A note on phi-coefficient comparison

One of the major difficulties in applying the phi coefficients for comparing two 2×2 tables is that two identical marginals of these two tables are required. The purpose of this paper is directed to the standardization of the marginals of any 2×2 table so that the phi coefficient may be applied for comparison. This standardization technique can also be extended to anyR×C table.     

Sociodemographic characteristics and risk factor analysis of Demodex infestation (Acari: Demodicidae)

To identify sociodemographic characteristics and risk factor of Demodex infestation, 756 students aged 13–22 years in Xi’an, China were sampled for the school-based cross-sectional study. Demodex was examined using the cellophane tape method (CTP). The results showed that the total detection rate of Demodex was 67.6%. Logistic regression analysis revealed that five variables (gender, residence, sharing sanitary ware, frequency of face-wash per day, and use of facial cleanser) were found to be uncorrelated with Demodex infestation, whereas three variables (age, skin type, and skin disease) were found to be independent correlates. Students aged over 18 years had 22.1 times higher odds of Demodex infestation compared to those under 16 years and students aged 16–18 years also had 2.1 times higher odds compared to those aged 13–15 years. Odds of having a Demodex infestation for oily or mixed skin were 2.1 times those for dry or neutral skin. Students with a facial skin disease had 3.0 times higher odds of being infested with Demodex compared to those without. The inception rate of students with facial dermatoses increased in parallel with increasing mite count. The inception rates were 21.3%, 40.7%, 59.2%, and 67.7% in the negative, mild, moderate, and severe infestation groups, respectively (χ ²=60.6, P<0.001). Specifically, the amount of infested mites and inception rate of acne vulgaris were positively correlated (R ²=0.57, moderate infestation odds ratio (OR)=7.1, severe infestation OR=10.3). It was concluded that Demodex prevalence increases with age, and Demodex presents in nearly all adult human. Sebaceous hyperplasia with oily or mixed skin seems to favour Demodex proliferation. Demodex infestation could be associated with acne vulgaris. The CTP is a good sampling method for studies of Demodex prevalence.     

Computer‐based scaffolding to facilitate students' development of expertise in academic writing

Research on expert performance suggests that deliberate practice provides optimal opportunities for expertise development. This study examined whether the provision of computer‐based scaffolding (CBS) guiding deliberate practice facilitates students' development of writing expertise. A CBS environment escribo was designed to externally support expert writing activities, generate feedback and offer opportunities to practise corrected performance in academic writing. There were two testing times. First, the effects of practising writing with escribo were compared with the effects of a practice‐only situation without support. Second, a post‐test comprised composing an essay discussing an academic position without scaffolding. Results revealed that the escribo group at both testing times wrote essays of better comprehensibility than students in the practice‐only group. Furthermore, at both testing times the escribo group expended significantly more time on prewriting. These findings suggest that CBS guiding deliberate practice may be a promising means to facilitate the development of writing expertise.     

Timing of Information Presentation in Learning Statistics

This study in the domain of statistics comparesfour information presentation formats in a 2 × 2factorial design: timing of supportiveinformation (before or during taskpractice) × timing of procedural information(before or during task practice).Seventy-two psychology and education students(7 male and 65 female; mean age 18.5 years,SD = 2.85) participated. Theeffectiveness of the learning material wasmeasured by test performance. The instructionalefficiency was measured by a combination ofmental effort during practice and testperformance (i.e., a high test performancecombined with a low mental effort duringpractice denotes a high instructionalefficiency). ANOVA showed a main effect fortiming of supportive information: presentationduring practice led to more efficient learning than presentationbefore practice. Moreover, an interactioneffect was found. Simultaneous presentation ofprocedural information before andsupportive information during practiceled to the most efficient learning.     

Against all odds: Peace education in times of crisis

Contexts of violent, intractable conflict such as those present in Israel, Nigeria, or Iraq represent times of severe crisis. Reducing the high indices of violence is very urgent, but the attempts of establishing peaceful arrangements in the short- or medium-term usually fail. Peace education, by contrast, is a long-term endeavor to resolve violent, intractable conflicts that aims at affecting moral stances that the conflicting parties take vis-à-vis each other. Unfortunately, however, peace education in times of severe crisis also faces many impediments. These impediments concern the agential, cultural, financial, and legal aspects of educative institutions within context of violent and intractable conflicts. Although these impediments strongly put into question the practice of peace education, this article shows that four reasons nevertheless strongly support this practice. These reasons refer to (1) humanity’s natural goodness, (2) the symbolic importance of peace education, (3) the peace-promoting experiences facilitated through peace education, and (4) peace education’s contribution to overcoming prejudices.     

