Behavioral Attention: A Longitudinal Study of Whether and How It Influences the Development of Word Reading and Reading Comprehension Among At-Risk Readers

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which teacher ratings of behavioral attention predicted responsiveness to word reading instruction in first-grade and third-grade reading comprehension performance. Participants were 110 first-grade students identified as at risk for reading difficulties who received 20 weeks of intensive reading intervention in combination with classroom reading instruction. Path analysis indicated that teacher ratings of student attention significantly predicted students’ word reading growth in first grade even when they were competed against other relevant predictors (phonological awareness, nonword reading, sight word efficiency, vocabulary, listening comprehension, hyperactivity, nonverbal reasoning, and short-term memory). Also, student attention demonstrated a significant indirect effect on third-grade reading comprehension via word reading but not via listening comprehension. Results suggest that student attention (indexed by teacher ratings) is an important predictor of at-risk readers’ responsiveness to reading instruction in first grade and that first-grade reading growth mediates the relationship between students’ attention and their future level of reading comprehension. The importance of considering ways to manage and improve behavioral attention when implementing reading instruction is discussed.     

The Organization and Structure of Community Education Offerings in Community Colleges

One of the key services community colleges provide is community education, meaning those programs and activities that are often offered for leisure or self-improvement and not for credit. Programs of this nature are increasingly challenged to be self-financing, whether through user fees or externally funded grants. The current study explored 75 community college community education offerings and found that most offered over 50 distinct community education programs, with less than half of those being self-funded. These colleges typically relied on a professional program director to administer programs; and, most frequently, these individuals reported through a division of academic or student affairs. Among other findings, the majority of community education programs profiled were classified as leisure education, although there were large numbers of programs that related to some distinct element of a community (such a national forest, historic downtown, etc.). Study findings highlighted the need for community college leaders to find balance between community needs and financial responsibility. This includes taking on the responsibility for hosting programs that might be financially unviable, but might meet a strong community need.     

Retrospective revaluation of associative retroactive cue interference

Two fear-conditioning experiments with rats assessed whether retrospective revaluation, which has been observed in cue competition (i.e., when compounded cues are followed with an outcome), can also be observed in retroactive cue interference (i.e., when different cues are reinforced in separate phases with the same outcome). Experiment 1 found that after inducing retroactive cue interference (i.e., X-outcome followed by A-outcome), nonreinforced presentations of the interfering cue (A) decreases interference with responding to the target cue (X), just as has been observed in retrospective revaluation experiments in cue competition. Using the opposite manipulation (i.e., adding reinforced presentations of A), Experiment 2 demonstrated that after inducing retroactive cue interference, additional reinforced presentations of the interfering cue (A) increases interference with responding to the target cue (X); alternatively stated, the amount of interference increases with the amount of training with the interfering cue. Thus, both types of retrospective revaluation occur in retroactive cue competition. The results are discussed in terms of the possibility that similar associative mechanisms underlie cue competition and cue interference.     

Responses of endothelial cells to extremely slow flows

The process of blood vessel formation is accompanied by very minimal flow in the beginning, followed by increased flow rates once the vessel develops sufficiently. Many studies have been performed for endothelial cells at shear stress levels of 0.1-60 dyn∕cm(2); however, little is known about the effect of extremely slow flows (shear stress levels of 10(-4)-10(-2) dyn∕cm(2)) that endothelial cells may experience during early blood vessel formation where flow-sensing by indirect mass transport sensing rather than through mechanoreceptor sensing mechanisms would become more important. Here, we show that extremely low flows enhance proliferation, adherens junction protein localization, and nitric oxide secretion of endothelial cells, but do not induce actin filament reorganization. The responses of endothelial cells in different flow microenvironments need more attention because increasing evidence shows that endothelial cell behaviors at the extremely slow flow regimes cannot be linearly extrapolated from observations at faster flow rates. The devices and methods described here provide a useful platform for such studies.     

Constructing an institutional identity in university tea rooms: the international PhD student experience

This case study profiles eight international PhD students and describes the process of the construction and negotiation of their social and institutional identities in an Australian university. Audio-recorded informal conversations of the students highlight the role of social membership, staffroom interactions and language in the construction of institutional identities. The impact of multiple identity transitions experienced by new international students is described. The data analysis uses a sociocultural perspective of second language in use, which reflects the negotiation of power, space and identity in informal multicultural institutional encounters. The article provides insight into the ways transitions are experienced by international postgraduate students. Findings also include a critique of the negatively loaded stereotype of the ‘international student’ in Australian universities and the way it underplays the heterogeneity of student experience.     

Efficacy of ACA strategies in biography-driven science teaching: an investigation

This study explored the biography-driven approach to teaching culturally and linguistically diverse students in science education. Biography-driven instruction (BDI) embraces student diversity by incorporating students’ sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic dimensions of their biographies into the learning process (Herrera in Biography-driven culturally responsive teaching. Teachers College Press, New York, 2010). Strategies have been developed (Herrera, Kavimandan and Holmes in Crossing the vocabulary bridge: differentiated strategies for diverse secondary classrooms. Teachers College Press, New York, 2011) that provide teachers with instructional routines that facilitate BDI. Using systematic classroom observations we empirically demonstrate that these activate, connect, affirm, strategies are likely to be effective in increasing teachers’ biography-driven practices. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Library-Led Faculty Workshops: Helping Distance Educators Meet Information Literacy Goals in the Online Classroom

ABSTRACT

At University of Maryland University College (UMUC), librarians have designed and led a number of multiday, asynchronous online workshops for faculty. The workshops teach faculty how to meet information literacy goals in the virtual classroom. Through hands-on activities and discussion among their colleagues, participants in the faculty workshops learn about the university's information literacy standards, library resources and services, free Web tools, and how best to design class assignments involving library research. Library-led faculty workshops at UMUC have increased library visibility and furthered collaboration between faculty and librarians. This article discusses 5 workshops, detailing workshop content and logistics and demonstrating how librarians can help distance faculty further information literacy goals for students.