Intellectually gifted students with possible characteristics of ASD: a multiple case study of psycho-educational assessment practices

The Strengths and Weaknesses Heuristic (S&W Heuristic) was constructed in order to reduce biased assessments of students with (suspicion of) Intellectual Giftedness in co-occurrence with Autism Spectrum Disorder (IG + ASD) and to establish a well-founded interconnection between assessment data and intervention indications. The current study is the second in the validation process of the S&W Heuristic. An in-depth analysis of three assessment dossiers of Dutch IG-students with possible characteristics of ASD is focused upon. The core question is whether the S&W Heuristic is of added value to diminish bias in any direction and increase systematicity. The results indicate that bias, mainly directed at Strengths, as well as unsystematicity were present in different stages of two assessment dossiers. The conclusion is that the S&W Heuristic seems to pave the way for systematicity and less bias in assessment processes of students with (suspicion of) IG + ASD.     

Tales of the Unexpected: supervisors’ and students’ perspectives on short‐term projects and dissertations

This study of the expectations of 22 supervisors of undergraduate and postgraduate projects and dissertations and their students revealed the supervisors’ more elaborated views. Responses were categorised into Educational Support & Guidance and Personal Support, with well over two‐thirds of both supervisors and students highlighting Educational Guidance and less than a quarter Personal Support. Students and staff mentioned an enabling approach which allowed student ownership of their projects. Staff and students also agreed on their expectations of the students’ role, with two‐thirds of the responses of both groups emphasising personal and organisational qualities. The apparent agreement of supervisors and students was questioned by means of two problematic cases. These raised questions of supervisory style, contrasting perceptions of process and the need to take continuous account of student needs as well as the academic aims of staff.     

BLIND MARKING AND SEX BIAS IN STUDENT ASSESSMENT

Three studies are reported which investigated the existence of sex bias in the marking of undergraduate degrees. Study 1 failed to find any evidence that females were marked less extremely than males by second markers, as has been found in previous research. Study 2 found that marker disagreements were not resolved upwards more frequently for male candidates, again contradicting the results of some previous research. Study 3 failed to find any of the expected differences between an institution using blind marking and one using non‐blind procedures. In the light of this negative evidence and of the confusing picture presented by. previous research, it is concluded that there is little firm evidence for sex bias in marking. Despite this, it is likely that there will be increasing pressure to adopt blind marking in the future.     

Student Participation in Nursing Programs: a Study of their Social Composition Since the Transfer to Colleges of Advanced Education in New South Wales

This paper compares the social origins of 400 nursing students in hospital‐based and 448 nursing students in college‐based programs in New South Wales. Using a specially constructed composite socioeconomic variable for comparison, the preliminary analysis suggests that a middle class bias, presumed to exist by some in the selection of recruits to hospital‐based programs, does not operate in the selection of college recruits. The soundly equitable college recruitment pattern is more marked for females than males. There is a greater proportion recruited to college programs from the group who have delayed entry for more than ten years after leaving school. For students entering directly from school, no significant difference was found in the composite socioeconomic variable in hospital and college programs. The findings also suggest that college programs are more attractive than hospital programs to males entering directly from school.     

Audience‐perceived anxiety patterns of public speakers

Gray's neurological theory of anxiety (1982, 1990; Gray & McNaughton, 2000) predicts that state anxiety will decrease with continuous exposure to a fear arousing stimulus. Previous studies of psychological and physiological state anxiety patterns during public speaking have reported a pattern of progressively decreasing anxiety levels consistent with this phenomenon, known as habituation. In the current report, the extent to which the state anxiety behaviors of speakers conform to the habituation pattern is examined. In the first of two studies, 30 novice speakers presented informative speeches to audiences of 18 to 20 fellow students. These speeches were videotaped and replayed in their entirety for observers (N=30) who rated the severity of each performer's speech anxiety behaviors. In the second study, each videotaped presentation was divided into one‐minute segments and presented in random order to a new set of observers (N=25). Procedures in the second study were designed to control for rater expectations that state anxiety would decline over time. Overall, behavioral measures of public speaking state anxiety displayed a continually declining pattern associated with habituation.     

A comparative study of the learning style preferences among gifted African‐American,Mexican‐American,and American‐born Chinese middle grade students

The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant group, gender, and grade differences existed in the preferred learning styles of gifted minority students. The Learning Style Inventory (Dunn, Dunn, & Price, 1987) was administered to 54 African‐American (20 males, 34 females), 61 third‐generation Mexican‐American (26 males, 35 females), and 40 third‐generation American‐born Chinese (25 males, 15 females) students. A three‐way analysis of variance on the LSI raw scores of gifted African‐American, Mexican‐American, and American‐born Chinese students indicated significant group differences in preferences for noise, light, visual modality, studying in the afternoon, and persistence. Significant gender differences were found in preferences for the tactile modality and intake. Finally, significant grade differences were found in preferences for temperature (warm/cool environment) and mobility. Findings support and extend past research regarding the learning styles of gifted students.     

