Empirical Performance of Covariates in Education Observational Studies

This article summarizes results from 12 empirical evaluations of observational methods in education contexts. We look at the performance of three common covariate-types in observational studies where the outcome is a standardized reading or math test. They are: pretest measures, local geographic matching, and rich covariate sets with a strong theory of treatment selection. Overall, the review demonstrates that although the pretest often reduces bias in observational studies, it does not always eliminate it. Its performance depends on the pretest's correlation with treatment selection and the outcome, and whether preintervention trends are present. We also find that although local comparisons are prioritized for matching, its performance depends on whether comparable no-treatment cases are available. Otherwise, local comparisons may produce badly biased results. In cases where researchers have a strong theory of selection and rich covariate sets, observational methods perform well, but additional replication studies are needed. Finally, observational methods that rely on demographic covariates without a theory of selection rarely produce unbiased treatment effects. The article concludes by offering education researchers empirically based guidance on covariate selection in observational studies.     

Changing thoughts,changing practice: examining the delivery of a group CBT-based intervention in a school setting

Promoting mental health and well-being for children and young people in the UK has attracted increasing prominence in recent years and has been a focus for government strategy within health and education. Training and practice in educational psychology has increasingly focused on developing skills and expertise to provide therapeutic support within school contexts, at an early stage of need. One approach, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT), has been heralded as an effective, evidence-based intervention for anxiety. This research examines the factors influencing the outcomes of a group CBT-based intervention, run by an Educational Psychologist (EP), in a school setting. The findings suggest that influential variables included pupil identification, measures of change applied and the role of school staff. It is concluded that EPs can play a key role in increasing access to psychological therapies, alongside considering due caution in relation to the application of traditional clinical approaches in school contexts.     

Attempted and completed incidents of stranger-perpetrated child sexual abuse and abduction

OBJECTIVE: To establish the prevalence, typology and nature of attempted or completed incidents of stranger-perpetrated sexual abuse or abduction of children "away from home". METHODS: A questionnaire was completed by 2,420 children (83% response rate) aged 9-16 years in 26 elementary and high schools in North-West England. RESULTS: Of these children, 19.0% (n=461) reported that they had been the victims of any attempted or completed sexual abuse or abduction incident away from home at some point in their lives. Of these children, 161 (6.7% of the original sample) reported that the "last" incident had been perpetrated by a stranger. Based upon these last incidents, four main types of attempted or completed CSA or abduction incident were identified: indecent exposure (40.8% of victims), touching (25.8%), and abduction (23.1%), each occurring on their own; and incidents involving multiple types of act (10.2%). The majority of these abductions (91.1%) and touching incidents (50.9%) were attempted as opposed to completed. Rates of victimization were generally higher among girls than boys (10.4% vs. 4.2%, p<.001). A sizeable minority of victims had experienced sexual abuse or abduction previously (28.8%). The large majority of incidents were carried out by males (88.2%). Most incidents occurred when children were accompanied by their peers (67.9%). Many victims were frightened by their experience (46.9% very frightened) and the large majority made a disclosure (79.9%). Only a minority of incidents were reported to the police (33.3%). CONCLUSIONS: Incidents of attempted and completed stranger CSA and abduction are distinct from CSA and abduction by known persons, go against stereotypes, are complex, and give rise to a number of key issues that may have implications for prevention and intervention. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Professionals involved in child protection should undertake work to reduce the risk of existing victims of CSA or abduction becoming victims of stranger CSA or abduction, and the risk of attempted incidents becoming completed ones. They also need to encourage the disclosure and reporting of attempted and completed stranger CSA and abduction incidents.     

Oxidative injury and antioxidant vitamins E and C in Schizophrenia

Susceptibility of Schizophrenic patients to lipid peroxidation relative to healthy control subjects was investigated by measuring the malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in plasma. The main finding was that Schizophrenic patients were more susceptible than control subjects to oxidative damage as evident from increased MDA levels in plasma. Antioxidant levels are also depleted in Schizophrenic patients when compared to normal subjects as evident from decreased levels of vitamins E and C in the plasma. Impaired antioxidant defense and increased lipid peroxidation suggests that treatment with antioxidants (Vitamin E, Vitamin C, beta carotene) at the initial stages of illness may prevent further oxidative injury and deterioration of associated neurological deficits in Schizophrenia.     

