Pilot study of online training modules to improve speech-language pathology students’ explicit syntax knowledge

Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) exhibit weaknesses in the syntactic aspects of language that affect their spoken language (i.e., speaking and listening) and written language (i.e., reading and writing). Speech-language pathologists (SLP) who work with children with DLD are the team member with the greatest expertise in syntax. However, emerging data suggest that speech-language pathology (SLP) students and SLPs have limitations in their explicit syntax knowledge that may affect how they assess and treat the language and literacy knowledge and skills of children with DLD. Additionally, there is a lack of data on the outcomes of professional development specific to syntax. This paper reports on the effects of self-paced, online learning modules on SLP graduate students’ explicit syntax knowledge. Thirty-six SLP graduate students completed online syntax learning modules that taught four pairs of syntactic structures. SLP graduate students experienced a treatment effect from two of the four online training modules. Treatment effects seemed to be influenced by the syntactic skill being treated, by prior knowledge of that particular syntactic structure, and by other environmental factors, including training program. Although future studies should explore these factors further, the outcomes of this pilot study are the first to report on a way to improve SLP graduate students’, and potentially SLPs’, explicit syntax knowledge.

     

Fun moments or consequential experiences? A model for conceptualising and researching equitable youth outcomes from informal STEM learning

Cultural Studies of Science Education - While there are many different frameworks seeking to identify what benefits young people might derive from participation in informal STEM (Science,...     

Children's hypothetical reasoning about complex and dynamic systems

Children's hypothetical reasoning about a complex and dynamic causal system was investigated. Predominantly White, middle-class 5- to 7-year-old children from the Greater Toronto Area learned about novel food chains and were asked to consider the effects of removing one species on the others. In Study 1 (N = 72; 36 females, 36 males; 2018), 7-year-olds answered questions about both direct and indirect effects with a high degree of accuracy, whereas 5-year-olds performed at chance. Six-year-olds showed intermediate performance. Using food chains with clearer constraints, Study 2 (N = 72; 35 females, 37 males; 2020–2021) replicated these findings. These results indicate that the ability to think about hypothetical changes to dynamic causal systems develops between 5 and 7 years. Implications for science education are discussed.     

Isolation,resilience, and faith: Experiences of Black Christian students in biology graduate programs

To increase participation of students of color in science graduate programs, research has focused on illuminating student experiences to inform ways to improve them. In biology, Black students are vastly underrepresented, and while religion has been shown to be a particularly important form of cultural wealth for Black students, Christianity is stigmatized in biology. Very few studies have explored the intersection of race/ethnicity and Christianity for Black students in biology where there is high documented tension between religion and science. Since graduate school is important for socialization and Black students are likely to experience stigmatization of their racial and religious identity, it is important to understand their experiences and how we might be able to improve them. Thus, we interviewed 13 Black Christian students enrolled in biology graduate programs and explored their experiences using the theoretical lens of stigmatized identities. Through thematic content analysis, we revealed that students negotiated experiences of cultural isolation, devaluation of intelligence, and acts of bias like other racially minoritized students in science. However, by examining these experiences at the intersection of race/ethnicity and religion, we shed light on interactions students have had with faculty and peers within the biology community that cultivated perceptions of mistrust, conflict, and stigma. Our study also revealed ways in which students' religious/spiritual capital has positively supported their navigation through biology graduate school. These results contribute to a deeper understanding of why Black Christian graduate students are more likely to leave or not pursue advanced degrees in biology with implications for research and practice that help facilitate their success.     

Does the Great Firewall Really Isolate the Chinese? Integrating Access Blockage With Cultural Factors to Explain Web User Behavior

The dominant understanding of Internet censorship posits that blocking access to foreign-based websites creates isolated communities of Internet users. We question this discourse for its assumption that if given access people would use all websites. We develop a conceptual framework that integrates access blockage with social structures to explain Web users’ choices, and argue that users visit websites they find culturally proximate and that access blockage matters only when such sites are blocked. We examine the case of China, where online blockage is notoriously comprehensive, and compare Chinese Web usage patterns with those elsewhere. Analyzing audience traffic among the 1000 most visited websites, we find that websites cluster according to language and geography. Chinese websites constitute one cluster, which resembles other such geolinguistic clusters in terms of both its composition and its degree of isolation. Our sociological investigation reveals a greater role of cultural proximity than access blockage in explaining online behaviors.     

‘For the Recreation of Gentlemen and Other Fit Persons of the Better Sort’: Tennis Courts and Bowling Greens as Early Leisure Venues in Sixteenth- to Eighteenth-Century London and Bath

By looking at sports facilities for non-professional players in England, this article explores early commercialization tendencies in sports that proceeded the process driven by the professionalization of sports in the eighteenth century. A growing demand for purpose-built sporting facilities gave rise to commercialized tennis courts, bowling alleys and greens in London as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century which mainly addressed upper class ‘gentlemen’. These facilities were not mere sports venues but created semi-public leisure venues where particularly men could meet outside their homes and enjoy sports, gambling, drinking and other entertainments together. They were also strongly embedded in a wider network of similar semi-public facilities such as alehouses, taverns and inns that offered multi-functional services. Taking the examples of London and Bath, the article explores the growth and organization of tennis courts, bowling alleys and greens on a local level, and how these were interlinked with other contemporary leisure and entertainment businesses.     

Application of Think Aloud Protocols for Examining and Confirming Sources of Differential Item Functioning Identified by Expert Reviews

This paper demonstrates and discusses the use of think aloud protocols (TAPs) as an approach for examining and confirming sources of differential item functioning (DIF). The TAPs are used to investigate to what extent surface characteristics of the items that are identified by expert reviews as sources of DIF are supported by empirical evidence from examinee thinking processes in the English and French versions of a Canadian national assessment. In this research, the TAPs confirmed sources of DIF identified by expert reviews for 10 out of 20 DIF items. The moderate agreement between TAPs and expert reviews indicates that evidence from expert reviews cannot be considered sufficient in deciding whether DIF items are biased and such judgments need to include evidence from examinee thinking processes.     

Inclusive education for students with refugee experience: whole school reform in a South Australian primary school

In recent years, there has been an increase in students with refugee experience in the UK, the US, Europe and Australia. These students face many barriers to education, and appropriately educating this diverse student population presents many challenges to schools and education departments. We argue that a whole of school approach that includes school structures, culture and pedagogy is needed to provide equity for students with refugee experience. This approach to reform requires that the ‘structures and programs [that] are designed for a dominant group’ (DETE, South Australian Curriculum Standards and Accountability Framework, South Australia 2001), and which disadvantage minority groups, are challenged and changed. Implementing such change raises many practical difficulties, and there are few documented examples of good practice. This prompted the authors’ ethnographic study of a South Australian primary school, with a New Arrivals Program, which positions itself as taking a whole of school approach to educational reform for refugees. This paper reports on the structural changes the school has implemented in its class organisation, staff roles and curriculum. We consider the effects of government funding and neoliberal education policy on these reforms.