Comparative Analysis of the Impact of Various Methods of Instruction on Achievement and Understanding in Mathematics for Elementary Teachers

Secondary Educatio

Book review: Media audiences / Analysing media texts

Both Media Audiences and Analysing Media Texts are part of a series entitled Understanding Media, which consists of four books that aim to introduce the study of the media to media studies students. Media Audiences is the second in the series and is, ‘about living with media. It’s about how audiences in different parts of the world use and interpret media, and how media affect our lives. It’s also about how we think about audiences, what audience research has achieved and how it might be done differently’ (p. 1). In ‘Media Audiences, Interpreters and Users’, Sonia Livingstone highlights the overriding amount of time individuals (especially in industrialized countries) spend with different and increasingly more mobile forms of media: ‘often more time than they spend at work or school or in face-to-face communication’ (p. 10). Livingstone successfully sheds light on the nature of the relationship between the media and audiences, particularly the discourse between the liberal-pluralist and the critical traditions. Overall, convincing arguments are built up to suggest that, ‘the myth of direct media effects and of passive vulnerable audiences should be laid to rest at last’ (p. 42)

Transforming Impossible into Possible (TIP) for Financial Capability: Application of Practice-Based Program Theory and Measures in Intervention Design

Purpose Financial knowledge often does not translate into financial well-being. This study looks at how knowledge might be converted to well-being for people living in low-income environments, based on a theory called Financial PSS. Methods The study tests the validity of the two scales that make up Financial PSS: Perceived Financial Barriers and Financial Hope. Then it examines how these measures along with an intervention measure called TIP are associated with financial capability. Results Results validated the Perceived Financial Barrier Scale and Financial Hope Scale. Next, the study found that the Perceived Financial Barriers Scale and the Financial Hope Scale are associated with financial capability, as is the TIP score. Conclusion The study concludes that Financial PSS as a newly applied practice-based theory should be further tested. Workforce providers could integrate financial education and empowerment-based F-PSS process models and see a positive impact on their placement and retention outcomes

Are protected areas maintaining bird diversity?

Evaluating the effectiveness of protected areas for sustaining biodiversity is crucial to achieving conservation outcomes. While studies of effectiveness have improved our understanding of protected-area design and management, few investigations (< 5%) h

Hollow futures? Tree decline, lag effects and hollow-dependent species

Tree hollows are a critical breeding resource for many organisms globally. Where hollow-bearing trees are in decline, population limitation can be a serious conservation issue. A particular problem in addressing hollow limitation is the long time that ho

Evaluating complementary networks of restoration plantings for landscape-scale occurrence of temporally dynamic species

Multibillion dollar investments in land restoration make it critical that conservation goals are achieved cost-effectively. Approaches developed for systematic conservation planning offer opportunities to evaluate landscape-scale, temporally dynamic biodiversity outcomes from restoration and improve on traditional approaches that focus on the most species-rich plantings. We investigated whether it is possible to apply a complementarity-based approach to evaluate the extent to which an existing network of restoration plantings meets representation targets. Using a case study of woodland birds of conservation concern in southeastern Australia, we compared complementarity-based selections of plantings based on temporally dynamic species occurrences with selections based on static species occurrences and selections based on ranking plantings by species richness. The dynamic complementarity approach, which incorporated species occurrences over 5 years, resulted in higher species occurrences and proportion of targets met compared with the static complementarity approach, in which species occurrences were taken at a single point in time. For equivalent cost, the dynamic complementarity approach also always resulted in higher average minimum percent occurrence of species maintained through time and a higher proportion of the bird community meeting representation targets compared with the species-richness approach. Plantings selected under the complementarity approaches represented the full range of planting attributes, whereas those selected under the species-richness approach were larger in size. Our results suggest that future restoration policy should not attempt to achieve all conservation goals within individual plantings, but should instead capitalize on restoration opportunities as they arise to achieve collective value of multiple plantings across the landscape. Networks of restoration plantings with complementary attributes of age, size, vegetation structure, and landscape context lead to considerably better outcomes than conventional restoration objectives of site-scale species richness and are crucial for allocating restoration investment wisely to reach desired conservation goals.We thank the Australian Research Council, the Murrayand Riverina Local Land Services, and the Caring for OurCountry Program for funding for this project