Smooth Transition for Advancement to Graduate Education (STAGE) for Underrepresented Groups in the Mathematical Sciences Pilot Project: Broadening Participation through Mentoring

The Smooth Transition for Advancement to Graduate Education (STAGE) project was a three-year pilot project designed to mentor undergraduate students primarily from under-represented groups in the mathematical sciences. The STAGE pilot project focused on mentoring students as they transitioned from undergraduate education to either graduate school or a career in the STEM workforce. We discuss the various mentoring structures, the STAGE pilot utilized, and how those structures affected programmatic outcomes. In addition, we discuss challenges we faced in mentoring undergraduates and special considerations we made when mentoring students from under-represented groups.     

Trial and Error: How Student Affairs Staff in Community Colleges Learn to Supervise

Supervisory skills play an important role in individual staff development and the achievement of organizational objectives. These skills are vital to professionals in community college student affairs, who support a diverse student population and a wide array of programming. This study was conducted to describe the kind of supervisory training experience student affairs professionals received. Through interviews with community college student affairs professionals, we found that many experienced a lack of formal training and acquired supervisory skills over time on the job, through trial and error, and from workshops.     

Satisfying psychological needs on the high seas: explaining increases self-esteem following an Adventure Education Programme

A number of recent studies have revealed that taking part in a sail-training-based Adventure Education Programme elevates youths’ self-esteem. Across two studies, we sought to examine the extent to which youths’ sense of belonging contributed to this increase in self-esteem. Study 1 revealed that participants who completed the voyage showed an increase in self-esteem from the first to the last day of the voyage. Partial correlation revealed that group belonging made a unique contribution to this change. Study 2 replicated Study 1 and, further, demonstrated that the relationship between group belonging and self-esteem was not a function of self-efficacy or group esteem. Such findings suggest that an important contributing factor to the benefits of sail-training interventions is their potential to satisfy psychological needs, in this case the need to belong.     

Optimization of Maximal Rate of Heart Rate Increase Assessment in Runners

Purpose: Correlations between fatigue-induced changes in exercise performance and maximal rate of heart rate (HR) increase (rHRI) may be affected by exercise intensity during assessment. This study evaluated the sensitivity of rHRI for tracking performance when assessed at varying exercise intensities. Method: Performance (time to complete a 5-km treadmill time-trial [5TTT]) and rHRI were assessed in 15 male runners following 1 week of light training, 2 weeks of heavy training (HT), and a 10-day taper (T). Maximal rate of HR increase (measured in bpm·s^?1) was the first derivative maximum of a sigmoidal curve fit to HR data recorded during 5 min of running at 8 km·h^?1 (rHRI_8km·h^?1), and during subsequent transition to 13 km·h^?1 (rHRI_{8–13km·h^?1}) for a further 5 min. Results: Time to complete a 5-km treadmill time-trial was likely slower following HT (effect size ± 90% confidence interval = 0.16 ± 0.06), and almost certainly faster following T (–0.34 ± 0.08). Maximal rate of HR increase during 5 min of running at 8 km·h^?1 and rHRI_{8–13km·h^?1} were unchanged following HT and likely increased following T (0.77 ± 0.45 and 0.66 ± 0.62, respectively). A moderate within-individual correlation was found between 5TTT and rHRI_8km·h^?1 (r value ± 90% confidence interval = –.35 ± .32). However, in a subgroup of athletes (n = 7) who were almost certainly slower to complete the 5TTT (4.22 ± 0.88), larger correlations were found between the 5TTT and rHRI_8km·h^?1 (r = –.84 ± .22) and rHRI_{8–13km·h^?1} (r = –.52 ± .41). Steady-state HR during rHRI assessment in this group was very likely greater than in the faster subgroup (≥ 1.34 ± 0.86). Conclusion(s): The 5TTT performance was tracked by both rHRI_8km·h^?1 and rHRI_{8–13km·h^?1}. Correlations between rHRI and performance were stronger in a subgroup of athletes who exhibited a slower 5TTT. Individualized workloads during rHRI assessment may be required to account for varying levels of physical conditioning.     

