African American Women’s Language Use in Response to Male Partners’ Condom Negotiation Tactics

African American women are vulnerable for sexual health risk; thus, condom use is essential. Guided by research linking goals to communicative content, this study explored women’s use of I-, you-, we-, and hedging language during condom negotiation. Female participants (N = 193) engaged in a condom negotiation role play with male confederates, where language use measures were coded. I-language was used the most frequently. Language use differed as a function of men’s tactics, such that women primarily used I-language in response to verbal attacks, you-language in response to seduction, and I- and we-language in response to information seeking. Women who engaged in more recent condom use were more likely to use you-language and, when confederates attacked, they responded with more you-language and less hedging.     

From the sidelines to the center: reconsidering the potential of the personal in archives

This article seeks to center the personal in archives, both theoretically and methodologically. After briefly reviewing how personal archives have been sidelined in archival theory and education programs, we suggest that whether a record is considered personal or not is best determined not based on who created it but rather on how it is activated. In two separate autoethnographic case studies, the authors activate institutional records that, for each of them, are intensely personal. In doing so, they demonstrate how centering the personal in this way might inform and impact archivists’ understanding of their responsibilities to those who create, are captured in and consult the records in our care.     

Expanding the Understanding of the Categories of Dysconscious Racism

Dysconscious racism is generally defined as the unquestioned acceptance of culturally dominant norms and privileges, with three categories used to describe college students’ reasoning for enduring racial inequity. These range from the historical determinism of slavery to racially exploitive standards inherent in American society. However, few studies have fully utilized these categories. This article has sought to encourage a renewed interest into the student categories by considering them as more of a progressive, developmental continuum.     

Is everything all right at night? Measuring user response to overnight library services

A multiple methods study was conducted over three academic terms during the 2015 fiscal year at Santa Clara University Library to assess the impact and value of overnight library hours. A survey was conducted after midnight during times the Library was open 24 hours, five days a week (24/5), the last two weeks of the quarter. The survey was further informed by patron counts conducted hourly by library floor and type of activity. Survey questions were based on Sowell and Nutefall's study (2014 Sowell, S. L., &; Nutefall, J. E. (2014). Mysteries in the night: An exploratory study of student use and perceptions of 24/5 hours. Public Services Quarterly, 10(2), 96–114. [Google Scholar]); activity counts used categories similar to Johnson and McCallister's overnight study (2015 Johnson, K., &; McCallister, K. (2015). Assessing the 24/5 library: A case study in data and perspectives. Journal of Access Services, 12(3–4), 75–90. [Google Scholar]). This SCU research queried service needs in overnight hours, finding, as others studies have, that late-night users are primarily seeking a quiet space with comfortable amenities conducive to concentrated study. This conclusion was supported by patron count data that documented user activity between midnight and 7 a.m. showing patrons overwhelmingly working on personal laptops (53%) or library PCs (14%). Over 90% of respondents strongly agreed (66%) or agreed (27%) with the statement that “having the ability to use the Learning Commons/Library during the overnight hours (midnight-7 a.m.) has made a positive difference for me academically.”     

National survey on anatomical sciences in medical education

The drivers for curricular change in medical education such as the addition of innovative approaches to teaching, inclusion of technology and adoption of different assessment methods are gaining momentum. In an effort to understand how these changes are impacting and being implemented in gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy, neuroanatomy/neuroscience, and embryology courses, surveys were sent out to course directors/discipline leaders at allopathic Medical Schools in the United States during the 2016‐2017 academic year. Participants in the study were asked to comment on course hours, student experiences in the classroom and laboratory, amount of faculty participation, the use of peers as teachers in both the classroom and laboratory, methods used for student assessment and identification of best practices. Compared to data published from a similar survey in 2014, a number of changes were identified: (1) classroom hours in gross anatomy increased by 24% and by 29% in neuroanatomy/neuroscience; (2) laboratory hours in gross anatomy decreased by 16%, by 33% in microscopic anatomy, and by 38% in neuroanatomy/neuroscience; (3) use of virtual microscopy in microscopic anatomy teaching increased by 129%; and (4) the number of respondents reporting their discipline as part of a partially or fully integrated curriculum increased by greater than 100% for all four disciplines. Anat Sci Educ 11: 7–14. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Evaluation of Preservice Teachers’ Internships: A Model to Encourage Career Continuity and Program Reform

Quality teacher evaluation is a complex subject, requiring complex methods that draw from multiple data sources (Peterson, 2000). Most importantly, preservice teacher evaluation should match teacher education objectives (Popham, 1993) and, ultimately, be used to inform teacher practices and reform educational programming (Darling-Hammond, 1990). The purpose of this study is to present an evaluation model that uses multiple data sources for a preservice teacher’s internship experience. This model is employed within a teacher education program at a large land-grant university; the multiple data sources match program objectives and draw parallels between preservice and inservice teacher evaluation tools at use in this particular state. The evaluation model incorporates two guiding objectives within this college of education’s mission statement—objectives that focus on performance and reflection. First, preservice teachers are educated to assume roles of leadership and service in classroom practice, and second, preservice teachers are taught to become reflective practitioners, The first objective is measured by using a research-based classroom observation rating form during the internship that closely resembles the tool used by the state-licensing department of education. The second program objective is measured through the use of portfolios. In addition to using the results from these instruments to advise preservice teachers regarding their professional growth, the data can also guide program development within the college and suggest programmatic reform, an often overlooked yet integral factor of personnel evaluation. Discussion of specific rating results per instrument and specific avenues for program development are presented.     

Analysing Spelling Performance on a Range of Purposeful Writing Tasks

Most studies have looked at spelling as it occurs in the test or experimental situation. It is argued in this paper that spelling is only properly understood when account is taken of the complexity of processing involved in written language production.

A study is reported in which the performance of 48 12‐year‐old subjects, drawn from nine classes in eight schools, was examined on five different writing tasks based on a common theme. Separate comparisons were made between matched pairs of good and poor spellers, and between males and females, on a number of performance measures. Results are discussed in terms of the characteristics of the different tasks and their effects on the performance of different groups of children.     

Peer interaction and the learning of critical thinking skills in further education students

A teaching programme is reported in which criticalthinking skills (in the sense of reasonedjustification of arguments; see Kuhn, 1991, 1993) weretaught. The principal aims of the study were todevelop, implement and evaluate a programme forteaching evidence-based justification to vocationaleducation students in Further Education colleges. Teaching was via modelling and peer-based critiquingexercises in the context of the students' projectwork. Eighty-four Further Education college studentsunderwent a 10-session teaching intervention whichdovetailed with their Additional Assessmentintegrative project work. Students took part inpeer-based exercises in which they learned to critiqueimaginary examples of project outlines and plans,followed by similar peer-based critiquing of eachothers' proposed projects. Analysis of the students'dialogues with each other indicated that they hadlearned the importance of justifying arguments, andcontent analysis of their written work indicated thatthey engaged in justification of their arguments to asignificantly greater degree than control groups. Several key variables in the dialogues correlatedpositively with justification in the written work,suggesting that the dialogue had impacted on thewritten work. However, justification tended to be ofa weak kind (using anecdotes or experience-basedgeneralisations), and strong (i.e. formalresearch-based) evidence remained relativelyinfrequent and sometimes inappropriately used. Apsychometric test of general critical thinking skillsshowed no evidence of transfer of learning.