Factors influencing the decision to administer psychoeducational tests

Ninety-nine NASP members participated in a study designed to investigate bias in the early stages of the referral process (i.e., in the decision to administer psychological tests). Each school psychologist received one of eight case studies, which described a child referred for academic learning problems. The case studies included typical referral information and varied student race (Black, White), socioeconomic status (higher, lower), and group achievement test scores (average, below average). The decision to administer individual psychoeducational tests was not influenced by the student's race or socioeconomic status. School psychologists were influenced by the group achievement test data. Students who showed lower achievement test results were more likely to be recommended for testing than were those who showed average performance levels. Thus, these school psychologists were not biased by knowledge of a child's race or socioeconomic status, but were influenced by instructionally relevant data (i.e., achievement test scores). In addition, when objective test data indicated average achievement levels, the psychologists did not generally recommend subsequent individual psychoeducational testing. The findings suggested that, under certain conditions, testing may not automatically follow receipt of a referral.     

Classroom to Communities of Practice: Benefits for English Learners and Teacher Candidates Through Partnerships

This study investigates a service-learning program for university students seeking teacher certification examined through the lens of sociocultural theory. Data was collected from teacher candidates (TCs) in the form of surveys and an open-ended writing assignment. Administrators from the partner schools were also interviewed to provide their perspectives of the service learning. Findings show that the service-learning program allowed TCs and their English learners (ELs) to form communities of practice that were mutually beneficial. Teacher candidates reported numerous opportunities to apply the strategies learned in their methods course, as well as an increase in their sense of preparation for teaching ELs. Administrators provided positive feedback about the service-learning program in terms of the relationship between the partner school and the university. Difficulties arose in terms of TCs' accountability and the level of participation afforded to the TCs by the classroom teacher. Implications highlight the importance of negotiating expectations that address the needs of both parties equally in order to support a strong community of practice that prepares TCs to meet the needs of ELs.     

Stretching and Challenging the Boundaries of Law: Varieties of Knowledge in Biotechnologies Regulation

The paper addresses the question of adaptation of existing regulatory frameworks in the face of innovation in biotechnologies, and specifically the roles played in this by various expert knowledge practices. We identify two overlapping ideal types of adaptation: first, the stretching and maintenance of a pre-existing legal framework, and second, a breaking of existing classifications and establishment of a novel regime. We approach this issue by focusing on varieties of regulatory knowledge which, contributing to and parting of political legitimacy, in principle enable the making of legally binding decisions about risks and benefits of technologies. We base the discussion around two case studies, one of animal biotechnology ethical regulation, the other of ‘advanced therapy’ medicinal product regulation, both in the context of European Union frameworks. Specifically, we explore the knowledge configurations constituting expert committees and other institutional formations of expert regulatory knowledge in their political context. We show that where sectoral and moral boundaries are challenged, different modes of regulatory knowledge beyond scientific forms – legal, procedural, moral, economic and industrial – can shape regulatory innovations either by maintenance of regimes through commensuration and stretching, or through differentiation and separation creating new frameworks. We conclude that establishing an essential techno-scientific difference between pre-existing and novel technologies does not in itself require new regulatory structures, and that the regulatory strategy that is followed will be determined by a combination of different forms of knowledge.     

Caution regarding exergames: a skill acquisition perspective

Background: The advent of technology use in physical education is upon us. But the implications of using exergames as a substitute for traditional physical education instruction for some students raise questions. Although exergames have the potential to increase energy expenditure and motivation in some children, it is less clear whether they can provide skill acquisition benefits that are similar to those found in traditional physical education.

Purpose: In a previous experiment from our laboratory, we found that deliberate practice can significantly reduce the planning time required for lateral arm movements. The purpose of this study was to determine if exergames can produce a similar effect, by reducing the processing time required for children to initiate arm movements to the contralateral and ipsilateral space.

Participants and setting: Thirty children (boys?=?15, girls?=?15), between the ages of 7 and 12 years, participated in a pre- and post-test each taking 30?min and one 30?min treatment session in a university laboratory.

