Toward multimodal inquiry: opportunities,challenges and implications of multimodality for research and scholarship

In this article, we suggest that we are witnessing a challenge to the hegemony of text-based knowledge in academic scholarship, brought about by newly available modes of expression, and a cultural shift in our notions of reading and writing, authorship, and networked knowledge production. The central question we address here concerns the implications of widening our ideas of acceptable forms of inquiry, analysis and representation in academic scholarship. As a collective of scholar-practitioners exploring new modes of expression and working both within and outside the formal structures of academia, we argue for the increasing significance of multimodal research in the contemporary context of academic inquiry. By more equitably valuing different ways of thinking, knowing and communicating, multimodal research can facilitate wider and more diverse participation in the production of knowledge, offer a more nuanced and ethical mode of inquiry, emphasize different ways of knowing and connecting, and make scholarship more broadly accessible beyond academic contexts. Here, we analyze the key opportunities facilitated by multimodal inquiry, as well as the obstacles that stand in the way of a wider adoption of this type of research in higher education.     

‘Social Skills’: Following a Travelling Concept from American Academic Discourse to Contemporary Danish Welfare Institutions

The article traces the origin and development of the concept of social skills in first and foremost American academic discourse. As soon as the concept of social skills was coined, the concern for people lacking such skills started and has been on the increase ever since (now sharing public attention with related concepts such as self-control, emotional intelligence and empathy). After the analysis of the academic history of the concept follows an examination of the implementation of a range of assessment instruments and training programmes related to social skills (and lack hereof) in contemporary Danish welfare institutions (more specifically, day nurseries and schools, employment and penal services). The analysis forwarded in the article thus demonstrates how an intellectual idea may develop and travel - and on its journey connect to pre-existing cultural logics and societal concerns. The idea of social skills has through its development been made uncontroversial – everybody wants to be skilful. The concept does, however, convey an individualistic view on social life and imposes a reflexivity over own performance on the participants. Further, its normative character contributes to a problematization of those who are perceived to lack these skills.     

Language and reading impairments are associated with increased prevalence of non-right-handedness

Handedness has been studied for association with language-related disorders because of its link with language hemispheric dominance. No clear pattern has emerged, possibly because of small samples, publication bias, and heterogeneous criteria across studies. Non-right-handedness (NRH) frequency was assessed in N = 2503 cases with reading and/or language impairment and N = 4316 sex-matched controls identified from 10 distinct cohorts (age range 6–19 years old; European ethnicity) using a priori set criteria. A meta-analysis (N_cases = 1994) showed elevated NRH % in individuals with language/reading impairment compared with controls (OR = 1.21, CI = 1.06–1.39, p = .01). The association between reading/language impairments and NRH could result from shared pathways underlying brain lateralization, handedness, and cognitive functions.     

Growth in biomedical publications and scientific institutions in the Emirates (1998–2004): an Arabian renaissance?

OBJECTIVES: The United Arab Emirates is witnessing a rapid development in population and infrastructure, leading to an expansion in the educational field and the health care system, including universities, hospitals and research institutes. One potential outcome of this development is an increase in biomedical research publications. This was examined in this study. METHOD: Searches were made of three databases; PubMed, Current Contents and embase. All records from these databases related to the Emirates were downloaded and cross-referenced. Duplications were removed as well as erroneous records. A total of 1369 publications during 1998-2004 were obtained. RESULTS: Analysis of these records revealed that the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, located at the federal University, was responsible for 48% of all biomedical publications. All hospitals together accounted for 24%, while other universities and other research institutes accounted for 13 and 14% respectively. Further analysis revealed that there had been no further growth in the number of publications since 1998. This is in contrast to the increasing number of institutions that have been set up in the 1998-2004 period; from 29 to 112. CONCLUSION: The Emirates are witnessing a rapid development in universities, colleges, hospitals and research centres. The ratio of publications, as yet, has not kept up with this development. The enormous growth in institutes, however, may, in time, herald an Arabian renaissance in scientific activity and related publications.     

