Factors Affecting the Successful Implementation of a Common Assignment for First-Year Composition Information Literacy

This article describes a two-year pilot program in which instruction librarians introduced a common assignment to measure information literacy in freshman composition courses. The resultant artifacts showed discrepancies between course sections and indicated the need to design an assignment collaboratively with instructors from the ground up. The process revealed nuances of collaboration, and it exposed assumptions about sharing learning goals across multiple sections of a course taught by a diverse group of instructors. Although the first year of the pilot did not result in usable data, it revealed key factors for success in programmatic assessment that we were able to implement in the second year, resulting in a much stronger leadership role for the library.     

Getting Students Outside: Using Technology as a Way to Stimulate Engagement

Informal environments provide students with unique experiences that allow them to actively participate in activities while promoting a positive attitude toward and an increased interest in science. One way to enhance informal science experiences is through the integration of mobile technologies. This integration is particularly useful in engaging underrepresented students in learning science. Our informal environmental science program engages underrepresented, fifth-grade students in an informal learning environment supplemented with mobile tablet technology (iPads). The purpose of this study was to explore how fifth-grade students interacted with nature using mobile technology during a nature hike series. Participants included 55 fifth-grade students from two low-income schools. We found that students used the mobile technology to explore nature and stay engaged throughout the hike. The iPads were used as references, data collectors, and engagement tools. Students had an intense desire in returning to the site and responded positively toward interacting with nature. Prior research has indicated that students in this age group are likely to lose interest in science and the incorporation of field-friendly technology that engages students with nature, not technology alone, is a useful tool for keeping students interested in science.     

Effects of Parent Implemented Visual Schedule Routines for African American Children with ASD in Low-Income Home Settings

Low-income, minority families are underrepresented in the literature on parent training for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Although the use of visual supports, such as visual schedules, is considered to be an evidence-based practice for children with ASD in school, it is not known whether this strategy is effective for minority, low-income families when implemented by the parent in the home setting. This study used a multiple-baseline across routines design replicated across two African American child-mother dyads to examine the effects of a parent-implemented visual schedule procedure on child independent schedule use and between-activity transitions. Parent participants were trained to implement a visual schedule intervention during home routines. Although a functional relation was demonstrated across routines for one mother-child dyad, results varied across participants, highlighting the importance of treatment fidelity. Implications for future research, including the challenges involved in parent-implemented interventions in low-income settings for minority children with ASD, are addressed.     

Comparison of the General Ability Measure for Adults and the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test with college students

Ninety‐four college students were administered the GAMA and KAIT. GAMA IQs were significantly and moderately correlated with KAIT Fluid, Crystallized and Composite IQs, supporting the convergent validity of this instrument. Although significant correlations between measures emerged and nonsignificant differences were found between mean scores across these instruments, GAMA IQ scores did not accurately predict KAIT Composite IQ scores when GAMA IQ scores were compared to KAIT Composite IQs. Similarly, when the sample was divided into two groups by ability level, GAMA IQs accurately estimated the intelligence for individuals of Average and Below Average intelligence, but underestimated the KAIT Composite IQ scores by 4 points for the Above Average group. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided. © 2002, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Relation of maternal cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and intrusive behavior during Head Start to children's kindergarten cognitive abilities

The current study examined how parental cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and intrusiveness measured during children's prekindergarten year were related to children's verbal and nonverbal abilities 1 year later. Participants were 110 Head Start children and their caregivers from primarily rural and low-income backgrounds. Analysis of children's scores on the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities confirmed the predictive utility of cognitive stimulation, emotional support, and intrusive behavior for perceptual scores (20% of the unique variance) as well as the predictive utility of emotional support and intrusive behavior for verbal scores (15% of the unique variance). Parental emotional support during guidance of problem solving (positive feedback) explained statistically significant unique variance in children's perceptual scores beyond other measures of emotional support. Cognitive stimulation moderated the relation between positive feedback and perceptual scores. Although other syntactic forms of maternal utterances such as commands did not explain statistically significant unique variance in children's scores beyond emotional support and intrusive behavior, mothers' questions did. Specific policy implications of the effects are discussed.     

Preparing the Workforce to Prevent Behavioral Health Problems in Children and Youth

Educating social work students to address behavioral health needs of youth requires new training approaches that prepare students for interprofessional prevention-focused practice. This study examines whether a newly developed graduate certificate in integrated behavioral health effectively prepares students for prevention-focused behavioral health practice. A mixed method approach is used for evaluation, with 34 students completing the program from 2016 to 2017. Quantitative, qualitative, and employment data are analyzed to identify if and how the program prepares graduates for prevention practice. Results highlight key components that support student attainment of program competencies. Implications for curriculum development, field site training, and future research are discussed.     

‘Doing the Best for the Students’: dilemmas and decisions in carrying out statutory assessment tasks

This paper considers the effects on teachers, students and the curriculum of the experience, in the spring of 1993, of the first extended assessement tasks in Design in Technology in England and Wales. It examines the frustrations experienced and the dilemmas faced by teachers in working on these tasks with students, and their attempts to resolve their resulting role conflicts. It is suggested, that in this case at least, teachers' loyalties to their ideas about good teaching and learning took precedence over the requirement to follow the Government's assessment procedures. This is because teachers felt that the tasks set by the Government were inappropriate both for student learning and for assessing the curriculum which they had followed, and that the ways in which they were expected to carry them out were detrimental both to student learning and to ‘fair’ assessment. It is suggested that in some cases this led to a ‘radicalisation’ of a comparatively conservative group. The effects on the curriculum, the schools and the teachers concerned are critically examined in the light of planned changes in the Design and Technology curriculum.     

Competition between ethanol-induced reward and aversion in place conditioning

Previous place conditioning studies in mice have shown that injection of ethanol immediately before a conditioned stimulus (CS+) produces conditioned preference, whereas injection of ethanol immediately after CS+ produces conditioned aversion. In the present experiments, we examined the learning that occurs when ethanol is injected in “ambiguous“ procedures that provide the opportunity for both types of conditioning. When ethanol was given midway through the CS (Experiments 1 and 2) or both before and after the CS (Experiment 3), the direction of place conditioning was the same as when mice were exposed only to whichever contingency occurred first (a primacy effect). That is, injection of ethanol in the middle of the CS conditioned aversion, whereas injection both before and after the CS conditioned preference. Because these results support the idea that ethanol elicits both aversive and rewarding effects, they are most consistent with conditioning theories that conceptualize unconditioned stimuli (USs) as events that can activate multiple representational components.