Student views on transition to higher education in Ireland: Challenges,impacts and suggestions

This paper examines students’ perspectives on the main transitional challenges experienced when commencing higher education. It explores which students are most affected by the transition and is the first paper to provide an overview of student recommendations to help improve the transition in an Irish context. The study involves large‐scale surveys and focus groups across four higher education institutions and explores a range of transitional challenges (including academic, social and course‐specific aspects). Over 1,100 student suggestions to improve transition are analysed and many of these recommendations could be easily implemented beyond Ireland. Ten overall recommendations are made which include, among others, specific supports for mature students and those with longer commuting distances, course‐specific introductory skills modules to be given by current students, a first year ‘starter’ pack with course‐specific orientation materials, and the introduction of a student‐shadowing programme for prospective students.     

Arts enrichment and school readiness for children at risk

Arts enrichment provides varied channels for acquiring school readiness skills and may offer important educational opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds and with diverse needs. Study 1 examined achievement within an arts enrichment preschool that served low-income children. Results indicated that students practiced school readiness skills through early learning, music, creative movement, and visual arts classes. Students who attended the preschool for 2 years demonstrated higher achievement than those who attended for 1 year, suggesting that maturation alone did not account for achievement gains. Across 2 years of program attendance and four time points of assessment, students improved in school readiness skills, and there were no significant effects of race/ethnicity or developmental level on achievement growth. Study 2 compared students attending the arts enrichment preschool to those attending a nearby alternative on a measure of receptive vocabulary that has been found to predict school success. At the end of 1 year of attendance, students in the arts program showed greater receptive vocabulary than those at the comparison preschool. Results suggest that arts enrichment may advance educational outcomes for children at risk.     

The status model of racial identity development in African American adolescents: evidence of structure, trajectories, and well-being

Although the identity formation model is widely used to assess adolescent ethnic identity development, the model propositions have rarely been tested. The existence of the identity statuses (diffuse, foreclosed, moratorium, achieved), the proposed developmental trajectories, and whether youth in the achieved status report higher levels of psychological well-being were examined among a longitudinal sample of 224 African American adolescents, aged 11-17. Cluster analyses were used to create 4 identity statuses consistent with the theoretical model at both time points. The findings indicate that some adolescents progressed, while others regressed or remained constant across time periods. Lastly, the results generally support the assumption that individuals in the achieved status had the highest levels of psychological well-being at both time periods.     

African American racial identity across the lifespan: identity status, identity content, and depressive symptoms

Cluster analytic methods were used to create 4 theorized ethnic identity statuses (achieved, foreclosed, moratorium, and diffused) among 940 African American adolescents (13-17 years old), college students (18-23 years old), and adults (27-78 years old). Evidence for the existence of 4 identity statuses was found across the 3 age groups. The distribution of individuals differed by age group, with the older participants disproportionately occupying the more mature statuses. Identity status was related to identity content such that achieved individuals reported higher levels of racial centrality and private regard. Finally, there was a significant interaction between developmental age group and identity status for depressive symptoms such that diffused college students reported higher symptoms than achieved college students. No status differences were found for the other 2 age groups.     

Phonological awareness predicts activation patterns for print and speech

Using fMRI, we explored the relationship between phonological awareness (PA), a measure of metaphonological knowledge of the segmental structure of speech, and brain activation patterns during processing of print and speech in young readers from 6 to 10 years of age. Behavioral measures of PA were positively correlated with activation levels for print relative to speech tokens in superior temporal and occipito-temporal regions. Differences between print-elicited activation levels in superior temporal and inferior frontal sites were also correlated with PA measures with the direction of the correlation depending on stimulus type: positive for pronounceable pseudowords and negative for consonant strings. These results support and extend the many indications in the behavioral and neurocognitive literature that PA is a major component of skill in beginning readers and point to a developmental trajectory by which written language engages areas originally shaped by speech for learners on the path toward successful literacy acquisition.

PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARD DATA SHARING BY FEDERAL AGENCIES

Because of the high cost of the 1990 census and the continuedundercoverage of some population subgroups, it has been suggestedthat administrative records be used to supplement or replaceconventional census-taking activities. Very little informationexists concerning public knowledge and attitudes on this topic.The most extensive information to date comes from questionsasked on several IRS surveys of taxpayers. In late 1993 an opportunitypresented itself to add a small number of questions about datasharing to national telephone surveys conducted by the WisconsinLetters and Sciences Survey Center. Here we report on an analysisof these data.     

Learning how to teach unfamiliar subjects: developing training on writing for publication and presentation of research for health libraries

Academic librarians with teaching responsibility have traditionally delivered training in discovering and organising information. However, in recent years, there has been an increased emphasis on supporting researchers through all stages of the research lifecycle. While librarians are ideally placed to provide training in writing for publication and presentation of research, very few in the United Kingdom appear to be doing so. However, there are clear benefits to teaching these subjects. Based on feedback from faculty on user needs, the University of Cambridge Medical Library’s training programme was expanded to include training and support in the publication and presentation of research outputs. This article recounts the process by which the new courses were developed, and the techniques used by the library’s teaching staff to gain understanding of conventions and requirements of forms of written communication with which they were unfamiliar. It also evaluates the impact of the new courses, discusses next steps and provides advice for other librarians wishing to develop similar courses. D.I.     

Religious education in the experience of young people from mixed‐faith families

On the basis of a recent ethnographic study at the University of Warwick of the religious identity formation of young people in ‘mixed‐faith’ families, this article focuses on their (and their parents’) experiences and perceptions of religious education (RE) and of religious nurture in the community. The young people’s experience of RE differed between primary and secondary school and only a few were engaged in supplementary classes. We highlight the complementarity between school and home in young people’s religious learning and draw out implications for RE.