing Views? Evidence from a Content Analysis of Stormfront

Calls to “break up” radical echo chambers by injecting them with alternative viewpoints are common. Yet, thus far there is little evidence about the impact of such counter-messaging. To what extent and how do individuals who inhabit a radical echo chamber engage with messages that challenge their core beliefs? Drawing on data from the radical right forum Stormfront we address this question with a large-scale content and longitudinal analysis of users’ posting behavior, which analyses more than 35,000 English language contributions to the forum spanning 2011 through 2013. Our findings show that engaging with oppositional views is actually a core practice among Stromfront users which invites active participation and encourages engagement. Indeed, many “echoes” in the echo chamber we studied were not core beliefs being restated, but the sound of opposing viewpoints being undermined and marginalized. These findings underscore the limited potential for counter-messages to undermine radical echo chambers.

Effect of thinning intensity on the stem CO2 efflux of Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr

Background Stem CO2 efflux (ES) plays a critical role in the carbon budget of forest ecosystems. Thinning is a core practice for sustainable management of plantations. It is therefore necessary and urgent to study the effect and mechanism of thinning intensity (TI) on ES. Methods In this study, five TIs were applied in Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr 21-, 25-, and 41-year-old stands in North China in 2010. Portable infrared gas analyzer (Li-8100 A) was used to measure ES and its association with environmental factors at monthly intervals from May to October in 2013 to 2015. In addition, nutrients, wood structure and nonstructural carbon (NSC) data were measured in August 2016. Results The results show that ES increased with increasing TI. The maximum ES values occurred at a TI of 35 % (3.29, 4.57 and 2.98 µmol∙m-2∙s-1) and were 1.54-, 1.94- and 2.89-fold greater than the minimum ES value in the CK stands (2.14, 2.35 and 1.03 µmol∙m-2∙s-1) in July for the 21-, 25- and 41-year-old forests, respectively. The ES of the trees in low-density stands was more sensitive to temperature than that of the trees in high-density stands. Soluble sugars (SS) and temperature are the main factors affecting ES. When the stand density is low enough as 41-year-old L. principis-rupprechtii forests with TI 35 %, bark thickness (BT) and humidity should be considered in addition to air temperature (Ta), wood temperature (Tw), sapwood width (SW), nitrogen concentration (N) and SS in the evaluation of ES. If a change in stand density is ignored, the CO2 released from individual 21-, 25- and 41-year-old trees could be underestimated by 168.89 %, 101.94 % and 200.49 %, respectively. CO2 release was estimated based on the stem equation in combination with the factors influencing ES for reference. Conclusions We suggest that it is not sufficient to conventional models which quantify ES only by temperature and that incorporating the associated drivers (e.g. density, SS, SW and N) based on stand density into conventional models can improve the accuracy of ES estimates.

Radical Acts of Re-imaging Ethical Relationality and Trans-systemic Transformation

This Indigenous métissage explores my engagement in Indigenous Arts-based Inquiry as a practice of Anishinaabe Ozihtoon or Indigenous making and knowledge generation. Anishinaabe Ozhitoon is a site that unlocks the theoretical potentialities of the intelligences within Indigenous Knowledge practices in contemporary contexts and reanimates Indigenous land-based assurgence. Reviving Indigenous artistic practices, as sites of co-imagining through constellations of co-creation, is part of ecological and community-based reconciliation and healing. Key to this process is the act of reciprocal recognition, a core practice that fosters ethical relationality, helps cultivate our Indigeneity, and honours the circle of life. This Indigenous métissage tracks the Indigenous pedagogical processes and Indigenous art making used in my own praxis and inquiry as a scholar while I worked in a university to create three pathways for trans-systemic knowledge creation: a university-wide President’s Dream Colloquium with an accompanying graduate course; a graduate diploma in Indigenous Education: Education for Reconciliation and a master’s in Indigenous Education: Truth, Reconciliation, and Indigenous Resurgence; and the Indigenous Research Institute initiation of an Indigenous Ethics Dialogue process as a trans-systemic pedagogical engagement with Indigenous and Western Knowledges, values, and ethics.

