African American Counselor Educators: Their Experiences,Challenges, and Recommendations

This study examined tie career experiences of African American counselor educators in programs accredited by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs. Results indicated that African American counselor educators perceived publishing, colleagues' racism, and lack of mentoring as major barriers to the attainment of promotion and tenure. Implications for future research are presented.     

Technology Integration and the Classroom Learning Environment: Research for Action

This article describes initial results of a collaborative action research endeavor between a regional university and a local school (Grade 6 level) using learning environments research to monitor alignment of classroom learning activities with a constructivist viewpoint while integrating technology into the curriculum. Student perceptions as measured by the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) were explored. Teacher logs, teacher interviews, and fieldnotes from team discussion groups and classroom observation provided further understanding of interactions in the classroom. A one-way analysis of variance in which the set of four classroom learning environment variables for the CLES, the set of five variables for each of the CLES-Mathematics and the CLES-Science and time of administration (prior to technology integration and after technology integration) yielded no significant changes in student perceptions of the classroom learning environment over the duration of the academic year. Interpretation of results led teachers to construct a new set of questions and a new plan of action to bring their classroom learning environment into closer alignment with a constructivist perspective for teaching and learning. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Childhood emotional abuse and neglect as predictors of psychological and physical symptoms in women presenting to a primary care practice

OBJECTIVE: There were two aims to this study: first to examine whether emotional abuse and neglect are significant predictors of psychological and somatic symptoms, and lifetime trauma exposure in women presenting to a primary care practice, and second to examine the strength of these relationships after controlling for the effects of other types of childhood abuse and trauma. METHOD: Two-hundred and five women completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein et al., 1994), Trauma History Questionnaire (Green, 1996), the Symptom Checklist-revised (Derogatis, 1997), and the Revised Civilian Mississippi Scale for posttraumatic stress disorder (Norris & Perilla, 1996) when presenting to their primary care physician for a visit. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine unique contributions of emotional abuse and neglect variables on symptom measures while controlling for childhood sexual and physical abuse and lifetime trauma exposure. RESULTS: A history of emotional abuse and neglect was associated with increased anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress and physical symptoms, as well as lifetime trauma exposure. Physical and sexual abuse and lifetime trauma were also significant predictors of physical and psychological symptoms. Hierarchical multiple regressions demonstrated that emotional abuse and neglect predicted symptomatology in these women even when controlling for other types of abuse and lifetime trauma exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Long-standing behavioral consequences may arise as a result of childhood emotional abuse and neglect, specifically, poorer emotional and physical functioning, and vulnerability to further trauma exposure.     

A comparison of reading and listening performance: computer-controlled speech and printed text presentations

Print-handicapped people enrolled at any level of the education system are expected to acquire the same information as their peers who are readers of printed text. Research which compares performance rates of reading print with auding of materials read onto tape generally reports substantially higher performance by readers of print. The different strategies employed by readers and listeners are said to be responsible for the variation in performance.
This article describes the development of one method and the associated instrumentation which permits a more exact comparison of reading and listening performance. It ensures that important factors such as word rate, timing, inter-word pauses, and overall presentation duration are identical for visual or audio presentations. The inclusion of these factors enables a more direct comparison of reading performance with listening performance at a range of presentation speeds, including accelerated presentations from time-compressed tapes. An investigation which employed this technique for comparing reading and listening performance has provided new findings on how readers and listeners operate. This should provide a more complete understanding of the benefits and limitations of accelerated reading and listening techniques in the educational context.     

Psychological foundations of instructional design for emerging computer-based instructional technologies: Part I

Computer-based instruction (CBI) has strong historical roots in behavioral psychology. In many cases, behavioral CBI is very effective in meeting instructional needs. Criticisms of CBI, centering around inadequate attention to higher-level learning, underline some of the shortcomings of rigid adherence to behavioral design paradigms. Recent advances in cognitive psychology have revealed alternatives rarely applied outside of experimental settings. Whereas both behavioral and cognitive influences are potentially important, few attempts have been made to extrapolate the contributions of both to the design of CBI. In this article, the contributions of behavioral and cognitive psychology to the design of CBI are reviewed and analyzed.     

