Inclusiveness in higher education in Egypt

In Egypt, before 1952, education, especially higher education, was the province of a privileged few. After the 1952 Revolution, in pursuit of social justice and economic development, Egypt’s leaders eliminated fees, instituted a universal admission examination, promised government employment to all graduates of higher education, and expanded the number of places. Officials expected these policies to increase inclusiveness as enrollments grew. We examine the period from 1988 through 2005, when egalitarian policies remained in place, and during which enrollments continued to expand rapidly. Despite this growth, we find that inclusiveness did not change for males and, at best, modestly improved for females. Young adults from the wealthiest families maintained a substantial advantage in the likelihood of enrolling in higher education. At the same time, females, and notably females from poor families, came to make up a larger share of the higher education community.     

College cheating: Immaturity,lack of commitment,and the neutralizing attitude

Through the use of a 49-item questionnaire administered to 380 university students, we investigated student cheating on exams, quizzes, and homework assignments. More than half the students reported cheating during the academic year on at least one of the above. The purpose of this paper was to uncover fundamental factors underlying cheating behavior. Through the use of correlational and factor analysis, three primary factors were identified: student immaturity, lack of commitment to academics, and neutralization. We offer interpretations of these factors and suggestions for testing these and other factors in future research.     

Effects of a Brief Tiered Language Intervention for Prekindergartners at Risk

Research Findings: Multitiered instructional frameworks are becoming a recommended approach for enhancing prevention and intervention efforts targeting early literacy and language skills. However, few studies to date have studied the feasibility of tiered oral language interventions before kindergarten; therefore, this pilot study explored the effectiveness of such an approach in prekindergarten. Teachers in 39 classrooms were randomly assigned to an experimental or comparison condition that contrasted the implementation of an intervention that had both Tier 1 (whole group) and Tier 2 (small group for at-risk children) components. The pilot study included only 4 weeks of teacher-administered intervention. Despite this short duration, a significant and large effect size (d = .81) was observed for the experimental group on a receptive target vocabulary assessment. No significant changes were found on measures of vocabulary fluency, expressive target vocabulary, or listening comprehension. It is important to note that teachers’ fidelity in implementing the intervention as designed was a significant predictor of children's learning. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest the potential promise of the multitiered instructional framework, especially when teachers can be supported in ways that ensure adequate fidelity of implementation. Implications for use in prekindergarten response-to-intervention models are discussed.     

Collective Worldviews and Health of Pacific American Elders

The community as part of the social environment is a key social determinant of health and is a central organizing feature of Pacific culture. A collective worldview informs the way social support is conceived in Pacific cultures, and it is core to Samoan and Tongan elders’ perceptions of the influence of community on health and well-being. In turn, inability to fulfill community responsibilities may be an indication of poor health and well-being and may be distressful because of this collective worldview. Using principles of grounded theory that informed the data collection and analysis, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 Samoan and 10 Tongan elders in Hawai'i, the port of entry for most Pacific Americans migrating to the U.S. and the location where the majority of Samoans and Tongans reside. Four main themes—community norms, social functions of community, community capacity, and negative community influences—were identified as community factors affecting the health and well-being of Samoan and Tongan elders. Implications for research and policy practice are offered.     

Role expansion in school psychology: The need for primary and secondary prevention services

A sample of 80 special education directors completed a survey regarding the functions of school psychologists, the degree of effectiveness of psychologists in delivering certain services, and activities in which they should become more (or less) involved. The results reveal that there is no single activity that accounts for the majority of the school psychologist's time. School psychologists were rated as more effective in assessment, consulting, and crisis intervention. Activities rated as needing more involvement were counseling and consultation. Although these results are supportive of role expansion and consistent with the literature, of particular concern was the failure to identify involvement with at-risk and regular education students as a major need. These concerns suggest that there is a need for increases in primary and secondary prevention services.     

Use of Exam Wrappers to Enhance Students’ Metacognitive Skills in a Large Introductory Food Science and Human Nutrition Course

Research shows that students struggle to develop higher order thinking skills and effective study strategies during the transition from high school to college. Therefore, in addition to teaching course content, effective instructors should assist students in developing metacognitive skills, that is, the practice of thinking about their thinking. An effective assignment that assists students in thinking about their exam performance is the exam wrapper. The objectives of this study were to examine students’ metacognitive skills, evaluate the correlation between study behaviors and student performance, and assess student perception of exam wrappers. Exam wrapper assignments were offered as extra credit after the first 3 exams in a large introductory Food Science and Human Nutrition course, and student responses and exam performance were analyzed. Many students with poor exam performance overestimated their exam scores, indicating students’ self‐assessment skills could be sharpened. However, students demonstrated the ability to make and implement goals to improve study strategies throughout the semester. A modest relationship between use of study strategies and improved exam performance was observed, particularly for students with a B exam average, suggesting that students in the middle of the grade distribution may benefit most from this type of intervention. Finally, most students expressed a belief that exam wrappers helped them improve their study habits and exam scores, and that they planned to use the exam wrapper process in future classes. In summary, this study shows that the exam wrapper is a valued and effective postexam reflection tool for improving students’ self‐reported study habits.     

Disciplinary differences and implications for the development of generic skills: a study of engineering and business students’ perceptions of generic skills

Although previous research has examined how generic skills and disciplinary contexts are related, such investigation has not been conducted from students’ perspectives. Implications of disciplinary differences for the design of a generic skills curriculum have also remained unexplored. In this study, a questionnaire was administered to 502 first-year engineering and business students from a Hong Kong university which explored their perceived importance and competence level of their generic skills, as well as their motivation towards developing these skills. The results of engineering and business students were compared which revealed some disciplinary differences. Substantial differences were found in the importance and competency ratings on IT skills and business students gave significantly higher importance ratings on most generic skills than engineering students. This study will help guide curriculum design that leverages the benefits of interdisciplinary programmes and incorporates generic skills as part of learning outcomes within disciplinary contexts.     

Here for You: Attachment and the Growth of Empathic Support for Friends in Adolescence

Attachment was examined as a predictor of teens’ empathic support for friends in a multimethod longitudinal study of 184 U.S. adolescents (58% Caucasian, 29% African American, 13% other) followed from ages 14 to 18. Adolescents’ secure state of mind regarding attachment at 14 predicted teens’ greater capacity to provide empathic support during observed interactions with friends across ages 16–18 (B_average = .39). Teens’ empathic support was generally stable during this period, and less secure teens were slower to develop these skills. Further, teens’ attachment security predicted the degree to which friends called for their support (B_average = .29), which was associated with teens’ responsiveness to such calls. The findings suggest that secure attachment predicts teens’ ability to provide empathic support in close friendships.