A Cross-Sectional Test of Sign Creation by Children in the Gesture and Vocal Modalities

Naturalistic studies show that children can create language-like communication systems in the absence of conventional language. However, experimental evidence is mixed. We address this discrepancy using an experimental paradigm that simulates naturalistic sign creation. Specifically, we tested if a sample of 6- to 12-year-old children (52 girls and 56 boys drawn from an urban, predominantly white population in Western Australia) can comprehend and create novel gestural and vocal signs. Experiment 1 tested children’s ability to comprehend novel signs. Experiment 2 tested children’s ability to create novel signs. Results show that children can comprehend and create gestural and vocal signs, that communication is more successful in the gesture modality, and that older children outperform younger children.     

Exoskeletons: Generating Content for Popular Music in 2016

Exoskeletons dissect popular songs and reimagine them through the collaborative generation of theatrical, socially relevant content.     

A Controlled Evaluation of a High School Biomedical Pipeline Program: Design and Methods

Given limited funding for school-based science education, non-school-based programs have been developed at colleges and universities to increase the number of students entering science- and health-related careers and address critical workforce needs. However, few evaluations of such programs have been conducted. We report the design and methods of a controlled trial to evaluate the Stanford Medical Youth Science Program’s Summer Residential Program (SRP), a 25-year-old university-based biomedical pipeline program. This 5-year matched cohort study uses an annual survey to assess educational and career outcomes among four cohorts of students who participate in the SRP and a matched comparison group of applicants who were not chosen to participate in the SRP. Matching on sociodemographic and academic background allows control for potential confounding. This design enables the testing of whether the SRP has an independent effect on educational- and career-related outcomes above and beyond the effects of other factors such as gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and pre-intervention academic preparation. The results will help determine which curriculum components contribute most to successful outcomes and which students benefit most. After 4 years of follow-up, the results demonstrate high response rates from SRP participants and the comparison group with completion rates near 90 %, similar response rates by gender and ethnicity, and little attrition with each additional year of follow-up. This design and methods can potentially be replicated to evaluate and improve other biomedical pipeline programs, which are increasingly important for equipping more students for science- and health-related careers.     

“We Are Not Free”: The Meaning of <Freedom> in American Indian Resistance to President Johnson's War on Poverty

This essay examines how the ideograph <freedom> was crafted through dialectical struggles between Euro-Americans and American Indians over federal Indian policy between 1964 and 1968. For policymakers, <freedom> was historically sutured to the belief that assimilation was the only pathway to American Indian liberation. I explore the American Indian youth movement's response to President Johnson's War on Poverty to demonstrate how activists rhetorically realigned <freedom> in Indian policy with the Great Society's rhetoric of “community empowerment.” I illustrate how American Indians orchestrated counterhegemonic resistance by reframing the “Great Society” as an argument for a “Greater Indian American.” This analysis evinces the rhetorical significance of ideographic transformation in affecting policy change.     

Student Affairs Professionals in the Community College: Critically Examining Preparation Programs From a Social Justice Lens

ABSTRACT

To support the success of community college students, the role of student affairs professionals is critical. Therefore, adequate preparation of student affairs professionals who work in community college settings is paramount. However, literature focused on the intersection between the community college, student affairs, and graduate preparation is sparse, suggesting that too little is known about the preparation of student affairs professionals exiting graduate education and entering a community college setting. We frame this dearth of literature as an issue of social justice. The lack of focus on community colleges within student affairs preparation programs further reinforces a systemic cycle of oppression related to the perception that community colleges are not an integral part of the higher education landscape. We point to potential entry points for the exploration of this topic through systematic inquiry. The goals of this work are to bring awareness to the paucity of literature on this topic, ask scholars to join us in adding to what is known about this topic, and encourage readers to think critically about this topic.     

New Model,New Strategies: Instructional design for building online wisdom communities

We discuss the development of an instructional design model, WisCom (Wisdom Communities), based on socio‐constructivist and sociocultural learning philosophies and distance education principles for the development of online wisdom communities, and the application and evaluation of the model in an online graduate course in the USA. The WisCom model aims to facilitate transformational learning by fostering the development of a wisdom community, knowledge innovation, and mentoring and learner support in an online learning environment, based on a “Cycle of Inquiry” module design, and a “Spiral of Inquiry” program design. Extending beyond current instructional design practice, WisCom provides both a new model for teaching that builds upon the inherent capacity of networked communication to support the growth and intellectual development of communities of practice, and a new model of learning where learners engage in the process of scholarly inquiry that supports individual and collective learning. Evaluation and research data support the WisCom model's ability to design a learning community engaged in the collaborative construction of knowledge.     

A Version of Access

This article explores accessibility ontologically, proposing nonequal design as a way to include and encourage difference. Part One situates the possibility for a multiple version approach to accessibility; Part Two finds affinities in science and technology studies where several figures have explored the politics of multiple versions of ontologies; Part Three introduces three design principles—syncopation, medium specificity, and versioning—for enacting how an nonequal approach opens up generative possibilities for accessibility.     

A Factor Analytic Study of the Infant-Toddler and Early Childhood Versions of the HOME Inventory Administered to White, Black, and Hispanic American Parents of Children Born Preterm

Factor analyses were performed on the Infant-Toddler and the Early Childhood versions of the HOME Inventory for 3 groups (blacks, whites, and Hispanics) of premature, low-birthweight children. Participants lived in 8 different U.S. cities. On the IT-HOME, 5 factors were originally retained for each group using the principal factors method of extraction. Factor structures for blacks and whites were similar, accounting for 85% and 75% of the variance, respectively. The structure for Hispanics was somewhat different; a 7-factor solution accounting for 65% of the variance was most interpretable. For the EC-HOME, 6 factors were retained for both black and white groups, accounting for 80% and 73% of the variance, respectively. For Hispanics, an 8-factor solution accounted for 59% of the variance. The factor structures for blacks and whites were largely in agreement with the current organization of items into subscales. The fit for Hispanics was not quite as good, but most factors also corresponded to current subscales.     

Teaching appraisal in higher education: an Australian perspective

The current literature on the evaluation of teaching in highereducation institutions is reviewed critically and evaluated from anAustralian perspective. The issues of what constitutes goodteaching and how effective teaching can lead to quality in teachingare discussed together with the reasons for introducing appraisal systems.The professional development and duties-basedmodels of teaching appraisal are summarized and assessed along with thevarious sources of information which can be used as inputs to the appraisalprocess. The problems associated with appraisal systems are identified andrecommendations are made as to the design of appraisal systems which arevalid, reliable and have high user acceptability.