Critical Race Theory Meets the NYPD: An Assessment of Anti-Racist Pedagogy for Police in New York City

This research describes and assesses Critical Race Theory (CRT) pedagogy in a higher education ethnic studies course for police officers. CRT pedagogy aims to help students overcome “color-blind” thinking, which minimizes awareness of racism, by raising their critical understanding of racism and framing it as a pervasive and institutionalized reality that everyone has a responsibility to change. Using the Color Blind Racial Awareness (COBRA) Scale, critical awareness in three cluster areas, white privilege, institutional discrimination, and blatant racism, is measured among those completing the ethnic studies course and a comparison group of officers completing a different college course for police. Conclusions reflect on the impact of the course on students’ awareness of racism, the correlation of identity and awareness of racism, the hypothetical impact of such awareness in policing and possibilities for future research.     

Academic productivity of African Americans in criminology and criminal justice

This study explores the productivity of African American scholars in the field of criminology during the period of 1987 through 1998. Issues about the relative benefits of mentoring are explored. The impact of external and internal barriers with respect to authorship are also addressed. Journals included in the study were randomly selected from a list of criminology and criminal justice journals. Authorship order is also identified, that is, we look at primary, secondary and tertiary authorships by African American faculty as well. Findings provide empirical evidence that the contributions of African American faculty do not appear in many mainstream journals. The reasons behind the under representation are explored.     

Derived relations and generalized alteration of preferences

The present study examined the role of derived relations in the generalizability of the evaluative conditioning effect. Healthy university students participated. Four geometrical shapes were first established as discriminative stimuli for the contingent presentation of pictograms (B1, B2, C1, and C2, respectively). We then assessed the reinforcing properties of B1 versus B2, and C1 versus C2 by using simultaneous discrimination tasks: at baseline (baseline assessment), after pairing B1 with aversive slides plus noise and B2 with pleasant slides (test I), and after employing equivalence training and testing to establish B1 as equivalent to C1 and B2 as equivalent to C2 (test II). Most participants (82 %) in the experimental condition, as compared with the control conditions (17 % and 10 %), selected the discriminative shapes for B2 (test I) and C2 (test II) on most trials, replicating and extending previous findings. Subsequently, the geometrical shapes were established as equivalent to the letters X, Y, W, and Z, respectively, which then served as antecedent stimuli in simultaneous discrimination tasks as before (test III). As was expected, only participants in the experimental condition showed preference for the novel letters that were established as equivalent to B2-producing and C2-producing shapes. These findings suggest that the evaluative conditioning effect may extend far beyond the stimulus being de/valuated and narrow the behavioral repertoire.     

Anything,Anywhere, Anytime: The Promise of the ANimated Tutorial Sharing Project for Online and Mobile Information Literacy

ABSTRACT

Reaching and teaching users in the diffuse, multigadget, online/mobile world is a significant challenge facing libraries. This article discusses how the ANimated Tutorial Sharing Project (ANTS) production model provides libraries with a sustainable approach to building large numbers of multimedia learning objects that are useful beyond one library. It will also discuss how ANTS file conversion and syndication efforts mean that these learning objects (1) can be made highly visible to users accessing content via a computer or smart phone and (2) enable libraries to establish a meaningful electronic presence for the purpose of providing point-of-need information literacy.     

Water dispersed polymers for textile conservation: a molecular, thermal, structural, mechanical and optical characterisation

