Insider research as part of a master's programme: opportunities lost and found within action learning sets

This account explores the role of action learning during and after an educational programme. We focus on the final stage of a master's programme and the insider research that is a key feature in many UK universities. Researching within one's own organization should lead to individual and organizational learning. However, there is relatively little published on how, indeed if, this learning occurs. Our account contributes to this gap and in doing so draws attention to the ethical and political challenges which can arise when undertaking research within one's own organization. We present the tale of two sets, one during and one after an educational programme. In doing so, we highlight the tensions involved in integrating learning with problem-solving. We illustrate how learning which seemed initially to be lost was later found through action learning.     

Nonverbal Executive Function is Mediated by Language: A Study of Deaf and Hearing Children

Studies have suggested that language and executive function (EF) are strongly associated. Indeed, the two are difficult to separate, and it is particularly difficult to determine whether one skill is more dependent on the other. Deafness provides a unique opportunity to disentangle these skills because in this case, language difficulties have a sensory not cognitive basis. In this study, deaf (n = 108) and hearing (n = 125) children (age 8 years) were assessed on language and a wide range of nonverbal EF tasks. Deaf children performed significantly less well on EF tasks, even controlling for nonverbal intelligence and speed of processing. Language mediated EF skill, but the reverse pattern was not evident. Findings suggest that language is key to EF performance rather than vice versa.     

Child Language Difficulties and Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: A Meta-Analysis

This study conducted two meta-analyses to synthesize the association between children’s language skills and two broad-band dimensions of psychopathology: internalizing and externalizing. Pooled estimates across 139 samples (externalizing k = 105; internalizing k = 90) and 147,305 participants (age range: 2–17 years old; mean % males: 53.75; mean % White participants: 55.59; mean % minority participants: 43.12) indicated small but significant associations between child language skills and externalizing problems (Hedges’ g = .22) and between language skills and internalizing problems (Hedges’ g = .23). The association between language difficulties and externalizing problems was stronger amongst males and in children with low versus high sociodemographic risk. Implications of the results for theory and practice are discussed.     

Trade Book Collections to Support Teaching Economics Undergraduates: Notes,Suggestions, and Bibliography

The popular economics genre has become a promising tool for the development of information literacy and critical thinking skills in relation to the fundamental principles of economics to undergraduates. This article discusses how a popular economics collection can support faculty teaching economics classes. A bibliographic discussion describes trends in this genre and demonstrates how a few representative examples of this genre may enhance a traditional economics curriculum. Recommendations for librarians supporting economics teaching faculty are discussed. Finally, a thematically organized appendix includes a selected bibliography of titles published between 1918 and 2012.     

The Impact of a Modified Initial Teacher Education on Challenging Trainees' Understanding of Neuromyths

Initial teacher education (ITE) offers an underutilized opportunity for bridging the gap between neuroscience research and educational practice. This article reports on innovations embedded within an ITE program to support trainee teachers to recognize and challenge the persistence of neuromyths. Education researchers, neuroscientists, and psychologists collaboratively applied design‐based research to create, improve, and reflect on original neuroeducational teaching/learning resources for university‐based primary (elementary) ITE trainees. Encouragingly, pre and postsurveys showed reductions in trainees ' beliefs in neuromyths and a shift to responses showing uncertainty that suggested their beliefs became unsettled. The most persistent neuromyths were those regarding fish oils, left brain/right brain, and learning styles/visual, auditory, or kinaesthetic (VAK). Trainees retained their initial interest in knowledge about the brain and education, gained confidence, and became more critical about applying the learning sciences in educational contexts.     

Motivated Attention and Reward in Parenting

Parenting has a significant and lasting impact on child development. From birth, parents must sensitively and appropriately attend to their infant’s emotional expressions and vocalizations. Accumulating evidence indicates that these infant cues of emotion attract more attention than equivalent adult cues in parents as well as non-parents. We review this evidence and suggest that infant cues hold high incentive value and elicit motivated attention (i.e., enhanced processing of motivationally relevant stimuli), which in turn promotes approach motivation and thus caregiving responses. Further, we discuss data suggesting that infant cues are salient for non-parents, with increasing motivated attention to infant cues in the transition to parenthood. This increase may depend on interactions between the dopamine reward system and the neuropeptide oxytocin. Therefore, we also explore the human and non-human data that support this association and consider potential sources of variability in motivated attention in parents.     

Card Sorting in an Online Environment: Key to Involving Online-Only Student Population in Usability Testing of an Academic Library Web Site?

ABSTRACT

Based on in-person, task-based usability testing and interviews, the authors' library Web site was recently overhauled in order to improve user experience. This led to the authors' interest in additional usability testing methods and test environments that would most closely fit their library's goals and situation. The appeal of card sorting methods became evident: learning more than users' points of confusion interacting with the site, but learning users' preferences for grouping pages or concepts and naming various library links. The appeal of the online venue for card sorting was first that testing could incorporate input from a larger base of users than in-person testing alone, and, additionally, that testing could include the university's online-only student population.     

Advocating for transgender and nonbinary affirmative spaces in graduate education

Higher Education - Nearly 50% of graduate students report experiencing emotional or psychological distress during their enrollment in graduate school. Levels of distress are particularly high for...     

功能至上

在家具家居设计中,是否外形的华丽和功能的实用始终像是一个硬币的两面,背道而驰、不可交融？不,在设计师的巧手下,我们可以看到这两者的有机融合。这个世界上本就没有极端的黑与极端的白,当两种不同的色彩交融产生出另一种新的色彩的时候,谁又说它不会绽放出更加夺目的光彩呢？     

简单元素 新设计

在人们需求日益多样化、个性化的今日,再好的设计也会过时,任何潮流一旦确立便开始失效。绝对强势的主流风格离我们越来越远,而我们必须要对美常存一颗不断创造的心,才能装扮出与众差异、永远不会过时的家居风格。本期“酷型”特别奉上6组风格新颖的家居用品,它们分别用简单的元素却创造出了不一样的设计感觉,希望能为你的家居装饰提供一些灵感。