Research design: A repeated measures design was employed to test the effects of deliberate laterality practice on processing speed. Children were randomly assigned (n?=?10) to either a Nintendo Wii tennis contralateral movement experimental group, Nintendo Wii bowling ipsilateral movement experimental group, or handheld video-game control group. Each child participated in one 30?min treatment session.

Data collection: Upper extremity choice reaction time (RT) was measured through 27 goal-directed aiming movements for each arm separately, during the pre-test and post-test. The stimulus–response trials occurred in three randomly presented directions (ipsilateral, contralateral, and midline).

Data analysis: A 3 (treatment group)?×?2 (age group)?×?2 (test)?×?3 (direction) mixed design analysis of variance with repeated measures on the last two factors was used to test for significant differences, with an alpha level set at 0.05.

Findings: There were no significant treatment effects on RT across all groups indicating that a short bout of exergame training was unsuccessful in improving lateral movement processing.

Conclusions: Deliberate laterality practice using exergames did not improve the motor processing speed of lateral arm movements in the same manner of traditional physical education as indicated by our previous research. Explanations as to why exergames do not exhibit the same positive transfer for skill acquisition as traditional physical education instruction are discussed within this paper.     

Islamic Historians of the Ayyūbid Era and Muslim Rulers from the Early Crusading Period: A Study in the Use of History

This article examines the presentation of Muslim rulers from the early crusading period, 490–540/1097–1146 in six of the main chronicles written during the first half of the seventh/thirteenth century. It discusses the themes, ideas and topoi in each, demonstrating that the historians appear to have been divided into two ‘camps’ over their presentation of these rulers, based on their personal views of the rulers of their time. The article also examines why this division may have occurred, and considers its ramifications for modern scholarship of Arabic historiography, Islamic history and the history of the Crusades, in both the sixth/twelfth and seventh/thirteenth centuries.     

The “Other” in the Crusading Period: Walter the Chancellor's Presentation of Najm al-Dīn Il-Ghāzī

This paper examines ideas surrounding the presentation of the Muslim “other” in Latin writings of the early period of the Crusades. Using a case-study approach of the views of one chronicler, Walter the Chancellor, in his work Bella Antiochena, on one individual Muslim, Najm al-Dīn Il-Ghāzī, the paper studies aspects of the image of Il-Ghāzī, the reasons for them, how and why they develop throughout the chronicle, and whether, from the other information given in the chronicle, it would be possible to interpret the information in other ways. The conclusions reached demonstrate that the reason for the vitriol in Walter's presentation was his wish to justify the Crusades and suggest that the writers of Outremer started to develop their own cross-cultural responses to Islam, independent of mainstream European thought, because of their situation.     

Part 1. If We Frame It,They Will Respond: Undergraduate Student Responses to the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education

There remains significant confusion surrounding the purpose, audience, and proposed application of the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. This exploratory study addresses the question of whether undergraduate students can understand the language and concepts in this document. By presenting student responses to pretest questions recorded at the beginning of a semester-long research methods course, this article shows that students can, even on first impression, begin to make sense of the complexity and richness found in the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.     

Playing with tension: national charisma and disgrace at Euro 2012

By the time of Euro 2012, deepening tensions of nationalism and internal social struggles were developing across Europe in worsening conditions of systemic crisis. The official football ideology of UEFA conceives Euro 2012 as a civilizing platform for mutual respect and brotherhood between competing nations. In contrast, what I call Hyper-Critical Theory conceives of football competitions like Euro 2012 as part of a de-civilising ‘sports mode of production’ that necessarily produces crisis conditions, alienation and violence on a mass scale, fostering nationalism, militarism and racism. Between these polar perspectives, the figurational sociology of sport associated with Norbert Elias proposes that major international football competitions like Euro 2012 creates and dissipates contingent tensions of ‘group charisma’ and ‘group disgrace’. Study of Euronews ‘post-national’ coverage of Euro 2012 allows their explanatory adequacy to be compared. In a competition structure like the Euros no social group – players, officials, media or fans – is able to disregard entirely the field capabilities of the ‘best minority of 11’ in the serious game of exemplifying the group charisma of nations.