Evaluating metacognitive scaffolding in Guided Invention Activities

Invention and Productive Failure activities ask students to generate methods that capture the important properties of some given data (e.g., uncertainty) before being taught the expert solution. Invention and Productive Failure activities are a class of scientific inquiry activities in that students create, implement, and evaluate mathematical models based on data. Yet, lacking sufficient inquiry skills, students often do not actualize the full potential of these activities. We identified key invention strategies in which students often fail to engage: exploratory analysis, peer interaction, self-explanation, and evaluation. A classroom study with 134 students evaluated the effect of supporting these skills on the quality and outcomes of the invention process. Students in the Unguided Invention condition received conventional Invention Activities; students in the Guided Invention condition received complementary metacognitive scaffolding. Students were asked to invent methods for calculating uncertainties in best-fitting lines. Guided Invention students invented methods that included more conceptual features and ranked the given datasets more accurately, although the quality of their mathematical expressions was not improved. At the process level, Guided Invention students revised their methods more frequently and had more and better instances of unprompted self-explanations even on components of the activity that were not supported by the metacognitive scaffolding. Classroom observations are used to demonstrate the effect of the scaffolding on students’ learning behaviours. These results suggest that process guidance in the form of metacognitive scaffolding augments the inherent benefits of Invention Activities and can lead to gains at both domain and inquiry levels.     

Hierarchical Mentoring: A Transformative Strategy for Improving Diversity and Retention in Undergraduate STEM Disciplines

In the United States, less than half of the students who enter into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate curricula as freshmen will actually graduate with a STEM degree. There is even greater disparity in the national STEM graduation rates of students from underrepresented groups with approximately three-fourths of minority students leaving STEM disciplines at the undergraduate level. A host of programs have been designed and implemented to model best practices in retaining students in STEM disciplines. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Professors Program at Louisiana State University, under leadership of HHMI Professor Isiah M. Warner, represents one of these programs and reports on a mentoring model that addresses the key factors that impact STEM student attrition at the undergraduate level. By integrating mentoring and strategic academic interventions into a structured research program, an innovative model has been developed to guide STEM undergraduate majors in adopting the metacognitive strategies that allow them to excel in their programs of study, as they learn to appreciate and understand science more completely. Comparisons of the persistence of participants and nonparticipants in STEM curricular, at the host university and with other national universities and colleges, show the impact of the model’s salient features on improving STEM retention through graduation for all students, particularly those from underrepresented groups.     

JOINT CONFIRMATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS OF THE WOODCOCK‐JOHNSON TESTS OF COGNITIVE ABILITIES,THIRD EDITION,AND THE STANFORD‐BINET INTELLIGENCE SCALES,FIFTH EDITION,WITH A PRESCHOOL POPULATION

This study examined the underlying constructs measured by the Woodcock‐Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities, Third Edition (WJ‐III COG) and the Stanford‐Binet Intelligence Scales, Fifth Edition (SB5), based on the Cattell‐Horn‐Carrol (CHC) theory of cognitive abilities. This study reports the results of the first joint confirmatory factor analysis of the WJ‐III COG and SB5 with an independently collected preschool‐aged sample. The WJ‐III COG and SB5 were administered to 200 preschool‐aged children of 4 to 5 with no known disorders or disabilities. Confirmatory factor analyses using maximum likelihood estimation were conducted to evaluate three models of increasing complexity and two alternative models to determine which model best describe the underlying constructs measured by the WJ‐III COG and the SB5. Though none of the models displayed a good fit to the data, results showed that the underlying construct of the two tests was best represented by a Three‐Stratum alternative CHC model in which the Gf factor and subtests were omitted. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to provide further insights into the actual latent structure underlying the data. Implications of findings to guide school‐based practitioners in using cross‐battery assessment with preschool children were addressed.     

Visual‐attentional span and lexical ­decision in skilled adult readers

The goal of the study was to examine the association between visual‐attentional span and lexical decision in skilled adult readers. In the span tasks, an array of letters was presented briefly and recognition or production of a single cued letter (partial span) or production of all letters (whole span) was required. Independently of letter recognition and phoneme awareness, width of partial recognition span predicted substantial variance only in detection of letter misorderings in words, while partial span efficiency made small contributions to decisions on regular words and pseudowords, but not strange words. With a production format and the inclusion of short‐term phonological memory, neither partial‐span nor whole‐span measures contributed positive independent variance to word and nonword decisions. The results provide meagre support for the idea that skilled adult readers with a wide visual‐attentional span might process words more effectively than those with a narrow span during lexical decision.     

The dark side of social support: Understanding the role of social support,drinking behaviors and alcohol outlets for child physical abuse

The purpose of this study is to examine how parental drinking behavior, drinking locations, alcohol outlet density, and types of social support (tangible, emotional, and social companionship) may place children at greater risk for physical abuse. Data on use of physical abuse, drinking behaviors, types of social support, social networks, and demographic information were collected via telephone interviews with 3,023 parent respondents in 50 cities in California. Data on alcohol outlet density were obtained by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Multilevel Poisson models were used to analyze data for the drinking levels in the entire sample and dose-response drinking models for drinkers. Social companionship support was related to more frequent use of physical abuse. Having a higher percentage of social companionship support network living within the neighborhood was related to more frequent physical abuse in the full sample. This relationship was moderated by on-premise alcohol outlet density. With regards to drinking behaviors, drinking behaviors from ex-drinkers to frequent heavy drinkers used physically abusive parenting practices more often than lifetime abstainers. The dose-response models show that each additional drinking event at a bar or home/party was related to more frequent use of physical abuse. Practitioners working with parents who abuse their children should be aware that not all social support is beneficial. Findings build evidence that child maltreatment is influenced by the interaction between individual and ecological factors.     

Integration of Web 2.0 Technologies in the Translational Research Environment

Recent advancements in translational medicine have created an urgent need for solutions that support information dissemination and facilitate a fluid exchange of data from the research laboratory to the clinical environment and on to the broader community. Medical libraries can help meet this need by incorporating emerging Web-based technologies in support of educational, research, and patient care objectives. Web 2.0 resources facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing among users. Integration of Web 2.0 resources allows scientists, students, and medical professionals to efficiently organize and manage the information and resources that are critical in today's quickly changing biomedical research environment.