Integration model of total quality management and six sigma in hospital quality management

Implementation of quality management is very important for hospitals to improve processes, solve problems, and reduce variations and errors in service, including through the implementation of popular Total Quality Management (TQM) and Six Sigma (SS) as new quality management strategies to increase profitability, effectiveness and efficiency of the organization's operations to meet customer’s needs. This study aims to develop an integrated hospital quality management model from the practice of TQM and SS to provide synergy in improving hospital performance. The study design was cross sectional through a survey using a questionnaire on 863 respondents, namely all employees ranging from doctors to administrative personnel at 8 hospitals. The TQM and SS practice integration model identified as “Quality Management Alliance Model (QMA)” consists of 6 variable constructs, namely: Management Practice (MP); TQM Infrastructure Practice (IPTQM); SS Infrastructure Practice (IPSS); Core Practice TQM (CPTQM); Core Practice SS (CPSS); and Hospital Performance (KRS) with 12 structural equations hypothesized. Data analysis are performed using Structural Equation Model through 2 tests, namely analysis of measurement models using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) second order approach and structural model analysis. The results of the first order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) analysis, after issuing invalid indicators (SLF≤0.5 and t≤1.96), obtained constructs of latent variables with models fit, valid, and reliable. Then in the second order CFA analysis on the overall model after being simplified through LVS (latent variable score) the study obtained construct model fit, valid and reliable. The results of the structural model analysis obtained a model fit with 11 structural equations that are positively and significantly related (t> 1.96). This study proves that the QMA model is feasible and can be applied to measure the implementation of hospital quality management. Hospital management is recommended to implement the QMA Model optimally to improve performance.

Preemployment Psychological Screening of Police Officer Applicants

The psychological screening of law enforcement officer applicants represents a core practice area in police psychology. Significant advances have been made in recent years regarding the development of practice guidelines and standards. This chapter provides an overview of the essential components of this specialized form of high-stakes psychological assessment. Important legal principles are highlighted and key resources are identified. The core steps in a contemporary screening model are described and the psychological self-report measures most widely used in psychological screenings are profiled. Factors impacting the validity and usefulness of psychological test results are discussed. The critical need for preemployment psychological screenings of police officer candidates to be culturally sensitive is addressed, as are some of the criticisms that have been identified in the literature. The chapter stresses the need for preemployment assessments of police officer candidates to be evidence-based, ethically attuned, and consistent with recent advances in police psychology.

PRÁTICAS FORMATIVAS NA FORMAÇÃO INICIAL DOCENTE: O CASO DO CONSÓRCIO DE PRÁTICA ESSENCIAL

RESUMO: Este trabalho apresenta e discute as práticas formativas desenvolvidas pelo Consórcio de Prática Essencial (Core Practice Consortium - CPC), um conjunto de 12 Faculdades de Educação dos Estados Unidos que colaboram em pesquisas e iniciativas de formação de professores desde 2012. A metodologia utilizada foi uma revisão bibliográfica das produções acadêmicas das principais pesquisadoras do grupo nos últimos dez anos. Como resultado, identificou-se que a abordagem proposta pelo CPC se insere na “formação de professores centrada na prática” e busca preparar os licenciandos para desenvolver práticas consideradas essenciais para a docência na educação básica. Para tanto, os pesquisadores do consórcio identificaram práticas essenciais da docência em diferentes áreas do conhecimento - o conteúdo de ensino - e práticas formativas que se mostram efetivas no processo de ensino das práticas essenciais para futuros professores. As evidências produzidas pelo consórcio e exploradas neste trabalho podem se constituir em inspiração para as reflexões acerca de práticas formativas no contexto brasileiro.

Equitable Teaching and the Core Practice Movement: Preservice Teachers’ Professional Reasoning

