How can students’ academic performance in statistics be improved? Testing the influence of social and temporal-self comparison feedback in a web-based training environment

The aim of this study was to examine how social or temporal-self comparison feedback, delivered in real-time in a web-based training environment, could influence the academic performance of students in a statistics examination. First-year psychology students were given the opportunity to train for a statistics examination during a semester by doing online exercises in a web-based training environment. Once connected, students received in real-time either social comparison feedback (their score was compared to the mean score of all first-year students) or temporal-self comparison feedback (their score was compared, week by week, with their own previous score). The fact that students were free to connect to the web-based training environment heightened self-regulation differences such as academic procrastination, which was considered as a moderating variable in this study. Because academic performance was measured, the students’ background in mathematics and statistics was also controlled. Irrespective of the students’ background, the results reveal a positive influence of social comparison feedback on statistics exam performance, but only among students who did not delay doing exercises in the web-based training environment. By contrast, temporal-self comparison feedback did not have any effect on performance. Some recommendations for optimizing the efficacy of web-based training environments can be proposed, taking into account both social comparison feedback and academic procrastination.     

Does Teacher Encouragement Influence Students’ Educational Progress? A Propensity-Score Matching Analysis

Theory suggests that teacher encouragement can aid students’ educational progress, but there are not yet quantitative inferential studies that assess its longer-term impact. With data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE), I use propensity-score matching to investigate whether encouragement influences the likelihood of students enrolling in (1) advanced high school (A-level) courses and (2) a university degree course. Model estimates suggest that encouragement does have a significant positive impact on both outcomes. In addition, I investigate whether encouragement effects vary according to parental education and the given student’s prior academic achievement; it appears that the impact is greatest for those students in the middle third of academic achievement as well as those with lower levels of parental education. These findings have important policy implications, especially as it seems that teacher encouragement has the greatest influence on those students most likely to be on the margin for university attendance.     

Self‐regulation strategies improve self‐discipline in adolescents: benefits of mental contrasting and implementation intentions

Adolescents struggle with setting and striving for goals that require sustained self‐discipline. Research on adults indicates that goal commitment is enhanced by mental contrasting (MC), a strategy involving the cognitive elaboration of a desired future with relevant obstacles of present reality. Implementation intentions (II), which identify the action one will take when a goal‐relevant opportunity arises, represent a strategy shown to increase goal attainment when commitment is high. This study tests the effect of mental contrasting combined with implementation intentions (MCII) on successful goal implementation in adolescents. Sixty‐six 2nd‐year high school students preparing to take a high‐stakes exam in the fall of their third year were randomly assigned to complete either a 30‐minute written mental contrasting with implementation intentions intervention or a placebo control writing exercise. Students in the intervention condition completed more than 60% more practice questions than did students in the control condition. These findings point to the utility of directly teaching to adolescents mental contrasting with implementation intentions as a self‐regulatory strategy of successful goal pursuit.     

Forward-Thinking Teens: The Effects of College Costs on Adolescent Risky Behavior

This paper analyzes the effect of college costs on teenagers’ engagement in risky behaviors before they are old enough to attend college. Individuals with brighter prospects for future schooling attainment may engage in less drug and alcohol use and risky sexual activity because they have more to lose if such behaviors have harmful effects in their lives. If teens correctly predict that higher college costs make future college enrollment less likely, then adolescents facing different expected costs may choose different levels of risky behavior. I find that lower college costs in teenagers’ states of residence raise their subjective expectations regarding college attendance and deter teenage substance use and sexual partnership. Specifically, a $1,000 reduction in tuition and fees at 2-year colleges in a youth's state of residence (roughly a 50% difference at the mean) is associated with a decline in the number of sexual partners the youth had in the past year (by 26%), the number of days in the past month the youth smoked (by 14%), and the number of days in the past month the youth used marijuana (by 23%). These findings suggest that the often-studied correlation between schooling and health habits emerges in adolescence because teenagers with brighter college prospects curb their risky behavior in accordance with their expectations. The results also imply that policies that improve teenagers’ educational prospects may be effective tools for reducing youthful involvement in such behaviors.     

Back to school blues: Seasonality of youth suicide and the academic calendar

Previous research has found evidence of academic benefits to longer school years. This paper investigates one of the many potential costs of increased school year length, documenting a dramatic decrease in youth suicide in months when school is not in session. A detailed analysis does not find that other potential explanations such as economic conditions, weather or seasonal affective disorder patterns can explain the decrease. This evidence suggests that youth may face increased stress and decreased mental health when school is in session.     

