Updated generic search filters for finding studies of adverse drug effects in Ovid medline and Embase may retrieve up to 90% of relevant studies

Background

The most current objectively derived search filters for adverse drug effects are 15 years old and other strategies have not been developed and tested empirically.

Objective

To develop and validate search filters to retrieve evidence on adverse drug effects from Ovid medline and Ovid Embase.

Methods

We identified systematic reviews of adverse drug effects in Epistemonikos. From these reviews, we collated their included studies which we then randomly divided into three tests and one validation set of records. We constructed a search strategy to maximise relative recall using word frequency analysis with test set one. This search strategy was then refined using test sets two and three and validated on the final set of records.

Results

Of 107 systematic reviews which met our inclusion criteria, 1948 unique included studies were available from medline and 1980 from Embase. Generic adverse drug effects searches in medline and Embase achieved 90% and 89% relative recall, respectively. When specific adverse effects terms were added recall was improved.

Conclusion

We have derived and validated search filters that retrieve around 90% of records with adverse drug effects data in medline and Embase. The addition of specific adverse effects terms is required to achieve higher recall.     

PRINCIPAL ATTITUDES REGARDING ZERO TOLERANCE AND RACIAL DISPARITIES IN SCHOOL SUSPENSIONS

Zero tolerance school discipline practices have been associated with a national increase in suspensions, a practice that has had a disproportionate negative impact on Black students. The present study investigated an association between principal attitudes toward zero tolerance and suspension rates for White and Black students in 306 Virginia high schools. Black suspension rates were more than double White suspension rates. Regression analyses controlling for student poverty and school enrollment showed that principal endorsement of zero tolerance was moderately associated with suspension rates for both White and Black students, but was not associated with the size of the racial disparity. Paired‐samples t tests showed statistically significant differences in the types of offenses that resulted in suspensions, with Black students significantly more likely to be suspended for disruptive offenses and White students more likely to be suspended for alcohol‐ and drug‐related offenses.     

Self-Study as a Means for Urban Teachers to Transform Academics

Our self-study has two main purposes: (1) to understand the value of self-study for credential program graduates to confront in transformative ways the pedagogical challenges of urban schools, and (2) to add to an exploration of self-study for non-teacher educators and strengthen our preparation of candidates to enact such inquiry. To answer these questions, we orchestrated a dialogic exchange with three Master's students who used self-study to research and improve their teaching in urban elementary schools. We analyzed their papers both to see how consistent they were with the characteristics of self-study and to determine the nature of lessons learned in relation to our social justice goals. In addition, in the following year we gathered and analyzed information about their post-study reactions to self-study and its continuing influence. In their self-studies all three examined assumptions guiding their teaching by analyzing pertinent data and functioning as critical friends for each other; their work was consistent with self-study requirements. Written reflections and interviews all mentioned the transformative influence of self-study on their thinking and practice. We also discovered that we should strengthen our guidance with regard to the specifics of self-study methodology, as in the need to look for disconfirming evidence. Although their commitment to the process was maintained, we need to explore whether and how self-study might be engaged more informally. Overall, we found that self-study invites teachers to question discriminatory categories with empirical evidence and empowers them to redefine their profession and question regressive policies.     

Rebuilding the Family–Professional Partnership Through Facilitated Individualized Education Program Meetings: A Conflict Prevention and Resolution Practice

ABSTRACT

Decades of research identify the need to improve the individualized education program (IEP) meeting process. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of parents, advocates, educators, and facilitators who have utilized an emerging alternative IEP procedure known as a facilitated IEP (FIEP) meeting. This new process is used as an alternative dispute resolution practice in special education. FIEP meetings use a collaborative approach to encourage family and professionals to develop a meaningful educational program designed to best address student needs. Using qualitative interview methodology, 32 participants described their experiences with IEP and FIEP meetings. Data analysis identified the FIEP as a promising collaborative practice that can be used to restructure IEP meetings with the intent to prevent and resolve conflict through encouraging active parent participation through consensus building and maintaining focus on the student. Implications for practice and future research are presented and discussed.     

Benefits of Systematic Phonics Instruction

Systematic-phonics instruction appears to be more effective than nonsystematic phonics instruction for teaching reading (Ehri, Nunes, Stahl, & Willows, 2001 Ehri, L. C., Nunes, S. R., Stahl, S. A. and Willows, D. M. 2001. Systematic phonics instruction helps students learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panels meta-analysis.. Review of Educational Research, 71: 393–447. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). In the present study, a systematic phonics approach was directly compared with a nonsystematic phonics approach for kindergarten children. Both approaches were delivered using computer programs teaching the same Dutch grapheme–phoneme correspondences. Both phonics-trained groups progressed to the same extent on productive letter-sound knowledge compared to the control group. However, on measures of phonemic awareness, spelling, and reading, the systematic phonics group made more progress than the nonsystematic phonics group and the control group.     

Examining shifts in preservice teachers’ beliefs and attitudes toward writing instruction

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of integrating self-reflection, focused instruction, and field practice in a semester-long language arts course in order to shift early childhood preservice teachers’ (PSTs) beliefs and attitudes about writing instruction, as well as their development and planned use of tools for instruction. The findings revealed that a course focused primarily on preparing PSTs to teach writing can influence PSTs’ definitions of writing, the importance they place on writing instruction, their self-efficacy related to teaching writing, and their tools for instruction.     

Book review

This paper aims to examine the experiences of pupils and professionals who are affected by actual or threatened permanent exclusion (what used to be called being expelled) from school. An ethnographic study based on the writer’s employment within secondary schools and the Children’s Services department of an urban local authority in England explores the idea that professionals may be forced to make decisions about pupils in the face of powerful competition between the politically unchallengeable concepts of tolerance, inclusivity, attainment, and choice. The paper argues that the tensions of multi‐agency working are focussed within what will be called the contested space of the pupil’s ‘extended body’. Permanent exclusion, along with its tendency to prompt a pathological reading of a pupil’s issues, is therefore seen as an authoritarian strategy designed to ameliorate the inherent paradoxical tension experienced by the various professionals working within an education system dedicated to the concept of ‘full inclusion’ but measured and funded on the grounds of academic league tables.