Assessment of learning disabilities: The complexity of causes and consequences

Abstract

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge about underlying causes of learning difficulties and the resultant cognitive strategies and behaviours they generate. Three layers or levels of a causal'behavioural interaction are suggested: 1) neurological ‐ biochemical 2) cognitive 3) behavioural. The importance of the environment is emphasised at all levels of this model, with examples of the effect of environmental influences provided. The paper highlights our growing awareness of the complexity of causal variables and of their likely importance for assessment and intervention.     

董事会制度、管理质量和公司价值：基于上市公司成长性的实证分析

实证研究显示，董事会特征对管理质量和公司价值具有显著的解释力：对于全样本公司而言，董事会规模和董事长与CEO的两职合一对公司绩效具有显著的积极影响力，外部董事比例具有显著的消极影响力。对于法人股东控股的公司，董事会结构对公司管理质量普遍具有更强的解释力。企业规模和股权结构对董事会规模具有显著的影响力；而且，第一大股东的性质以及董事长与CEO的两职合一对董事会规模也具有显著的影响。     

试论叠加、强化的方式、类型与后果

叠加强化的方式主要有四类:并存式、累积式、框架式、糅合式;基本类型包括增强型、兼顾型、补充型、分述型四种;其后果分别表现为:配合义融合的词汇化、格式义定型的构式化、浮现义形成的整合化、功能义弱化的附缀化等四个方面。叠加强化的类型、方式与后果之间是依次关联、互为因果的。     

Super-Girl: strength and sadness in Black girlhood

This paper complicates notions of Black girlhood by examining the dual experiences of gendered racism that result in both strength and sadness in Black girls’ educational experiences. I highlight the need for a curriculum of liberation to combat historical and current social conditions negatively impacting school-aged Black girls, such as harsh disciplinary practices, low academic expectations, and sexual objectification. The Super-Girl phenomenon serves as a metaphor illustrating the balance and imbalance of multiple social constructs. Utilising constructivist grounded theory [Charmaz, K. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory. London: Sage], the key concepts in the research derived directly from the voices of 18 school-aged girls (8–13) as well as my observations, interpretations, and related experiences. Data collection utilising observation notes, interviews, written responses, and activity products provided from monthly sessions over the course of two years, offer critical insight into some of the complexities of Black girlhood. The most striking common themes abstracted from their voices were concepts related to ‘strength’ and ‘sadness’ in their lives. Thematic narratives were found to be most relevant to (1) negative teacher–student relationships, as well as, (2) policed bodies and sexual objectification. This work offers specific recommendations for future girl empowerment programming, curriculum, and evidence-based intervention development that can aide in liberating Black girls.     

Girls,girls, girls: Gender composition and female school choice

Gender segregation in employment may be explained by women's reluctance to choose technical occupations. However, the foundations for career choices are laid much earlier. Educational experts claim that female students are doing better in math and science and are more likely to choose these subjects if they are in single-sex classes. One possible explanation is that coeducational settings reinforce gender stereotypes. In this paper, we identify the causal impact of the gender composition in coeducational classes on the choice of school type for female students. Using natural variation in the gender composition of adjacent cohorts within schools, we show that girls are less likely to choose a traditionally female dominated school type and more likely to choose a male dominated school type at the age of 14 if they were exposed to a higher share of girls in previous grades.     

The other girls: Culture,psychoanalytic theories and writing

This paper presents a psychoanalytic theory of girlhood linked to a cultural theory of writing. It is a result of an ethnographic study of schooling, where the development of theory links to the immersion of the researcher in the research. There are two expansions of psychoanalytic theory. The first is a feminist poststructural critique of Lacanian psychoanalysis,with the possibility of the existence of a third or tertiary split, as writing eventuates. The second is an extended theory of mothering, through the complex relationships evidenced by girls to women and girls to each other. These theoretical developments are based on a theory of writing that is a poststructural theory of decentred graphics, which accommodates the phonic, the semiotic and the discursive. These theories, with their cultural implications, may be applied beyond the particular ethnography from which they come. In turn they designate knowledge, power, fantasy and desire.     

From the frozen wilderness to the moody sea: rural space,girlhood and popular pedagogy

This paper turns to debates in post-critical public pedagogy to focus on how a small body of films might potentially work as vehicles for teaching and learning about youth, gender and space. It is argued that representations of the rural shape what is possible for girlhood, being both enabling and constraining for the subject. Framed by discourses around the politics of representing the rural, a range of popular Australian films will be analysed to think about how popular film might use representations of the rural to educate spectators about girls as ‘successful’, ‘in crisis’ and/or as girls asserting ‘girlpower’. The films include four key Australian ‘coming of age’ films about girls growing up in rural/rural coastal locales: Peaches set in a sleepy town on the banks of the Murray River, Somersault set in the frozen wilderness of Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, Caterpillar Wish set in the coastal town full of secrets and lies, and in Indigenous film maker Ivan Sen's Beneath Clouds, showing the Country passed through during a rural New South Wales road trip.     

