“I Like English Better”: Latino Dual Language Students’ Investment in Spanish,English, and Bilingualism

This mixed-methodology study surveys 63 fifth graders in a one-way dual language school. Findings alarmingly indicate that although these students are native Spanish speakers in a school that delivers 50% of their instruction in Spanish, they prefer English both academically and socially. Subsequent interviews with 10 sample students of the larger study generate deeper understandings about how these students view their languages. If dual language programs are going to be maximally successful, then they must foster an environment that encourages students’ attitudes and investments toward both of their languages, taking particular care to protect and promote the minority language.     

Parental Involvement Moderates Etiological Influences on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Behaviors in Child Twins

Although few would now contest the presence of Gene × Environment (G × E) effects in the development of child psychopathology, it remains unclear how these effects manifest themselves. Alternative G × E models have been proposed (i.e., diathesis–stress, differential susceptibility, bioecological), each of which has notably different implications for etiology. Child twin studies present a powerful tool for discriminating between these models. The current study examined whether and how parental involvement moderated etiological influences on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) within 500 twin pairs aged 6–11 years. Results indicated moderation of genetic and nonshared environmental contributions to ADHD by parental involvement, and moreover, suggested both differential susceptibility and bioecological models of G × E. Results highlight the utility of child twin samples in testing different manifestations of G × E effects.     

Elementary and Middle School Students’ Conceptions of Knowledge,Information, and Truth

Although the study of epistemic beliefs has received growing interest in the past decades, this research tends to focus on high school and undergraduate students, and does not address beliefs about information and truth, concepts that have been regarded as critical for learners in 21st-century educational contexts. In this study, the authors examined 87 elementary and middle school students’ beliefs about the definitions of and relations among knowledge, information, and truth through the use of a graphical and justification task, and addressed the consistency of beliefs across contexts and domains. Results indicated that students tended to regard knowledge, information, and truth as interrelated, and the majority of students described their beliefs as consistent across contexts and domains.     

Comparing Factors Related to Reading Comprehension in Adolescents Who Speak English as a First (L1) or Second (L2) Language

This study examined factors related to reading comprehension in adolescents who spoke English as a first language (L1) and English as a second language (L2). Measures of decoding, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension were administered to 31 L1 and 44 L2 speakers. English L2 adolescents scored significantly lower than their L1 peers on all measures. Factor analyses produced different configurations of variables for each group. For L1 learners, measures of decoding and vocabulary were separate factors but were one factor for English L2 learners. For the L1 learners, it was only the measure of vocabulary that was a significant predictor of reading comprehension. For L2 learners, decoding, vocabulary, and the interaction of decoding and vocabulary were all significant predictors of reading comprehension. Relations among these variables in adolescents who are beginning to learn English as an L2 are explored.     

‘I learned to be okay with talking about sex and safety’: assessing the efficacy of a theatre-based HIV prevention approach for adolescents in North Carolina

Adolescents are at increased risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the Southern states of the USA, where rates among youth are higher than in the rest of the nation. This paper reports on findings from a pilot study of an HIV prevention intervention that uses interactive theatre to educate young people about sexual health. The intervention was developed in Los Angeles and adapted for testing in the Southern USA, with its legacy of abstinence-based approaches to sexual health education. This study assessed intervention effects among a sample of young people in two public high schools in North Carolina. We used a pre-test, post-test quasi-experimental evaluation design to assess changes in 317 ninth-grade participants' knowledge and attitudes about HIV. At post-test, we found statistically significant increases in participants' HIV knowledge (t = 60.14; p = 0.001), as well as changes in attitudes (χ² = 8.23; p = 0.042) and awareness (χ² = 4.94; p = 0.026). Focus group data corroborated an increase in HIV knowledge and a reduction in HIV stigma as successful outcomes of intervention participation. The findings make an important contribution to the literature on theatre-based interventions for sexual health education. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of considering sociocultural and political context in implementing HIV prevention interventions in schools.     

Engaging Students in Active Learning: Use of a Blog and Audience Response System

Librarians provide instruction to medical students as part of a core course in the medical school curriculum. Instruction was provided, in part, through didactic sessions covering professional-level medical information resources, PubMed search skills, psychosocial information, and evidence-based medicine. Librarians redesigned instructional sessions with the goals of increasing student engagement and minimizing the lecture format, maximizing the number of students receiving feedback on their search and evaluation skills, and permitting students to see a variety of possible responses as well as engage in peer- and self-evaluation. Librarians integrated the use of a blog and an audience response system (ARS) into the instruction to help accomplish these goals.     

The BBC,Group Listening,and ‘The Changing World’

This article examines the content and impact of a series of BBC lecture courses broadcast in the early 1930s. The Group Listening Scheme was established in 1928: experts working in a variety of fields were invited to broadcasts a series of evening lectures. Adults across the country were encouraged to gather for the lectures and stay on afterwards to discuss them. ‘The Changing World’ consisted of half-hour talks over six evenings a week during a six-month period. The broadcasts amounted to a two-term syllabus, with 24 talks devoted to each of the six themes (the modern dilemma, industry and trade, literature and art, science, the modern state, and education and leisure). This article will sample some of these broadcasts and explore the listener response to the series in order to reach an understanding of the BBC’s achievements in adult education during the interwar period.     

Librarians,Faculty, and the Writing Center Partnering to Build an Interdisciplinary Course: A Case Study at the University of Houston,USA

This article covers how an interdisciplinary course was developed using the expertise and resources of a history professor, the history and psychology subject librarians, and the university's writing center. The course, supported by a grant, was aimed at helping students improve their research, information literacy, and writing skills across disciplines. The article discusses the involvement of the partners from the initial planning stages to its conclusion, focusing especially on how the librarians created a library session, course-specific guide, annotated bibliography assignment and grading rubric, and how these were used as opportunities to interact with the students throughout the course. Also covered are research and writing challenges, especially for English-language learner students, and how they were addressed by all the partners. It also discusses how the librarians used this experience to seek out opportunities to create similar collaborations with other instructors, and to strengthen ties with support services on campus.     

The changing work of teacher educators in Aotearoa New Zealand: a view through activity theory

The study of recruitment practices for teacher educators (TEs) in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) universities reveals the academic category of TE constituted along three related trajectories: a professional expert (not required to research), a traditional academic (not required to hold a teaching qualification or teacher’s practicing certificate), and one who is dually qualified, to teach (as a registered NZ teacher) and to research. It is the dually qualified type of TE who can service the full scope of university-based initial teacher education (UBITE). Recent recruitment practices have, however, focused on employment of professional experts and traditional academics. Drawing from document analyses and interviews, we present a picture of changing work for TEs. Our study argues that policy environments and universities’ responses are changing the objects, rules, and divisions of labour in UBITE. We comment on the evolution of initial teacher education in NZ, its likely trajectory, and its potential for development.     

Accounting for Aberrant Test Response Patterns Using Multilevel Models

Hypotheses about aberrant test-response behavior and hence invalid person-measurement have hitherto included factors like ability, gender, language, test-anxiety, and motivation, but these have not previously been collectively investigated with real data, or with multilevel models. This study analyzes the effect of these factors on person aberrance using a real mathematics assessment data set under the framework of a two-level (person and classroom) hierarchical model. The results suggest that higher-scoring pupils, and, to a lesser extent, second-language learners are significantly more often aberrant. But more importantly, we find that the classroom makes a significant contribution to person aberrance and conclude that studies that investigate the sources of person aberrance with real data should model the classroom as well as individual levels.