Translation of algebraic equations and its relation to formal operational reasoning

A large proportion of science major college students are unable to translate even simple sentences into algebraic equations. Given the following sentence: There are six times as many students (S) as professors (P) at this university, most students write the following equation: 6S = P, referred to as the reversal error. In order to overcome the reversal error students need to operate in a hypothetico-deductive manner, i.e., performing a hypothetical operation that makes the group of professors six times larger than it really is (S = 6P). The objective of this study is to investigate the relation between student ability to translate sentences into equations, equations into sentences, and student performance in the following variables: formal operational reasoning, proportional reasoning, and introductory freshmen-level chemistry course. The results obtained show that as the student ability to translate sentences into equations and equations into sentences increases, their mean scores in Chemistry I, formal operational, and proportional reasoning increases. This study has found support for the hypothesis that students who lack formal operational reasoning skills (hypothetico-deductive reasoning) may experience more problems in the translation of algebraic equations.     

Improving the Predictive Validity of Reading Comprehension Using Response Times of Correct Item Responses

Response times have often been used as ancillary information to improve parameter estimation. Under the dual processing theory, assuming reading comprehension requires an automatic process, a fast, correct response is an indicator of effective automatic processing. A skilled, automatic comprehender should be high in response accuracy and low in response times. Following this argument, several questions were addressed in this study. First, individuals with higher ability endorsed a correct response more quickly in the reading comprehension assessment, suggesting correct response times provide useful information in discriminating individuals of different abilities. Second, in terms of predicting an external criterion of reading proficiency, the increment of predictive validity of categorized correct response times was larger than the incremental validity of continuous response times based on both correct and incorrect response times. An index reflecting both accuracy and response time yielded higher incremental validity than indices reflecting response time only. Results support response time as manifesting a dimension of interest in its own right, over its inclusion as an ancillary dimension in a multidimensional model.     

Reciprocal learning in partnership practice: an exploratory study of a home visiting program for mothers with depression

The paper proposes that the function and meaning of adult learning has significantly changed since the times the ‘founding fathers’ outlined a philosophical framework for adult education. And already for them the philosophy of conventional education never really seemed adequate. Likewise, a philosophy of adult education today–which is badly needed ‐‐ can no longer be derived from the philosophy of conventional education, and must be elaborated from bottom‐up, i.e. by understanding themeaning of learning for adult learners today as well as the function of adult learning in present society.     

The Role of Agricultural Education and Extension in Influencing Best Practice for Managing Mastitis in Dairy Cattle

Purpose: To examine the role of agricultural education and extension in influencing the adoption of best practice with regard to herd-level mastitis management.Design/Methodology/Approach: Somatic cell count (SCC) is an indicator of herd health with regard to mastitis and is negatively related to productivity and profitability. Panel data regression methods are utilised here to quantify the role of agricultural education and extension in reducing cell count and in influencing farmer best practice with regard to herd health. The impact of education and extension on farmer uptake of milk recording is of particular interest. Data utilised is farm-level Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) data for Ireland over a five-year period (2008–2012).Findings: Farmer uptake of formal agricultural training and liaison with agricultural extension services are shown to significantly improve mastitis herd health. Collectively, education, extension and milk recording results in an overall SCC reduction of 25% for the average herd. Farmers who undertook agricultural training were ten times more likely to monitor milk quality through milk recording compared to those who had not. Additionally, those farmers in contact with an extension service and also participated in a dairy discussion group were seven times more likely to practice milk recording.Practical Implications: The importance of farmer behaviour in the optimum management of herd health has been validated, as has the role of agricultural education and extension in influencing the uptake of best practice by farmers.Originality/Value: To date little research has been conducted using nationally representative herd-level data on the role of agricultural education and extension in improving animal health best practice.     

Key skills for science learning: the importance of text cohesion and reading ability

To explore the importance of text cohesion, we conducted two experiments. We measured online (reading times) and offline (comprehension accuracy) processes for texts that were high and low cohesion. In study one (n?=?60), we manipulated referential cohesion using noun repetition (high cohesion) and synonymy (low cohesion). Students showed enhanced comprehension accuracy and faster comprehension responses for text that were high in referential cohesion. In study two (n?=?52), we examined connective text designs (‘because’, ‘and’ and ‘no connective’). Students demonstrated enhanced reading times for text using a ‘because’ connective. Additionally, we examined the individual differences (reading ability, science self-concept and self-esteem) as predictors of achievement with science comprehension tasks. Across both experiments reading ability predicted comprehension with both high (noun-repetition text and ‘and’ text) and low cohesion text (synonym text and ‘no connective’ text). These findings highlight the importance of good reading abilities and text cohesion for promoting science comprehension and learning.     