Profiles and behavioral consequences of child abuse among adolescent girls and boys from Barbados and Grenada

The current study used latent class analysis to uncover groups of youths with specific abuse (physical, emotional, and sexual) profiles in and outside the family, and identify how membership in each abuse group is associated with behavioral outcomes. Data were collected among a sample of male (n = 662; M _age = 13.02 years) and female (n = 689; M _age = 12.95 years) children and adolescents (9–17 years old) from Barbados and Grenada. Self-report surveys were completed by participants in school settings. Three latent classes of child abuse were distinguished among boys, including ‘low abuse’ (39.2% of the sample), ‘physical and emotional abuse high outside/medium in the family’ (43.2%), and ‘high overall abuse’ (17.6%). Among girls, four unique classes were recovered: ‘low abuse’ (40.7%), ‘high physical and emotional abuse outside the family’ (7.6%), ‘high emotional and moderate physical abuse’ (33.9%), and ‘high overall abuse’ (17.8%). Compared with members of low abuse groups, youths who reported having experienced high/moderate levels of various forms of violence, including those who were abused in multiple ways and across the two settings (‘high overall abuse’), were significantly more likely to engage in violent and hostile behavior. Abused and non-abused youths did not differ on non-violent conflict resolution skills. The significance of present findings for future research and practice is discussed.     

University studies as a side job: causes and consequences of massive student employment in Estonia

Student employment is increasingly common in many countries. Compared to earlier decades, not only more students work but they also work longer hours. Among European countries Estonia is one of the clear “leaders” in student employment. This study uses survey data from 2,496 students in Estonian public and private universities to examine the reasons for working on such a massive scale and its consequences on academic success. The results show that, unlike in most other countries, Estonian students from more privileged families are as likely to work as students from poorer families and they are even more likely to have a full-time job. Furthermore, working seems to have only a marginal negative effect on academic progress. These results seem to support the theory that in Eastern European countries student employment has become a signal of students’ capabilities and ambition, and that relatively low academic standards contribute to the strength of the signaling mechanism. A long-term solution to student employment would require changes in quality standards, student financing, alternative higher education opportunities, and perceptions of students, employers, and academics.     

Boys,girls, and microcomputing

In an attempt better to understand why, on the whole, girls are not very interested in computers, we have tried to investigate social representations of technical interest attributed to one or the other gender in primary and junior-high school. The results of the impressions formation test and those of a survey indicate that primary-school pupils consider boys and girls to be equally involved in technical fields and a girl «computer enthusiast» is perceived as a very atractive person. At the junior-high level, students no longer perceive this equality of gender in technical interests and they judge a girl «computer enthusiast» negatively. Moreover, girls themselves consider that too keen an interest in computers is evidence of loneliness and problems with sexual identity. A boy’s involvement with computers does not change his image, whatever the gender or the age of the subjects. Thus, the influence of the normative model of feminine identity can explain in part the drop in interest for computers observed in secondary-school girls.     

The use of scoring rubrics: Reliability, validity and educational consequences

Several benefits of using scoring rubrics in performance assessments have been proposed, such as increased consistency of scoring, the possibility to facilitate valid judgment of complex competencies, and promotion of learning. This paper investigates whether evidence for these claims can be found in the research literature. Several databases were searched for empirical research on rubrics, resulting in a total of 75 studies relevant for this review. Conclusions are that: (1) the reliable scoring of performance assessments can be enhanced by the use of rubrics, especially if they are analytic, topic-specific, and complemented with exemplars and/or rater training; (2) rubrics do not facilitate valid judgment of performance assessments per se. However, valid assessment could be facilitated by using a more comprehensive framework of validity when validating the rubric; (3) rubrics seem to have the potential of promoting learning and/or improve instruction. The main reason for this potential lies in the fact that rubrics make expectations and criteria explicit, which also facilitates feedback and self-assessment.     

New girlhood and lost boys: analysing the cultural politics of gender and education through film

The ‘coming of age’ films Bend it like Beckham, Whale Rider and Harry Potter feature distinctive narratives about girlhood and boyhood that provide a perspective on the changing historical and political context of gendered identity construction in the new millennium. The early 2000s represented a particular moment in thinking about the possibilities, risks and threats of gender relations in Western countries. This was overwhelmingly represented by a discourse of crisis and loss in relation to boyhood and a discourse of hope in relation to girlhood. These films reflect the tensions and contradictory readings of the new cultural politics of gender in the early 2000s, drawing on many of the discourses present in academic discussions about young people's gendered identities. We show how an analysis of ‘coming of age’ films offers a lens for examining the cultural politics of gender and education, and for reflecting on social change and the perceptions and anxieties that this brings.     

Mean girls,homosociality and football: an education on social and power dynamics between girls and women

Relationships between girls and women have typically been explored through the lexicon of ‘friendship’ or, where there is a presence of sexual desire, ‘lesbian’. This article suggests the complexity and impact of female (same-sex) sociality, and its relationship to heteronormativity and power dynamics between girls and women runs deeper than the terms ‘friendship’ or ‘lesbian’ give rise to. Exploring social and power dynamics amongst girls and women, this article explores how gender is policed and negotiated within a framework of homosociality. Drawing on empirical research within a women's Australian Rules football team, I explore the complexity of female same-sex bonds, the negotiation of gender embodiment and performance within female homosocial spaces, and the emergence of women's own lexicons in making sense of their relationships with other women in this particular social sphere, further considering how this might be applied to other female homosocial spaces, including same-sex educational and sporting sites.