Higher Education as a Platform for Cross‐Cultural Transition: the Case of the First Educated Bedouin Women in Israel

This article examines two groups of Bedouin women who studied in different cultural spaces. The first group, due to a lack of high schools in the Negev (during the 1970s), were obliged to leave the village to study and reside in boarding schools in the central and northern regions of Israel. These women returned to their society of origin after the completion of their academic studies. The second group went to Jewish universities in a town near their homes (Beersheba), attending daily and returning home each night to patriarchal control. The article examines the experience of these pioneers in higher education as a form of cultural transition and internal immigration, with an emphasis on the unique characteristics of each of the two groups. Going out to gain higher education is seen in Bedouin society as a form of immigration, and the first educated women therefore became a type of immigrant.     

Guiding Low Spatial Ability Individuals through Visual Cueing: The Dual Importance of Where and When to Look

Research suggests that spatial ability may predict success in complex disciplines including anatomy, where mastery requires a firm understanding of the intricate relationships occurring along the course of veins, arteries, and nerves, as they traverse through and around bones, muscles, and organs. Debate exists on the malleability of spatial ability, and some suggest that spatial ability can be enhanced through training. It is hypothesized that spatial ability can be trained in low-performing individuals through visual guidance. To address this, training was completed through a visual guidance protocol. This protocol was based on eye-movement patterns of high-performing individuals, collected via eye-tracking as they completed an Electronic Mental Rotations Test (EMRT). The effects of guidance were evaluated using 33 individuals with low mental rotation ability, in a counterbalanced crossover design. Individuals were placed in one of two treatment groups (late or early guidance) and completed both a guided, and an unguided EMRT. A third group (no guidance/control) completed two unguided EMRTs. All groups demonstrated an increase in EMRT scores on their second test (P < 0.001); however, an interaction was observed between treatment and test iteration (P = 0.024). The effect of guidance on scores was contingent on when the guidance was applied. When guidance was applied early, scores were significantly greater than expected (P = 0.028). These findings suggest that by guiding individuals with low mental rotation ability “where” to look early in training, better search approaches may be adopted, yielding improvements in spatial reasoning scores. It is proposed that visual guidance may be applied in spatial fields, such as STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine), surgery, and anatomy to improve student's interpretation of visual content. Anat Sci Educ. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

Modern dietary guidelines for healthy pregnancy; maximising maternal and foetal outcomes and limiting excessive gestational weight gain

Abstract

Maternal dietary habits influence maternal and foetal health, representing a pathway for intervention to maximise pregnancy outcomes. Advice on energy intake is provided on a trimester basis, with no additional calories required in the first trimester and an additional 340?kcal?d^?1 and 452?kcal?d^?1 needed for the second and third trimesters. Energy intake depends on pre-gravid body mass index (BMI); underweight women are recommended an increase of 150, 200 and 300?kcal?d^?1 during the first, second and third trimester, normal weight women an increase of 0, 350 and 500?kcal?d^?1 and obese women an increase of 0, 450 and 350?kcal?day^?1. The recommendations for carbohydrate and protein intake are 175?g?d^?1 and 0.88–1.1?g?kgBM?d^?1, with no change to fat intake. The number of pre-gravid obese women is rising; therefore, we need to regulate weight in women of childbearing age and limit gestational weight gain to within the recommended ranges [overweight women 6.8–11.3?kg and obese women 5.0–9.1?kg]. This can be achieved using nutritional interventions, as dietary changes have been shown to help with gestational weight management. As pregnancy has been identified as a risk factor for the development of obesity, normal weight women should gain 11.5–16.0?kg during pregnancy. While some research has shown that dietary interventions help to regulate gestational weight gain and promote postpartum weight loss to some extent, future research is needed to provide safe and effective guidelines to maximise these effects, while benefitting maternal and foetal health.     

Response Time Adjustment in the Stop Signal Task: Development in Children and Adolescents

Adjusting speed to maintain fast and accurate performance is critical to goal-directed behavior. This study examined development of response time adjustments in the stop signal task in 13,709 individuals aged 6–17 years (49.0% Caucasian) across four trial types: correct and incorrect go, successful (stop-inhibit), and failed (stop-respond) trials. People sped more after correct than incorrect go responses and slowed more after failed than successful stop trials. Greater slowing after stop-respond but less slowing after stop-inhibit trials was associated with better response inhibition. Response time adjustments were evident in children as young as age 6, developed throughout childhood, and plateaued by age 10. Results were consistent with the predictions of the error detection and shifting goal priority hypotheses for adjustments.     

Preparing the Next Generation of Educational Measurement Specialists: A Call for Programs With an Integrated Scope and Sequence

The field of educational measurement has evolved considerably since the first doctoral programs were established. In response, programs have typically tacked on courses that address newly developed theories, methods, tools, and techniques. As our review of current programs evidences, this approach produces artificial distinctions among topics and techniques that are in fact a tightly coupled whole. This position paper advocates a redesign of the scope and sequence for doctoral programs focused on the preparation of the next generations of educational measurement specialists; a redesign that reflects the full life‐cycle of instrument development and use.     

‘Nowhere that fits’: the dilemmas of school choice for parents of children with Statements of special educational needs (SEN) in England

Giving parents a choice with regard to their children's education has been central to the political discourse of school reform at least since the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA). With regard to children with a Statement of special educational needs (SSEN), a plethora of policies and laws have given parents the right not only to choose a school, but also to appeal to decisions in the best interest of their children. Yet, despite the discourse of school choice, the implementation and practice of such reforms is neither assured nor simple. Participants in this study indicated that they have little choice of suitable provision and are having to compromise either the academic or the social aspects of their child's schooling. This article argues that for many parents whose children have a Statement of SEN, the choice of a school is often a dilemma, as ‘nowhere seems to fit’.     

Writing Characteristics of Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder: A Meta‐Analysis

Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADHD) frequently experience significant difficulty mastering basic academic skills. This meta‐analysis focuses on one specific potential area of learning difficulties for these students: namely, writing. To identify the extent and depth of the potential writing challenges faced by students with ADHD, we conducted a meta‐analysis comparing the writing performance of grade 1 to 12 students with ADHD to their normally achieving peers. We located 44 papers, yielding 45 studies with 87 effect sizes. The average weighted effect sizes showed that students with ADHD obtained lower scores than their normally achieving peers for writing quality (–0.78), output (–0.64), number of genre elements (–0.69), vocabulary (–0.76), spelling (–0.80), and handwriting (–0.62). Contrary to expectations, moderator analyses found that neither study quality nor the source from which ADHD students were drawn (i.e., school/community vs. clinic/hospital) accounted for variability above sampling error alone.     

Improvement of Word Problem Solving and Basic Mathematics Competencies in Students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Mathematical Learning Difficulties

Problem solving represents a salient deficit in students with mathematical learning difficulties (MLD) primarily caused by difficulties with informal and formal mathematical competencies. This study proposes a computerized intervention tool, the integrated dynamic representation (IDR), for enhancing the early learning of basic mathematical competencies and word problem solving skills. The goal was to compare and contrast the effects of IDR on the acquisition of informal and formal mathematical competencies in students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and MLD. Participants were 216 students (6–9 years), who were classified into three groups: ADHD (n = 72), MLD (n = 82), ADHD and MLD (n = 62). They completed the Test of Early Mathematics Ability (Third Edition). The results showed that all three diagnosed groups improved significantly postintervention in all mathematical competencies, with the MLD‐only group benefiting the most at posttest.