Character Making in the Brick Church Institute

The question Dr. Yoder asks in his title, and then answers in his paper, has been canvassed several times in Religious Education. Other answers than this one have been given, and by persons equally thoughtful and equally sincere. In coming issues of the Journal this year further answers will be given. Editor     

The Impact of Vocabulary Instruction on Passage-Level Comprehension of School-Age Children: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

A meta-analysis of vocabulary interventions in grades pre-K to 12 was conducted with 37 studies to better understand the impact of vocabulary on comprehension. Vocabulary instruction was found to be effective at increasing students' ability to comprehend text with custom measures (d = 0.50), but was less effective for standardized measures (d = 0.10). When considering only custom measures, and controlling for method variables, students with reading difficulties (d = 1.23) benefited more than three times as much as students without reading problems (d = 0.39) on comprehension measures. Gains on vocabulary measures, however, were comparable across reading ability. In addition, the correlation of vocabulary and comprehension effects from studies reporting both outcomes was modest (r = .43).     

The Persistence of Solid and Liquid Naive Conceptions: A Reaction Time Study

The study explores whether the naive concepts of solid and liquid persist in adolescence. Accuracy of responses and reaction times where measured while 41 ninth graders classified different solids (rigid, non-rigid and powders) and different liquids (runny, dense) into solid or liquid. The results show that these naive conceptions affect adolescences’ classifications in terms of both accuracy and reaction time. The rate of correct classifications of non-rigid solids and powders was significantly lower than of rigid solids. Lower rate of success was also found for classification of dense liquids compared with runny liquids. In addition, the reaction time results of correct classifications for non-rigid solids and powders were longer than those for rigid solids and, likewise, reaction times for dense liquids were longer than for runny ones. These results suggest that reasoning processes associated with correct classification of objects that are not consistent with the naive conceptions are more demanding.     

Aversive education: Emersonian variations on ‘Bildung’

Abstract

The paper discusses Ralph Waldo Emerson’s thought in relation to the German Bildung tradition. For many, Bildung still signifies a valuable achievement of modern educational thought as well as a critical, emancipatory ideal which, frequently in a rather nostalgic manner, is appealed to in order to delineate problematic tendencies of current educational trends. Others, in an at times rather cynical manner, claim that Bildung through its successful institutionalization has shaped vital features of our present educational system and has thus served its time and lost its critical potential. When thinking through Emerson’s variations on Bildung I argue against the nostalgic appeals to Bildung that the criticism against it has to be taken seriously. Against the cynical assessment of Bildung having run its course, I will hold that with Emerson we can develop the idea of an ‘aversive education’ as a call for Bildung to be turned upon itself, allowing to revive it as a conceptual tool for transformation, drawing particular attention to its political dimension.     

Improving course evaluations to improve instruction and complex learning in higher education

Recent research has touted the benefits of learner-centered instruction, problem-based learning, and a focus on complex learning. Instructors often struggle to put these goals into practice as well as to measure the effectiveness of these new teaching strategies in terms of mastery of course objectives. Enter the course evaluation, often a standardized tool that yields little practical information for an instructor, but is nonetheless utilized in making high-level career decisions, such as tenure and monetary awards to faculty. The present researchers have developed a new instrument to measure teaching and learning quality (TALQ). In the current study of 464 students in 12 courses, if students agreed that their instructors used First Principles of Instruction and also agreed that they experienced academic learning time (ALT), then students were about 5 times more likely to achieve high levels of mastery of course objectives and 26 times less likely to achieve low levels of mastery, according to independent instructor assessments. TALQ can measure improvements in use of First Principles in teaching and course design. The feedback from this instrument can assist teachers who wish to implement the recommendation made by Kuh et al. (2007) that universities and colleges should focus their assessment efforts on factors that influence student success.     

The Reverse Effect of an Attempt to Shape Reader Awareness

In a previous study, Marton et al. (1992) asked Hungarian and Swedish secondary school students to read Franz Kafka's parable Before the Law several times. Rereading the text several times did not in itself improve or alter the students’ understanding of it. We found, however, that a more complex and advanced way of understanding the text was highly correlated with a certain way of reading; that is, in the use of a reflective variation. In order to determine whether it is possible to elicit reflective variation in readers and affect their awareness of alternative ways of understanding the parable, by giving explicit instructions, we conducted a new experiment in Sweden. The procedure for this experiment was designed with the aim of eliciting a variational reading and a more advanced understanding of the text. This procedure, however, created a strong reverse effect. Paradoxically, the variation in the readers’ understanding of Kafka's parable was dramatically reduced. The attempt to encourage readers to consider different interpretive options thus seemed to have enhanced the dominance of the most frequent form of understanding.     