Further Developments in Peer Assessment of Group Projects

This report advises of refinements to the peer assessment technique detailed in Goldfinch & Raeside's paper of 1990. This technique is used to assign individual marks to the members of a team who have been working on a group project. The improvements include a way of easing the administrative burden of the technique for the lecturer, and a safeguard against an observed problem whereby over‐generous students effectively penalised themselves.     

Threshold concepts in research education and evidence of threshold crossing

Most work on threshold concepts has hitherto related to discipline‐specific undergraduate education, however, the idea of generic doctoral‐level threshold concepts appeared to us to provide a strong and useful framework to support research learning and teaching at the graduate level. The early work regarding research‐level threshold concepts is further developed and reported in this paper using research carried out with supervisors into their identification of threshold concepts and research students' crossing of these thresholds. The research was conducted in two stages involving 65 experienced research supervisors across six countries (Australia, England, Jamaica, Malaysia, New Zealand and Trinidad) and across Humanities, Social Sciences, Engineering and IT and the Sciences. The first stage involved written responses from 26 experienced supervisors related to the learning challenges experienced by research students and their supervisors. The second stage of the research involved in‐depth interviews with 39 supervisors regarding student learning challenges and successes at the research level. Responses were analysed, resulting in the identification of six possible generic research threshold concepts, which evidence themselves in the quality and level of the students' work at different stages in that work: argument; theorising; framework; knowledge creation; analysis and interpretation; and paradigm. The data analysis also suggests a number of indicators that signal when learners have crossed conceptual thresholds to gain, articulate and put into practice one or more of these threshold concepts in their research learning.     

EXPERIENCE OF RETIREMENT By Robert S. Weiss

A survey was conducted in the 1989‐1990 academic year of 421 American Psychological Association (APA) approved programs offering graduate study at the doctoral level in psychology and associated fields. The purpose was to provide continuing documentation of opportunities for doctoral training in adult development and aging. Results were compared to similar surveys conducted in 1975 and 1984. From 1975‐1984 there was dramatic growth in programs offering specialized training in adult development and aging. For the 1984‐1990 time period, growth proceeded at a much slower rate. Additional survey results indicate that most programs offering specialized training in adult development and aging are located in developmental psychology programs in general psychology departments. In addition, respondents were asked to provide information about opportunities for professional experiences offered doctoral students specializing in adult development and aging. Approximately 50% of programs with specialized doctoral training offer students some combination of teaching, research, or practicum/internship experiences. The need for continued growth in programs offering doctoral students specialized training in adult development and aging is discussed.     

Communication apprehension in a first language and self‐perceived competence as predictors of communication apprehension in a second language: A study of speakers of English as a second language

This study addresses the communication apprehension of the non‐native English speaker in the U.S. Previous studies which have examined the implications of communication apprehension (CA) for bilingual, non‐native communicators have generated results which indicate that trait‐like CA is consistent across first and second language‐speaking situations. However, none of these studies have probed the cause of the cross‐linguistic consistency of CA. This research is designed to provide a scientific explanation for the etiology of CA by applying the communibiological paradigm to CA theory and research. By selecting the situational constraints of international students, this study tests a theory based on proposition 4 of the communibiological paradigm (Beatty & McCroskey w/Valencic, 2001, p. 128): “Environment or ‘situation’ has only a negligible effect on interpersonal behavior.” The results of this study replicate the strong relationship previously observed between CA in a first language and CA in a second language. It also found that the genetic markers employed (Eysenck's Big 3 temperament variables) predicted first and second language CA approximately equally. The results indicate that, although both first and second languages are learned, the CA associated with them most likely is not.     

Student skills and the Bradley agenda in Australia

This paper investigates the study strategies that first-year Australian university students bring with them to university. The research has currency due to the implementation of the Review of Australian higher education [Bradley, D., Noonan, P., Nugent, H., & Scales, B. (2008). Review of Australian higher education: Final report. Canberra: Australian Government.], which recommended that universities increase the number of students in undergraduate courses. In response to government incentives to increase enrolments, many universities have lowered their entrance scores and, as a result, have attracted students who would not traditionally have been eligible for university entrance. The study employed the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) to investigate the differences in study strategies used by a cohort comprising students from the expanded intake facilitated by the Bradley Review according to their gender, age, socio-economic status and entrance score. While these research results demonstrate a lower than average score on the LASSI instrument for this particular cohort, there were almost no dissimilarities in any of the categories assessed. This paper will argue that the differential distribution of such students across institutions in Australia has potential implications for the institutions themselves and the sector as a whole.     

