This preliminary study examined the effect that five major sources of public science education-schools, science centers, broadcast media, print media, and the Internet-had on adults' science interest values and cognitive predispositions. Over 3,000 adults were sampled in three U.S. metropolitan areas: Los Angeles, California, Phoenix, Arizona, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. To minimize potential sampling bias, the results were weighted by current U.S. Census data to be comparable to demographics from each of the three jurisdictions. Participants were asked to self-report their current and early adolescent usage of these five science-related resources, the quality of their experiences with each, and their current abilities, values, and cognitive predispositions relative to science. Data showed that overall, a broad crosssection of adults living in these cities engaged in a wide array of science-related activities and that large majorities did so frequently. Nearly two-thirds of all respondents selfreported currently participating in some kind of sciencerelated activity every week and nearly half doing so daily. Results suggested that having frequent; positive sciencerelated experiences in-and out-of-school, both early and later in life, correlated with having a strong interest in and positive perception of science as an adult. Although a diversity of positive science-related experiences correlated with current adult science interest values and cognitive predispositions, only five factors uniquely and significantly predicted adult science interest, values, and cognitive predispositions in the multivariate models: (a) early adolescent experiences visiting a science center, (b) early adolescent experiences watching science-related television, (c) adult visits to a science center, (d) adults reading books and magazines about science, and (e) adults using the internet to learn more about 422 | V C 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tea J Res Sci Teach. 2018;55:422-445.
For generations educators have been supporting children and youth’s science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning through informal education programming. Such programming includes a wide variety of outdoor education programs, camp programs, and increasingly targeted STEM programs run afterschool, on weekends, and over the summer months. However, despite the positive impacts these programs have, few would argue that these programs could not be improved or be designed to better meet the needs of a broader and more diverse population of learners. Arguably, one major flaw in how most educators have approached the design and improvement of these programs—a flaw that permeates almost all informal STEM education efforts–is that either explicitly or implicitly, the focus of educators has been exclusively on what happens during the program itself. Superficially this seems reasonable. After all, the time children/youth are within the temporal and physical boundaries of the program, class, or museum is the time when educators have maximal control over events. However, given what is known about how people learn (National Academies of Sciences, 2018), we argue that this long-standing approach needs to be reconsidered.
Occupational stress has become a worldwide epidemic exacting severe tolls on both businesses and employees alike. Of all the workplace stressors, the perceived dangerousness of one's job is ever present within the occupation of corrections. The current study examined the mediating process of perceived stress on the relationship between perceived dangerousness of the job and the negative employee well-being outcomes of work-family conflict and symptoms of psychological distress, as well as the moderating effects of family supportive supervisor behaviors on this process. As part of a larger study, survey data were collected from 1,370 state correctional officers. It was hypothesized that perceived stress would fully mediate the relationship between perceived dangerousness of job and the negative well-being outcomes and that family supportive supervisor behaviors would moderate this mediation such that increased levels of family supportive supervisor behaviors would mitigate the negative well-being outcomes. The mediation hypotheses were not found to be supported. However, family supportive supervisor behaviors were found to moderate the relationship between perceived dangerousness of the job and work-to-family conflict. Additionally, family supportive supervisor behaviors were found to moderate the relationship between perceived stress and physical symptoms of psychological distress.
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