Different perspectives: Spatial ability influences where individuals look on a timed spatial test

Learning in anatomy can be both spatially and visually complex. Pedagogical investigations have begun exploration as to how spatial ability may mitigate learning. Emerging hypotheses suggests individuals with higher spatial reasoning may attend to images differently than those who are lacking. To elucidate attentional patterns associated with different spatial ability, eye movements were measured in individuals completing a timed electronic mental rotation test (EMRT). The EMRT was based on the line drawings of Shepherd and Metzler. Individuals deduced whether image pairs were rotations (same) or mirror images (different). It was hypothesized that individuals with high spatial ability (HSA) would demonstrate shorter average fixation durations during problem solving and attend to different features of the EMRT than low spatial ability (LSA) counterparts. Moreover, question response accuracy would be associated with fewer fixations and shorter average response times, regardless of spatial reasoning ability. Average fixation duration in the HSA group was shorter than LSA (F(1,8) = 7.99; P = 0.022). Importantly, HSA and LSA individuals looked to different regions of the EMRT images (Fisher Exact Test: 12.47; P = 0.018); attending to the same locations only 34% of the time. Correctly answered questions were characterized by fewer fixations per question (F(1, 8) = 18.12; P = 0.003) and shorter average response times (F(1, 8) = 23.89; P = 0.001). The results indicate that spatial ability may influence visual attention to salient areas of images and this may be key to problem solving processes for low spatial individuals. Anat Sci Educ 10: 224–234. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

The Effect of Task Instructions on Students’ Use of Repetition in Argumentative Discourse

The reasoning belief of argumentum ad nauseam assumes that when someone repeats something often enough, he or she becomes more convincing. The present paper analyses the use of this strategy by seventh-grade students in an argumentation task. Sixty-five students (mean age: 12.2, SD?=?0.4) from a public school in a mid-sized urban environment took part in the study. The students were asked to either argue to convince an opposing partner or argue to reach consensus with an opposing partner on three dilemmas that dealt with energy sources. Data were gathered according to a between-groups design that included one independent variable (argumentative goal: to convince vs. to reach consensus) and one dependent variable (the degree of argumentative repetitions). We predicted that in the condition to convince their partner, the students would use the repetition strategy more often in their attempts to be persuasive. Our findings show that the mean number of argumentative repetitions was significantly higher for the persuasion group for both of the most frequent argumentative structures (claim and claim data). The mean percentage of repeated claims for the persuasion condition was 86.2 vs. 69.0 for the consensus condition. For the claim data, the mean percentage for the persuasion group was 35.2 vs. 24.3 for the consensus group. Also, students in the persuasion group tended to repeat one idea many times rather than repeating many ideas a few times within the same argumentative structure. The results of our study support the hypothesis that the goal of the argumentative task mediates argumentative discourse and, more concretely, the rate of repetitions and the conceptual diversity of the statements. These differences in rates of repetition and conceptual diversity are related to the amount of learning produced by the instructional goal. We apply Mercer's idea that not all classroom argumentation tasks promote learning equally.     

The Fiscal Impacts of College Attainment

This study quantifies one part of the return to U.S. public investment in college education, namely, the fiscal benefits associated with greater college attainment. College graduates pay much more taxes than those not going to college. Government expenditures are also much less for college graduates than for those without a college education. Indeed, over an average lifetime, total government spending per college degree is negative. That is, direct savings in post-college government expenditures (conservatively, about 85,000 per four-year-equivalent degree over an average lifetime) are greater than government expenditures on higher education (generously, about85,000 per four-year-equivalent degree over an average lifetime) are greater than government expenditures on higher education (generously, about 74,500 per degree). Plus, the direct extra tax revenues from college graduates alone (roughly $471,000 per degree over a lifetime) are more than six times the gross government cost per college degree. The average real fiscal internal rate of return on government investment in college students is conservatively estimated to be 10.3%.     

Prosody in skilled silent reading: evidence from eye movements

Recent eye movement experiments offer preliminary evidence that skilled readers activate word‐level prosodic information when silently reading sentences. This paper reviews the role of eye movements during reading as well as the preliminary evidence for prosodic processing. A new experiment examines whether prosodic processing differs for high and low frequency words. Readers' eye movements were monitored while reading target words presented in sentences preceded by parafoveal previews that either contained the exact initial syllable of the target (i.e. the congruent preview condition) or the initial syllable plus the next letter (i.e. the incongruent preview condition). Reading times on high frequency words did not differ in the congruent and incongruent preview conditions, but reading times on low frequency words were faster in the congruent condition. The implications of the present result and previous studies are discussed in terms of phonological hub theory, which is a production‐based theory of word recognition during skilled silent reading.