Coordinating scaffolds for collaborative inquiry in a game-based learning environment

Collaborative inquiry learning affords educators a context within which to support understanding of scientific practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. One approach to supporting collaborative science inquiry is through problem-based learning (PBL). However, there are two key challenges in scaffolding collaborative inquiry learning in technology rich environments. First, it is unclear how we might understand the impact of scaffolds that address multiple functions (e.g., to support inquiry and argumentation). Second, scaffolds take different forms, further complicating how to coordinate the forms and functions of scaffolds to support effective collaborative inquiry. To address these issues, we identify two functions that needed to be scaffolded, the PBL inquiry cycle and accountable talk. We then designed predefined hard scaffolds and just-in-time soft scaffolds that target the regulation of collaborative inquiry processes and accountable talk. Drawing on a mixed method approach, we examine how middle school students from a rural school engaged with Crystal Island: EcoJourneys for two weeks (N=45). Findings indicate that hard scaffolds targeting the PBL inquiry process and soft scaffolds that targeted accountable talk fostered engagement in these processes. Although the one-to-one mapping between form and function generated positive results, additional soft scaffolds were also needed for effective engagement in collaborative inquiry and that these soft scaffolds were often contingent on hard scaffolds. Our findings have implications for how we might design the form of scaffolds across multiple functions in game-based learning environments.     

Contrast in usage of FCAT‐approved anatomical terminology between members of two anatomy associations in North America

Almost 12 years since the publishing of Terminologia Anatomica (TA) by the Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (FCAT), there has yet to be a unified adoption of FCAT‐recommended anatomical terms by North American anatomists. A survey was sent to members of the Human Anatomy & Physiology Society (HAPS) to compare the frequency of FCAT term usage with a previous study involving the American Association of Anatomists (AAA). The HAPS differed from AAA in being composed mostly of biologists (56.5%) who teach anatomy with only 18.3% of respondents having terminal degrees in anatomy. The survey included the same 25 sets of synonymic names for selected gross anatomical structures or related terms used for the AAA survey. Overall results indicate that the FCAT preferred term had the highest frequency of usage in only 40.0% of the survey questions, demonstrating 4% lower compliance than AAA respondents. Compliance with FCAT preferred terms ranged from 92.2% to 1.7% usage. When compared with AAA anatomists, there were reversals in predominant usage between FCAT and non‐FCAT terms for six sets of anatomical structures: HAPS respondents predominantly used non‐FCAT terms for adrenal gland (88.7%), antecubital fossa (57.4%), patellar tendon (65.2%), ligamentum capitis femoris (36.5%), while preferring the FCAT anterior circumflex humeral artery (45.2%) and anterior/posterior preferred over ventral/dorsal (41.7%). Almost 54% of HAPS anatomists were not familiar with the FCAT, nearly 21% higher than the AAA. Anat Sci Educ 3:25–32, 2010. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Exploring cultural differences in critical thinking: Is it about my thinking style or the language I speak?

Critical thinking is deemed as an ideal in academic settings, but cultural differences in critical thinking performance between Asian and Western students have been reported in the international education literature. We examined explanations for the observed differences in critical thinking between Asian and New Zealand (NZ) European students, and tested hypotheses derived from research in international education and cultural psychology. The results showed that NZ European students performed better on two objective measures of critical thinking skills than Asian students. English proficiency, but not dialectical thinking style, could at least partially if not fully explain these differences. This finding holds with both self-report (Study 1) and objectively measured (Study 2a) English proficiency. The results also indicated that Asian students tended to rely more on dialectical thinking to solve critical thinking problems than their Western counterparts. In a follow-up data analysis, students' critical thinking was found to predict their academic performance after controlling for the effects of English proficiency and general intellectual ability, but the relationship does not vary as a function of students' cultural backgrounds or cultural adoption (Study 2b). Altogether, these findings contribute to our understanding of the influence of culture on critical thinking in international education.