With the aim of identifying new water dispersed polymers for textile conservation, the structure and properties of three commercial polyacrylates and one commercial polyvinylacetate were analysed. The characteristics of these materials, not previously used in the conservation and restoration fields, were compared with that shown by Primal AC33 and Mowilith DMC2 and SDM5, widely used as consolidating or adhesive agents of ancient textiles. To achieve a thorough characterisation of each polymer, molecular, thermal, structural and mechanical investigation techniques were applied on film samples, obtained from polymer water dispersions through water casting at room temperature and/or compression moulding. The photo-oxidative resistance of these materials was also assessed by artificial weathering of water cast films and by measuring the Yellowing Index (YI) as a function of the exposure time under xenon-arc lamp. Collected data were used to appropriately compare the performances shown by these polymers when applied on artefacts consisting of natural fibres. In particular it was found that, among the products not previously used in the conservation and restoration fields, a high potential for carrying out treatments on textiles is shown by the samples commercialised with the trade names of Acrilem RP6005 and Acrilem 30WA. These products, in fact, exhibit properties that make them suitable as substitutes for Primal AC33 and Mowilith DMC2 and SDM5, respectively, depending upon conservation needs. It was very interesting to note that Acrilem 30WA, also after aging, shows YI values lower than that shown by Mowilith DMC2 and SDM5.     

Becoming an interdisciplinary scientist: an analysis of students’ experiences in three computer science doctoral programmes

The aim of this study was to identify how and why doctoral students do interdisciplinary research. A mixed-methods approach utilising bibliometric analysis of the publications of 195 students identified those who had published interdisciplinary research. This objective measurement of the interdisciplinarity, applying the Rao-Stirling index to Web of Science and Scopus citations, allowed for a comparison of students’ interdisciplinary research outcomes from three different computer science programmes: a traditional programme, a multidisciplinary doctoral school and an interdisciplinary doctoral college. Applying a sociocultural approach, interviews with the 15 most interdisciplinary students were analysed to understand how dispositions and experiences of students and factors of the different programmes affect the circumstances and processes of becoming an interdisciplinary early career scientist. The data indicate that student motivations, previous skills and knowledge interacted with policies and programme structures including type of funding and supervisor expectations to play a crucial role in interdisciplinarity at the doctoral level. These factors can give rise to interdisciplinary research even in programmes without interdisciplinary focus and compromise the interdisciplinary goals of interdisciplinary programmes.     

Classroom Response Systems: A Review of the Literature

As the frequency with which Classroom Response Systems (CRSs) are used is increasing, it becomes more and more important to define the affordances and limitations of these tools. Currently existing literature is largely either anecdotal or focuses on comparing CRS and non-CRS environments that are unequal in other aspects as well. In addition, the literature primarily describes situations in which the CRS is used to provide an individual as opposed to a group response. This article points to the need for a concerted research effort, one that rigorously explores conditions of use across diverse settings and pedagogies.     

Exploring coping and optimism as predictors of academic burnout and performance among university students

This study examined the relationship between coping strategies, dispositional optimism, academic burnout and academic performance using structural equation modelling. Data were collected from a sample of 532 Spanish undergraduate students. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires including the LOT-R to assess optimism, CSI for the measurement of coping (adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies), and MBI-SS to evaluate academic burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and efficacy). Academic performance was evaluated by the grade point average (GPA). The results showed that academic burnout was directly and positively associated with maladaptive coping but directly and negatively explained by adaptive coping. In addition, emotional exhaustion was significantly and negatively predicted by optimism. Finally, academic performance was significantly predicted by academic burnout. In conclusion, the findings suggest that both adaptive coping and optimism help to prevent academic burnout and, therefore, positively affect academic performance. Implications for intervention and future research are discussed.     

Flattening generalization gradients, context, and perceptual learning

The present research investigated the effects of physical context change and perceptual learning on generalization. In a video game, participants learned to suppress their mouse-clicking behavior in the presence of one stimulus (AX). Generalization was observed between the AX stimulus and another stimulus (BX) that was designed to be similar. When testing was conducted in a context different from that in which AX was used in training, responding to AX was attenuated, and responding to BX was enhanced. That is, the generalization gradient flattened. The latter effect was only evident in groups for which generalization had been reduced through a preexposure manipulation believed to produce perceptual learning. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the increase in generalization observed in the first experiment was due to the context change between the preexposure and test rather than to a change between the conditioning and test contexts. Implications for flattening generalization gradients and mechanisms of perceptual learning are discussed.