Patterns of literacy learning in German primary schools over the summer and the influence of home literacy practices

The ‘summer learning effect’ (SLE) is described as a stall or drop in achievement over summer, especially in schools serving poor or ‘minority’ communities. There has been little research in Europe on the effect, and research internationally has primarily focused on the effect in reading, with minimal focus on writing. This paper describes the extent and nature of the SLE in reading comprehension and writing in second grade classrooms in Germany. The SLE was evident in both subject areas with all students experiencing lower progress rates over summer. In reading, students attending the high‐income school progressed significantly more over summer than their low‐income peers, while there was no significant difference in writing progress over summer. Literacy logbooks over summer and interviews with a subset of students provided information on how home literacy practices influenced the effect.     

Interdisciplinary Faculty Development Seminars: A Model for Learning Emerging Technologies While Developing Interdisciplinary Partnerships

A series of faculty development seminars at Haverford College has been designed to address the issue of keeping science faculty teaching and research up-to-date, while building bridges between departments. To ensure coverage of emerging areas of science, we have elected to train existing faculty in new methods using a series of workshops for which faculty receive either teaching release time or stipends. The goals of these seminars include developing faculty expertise in important new topics and methodologies, stimulating the inclusion of these skills into their research and the curriculum, and broadening the scope of teaching and research collaborations. The initial three workshops have been targeted at areas of particular concern: boosting faculty expertise in scientific computing, bioinformatics, and issues surrounding the relationship of science and society. The seminar format has been designed to foster dialogue between different departments, as well as individual faculty, by including time for informal conversations and shared workshops, and by requiring collaborative curricular projects. The initial focus on the natural sciences has broadened into topics of interest to faculty in the social sciences and humanities.     

Validating Measures of Performance

How can the validity of performance assessments be established? What type of logical argumentation is necessary to generalize from a particular assessment to the ability or abilities of interest?     

Examining the Precision of Cut Scores Within a Generalizability Theory Framework: A Closer Look at the Item Effect

An Angoff standard setting study generally yields judgments on a number of items by a number of judges (who may or may not be nested in panels). Variability associated with judges (and possibly panels) contributes error to the resulting cut score. The variability associated with items plays a more complicated role. To the extent that the mean item judgments directly reflect empirical item difficulties, the variability in Angoff judgments over items would not add error to the cut score, but to the extent that the mean item judgments do not correspond to the empirical item difficulties, variability in mean judgments over items would add error to the cut score. In this article, we present two generalizability-theory–based analyses of the proportion of the item variance that contributes to error in the cut score. For one approach, variance components are estimated on the probability (or proportion-correct) scale of the Angoff judgments, and for the other, the judgments are transferred to the theta scale of an item response theory model before estimating the variance components. The two analyses yield somewhat different results but both indicate that it is not appropriate to simply ignore the item variance component in estimating the error variance.     

Young black children and science: Chronotopes of narratives around their science journals

We explored 30 Black Kindergarten‐2nd grade students' spoken narratives around pages of their science journals that the children selected as best for showing them as scientists. Because in all narratives, space–time relationships play an important role not only in situating but also in constituting them, we focused on such relationships using Bakhtin's (1981) construct of chronotopes. Our chronotopical analysis aimed at fleshing out the temporal and spatial features that were present in the children's journal pages, and in the children's ways of talking both about these features and about being scientists. Our goal was to better understand ways in which African‐American children identify with science and scientists in particular contexts: an interview with an adult who had visited their class throughout that year and a class where they were offered various opportunities to engage with science. Using six cases that maximized the variety of understandings we could develop vis‐à‐vis our research question, we show how the children's narratives were filled with differing space–time relationships in which the children found ways to showcase their agency. Thus, we provide insights into how the children authored relationships with science and scientists, negotiated the past with the present and possible future, and contextualized their narratives within various time‐spaces that had meaning for them. Moreover, multiple people populated the children's chronotopes and became intertwined with the space–time relationships that underlined their conceptions of themselves vis‐à‐vis science and scientists. Despite the varied conceptions of science and scientists that the children portrayed, their narratives communicated a high level of confidence in being able to do science and be scientists, and initiative in learning. The children's narratives were filled with hope, “able‐ness,” knowledge, affect, and possibility. These findings point to several considerations for practice. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 568–596, 2012     

The association between lower limb biomechanics and ball release speed in cricket fast bowlers: a comparison of high-performance and amateur competitors

The aim of this study was to compare the associations between lower limb biomechanics and ball release speed in 15 high-performance (HP) and 15 amateur fast bowlers. Kinematic and kinetic variables of the lower limbs collected in the laboratory environment with a 3D Vicon motion analysis system were compared between groups, as well as their associations with ball release speed. HP bowlers had a significantly higher run-up velocity at back foot impact but this difference became non-significant at ball release. Front knee kinematics were not statistically different, however effect sizes revealed medium-large differences with the HP group displaying a more extended knee joint at maximum flexion (d = 0.72) and ball release (d = 0.76). Only front hip positive power was significantly higher in the HP group and it was suggested that the probable cause was the HP bowlers having less knee flexion after front foot impact. From a joint power analysis, the extensor muscle groups of the hip and knee were shown to be important in developing ball release speed. This highlights the need for lower limb/core strength programmes to be multifaceted and focus on the muscles associated with both power and stability.     

Caught in the middle: faculty and institutional status and quality in state comprehensive universities

Faculty members at state-related comprehensive universities (SCUs) are ‘caught in the middle,’ caught between the demands of a research university model of higher education and other models such as that of the liberal arts or community colleges. They are caught in the ambiguity of not having determined their own identity. The SCUs are a major for?e in higher education that resulted from historical trends and the demands of parents, students, and state legislators for services. But the emerging form of these institutions has yet to complete its metamorphosis. During their transformation, the SCUs have emulated the high-status research universities as their own low status forced a search for an identity different from their origins, commonly as teachers colleges. The unfortunate consequence of the SCUs' quest for status has been low faculty satisfaction and additional loss of institutional self-esteem. Furthermore, an emphasis on published research has led to a disparagement of scholarship as it is manifested in teaching and service. As faculty members focus more on disciplinary research, their involvement with students and in university governance and other campus affairs diminishes. What can SCUs do? Five alternative approaches that SCUs could use to develop distinct identities appropriate to their constituencies are examined. The concept that connects these different approaches is ‘scholarship,’ in its traditional sense. A broader definition of scholarship could enable the SCUs to achieve excellence in ways not dictated by the research university model. There is some reason to hope that there is increasingly effective internal and external pressures for SCUs to develop and enact such distinctive identities.     

The effects of social isolation on two shock-induced aggressive responses in rats

This experiment investigated the effects of social isolation during development and during adulthood on the topography of the shock-induced aggressive behavior of rats. Rats isolated during development from weaning to adulthood displayed more shock-induced biting than rats housed in groups during that period. Isolation during development did not affect the frequency of the upright boxing behavior, but isolation during adulthood reduced the frequency of the boxing response regardless of rearing conditions during development.