Background/Context The Core Practice movement continues to gain momentum in teacher education research. Yet critics highlight that equitable teaching cannot be reduced to a set of “core” practices, arguing that such a reduction risks representing teaching as technical work that will be neither culturally responsive nor sustaining. Instead, they argue that preservice teachers need opportunities to develop professional reasoning that takes the specific strengths and needs of students, communities, and subject matter into account. Purpose This analysis takes up the question of how and whether pedagogies of investigation and enactment can support preservice teachers’ development of the professional reasoning that equitable teaching requires. It conceptualizes two types of professional reasoning: interpretive, in which reasoners decide how to frame instructional problems and make subsequent efforts to solve them, and prescriptive, in which reasoners solve an instructional problem as given. Research Design This work is a qualitative, multiple case study, based on design research in which preservice teachers participated in three different cycles of investigation and enactment, which were designed around a teaching practice central to equitable teaching: making student thinking visible. Preservice teachers attended to students’ thinking in the context of the collaborative analysis of students’ writing and also through designed simulations of student-teacher writing conferences. Findings/Results Preservice teachers’ collaborative analysis of students’ writing supported prescriptive professional reasoning about disciplinary ideas in ELA and writing instruction (i.e., How do seventh graders use hyperbole? How is hyperbole related to the Six Traits of Writing?), while the simulation of a writing conference supported preservice teachers to reason interpretively about how to balance the need to support students’ affective commitment to writing with their desire to teach academic concepts about writing. Conclusions/Recommendations This analysis highlights an important heuristic for the design of pedagogies in teacher education: Teacher educators need to attend to preservice teachers’ opportunities for both interpretive and prescriptive reasoning. Both are essential for teachers, but only interpretive reasoning will support teachers to teach in ways that are both intellectually rigorous and equitable. The article further describes how and why a tempting assumption—that opportunities to role-play student-teacher interactions will support preservice teachers to reason interpretively, while non-interactive work will not—is incomplete and avoidable.

Det affektive møtet mellom tekst og lesar: Tre postkritiske inngangar til å velja skjønnlitteratur i morsmålsfaget

Artikkelen identifiserer val av skjønnlitteratur som ein kjernepraksis i morsmåls-undervisninga, der det i liten grad finst forsking på eksisterande praksis og teoretiske grunnlagsproblem. Det er til det sistnemnde feltet artikkelen søkjer å bidraga, ved å opne opp og nyansere diskusjonen om premissar for litteraturval. Artikkelen er todelt. Den fyrste delen er ei metateoretisk drøfting av dei ulike syna på skjønnlitteratur og litteraturundervisning som er i spel i kanon- og utvalsdebattar. Drøftinga bruker dikotomien kvalitet/representativitet som tankefigur for å klårgjera skiljeliner, samanfall og uteoretiserte premissar i dei ulike haldningane. Med utgangspunkt i dette blir det argumentert for at eit dialogisk syn på litterær kompetanse, saman med postkritisk teori, kan danne eit meir fruktbart utgangspunkt for å reflektere over kva litteraturen gjer i møte med lesarar, og dimed kva for grunnlag ein vel litteratur ut frå. Den andre delen føreslår å didaktisere postkritisk teori ved å skildre tre inngangar til litteraturvalet. Desse inngangane kan sjåast som grunnlag for å velja litteratur, men òg som kategoriar for å skildre kva som skjer i møtet mellom lesarar og dei skjønnlitterære tekstene i morsmålsfaget. Avslutningsvis blir den presumptive konflikten mellom estetisk utforsking og didaktisk målstyring drøfta, og det blir argumentert for at litteratursynet artikkelen skildrar, stør opp under ei problembasert litteraturundervisning. Nøkkelord: litteraturdidaktikk, litterær kompetanse, litterær kanon, litterær etikk, postkritikk, affektteori The affective encounter between text and reader:Three postcritical approaches to the choice of literature in L1 education AbstractThe article identifies the selection of literature as a core practice in L1 education on which there is a limited amount of research on existing practices and theoretical assumptions. Seeking to contribute to the latter, the article suggests ways to open and nuance the discussion around the selection of literature. The article consists of two main parts. The first part offers a metatheoretical discussion of the differing views on imaginative literature and literary education at stake in discussions of the literary canon and literature selection. The discussion employs the dichotomy quality/representativity as analytical category in order to highlight fissures, overlaps and untheorized assumptions in the differing viewpoints. Hence, it is argued that a dialogical understanding of literary competence, in conjunction with postcritical theory, may form a more productive starting point for reflections on what literature does in encounters with readers, and thus on what basis literary texts are selected. The second part of the article suggests a pedagogization of postcritical theory by describing three approaches to the selection of literature. These approaches can be regarded as a basis for selection, but also descriptive categories of what happens in the encounter between readers and texts in the context of L1 education. In conclusion, the supposed conflict between aesthetical exploration and pedagogical management by objectives is discussed, and it is argued that the notion of literature described in the article supports a problem-based literary instruction. Keywords: literary education, literary competence, literary canon, literary ethics, postcritical theory, affect theory