Developmental continuity in theory of mind: speed and accuracy of belief-desire reasoning in children and adults

On belief-desire reasoning tasks, children first pass tasks involving true belief before those involving false belief, and tasks involving positive desire before those involving negative desire. The current study examined belief-desire reasoning in participants old enough to pass all such tasks. Eighty-three 6- to 11-year-olds and 20 adult participants completed simple, computer-based tests of belief-desire reasoning, which recorded response times as well as error rates. Both measures suggested that, like young children, older children and adults find it more difficult to reason about false belief and negative desires than true beliefs and positive desires. It is argued that this developmental continuity is most consistent with either executive competence or executive performance accounts of the development of belief-desire reasoning.     

Educational Neuromyths Among Teachers in Latin America

Neuroscientific knowledge has undeniably gained interest among educators worldwide. However, not all “brain facts” believed by teachers are supported by science. This study sought to evaluate the belief in these so‐called neuromyths among 3,451 Latin American teachers. We found that, consistent with prior research among teachers in other geographic areas, teachers in Latin America hold major misconceptions about neuroscience, especially as it relates to factual information about its structure and functioning. Differences across South American nations were observed with moderate and slight effect sizes for general knowledge of the brain and neuromyths, respectively. Teachers working in higher education had slightly superior performance. Teachers at all levels who reported knowing more about the brain, however, were more likely to believe invalid assertions known as neuromyths. These results shed light on trends in the field of education, hoping to encourage the development of strategies aimed at correcting the use of science as it relates to education. The implications regarding teaching practice, policy, and teacher training are discussed.     

Are our president learning? Unpacking the enthymematic connections in the speech mistakes of President George W. Bush

The purpose of this paper is to explore public interpretations of President George W. Bush's speaking errors. One interpretation of Bush's speech mistakes offered in the media is that he may have dyslexia. Therefore, we explore how an enthymeme using markers of dyslexia as a sign of bad leadership has been used to frame Bush's speaking errors. We provide an analysis of an exemplar of how Bush's speech errors are represented in the media. Our exemplar is the desktop calendar George W. Bushisms: The Accidental Wit and Wisdom of Our 43rd President . We demonstrate that this text focused on common indicators of dyslexia, that is, speaking errors, to position Bush as a 'bad' and 'stupid' leader. Finally, we offer conclusions and implications that this study has for our understanding of politics and disabilities.     

Reasonable suspicion: a pilot study of pediatric residents

OBJECTIVES: To identify pediatric residents' understanding and interpretation of reasonable suspicion, in the context of mandated reporting of suspected child abuse. METHOD: A survey was administered to pediatrics and combined medicine/pediatrics residents. An open-ended question plus three operational frameworks for interpreting likelihood examined how residents conceived of reasonable suspicion. Responses were examined for evidence of a group standard, and also compared for internal consistency. RESULTS: Forty-two of 49 residents completed the survey (86% response rate). There were no significant differences in responses based on age, gender, year of residency, or anticipated practice type. Respondents exhibited wide variation in the thresholds they set for reasonable suspicion. On a Differential Diagnosis scale, 10% indicated that "abuse" would have to rank 1st or 2nd; 45% set the threshold at 3rd or 4th; while 45% stated that abuse could be as low as 5th to 10th and still qualify as reasonable suspicion. Using a Estimated Probability scale, 9.5% indicated that "abuse" would need to be >75% likely before reasonable suspicion existed; 28.5% stated that a 60-70% likelihood was needed; 38% identified the necessary likelihood as 40-50%; and 24% set the threshold as low as 10-35%. In comparing individual resident responses for the two scales, 83.3% were internally inconsistent. CONCLUSION: There was no consensus among pediatric residents with regard to (1) a standard meaning for reasonable suspicion, (2) a standard application of reasonable suspicion, or (3) how likely "abuse" must be before reasonable suspicion can be said to exist. Additionally, many residents' conceptions of reasonable suspicion were internally inconsistent.     

Handling of artificial membranes using electrowetting-actuated droplets on a microfluidic device combined with integrated pA-measurements

Artificial membranes, as a controllable environment, are an essential tool to study membrane proteins. Electrophysiology provides information about the ion transport mechanism across a membrane at the single-protein level. Unfortunately, high-throughput studies and screening are not accessible to electrophysiology because it is a set of not automated and technically delicate methods. Therefore, it is necessary to automate and parallelize electrophysiology measurement in artificial membranes. Here, we present a first step toward this goal: the fabrication and characterization of a microfluidic device integrating electrophysiology measurements and the handling of an artificial membrane which includes its formation, its displacement and the separation of its leaflets using electrowetting actuation of sub-μL droplets. To validate this device, we recorded the insertion of a model porin, α-hemolysin.