Early social communication development in infants with autism spectrum disorder

Social-communication differences are a robust and defining feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but identifying early points of divergence in infancy has been a challenge. The current study examines social communication in 9- to 12-month-old infants who develop ASD (N = 30; 23% female; 70% white) compared to typically developing (TD) infants (N = 94, 38% female; 88% white). Results demonstrate that infants later diagnosed with ASD were already exhibiting fewer social-communication skills using eye gaze, facial expression, gestures, and sounds at 9 months (effect size: 0.42–0.89). Moreover, three unique patterns of change across distinct social-communication skills were observed within the ASD group. This study documents that observable social-communication differences for infants with ASD are unfolding by 9 months, pointing to a critical window for targeted intervention.     

Serum Lp(a) in diabetics with and without evidence of clinical nephropathy—A preliminary study

Type 2 diabetes is associated with a marked increase in the risk of coronary artery disease. Dyslipidaemia is believed to be a major cause of this increased risk. Recently, elevated levels of lipoprotein (a), Lp(a), have been reported to be associated with an increased risk. However there is very little data regarding Lp(a) concentrations and type 2 diabetes from India. The objective of the study was to assess serum Lp(a) levels in type 2 diabetics with and with out evidence of clinical nephropathy. We estimated serum Lp(a) levels in 30 control subjects, 30 diabetics without evidence of clinical nephropathy and 30 diabetics with evidence of clinical nephropathy. Statistical analysis showed that Lp(a) levels were increased in diabetic patients with nephropathy (mean 46.3±17.6 mg/dl). The Lp(a) levels however did not differ significantly between control (mean 20.2±15.9 mg/dl) and diabetics without nephropathy (mean 22.6±13.1mg/dl). Thus diabetes per se seems to have little or no influence on serum Lp(a) levels, however elevated levels were seen in patients with nephropathy.     

Predictors of adult quality of life for foster care alumni with physical and/or psychiatric disabilities

INTRODUCTION: This study used quality of life and resilience as theoretical frameworks for evaluating predictors of outcomes for adults who received foster care services alumni of foster care and were diagnosed with a physical or psychiatric disability while in foster care. METHOD: First, outcomes for foster care alumni with and without physical and psychiatric disabilities (N=1,087) were compared according to quality of life variables. Second, using only participants with disabilities (N=578), stepwise regression analyses were performed to determine whether risk and protective factors were associated with specific outcomes. RESULTS: Alumni with disabilities had significantly lower economic (p=.020) and health (p=.001) outcomes; and reported lower educational attainment (p=.002), more difficulty paying monthly bills (p=.026), more psychiatric diagnoses (p=.006), lower self-esteem (p=.013), and worse physical health (p=.001) than those without disabilities. For alumni with disabilities, receiving special education services and experiencing sexual abuse while in foster care were significant risk factors for poor self-esteem; conversely, receiving services and resources that prepared foster care alumni for leaving foster care (e.g., protective factors) predicted better outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: By expanding the quality of life outcomes analyses to investigate the impact of risk and protective factors on outcomes of foster care alumni with disabilities, this study fills a gap in the literature by assessing outcome differences within the foster-care population. The study found protective factors were associated with more educational attainment and higher self-esteem in adulthood. Conversely, those who received special education services and experienced sexual abuse while in foster care may be at the greatest risk of poor self-esteem and therefore, could benefit from services that enhance self-esteem.     

Context matters: increasing understanding with interactive Clicker Case studies

Although interactive technology is presumed to increase student understanding in large classes, no previous research studies have empirically explored the effects of Clicker Cases on students?? performance. A Clicker Case is a story (e.g., a problem someone is facing) that uses clickers (student response systems) to engage students in understanding the meaning of the science contained within the story. Using an experimental randomized Solomon design across 11 institutions, we found that Clicker Cases increased student understanding more than PowerPoint lectures in large introductory biology classrooms, although there was variation across institutions and topics. By examining student performance in conjunction with faculty experience, we found that strong Clicker Cases created dissonance, captured attention and involved students in interpreting data or making decisions. This study provides a model for collaborative research across multiple institutions and demonstrates the need for using multiple institutions and topics in research on education.