Supervision of Doctoral Students in the Natural Sciences: expectations and experiences

Within the natural sciences and engineering, literature relating to postgraduate education, in particular the process of completing a doctorate, remains generally scarce. That which does exist emphasises the role of the supervisor in effecting successful completion and points to a wide range of activities performed by supervisors. There remains, however, little by way of accounts of the actual experiences of supervisors or students when engaged in the process of doctoral supervision. It is these experiences which form the basis of this paper which focuses upon doctoral students and their supervisors in the disciplines of physics, mathematics and engineering science. Data for the paper have been collected, as part of an ESRC funded project, by means of in‐depth interviews with students and supervisors in nine universities in England. In particular, we address students expectations of PhD supervision, the extent to which expectations have been met, and within the context of the ‘career’ of the PhD, the ways in which supervision changes as the doctoral process progresses. Important issues relating to the need for training for PhD supervisors and their capacity to meet the expectations of their students are raised, together with those which question the relationship between the PhD and the culture of academic work.     

The interaction of academic and industrial supervisors in graduate education

In this study we explore the work and the cooperation of academic and industrial supervisors concerning single graduate students in so called industrial research schools, which are financially supported by a national research foundation and involve universities and industrial enterprises. Academic and industrial supervisors of totally eleven graduate students have been interviewed with focus on their cooperation. This cooperation entails negotiating the contract and monitoring the progress of the research project and the student. When students have problems this cooperation is particularly important. The places new demands on both the academic and industrial supervisors. In our study these demands were dealt with differently by different academic supervisors, depending whether their main orientation was towards industrial projects or traditional academic research. The way the industrial supervisors dealt with the new demands depended on their previous acquaintance with academic research, basically whether they had a doctoral degree or not. Another important finding was that academic knowledge had a strong position while the supervisors from the industry accepted a minor role. The main findings of the study are that industrial graduate students often require joint engagement in a way that differs from other forms of knowledge transfer between the academy and the industry. To explain the features of this type of knowledge transfer, we use the analytical concepts boundary subject and phronesis.     

Pigeons’ memory for empty time intervals marked by visual or auditory stimuli

In Experiment 1, pigeons were trained to discriminate the duration (2 or 8 sec) of an empty interval separated by two 1325-Hz tone markers by responding to red and green comparison stimuli. During delay testing, a choose-short bias occurred at 1 sec, but a robust choose-long bias occurred at 9 sec. Responding in the absence of tone markers indicated that the pigeons were attending to the markers and not simply timing the total trial duration. The birds were then trained to match short (2-sec) or long (8-sec) empty intervals marked by light to blue/yellow comparisons. For both visual and auditory markers, delay testing produced a choose-short bias at 1 sec and a choose-long bias at 9 sec. In Experiment 2, the pigeons were shifted from a fixed to variable intertrial intervals (ITI) within sessions. On trials with tone markers, the duration of both the empty interval and the preceding ITI affected choice responding. On trials with light markers, only the duration of the empty interval influenced choice responding. Subsequent delay testing in the context of variable ITIs replicated the memory biases previously obtained. In Experiment 3, performance was assessed at various delay intervals on trials in which either the first or the second marker was omitted. The data from these omission tests indicated that the first marker initiated timing but that the second marker sometimes initiated the timing of a new interval. Explanations of these effects in terms of the internal clock model of timing are discussed, and a simple quantitative model of the delay interval data is tested.     

‘I Don't Even Have Time to be Their Friend!’ Ethical Dilemmas in Ph.D. Supervision in the Hard Sciences

This study focused on exploring students’ and supervisors’ perceptions of ethical problems in doctoral supervision in the natural sciences. Fifteen supervisors and doctoral students in one research community in the natural sciences were interviewed about their practices and experiences in the doctoral process and supervision. We explored to what extent doctoral students and supervisors experienced similar or different ethical challenges in the supervisory relationship and analyzed how the experiences of ethical dilemmas in supervision could be understood in light of the structure and practices of natural science research groups. The data were analyzed by theory-driven content analysis. Five ethical principles, namely non-maleficence, beneficence, autonomy, fidelity and justice, were used as a framework for identifying ethical issues. The results show that one major question that appears to underpin many of the emerging ethical issues is that the supervisors and students have different expectations of the supervisory role. The second important observation is that doctoral students primarily described their own experiences, whereas the supervisors described their activities as embedded in a system and elaborated on the causes and consequences at a system level.     

