Creation,Transformation, Dissemination,and Preservation: Advocating for Scholarly Communication

Scholarly communication is often thought of as the preservation of knowledge. In fact, it also influences the creation, transformation, and dissemination of knowledge. The new norms of scholarly communication are multiple authorships, inter-institutional and international collaboration, and use of social media. The evolving norms for the librarians and consortial groups are supporting research data management, aiding discovery of collaborators, and dissemination and preservation of results, especially in digital formats. Librarians are viewed as experts in scholarly communication on many campuses but their leadership is not always recognized.     

Segmenting Texts Into Meaningful Word Groups: Beginning Readers’ Prosody and Comprehension

It was hypothesized that prosodic reading facilitates beginning readers’ comprehension by allowing them to segment the text into meaningful word groups. Two prosodic features of the oral reading of second-grade students were considered: lack of inappropriate pauses and attention to punctuation. To examine the unique contribution of these features to reading comprehension, fluency (speed and accuracy of reading) and vocabulary were controlled. As expected, both prosodic features were significantly related to comprehension, jointly explaining as much variance as fluency. Accordingly, it might be counterproductive to encourage reading speed and accuracy at the expense of prosody.     

The Role of Reflection in the Effects of Community Service on Adolescent Development: A Meta‐Analysis

This meta‐analysis assessed the effect of community service on adolescent development and the moderation of this effect by reflection, community service, and adolescent characteristics to explicate the mechanisms underlying community service effects. Random effects analyses, based on 49 studies (24,477 participants, 12–20 years old), revealed that community service had positive effects on academic, personal, social, and civic outcomes. Moderation analyses indicated that reflection was essential; the effect for studies that include reflection was substantial (mean ES = .41) while community service in the absence of reflection yielded negligible benefits (mean ES = .05). Effects increased when studies include more frequent reflection and community service, reflection on academic content, and older adolescents. These findings have implications for understanding and improving community service.     

EFFECTS OF A PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM ON BEHAVIORAL ENGAGEMENT OF STUDENTS IN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL

Student behavioral engagement is a key condition supporting academic achievement, yet student disengagement in middle and high schools is all too common. The current study used a randomized controlled design to test the efficacy of the My Teaching Partner‐Secondary program to increase behavioral engagement. The program offers teachers personalized coaching and systematic feedback on teachers’ interactions with students, based on systematic observation of videorecordings of teacher‐student interactions in the classroom. The study found that intervention teachers had significantly higher increases, albeit to a modest degree, in student behavioral engagement in their classrooms after 1 year of involvement with the program compared to the teachers in the control group (explaining 4% of variance). In exploratory analyses, two dimensions of teachers’ interactions with students—their focus on analysis and problem solving during instruction and their use of diverse instructional learning formats—acted as mediators of increased student engagement. The findings offer implications for new directions in teacher professional development and for understanding the classroom as a setting for adolescent development.     

Fostering Growth and Development of Recovering Students in Higher Education Through Servant Leadership

Servant leadership is a leadership style complementary to a lifestyle of recovery from a substance use disorder. Across the country, thousands of students in recovery from substance use disorders are pursuing higher education. Support for students in recovery is increasing, primarily through collegiate recovery programs (CRP) that are being implemented to support student recovery, education and personal development. Servant leadership has been used successfully by many business, organizations, religions, and educational systems. In the 1960s, Robert Greenleaf brought new attention to the concept when he began writing about his observations and experiences in the business world. According to Greenleaf, many businesses and organizations had lost sight of their role and responsibility to serve others. The main philosophy of servant leadership is service to others, and through service, others will look to the one serving for leadership. This article is intended to share elements of servant leadership and how these elements can be implemented into a CRP to promote and foster the growth and development of students in recovery.     

‘Because We Weren’t Actually Teaching Them,We Thought They Weren’t Learning’: Primary Teacher Perspectives from the MyScience Initiative

MyScience is a primary science education initiative in which being in a community of practice is integral to the learning process. This paper describes the ongoing journey to date of eight primary teachers from three primary schools who actively participated in MyScience over an extended period. Their views of interactions with mentors and students were analysed, in part, using attributes associated with both ‘communities of practice’ and the ‘nature of science’. Findings reveal teachers’ new understandings about the teacher–student relationship and learning within a community of practice. Implications for science teaching and learning in primary school community of practice settings are discussed.     

Mediation effects of problem drinking and marijuana use on HIV sexual risk behaviors among childhood sexually abused South African heterosexual men

HIV/AIDS prevalence in South Africa is one of the highest in the world with heterosexual, transmission predominantly promoting the epidemic. The goal of this study is to examine whether, marijuana use and problem drinking mediate the relationship between histories of childhood sexual, abuse (CSA) and HIV risk behaviors among heterosexual men. Participants were 1181 Black men aged, 18–45 from randomly selected neighborhoods in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Audio computer assisted, self-interviewing was used to assess self-reported childhood sexual abuse, problem drinking, and marijuana (dagga) use, and HIV sexual transmission behavior with steady and casual partners. Data were analyzed using multiple meditational modeling. There was more support for problem, drinking than marijuana use as a mediator. Findings suggest that problem drinking and marijuana use, mediate HIV sexual risk behaviors in men with histories of CSA. Focusing on men with histories of CSA, and their use of marijuana and alcohol may be particularly useful for designing strategies to reduce, HIV sexual transmission in South Africa.     

What is not working in working memory of children with literacy disorders? Evidence from a three-year-longitudinal study

The goals of this study were to explore the deficits in working memory associated with literacy disorders (i.e. developmental disorders of reading and/or spelling) and the developmental trajectories of these working memory deficits. The performance of 28 children with literacy disorders was compared to a non-disabled control group with the same group size at five bi-annual times of measurement in a three-year-longitudinal study beginning at the end of primary school (9.5 years of age). Storage capacity and central-executive working memory were assessed in phonological and visual-spatial modalities, the latter under static and dynamic conditions. Overall, children with literacy disorders were outperformed by their typical developing peers in all phonological and in dynamic visual-spatial storage and central-executive tasks except for the static visual-spatial storage task. Results at single times of measurement revealed that the most consistent deficit was found in the storage capacity of the phonological loop. An additional central-executive impairment is supported by low backward spans. The causes for output deficits in dynamic visual-spatial tasks and good performance under static visual-spatial condition are discussed.