John Tashner

Learning in the Zone: A social constructivist framework for distance education in a 3-dimensional virtual world

Web-based technologies are the medium of choice for most universities as they move their offerings off campus and online. As we continue to move our own programs online we are challenged to consider what elements of our traditional experiences to preserve online, and which ones to modify, and to recognize the impact of the tools we use on our abilities to do so. The social constructivist conceptual framework that guides our college and the 3-dimensional virtual world we have constructed as our online campus for learning to manifest it are described. The result is a distance learning environment that is unlike traditional classroom- or web-based learning environments in important ways. A description of AET Zone is provided and the implications of using a social constructivist framework for designing and delivering an online learning environment are discussed.

The measure of classroom stress and burnout among gifted and talented students

The development of the Student Stress Inventory (SSI) and the cross-validation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) are presented. First, gifted student data (n = 311) were subjected to factor analyses for both the SSI and the MBI to assess factorial validity; five stress and three burnout factors were evident. Second, the construct validity of both the stress and burnout constructs was examined in relationship to classroom tedium and the quality of school life. Also, 14 child stress experts assisted in analyzing content validity; the majority of these rated SSI items as being relevant to very relevant to student stress. With respect to SSI reliability, alphas ranged from .63 to .85; similarly, MBI alphas ranged from .63 to .86. Additionally, most of SSI and MBI scales and subscales were moderately to strongly interrelated. Finally, an inspection of the concurrent validity of the stress and burnout constructs revealed significant relationships between stress, burnout, tedium and, to a degree, quality of school life variables.