Piecing together the puzzle: development of the Societal Attitudes towards Autism (SATA) scale

The rise in the prevalence of autism creates a need for a reliable and valid measure of attitudes towards autism. The current study describes the development of a brief 16‐ item measure of Societal Attitudes towards Autism (SATA) that exhibits sound psychometric properties and has a demonstrated ability to discriminate between expert and general college student samples. The final SATA was the result of pilot work on 75 items and exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses on a 45‐item version with 475 undergraduates. Knowledge and personal distance subscales yielded inconsistent reliability and validity outcomes. The SATA showed strong content and construct validity as evidenced by known groups discrimination, and predicted associations with an attitude towards disability measure, an autism preference item, and a measure of implicit attitudes towards disabilities.     

A timeline of the racialist movement in the United States: A teaching tool

Since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, academics and the general public have shown increased interest in white racial extremist and other right-wing radical groups. The interest in understanding any form of extreme intolerance requires locating the historical development of the ideas, beliefs, and actions espoused through the legislation of miscegenation in our nation's history and by extremist organizations. A chronology, used as a teaching tool, reviews the unique strands of extreme beliefs and actions and connects these understandings to the growth of racialist and extremist ideologies in the United States. This timeline provides a tool for instructors and other interested individuals in gaining an understanding of such groups by locating key developments within the laws as well as within the white racial extremist movement. Thus this chronology focuses on legislative acts and Supreme Court decisions that mirror our nation's early white racialist history. Additionally, this timeline also provides information about other social movement forces that may have affected the white racial extremist movement.     

Perceptions of Community College Adjunct Faculty and Division Chairpersons: Support,Mentoring, and Professional Development to Sustain Academic Quality

The fabric of higher education has changed dramatically in recent years with a sudden increase in the presence of part-time, nontenured faculty. Adjunct faculty have a significant presence in higher education institutions and need opportunities available to them so they feel like an important part of academic culture and are prepared to teach. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the similarities and differences in perceptions between three division chairpersons and 15 adjunct faculty members from three separate departments regarding teaching support, mentoring, and professional development opportunities at one community college. It was found that chairs and mentors appeared to be the most valuable individuals in supporting, acclimating, and retaining adjunct faculty according to the participants in this study. Without the roles chairs and mentors assumed, adjunct faculty could flounder and teaching quality could be hindered.     

Anatomy as a Model Environment for Acquiring Professional Competencies in Medicine: Experiences at Harvard Medical School

Anatomy education provides students with opportunities to learn structure and function of the human body, to acquire professional competencies such as teamwork, interpersonal skills, self-awareness, and to reflect on and practice medical ethics. The fulfillment of this wide potential can present challenges in courses that are part of an integrated curriculum and shorter than traditional courses. This new reality, together with students' increasing concern about the stresses within medical education, led to efforts at Harvard Medical School to implement practical steps toward an optimal learning environment in anatomy. These were based on core elements of ethical anatomy education and principles of trauma-informed care. Anatomy is conceptualized here as the “first clinical discipline,” with relational interactions between anatomical educators, medical students, and body donors/patients. Essential prerequisites for the implementation of this work were support by the medical school leadership, open partnership between engaged students and faculty, faculty coordination, and peer-teaching. Specific interventions included pre-course faculty development on course philosophy and invitations to students to share their thoughts on anatomy. Student responses were integrated in course introductions, combined with a pre-dissection laboratory visit, an introductory guide, and a module on the history and ethics of anatomy. During the course, team-building activities were scheduled, and self-reflection encouraged, for example, through written exercises, and elective life-body drawing. Students' responses to the interventions were overall positive, but need further evaluation. This first attempt of a systematic implementation of an optimal learning environment in anatomy led to the identification of areas in need of adjustment.     

SIGI PLUS and project LEARN: A retrospective

Lila Norris, Laurence Shatkin, and Martin R. Katz are Senior Research Scientists, Guidance Research, Educational Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey 08541.     

Self-regulated learning in Singaporean context: a congeneric approach of confirmatory factor analysis

The motivated strategies for learning questionnaire (MSLQ) is widely used as a self-report instrument to assess students’ motivation and self-regulation. This study utilized the MSLQ Junior High to examine the motivational beliefs and self-regulation of secondary school students (Grades 8 and 9) from Singapore. The instrument was slightly modified and administered to students (N?=?610) in mathematics and science classes. In the first sample, 314 students completed the MSLQ Junior High while a second sample of 296 students completed the revised MSLQ Junior High. Using a congeneric approach of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the five-factor measurement model was determined with the first sample. This measurement model was further supported using a second sample and its goodness-of-fit indices were compared with other CFA models. Statistical findings showed that the five-factor structure of the revised MSLQ Junior High had a good model fit. The present study contributes a novel methodological approach by investigating the parsimony confirmatory factor structure of the revised MSLQ Junior High in local academic contexts.