Development of Rapid Temporal Processing and Its Impact on Literacy Skills in Primary School Children

In a longitudinal study, auditory and visual temporal order thresholds (TOTs) were investigated in primary school children (N = 236; mean age at first data point = 6;7) at the beginning of Grade 1 and the end of Grade 2 to test whether rapid temporal processing abilities predict reading and spelling at the end of Grades 1 and 2. Auditory and visual TOTs differed but showed comparable developmental trajectories over 20 months. Visual TOTs were not predictive of literacy measures; auditory TOTs in Grade 1 were the best predictor. Interestingly, they were related to spelling in Grade 2 while auditory TOTs in Grade 2 were not, suggesting that rapid auditory processing abilities have a causal influence on literacy development.     

On Consumerism,Collective Action,and Whether Art Teaches Anything

In this review essay, Claudia Ruitenberg discusses Trevor Norris's Consuming Schools, René Arcilla's Mediumism, and Martha Nussbaum's Not for Profit. While the primary focus of each book is different — with Norris concentrating on the pressures of consumerism and commercialism on K–12 schooling, Arcilla analyzing modernist art and existentialist education, and Nussbaum emphasizing the role of the humanities in educating for democratic citizenship — each of the books in some way addresses the question of how people can be educated to resist consumerism and how education itself can resist being absorbed by consumerism. Here, Ruitenberg considers this common theme as well as the more specific question of what special role — if any — the arts might play in anticonsumerist education.     

B Is For Burqa,C Is For Censorship: The Miseducative Effects of Censoring Muslim Girls and Women's Sartorial Discourse

In this article, I add a discursive analysis to the discussion about Muslim girls and women's dress in non-Muslim educational contexts. I argue that a law or policy that prohibits the wearing of khimar, burqa, chador, niqab, hijab, or jilbab in the context of public schools is a form of censorship in educational contexts. This sartorial censorship is miseducative in the sense that it impedes the achievement of important educational goals, especially in public education. I consider the public nature of public education and discuss three sets of miseducative effects: First, the examination of discursive processes, including the production of social norms, is limited. Second, the critical uptake of the banned discourse by female Muslim students themselves is foreclosed, and their agency hindered. Third, a metadiscourse arises that translates individual sartorial discursive acts into generalized terms (such as “veils” and “headscarves”) without noticing what is lost in translation.     

Moving Stories: Evaluation of a BSW Oral History Project with Older Adults with Diverse Immigration Histories

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an experiential learning project with BSW students to see if their perceptions of older adults have changed. The project consisted of an oral history project and presentation that matched BSW students with older adults from diverse ethnic backgrounds to gather their immigration narratives. The study used a single group pretest posttest design with 17 BSW students enrolled in an integrative field seminar class. Using a series of inferential analyses, BSW students’ attitudes towards older adults, future career plans, confidence with working with older adults from diverse backgrounds, and geriatric competencies were examined. Overall, a significant increase in BSW students who had varying levels of participation in project perceptions of geriatric social work competencies between pretest and posttest were found. Students who both conducted and presented the oral histories of older adults also were significantly more likely to report future plans to work with older adults compared to students who did not. Exposing BSW students to aging and diversity content has important implications towards fostering student interest in pursuing social work practice with older adults and preparing them for culturally competent social work.     

EFFECTS OF TRANSFER ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS AT THE FOUR‐YEAR INSTITUTION

This study presents an in‐depth meta‐analysis of transfer shock, the grade point average (GPA) drop experienced by many community college transfer students. The purpose of the study was to identify all possible studies dealing with transfer shock and to report the magnitude of GPA change from the last quarter or semester at the community college to the end of the first quarter or semester at the senior institution. The study also researched the amount of recovery of GPA obtained by the community college transfer students at the 4‐year institution.

The search revealed 62 studies that reported the magnitude of GPA change. The studies showed that although community college transfer students in 79% of the studies experienced transfer shock, the majority of the magnitude of GPA change was one half of a grade point or less.

Of the studies that showed that community college transfer students experienced transfer shock, 67% reported that students recover from transfer shock, usually within the first year after transfer. Significantly, 34% of these studies showed community college transfer students recovered completely from transfer shock, 34% showed nearly complete recovery, and 32% showed partial recovery.

Because admission criteria for community college transfer students are based almost solely on academic performance, it is important for admissions personnel to consider the GPA recovery phenomenon in the decision process, not just the transfer‐shock phenomenon.     

PREFERRED LEARNING STYLES OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE CAREER AND TRANSFER STUDENTS

The purpose of this study was to ascertain differences in learning styles of 400 community college students in career and transfer programs as measured by the Canfield Learning Styles Inventory. Independent variables were program area and sex. Dependent variables were scores regarding each of the Learning Style Inventory Scales for the following categories: (a) conditions, (b) content, (c) mode, and (d) expectation. The data indicated: (1) female students have greater interest in areas of qualitative, people, and listening, (2) male students have a greater interest for the inanimate, (3) career students have greater interest for inanimate, greater expectations for average and below average performance, and (4) transfer students have greater expectations for above average performance.     

Getting Ready for School: Piloting Universal Prekindergarten in an Urban County

Investments in high-quality early care and education have been shown to reap societal benefits across the lives of the children served. A key intervention point is in the lives of 3- to 5-year olds during the period prior to entering kindergarten. Many jurisdictions have developed broad-based prekindergarten initiatives. This study reports on a pilot universal prekindergarten program in 24 sites in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Child assessment data were collected on 204 children from early care classrooms for 3- to 5-year olds across 3 time points by trained observers using 2 standardized instruments. Changes in achievement scores were shown to be significantly predicted by race, parental education level, and whether the family spoke English as a second language, with largest gains shown among children who were most behind at baseline. The findings serve to illuminate the developmental trajectory of children before kindergarten and how data can be used to inform practice and policy.     

Reinventing Governance: The Role of Boards of Governors in the New Austrian University

In the last decade, the university sector in many European countries has undergone manifold changes in relation to the design of governance structures and processes. Accordingly, a board of governors with far‐reaching competences was implemented by the latest reform of the Austrian higher education system in 2002. Drawing on an empirical research project, this paper contrasts the basic ideas of this reform with insights into the concrete practice of the new governance structure. The results show that board members’ personal factors such as personality, experience, and their attitude towards the multi‐faceted nature of university governance, strongly influence the boards’ identity formation and actual work. It is concluded that such factors must be regarded when implementing governing boards in universities by means of university reform.