Long-term relations among prosocial-media use, empathy, and prosocial behavior.

Despite recent growth of research on the effects of prosocial media, processes underlying these effects are not well understood. Two studies explored theoretically relevant mediators and moderators of the effects of prosocial media on helping. Study 1 examined associations among prosocial- and violent-media use, empathy, and helping in samples from seven countries. Prosocial-media use was positively associated with helping. This effect was mediated by empathy and was similar across cultures. Study 2 explored longitudinal relations among prosocial-video-game use, violent-video-game use, empathy, and helping in a large sample of Singaporean children and adolescents measured three times across 2 years. Path analyses showed significant longitudinal effects of prosocial- and violent-video-game use on prosocial behavior through empathy. Latent-growth-curve modeling for the 2-year period revealed that change in video-game use significantly affected change in helping, and that this relationship was mediated by change in empathy.

A confirmatory factor analytic approach on perceptions of knowledge and skills in teaching (PKST).

This paper reports the cross-validation of the factor pattern of the Perceptions of Knowledge and Skills in Teaching (PKST) survey, which was used to assess the self-perceived pedagogical knowledge and skills of pre-service and beginning teachers. The sample comprised 323 pre-service teachers enrolled in a 1-yr. post-graduate teacher education program in Singapore. The survey had 37 items distributed across six scales: student learning, lesson planning, instructional support, accommodating diversity, classroom management, and care and concern. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to cross-validate the survey's factor pattern. The results showed that the model was an acceptable fit to the data. The PKST survey can thus be adapted by different teacher education programs to assess pre-service and beginning teachers' progress in developing their pedagogical knowledge and skills.

Singaporean education students' perceptions of knowledge and skills as important for teachers.

This paper examined perceptions of knowledge and skills important for teachers of 353 Singaporean undergraduate students. They rated higher teaching and nurturing skills and gave moderate ratings to theoretical knowledge and research skills. There is a need to raise teachers' awareness of educational research and theoretical innovation for classroom practice.

Singaporean graduate majors in education perceptions of workplaces and roles of psychologists.

This paper examined perceptions of workplaces and roles of psychologists of 315 Singaporean undergraduate students in education. The participants rated the appropriateness of 21 workplaces and 32 roles of psychologists using a 7-point scale. The group showed restricted views of psychology and psychologists as they related psychologists' work mainly to social and organizational services and referred roles of psychologists to giving social services related to delinquency and disorders.