Grading leniency, grade discrepancy, and student ratings of instruction

The purpose of this study was to examine how grading leniency and grade discrepancy (the difference between expected grades and deserved grades) were associated with various dimensions of student ratings of instruction. A sample of 754 undergraduate college students completed a student ratings of instruction instrument and provided responses to a number of other questions on topics such as course difficulty and workload. A series of multilevel regression analyses were conducted and results showed that an instructor's grading leniency, as perceived by students, was positively associated with student ratings on 11 of 12 dimensions of instruction examined. This finding suggests that more lenient instructors tend to receive higher student ratings. The second finding shows that grade discrepancy was negatively associated with most dimensions of instruction. This supports the self-serving bias hypothesis under attribution theory (Gigliotti & Buchtel, 1990) in that students tended to punish instructors with lower ratings when expected grades were lower than students believed they deserved, yet little evidence of a pattern of rewards existed in student ratings when students expected grades higher than they deserved.     

Epistemologies, conceptions of learning, and study practices in medicine and psychology

The subjects (N = 175), freshmen and fifth year students in psychology (n = 59) and medicine (n = 116), described their modes of studying by answering open-ended questions and Likert-type questions, presented to them within a task booklet. They were first asked to write down their own subjective definitions of learning. Scales to classify the answers were adopted from Lonka et al. (1990). Second, subjects were given a comprehension monitoring probe adopted from Ryan (1984). Responses were analysed to determine the specific comprehension criteria the student employed. Third, students rated a set of 71 statements concerning learning styles, regulation of learning, and conceptions of learning (Entwistle & Ramsden, 1983; Vermunt & van Rijswijk, 1988). Embedded in the last set of statements were seven items that were used to classify students as dualists or relativists (Perry, 1968; Ryan, 1984).It was found that constructivist conceptions of learning were the most typical of (advanced) psychology students, whereas learning was more often seen as intake of knowledge by the medical students. Highest dualism scores were obtained by the first year students, especially medical students. In general, dualists were more likely to report knowledge comprehension criteria to test their understanding than were relativists, and dualists' conceptions of learning were also more passive. Four principal components were identified that reflected qualitatively different approaches to learning and knowledge: externally regulated and reproduction-directed learning (PC1), self-regulated, meaning-directed, and goal-oriented learning (PC2), constructivist epistemology (PC3), and active professional orientation (PC4). Medical students scored higher on variables related to PC1 and PC4, whereas psychology students scored higher on scales associated with PC2 and PC3.     

The statistical knowledge gap in Higher Degree by Research students: the supervisors’ perspective

This study sought to gain an understanding of the current statistical training and support needs for Australian Higher Degree by Research (HDR) students and their supervisors. The data reported herein are based on the survey responses of 191 (18.7%) eligible supervisors from a single Australian institution. The survey was composed of both forced-choice and open-ended items relating to supervisors’ background and experience, supervisors’ perceptions of their own statistical knowledge, the capabilities of their HDR students and supervisors’ attitudes towards the provision of statistical support for HDR students. Most supervisors described themselves as being at either an intermediate or advanced level of statistical experience (74.4%) and were moderately to very confident (72.3%) supervising students in relation to statistical matters. In contrast, supervisors identified a substantial discordance, or gap, between HDR students’ statistical knowledge, which they rated at an overall introductory or lower level (76.6%), and a requirement to have at least an intermediate level of statistical knowledge to complete their degree (74.5%). The findings suggest that supervisors perceive HDR students’ statistical knowledge to be underdeveloped, that both students and supervisors are likely to benefit from the provision of formal statistics training and that supervisors value access to statistical consultancy services.     

Integration in Victoria: Teachers’ Attitudes After Six Years of A No‐Choice Policy

THE STUDY investigated differences in attitude toward the integration of children with disabilities as measured by responses on the Attitudes Toward Mainstreaming Scale between a 1984 sample of teachers, teachers‐in‐training and non‐teachers in the State of Victoria, Australia, with corresponding groups in 1990. In 1984 a new policy which emphasised the rights of all children to an education in regular schools and the consequent expectation that teachers had no choice about whether they would accept children with disabilities into their classes had been introduced. It was found that in 1990 the teacher groups expressed more positive responses than had their counterparts in 1984. The teacher groups in 1984 had been less positive than the non‐teachers but in 1990 this difference had disappeared. The factor structure of the responses in 1990 emphasised the changes further indicating that children with intellectual disabilities and/or those with disturbed behaviour were those about whom teachers held the most concerns. The availability of ancillary staff was seen as a major factor in the more positive attitudes toward the policy.