Effects of Calculator Use on Scores on a Test of Mathematical Reasoning

A sample of college-bound juniors from 275 high schools took a test consisting of 70 math questions from the SAT. A random half of the sample was allowed to use calculators on the test. Both genders and three ethnic groups (White, African American, and Asian American) benefitted about equally from being allowed to use calculators; Latinos benefitted slightly more than the other groups. Students who routinely used calculators on classroom mathematics tests were relatively advantaged on the calculator test. Test speededness was about the same whether or not students used calculators. Calculator effects on individual items ranged from positive through neutral to negative and could either increase or decrease the validity of an item as a measure of mathematical reasoning skills. Calculator effects could be either present or absent in both difficult and easy items     

Morphological,phonological, and orthographic differences between the spelling of normally achieving children and basic literacy adults

In this study, we compared 41 adults in a basic literacy class with 92 achievement-level-matched children on their use of English print conventions, as inferred by a qualitative analysis of spelling errors. The two groups followed similar patterns in their mastery of basic spelling features, including letter reversals, consonant blends, and short vowels, with the adults showing relatively more advanced skill in using orthographic patterns. However, the adults made a preponderance of misspellings that were rarely made by the children, including omissions, substitutions, and additions of derivational and inflectional morphemes, and neglect of word endings in general. The findings indicate clear morphological difficulties along with more subtle phonological coding deficits. We suggest that low literacy adults would benefit from specific direct instruction in linguistic analysis, with particular attention to the morphological principles underlying inflections and derivations. Such instruction should be based on a careful assessment of reading and spelling knowledge.     

Validation of the elementary social behaviour assessment: teacher ratings of students’ social skills adapted to Norwegian,grades 1–6

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Elementary Social Behaviour Assessment (ESBA), a teacher-report measure of students’ social skills and academic engagement adapted for use in Norwegian schools. At two times, 8 weeks apart, 151 teachers rated 793 students in Grades 1–6 on the ESBA and the Social Skills Rating System Teacher’s form (SSRS-T). Exploratory factor analysis with the first assessment suggested one or possibly two factors. Confirmatory factor analysis with the second assessment confirmed the one- or two-factor models but did not offer strong evidence for one over the other. The ESBA demonstrated good to excellent reliability. Strong concurrent and predictive correlations with the SSRS-T established criterion validity. The school and teacher levels explained only a limited amount of the total variance in ESBA scores, suggesting that teachers rate students quite similarly. The Norwegian-adapted ESBA paralleled the reliability and validity evidence from US samples.     

Effects of a Brief Mindfulness Based Group Intervention On College Students

Increases in the number of college students seeking mental health services require counseling centers to explore innovative strategies to provide effective and efficient treatments. Group interventions offer an alternative to traditional individual counseling, allowing centers to serve more students with fewer clinical staff (Burlingame et al., 2016). Of current group modalities, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been growing in popularity as an effective approach for addressing college students’ increasingly complex needs. This study describes the evaluation of a three-session mindfulness-based intervention on students’ mindfulness, symptoms, and stress. Compared to a comparison group of 109 students not seeking counseling center services, 78 students who received the intervention reported increased mindfulness, and decreased symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress at the end of the group. Furthermore, improvements in mindfulness mediated intervention effects on symptoms of depression and anxiety. These gains were generally maintained 3 weeks later. These findings support the benefits of brief group interventions for college students. Suggestions for modifications to the intervention and for future research are discussed.     

‘Learning Style’: frameworks and instruments

In both education and training an important aspect of the design, development and delivery of learning is the role of individual differences between learners in terms of their ‘learning styles’. One may identify four broad categories of what have been termed ‘learning style’: (i) ‘cognitive personality elements’ (e.g. Witkin et al. 1977; Riding, 1991); (ii) ‘information‐processing style’ (e.g. Kolb, 1984; Honey & Mumford, 1992); (iii) ‘approaches to studying’ (e.g. Entwistle & Tait, 1994); (iv) ‘instructional preferences’ (e.g. Riechmann & Grasha, 1974). A study of 245 university undergraduates in business studies aimed to: (i) describe the range of individual differences present within the sample; (ii) investigate the relationship between learners’ cognitive styles, learning styles, approaches to studying and learning preferences; (iii) consider the implications of ‘learning style’ for teaching and learning in higher education. The present study suggested some overlap between the dimensions measured by the Learning Styles Questionnaire (Honey & Mumford, 1986; 1992) and the Revised Approaches to Studying Inventory (Entwistle & Tait, 1994). No statistically significant correlations were found between cognitive style, as measured by the Cognitive Styles Analysis (Riding, 1991) and any of the other ‘style’ constructs used. Further research is required to investigate these relationships, as is a large‐scale factor analytical study of the Honey and Mumford and Kolb instruments. The notions of whole brain functioning, integra‐tive approaches to studying and degree of learning activity are discussed.     

Quality Assessment of Professional Degree Programs

Based on a completed study of alumni of a master's degree teacher education program at a large northeastern university, this article demonstrates how alumni research can be designed to focus assessment on student outcomes and be responsive to program goals, policy concerns of administrators, instructional values of the faculty, and standards of professional practice. The article presents a conceptual framework, a research design plan, identification of relevant issues, appropriate analytical techniques, and selected findings with substantial relevance to other professional degree programs. Results confirm the importance of satisfaction with courses, perception of professional growth, and level of intellectual challenge on graduates' overall evaluation of the program. The methodological approaches and substantive issues raised in this study potentially enhance researchers' ability to design future assessment studies that will impact the policy development and program planning of other professional degree programs.     

Bandpass sorting of heterogeneous cells using a single surface acoustic wave transducer pair

Separation and sorting of biological entities (viruses, bacteria, and cells) is a critical step in any microfluidic lab-on-a-chip device. Acoustofluidics platforms have demonstrated their ability to use physical characteristics of cells to perform label-free separation. Bandpass-type sorting methods of medium-sized entities from a mixture have been presented using acoustic techniques; however, they require multiple transducers, lack support for various target populations, can be sensitive to flow variations, or have not been verified for continuous flow sorting of biological cells. To our knowledge, this paper presents the first acoustic bandpass method that overcomes all these limitations and presents an inherently reconfigurable technique with a single transducer pair for stable continuous flow sorting of blood cells. The sorting method is first demonstrated for polystyrene particles of sizes 6, 10, and 14.5 μm in diameter with measured purity and efficiency coefficients above 75 ± 6% and 85 ± 9%, respectively. The sorting strategy was further validated in the separation of red blood cells from white blood cells and 1 μm polystyrene particles with 78 ± 8% efficiency and 74 ± 6% purity, respectively, at a flow rate of at least 1 μl/min, enabling to process finger prick blood samples within minutes.     

Examining the effect of positive behaviour support on academic achievement of students with disabilities

Students who engage in challenging behaviour compromise the fundamental ability of schools to educate children. Consequently, teachers face the daunting task of designing effective strategies to promote positive educational outcomes for their students. Since the 1997 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act amendments, the use of positive behaviour supports (PBS) to address the behavioural needs of children challenged by disabilities has expanded. There is evidence to support the utility of PBS in reducing challenging behaviour among students. However, successful schools are also gauged by the academic achievement of their students. Hence, it is important to examine the extent to which behavioural outcomes are related to academic outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which PBS interventions aimed at reducing challenging behaviour result in corresponding improvement in academic achievement. A meta‐analysis of extant research indicated a positive correlation of 0.40 between improvement in problem behaviour and academic achievement. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: http://youtu.be/c9OUU0GkGrw .