Student Diversity Representation and Reporting in Universal School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programs: Implications for Generalizability

This paper addresses two major and potentially conflicting movements: the importance of diversity as both a conceptual and political issue and the rise of the evidence-based practice movement in education. This tension is particularly important when evaluating and reporting universal interventions because of their intended applicability across diverse groups of children and adolescents. This study contributes to this discussion through an analysis of published school-based universal social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention evaluations in terms of their theoretical and empirical attention to student diversity characteristics. We defined student diversity in terms of five characteristics: gender, race/ethnicity, SES, disability status, and sexual orientation/gender identity. We assessed how and when demographic characteristics were reported, how these characteristics were analyzed as moderators of program outcomes, and how differential effects based on diversity were incorporated into reported intervention generalizability discussions. Results showed that diversity characteristics were inconsistently reported across articles. Most studies did not test for moderating effects, but those that did found inconsistent effects across diversity characteristics. Further, conceptual and/or empirical support for conducting the moderation analyses was often not provided or sufficiently supported by previous literature or a hypothesis. This research highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of how SEL program effects may be moderated by student demographic characteristics and suggests caution about the generalizability of the reviewed SEL programs across diverse groups of children and adolescents.     

Productive dissent in learning communities

“Community” has become a commonplace term in the learning sciences. Alongside this popularization comes the view that communities are, in general, something to strive towards. We draw on contemporary trends to problematize this assumption and motivate a discussion for the productivity of dissent.     

Process and collaboration: Assessing digital humanities work through an embedded lens

ABSTRACT

To assess the implications of supporting and participating in a digital humanities project team as embedded subject librarians, those involved must examine the dynamic of the group responsible for the work and the processes or infrastructure employed to support this work. Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) method with interview questions based on the American Historical Association's “Career Diversity Five Skills,” this case study interviews respondents involved in “‘A Shaky Truce’: Starkville Civil Rights Struggles, 1960–1980,” a digital public history project created in 2015 by a team of subject librarians, history graduate students, history faculty, and undergraduates.     

Contextual Explanations of Local Dependence in Item Clusters in a Large Scale Hands-On Science Performance Assessment

This study provides hypothesized explanations for local item dependence (LID) in a large scale hands-on science performance assessment. Items within multi-step item clusters were classified as low or high in LID using contextual analysis procedures described in this and other studies. LID was identified statistically using the average within cluster (AWC) correlation procedure described in previous studies. Levels of LID identified in contextual analyses were compared to levels of LlD identified in correlation analyses. Consistent with other studies, items that appear to elicit locally dependent responses require examinees to answer and explain their answer or to use given or generated information to respond     

“You don’t have to travel the world”: accumulating experiences on the path toward globally competent teaching

As classrooms become increasingly diverse and students need more complex skills for collaboratively addressing transnational issues, we need a better understanding of the factors that contribute to globally competent teaching. Education research has highlighted the benefits of study abroad and overseas teaching, as well as local cross-cultural immersion, but these options are not always feasible. We sought to identify the various means by which teachers develop global competence. Through this qualitative case study of 10 global educators, we found that international travel, though present in some instances, was not always necessary. In fact, it was an accumulation of experiences that prompted teachers to incorporate global perspectives, lessons, and skill development throughout their careers. Thus, globally competent teaching may be better conceptualized as a path, rather than as an end goal.     

Intervention Selection: An Examination of Evidence and Changes in Belief During the Decision‐Making Process

This study examines what sources of evidence are used in intervention selection and what changes in belief occur when performance improvement professionals make these decisions. Sixty‐one certified performance technologists completed a dynamic, web‐delivered questionnaire in which they provided a general assessment of intervention success (Pr₁), then responded to 12 performance improvement scenarios by selecting an intervention, providing a prior probability, receiving additional evidence, giving a posterior probability (Pr₃), indicating whether the initial intervention was still preferred, and making a subsequent choice if not. Findings bolster the long‐standing concern about the technical nature of performance improvement, and practitioners are strongly encouraged to approach intervention selection as a decision, where their intervention preferences and beliefs of likely success are carefully adjudicated on the basis of the evidence they obtain. Future research with other types of performance improvement practitioners, replication studies, longitudinal, structural equation modeling, externally verifiable probabilities, and natural environments are recommended.     

Implementation of a Curriculum-Integrated Computer Game for Introducing Scientific Argumentation

Argumentation has been emphasized in recent US science education reform efforts (NGSS Lead States 2013; NRC 2012), and while existing studies have investigated approaches to introducing and supporting argumentation (e.g., McNeill and Krajcik in Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45(1), 53–78, 2008; Kang et al. in Science Education, 98(4), 674–704, 2014), few studies have investigated how game-based approaches may be used to introduce argumentation to students. In this paper, we report findings from a design-based study of a teacher’s use of a computer game intended to introduce the claim, evidence, reasoning (CER) framework (McNeill and Krajcik 2012) for scientific argumentation. We studied the implementation of the game over two iterations of development in a high school biology teacher’s classes. The results of this study include aspects of enactment of the activities and student argument scores. We found the teacher used the game in aspects of explicit instruction of argumentation during both iterations, although the ways in which the game was used differed. Also, students’ scores in the second iteration were significantly higher than the first iteration. These findings support the notion that students can learn argumentation through a game, especially when used in conjunction with explicit instruction and support in student materials. These findings also highlight the importance of analyzing classroom implementation in studies of game-based learning.

     

The association between maltreatment and obesity among preschool children

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether child maltreatment is associated with obesity in preschool children. METHODS: Data were obtained from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a birth cohort study of 4898 children born between 1998 and 2000 in 20 large US cities. At 3 years of age, 2412 of these children had their height and weight measured, and mothers answered items on the Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales about three types of child maltreatment--neglect, corporal punishment, and psychological aggression. The frequency of each type of maltreatment behavior in the prior year was analyzed using categories--ever/never for neglect and quintiles for the other two types of maltreatment. Child obesity was defined as measured body mass index (kg/m(2)) > or =95th percentile. RESULTS: Eighteen percent of the children were obese, and the prevalence of any episode of neglect, corporal punishment, and psychological aggression was 11%, 84%, and 93%, respectively. The odds of obesity were increased in children who had experienced neglect (odds ratio 1.56, 95% confidence interval, 1.14-2.14), after controlling for the income and number of children in the household, the mothers' race/ethnicity, education, marital status, body mass index, prenatal smoking, and age, and the children's sex and birth weight. Neither the frequency of corporal punishment nor psychological aggression was associated with an increased risk of obesity. CONCLUSIONS: In a sample of preschool children from 20 large US cities, maternal self-report of neglectful behavior was associated with an increased risk of childhood obesity, after controlling for birth weight, maternal obesity, and multiple socioeconomic factors.