The relationship between physical activity and self-efficacy in children with disabilities

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether self-efficacy in children with disabilities could be strengthened through targeted and adapted physical activities led by specially educated leaders. Children and Youth Physical Self-Perception Profile (CY-PSPP) scale were used. The study includes 45 children of 8–14 years of age with different types of impairments. The children participated in training sessions twice a week and tried out 13 different physical activities during eight months. The median in this study of total self-efficacy was 104 points, which can be compared to median points varying between 100 and 107 in previous studies based on children without disabilities. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant increase of the means in four out of six different domains of self-efficacy before and after the study was carried out. Key findings indicated that this model is successful in strengthening the children’s self-efficacy and that their perceived self-efficacy was equal to that of children without disabilities.     

Developmental patterns of children's shyness: Relations with physiological,emotional, and regulatory responses to being treated unfairly

The dysregulation of social fear has been widely studied in children's shyness, but we know little about how shy children regulate during unfair treatment. We first characterized developmental patterns of children's shyness (N = 304, n_girls = 153; 74% White, 26% Other) across 2 (M_age = 2.07), 3 (M_age = 3.08), 4 (M_age = 4.08), and 6 (M_age = 6.58) years of age. Data collection occurred from 2007 to 2014. At age 6, the high stable group had higher cardiac vagal withdrawal and lower expressed sadness and approach-related regulatory strategy than the low stable group when being treated unfairly. Although shy children may be more physiologically impacted by being treated unfairly, they may mask their sadness to signal appeasement.     

Research Subjects,Participants or Co-researchers? Extending the Involvement of Students in Art and Design Research

Art education has a range of purposes. Art is said to support students to explore, interpret, ask critical questions, communicate and realise ideas, experiment, take risks, collaborate, tell stories and/or engage in social and political actions. In this paper, we consider whether educational researchers have the same capacious view of students’ potential and capacities for involvement. We bring the results of a Rapid Evidence Review (RER) of the benefits of arts education into conversation with the literatures on student voice and participation. We outline the ways in which student voice and participation are discussed, then move to the results of the RER. We conclude with a discussion of the opportunities for art education researchers to develop research practices that are inclusive of students.     

Infant-directed speech does not always involve exaggerated vowel distinctions: Evidence from Danish

This study compared the acoustic properties of 26 (100% female, 100% monolingual) Danish caregivers' spontaneous speech addressed to their 11- to 24-month-old infants (infant-directed speech, IDS) and an adult experimenter (adult-directed speech, ADS). The data were collected between 2016 and 2018 in Aarhus, Denmark. Prosodic properties of Danish IDS conformed to cross-linguistic patterns, with a higher pitch, greater pitch variability, and slower articulation rate than ADS. However, an acoustic analysis of vocalic properties revealed that Danish IDS had a reduced or similar vowel space, higher within-vowel variability, raised formants, and lower degree of vowel discriminability compared to ADS. None of the measures, except articulation rate, showed age-related differences. These results push for future research to conduct theory-driven comparisons across languages with distinct phonological systems.     

Correction to: Expanding the interpretive functions of framing for understanding marginalized students’ participation in collaboration and learning

Cultural Studies of Science Education -     

Adapting an anti-bullying programme for UK special schools

Bullying is a public health priority but to date, there is a lack of evidence-based anti-bullying programmes or interventions designed for use in special schools. KiVa is a successful anti-bullying programme for mainstream schools currently used in 23 countries. This brief paper outlines the co-development and adaptation of two KiVa lessons into KiVa-SEND lessons and their implementation in two special schools in the UK. One school supports pupils with a primary need of Autism, the other supports pupils with severe and complex learning disabilities. Engagement with the lessons was high from both pupils and staff; the content was perceived as acceptable by staff, complementing the curriculum and perceived as suitable for their pupils. Minor adjustments need to be made to ensure all pupils can comprehend and access the concepts. Further development of the KiVa-SEND programme and testing its potential effectiveness to reduce bullying and associated negative outcomes in special schools is now warranted.

Key Points

• There is a lack of evidence-based anti-bullying programmes for use in special schools. This paper details the piloting of an adaptation of KiVa (a successful, evidence-based anti-bullying programme for mainstream schools) for use in special schools.
• The adaption (KiVa-SEND) was a co-design between a couple of special school teachers, and educational and psychological researchers to ensure the materials and approach were in line with school requirements and teaching practices.
• The KiVa-SEND lesson engagement was excellent from the 12 staff and 62 learners involved and the materials were deemed acceptable via direct feedback and researcher observations. Suggestions were provided on how to make the materials even more suitable for diverse learning needs.
• KiVa-SEND has the potential to be embedded within the special school curriculum and then be tested for its effectiveness at reducing bullying and associated negative outcomes of bullying amongst the special school population.