Why Does Infant Stepping Disappear and Can It Be Stimulated by Optic Flow?

Two independent experiments (n = 22 and n = 22) showed that 2‐month‐old infants displayed significantly more stepping movements when supported upright in the air than when supported with their feet contacting a surface. Air‐ and surface‐stepping kinematics were quite similar (Experiment 2). In addition, when data were collapsed across both experiments, more air steps and more donkey kicks were seen when infants were exposed to optic flows that specified backward compared to forward translation. The findings challenge the currently accepted heavy legs explanation for the disappearance of stepping at 2 months of age and raise new questions about the visual control of stepping.     

Can the Distance Education Student Progress (DESP) Inventory be Used as a Tool to Predict Attrition in Distance Education?

This study examined the extent to which the sub‐scales and scales developed from the distance education student progress (DESP) Inventory are associated with attrition and persistence of external students enrolled in the fourth year of the Bachelor of Education course at an Australian university. A discriminant analysis of the 15 factors produced from a principal analysis of the DESP Inventory correctly classified 73% of withdrawing and continuing students. The first four factors correctly predicted 64% of withdrawing and continuing students. There is some congruence between the sub‐scales and scales of the DESP Inventory and those reported in this study.     

What Can Be Learned from Computer Modeling? Comparing Expository and Modeling Approaches to Teaching Dynamic Systems Behavior

Computer modeling has been widely promoted as a means to attain higher order learning outcomes. Substantiating these benefits, however, has been problematic due to a lack of proper assessment tools. In this study, we compared computer modeling with expository instruction, using a tailored assessment designed to reveal the benefits of either mode of instruction. The assessment addresses proficiency in declarative knowledge, application, construction, and evaluation. The subscales differentiate between simple and complex structure. The learning task concerns the dynamics of global warming. We found that, for complex tasks, the modeling group outperformed the expository group on declarative knowledge and on evaluating complex models and data. No differences were found with regard to the application of knowledge or the creation of models. These results confirmed that modeling and direct instruction lead to qualitatively different learning outcomes, and that these two modes of instruction cannot be compared on a single “effectiveness measure”.     

Who is Responsible for the Racialized Practices Evident within (Special) Education and What Can Be Done to Change Them?

I pose a straightforward rhetorical question about disproportionality and endeavor to answer it with view to suggesting what can be done in terms of linking theory to practice. First, I frame disproportionality by asking where does it come from? Second, I describe multiple, interconnected historical phenomena to be considered when educators contemplate the complex topic of overrepresentation, ranging from the genesis of historical understandings of human difference becoming categorized into hierarchies of race, to the perceptions of race and dis/ability held by contemporary educators. Third, I argue that connections among these phenomena reified deficit-based understandings of vulnerable children and youth, creating a disabled population that, in turn, continues the status quo of disproportionality within schools. Fourth, invoking the concept of the personal is the professional, I discuss possible actions within an educator’s control to help counter overrepresentation, while listing areas outside of school that simultaneously need to be focused upon.     

Can Item Response Times Provide Insight Into Students’ Motivation and Self‐Efficacy in Math? An Initial Application of Test Metadata to Understand Students’ Social–Emotional Needs

As computer‐based tests become more common, there is a growing wealth of metadata related to examinees’ response processes, which include solution strategies, concentration, and operating speed. One common type of metadata is item response time. While response times have been used extensively to improve estimates of achievement, little work considers whether these metadata may provide useful information on social–emotional constructs. This study uses an analytic example to explore whether metadata might help illuminate such constructs. Specifically, analyses examine whether the amount of time students spend on test items (after accounting for item difficulty and estimates of true achievement), and difficult items in particular, tell us anything about the student's academic motivation and self‐efficacy. While results do not indicate a strong relationship between mean item durations and these constructs in general, the amount of time students spend on very difficult items is highly correlated with motivation and self‐efficacy. The implications of these findings for using response process metadata to gain information on social–emotional constructs are discussed.