Denying Genetic Causality

This edited volume of essays presents a countermainstream view against genetic underpinnings for cancer, behavior, and psychiatric conditions.This edited volume is a project from the Council of Responsible Genetics, a private organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, whose mission, as stated on its website, includes as one of several goals to “expose oversimplified and distorted scientific claims regarding the role of genetics in human disease, development and behavior.” This book represents such an effort. Editors Krimsky and Gruber are chair and president/executive director, respectively, of the organization and appear to have solicited contributions to the book from affiliates and other colleagues. Fewer than half of the 16 chapters are written by active laboratory scientists, however, and as a result, the book suffers from arguments clouded by imprecise use of terminology and preconceptions about genes and their functions. One might consider this book, or parts thereof, for an advanced undergraduate genetics class in which positions counter to the mainstream scientific view are presented and evaluated, and in which students are challenged to critically assess the quality of support for all arguments.The general theme of this book is to question the role of genes (and reproducible molecular mechanisms, more broadly) in cancer, behavior, psychiatric disorders, evolution, and other phenomena. One chapter promotes the tissue organization field theory (TOFT) against the somatic mutation theory of cancer. TOFT was proposed by the chapter authors in 2011 (Soto and Sonnenschein, 2011 ) but has not found traction and has garnered little attention beyond an initial refutation (Vaux, 2011 ). The authors assert that cancer is a disease of development and tissue repair primarily from environmental exposures and independent of genetic changes. Most cancer researchers agree that environmental factors can trigger cell growth but that ensuing mutations complete the picture in the genesis of malignancies. This chapter would be a good starting point from which one could assign students to explore papers cited in the Cancer Genome Atlas database, a growing resource compiling cancer genome data and subsequent validation in other systems of the effects of mutations found. In another chapter, a nonscientist author asserts that “in only a small percentage of cases are genes notable contributors to breast cancer,” implying imprecisely that only rare inherited cancer predisposition is genetic, when in fact cancer stemming from somatic mutations is also gene based. To assert that cancer stems only from environmental effects, to the exclusion of genes, overlooks the intertwining of the two arenas—radiation induces somatic mutations, for example, and estrogen mimics trigger cell division, which sets the stage for additional new mutations during DNA replication. Open in a separate windowOther sections of the book argue a lack of evidence for genetic influence on behaviors and psychiatric conditions. One chapter centers on several refuted ideas of biology and behavior (for example XYY and monoamine oxidase genotypes associated with aggression), with the intended implication that all other biological connections to behavior must be suspect. A chapter on autism accepts but downplays a partial role of genetics in the disorder, while emphasizing environmental exposures. Students exploring this topic could examine the growing literature on de novo mutations found in autism patients (Huguet et al., 2013 ), among other autism studies, to see how interlocking causes of the disorder might best explained by the available data. In the context of disorders such as schizophrenia, the book does not acknowledge or address the literature reporting genetic associations with psychiatric predispositions. In a troubling instance, a cited reference is misrepresented as refuting a genetic connection to schizophrenia; the reference in question (Collins et al., 2012 ) actually reports genome-wide association studies showing linkage of schizophrenia to particular loci (just not to the genes originally suspected). The same research group the previous month reported copy number variations associated with schizophrenia (Kirov et al., 2012 ), but this finding was not cited. Psychiatric genetics is a rich area for students to explore, and the contrarian viewpoint of the book can provide a starting point to trigger students’ delving into the literature.Genetic Explanations: Sense and Nonsense includes two chapters with assertions counter to the neo-Darwinian synthesis of evolution. One claims, fairly misleadingly, that “a growing number of evolutionary biologists … believe that macroevolution was the result of mechanisms other than natural selection.” Another states that “not genomic DNA but epigenetic environmental influences … overwhelmingly affect our health and well being.” The idea that gene regulation via environmental and epigenetic effects is somehow not reducible to genes (and that genes are therefore not central to evolution) would be an interesting subject for students to explore in the literature to see what the data actually support.This book is recommended only for use in advanced classes centered on weighing evidence and dissecting arguments in scientific controversies. The book''s countermainstream assertion of a lack of significant genetic connection to cancer, autism, schizophrenia, and other phenomena provides multiple opportunities for students to explore the scientific literature surrounding such genetic connections.     

A Theoretical Model for Preparing Incarcerated Youth for Careers in an Increasingly Technological World: Computational Logic as a Vehicle for Improving Human Decision-making Skills

Most youth in juvenile delinquent systems end up incarcerated due in part to poor decision-making skills. This study describes a theoretical framework undergirding the relationships across delinquency, learning climate, decision-making, and computational logic. This framework will inform a team of educators, criminologists, and psychologists, and their peers in computer science and mathematics, instructional software design, and content experts as they build and test an innovative instructional model for youth in secure care settings. The goal of the system is to improve human decision-making skills, while preparing youth for further education potentially leading to careers in STEM fields.     

Acceptance or rejection? The social experiences of children with special educational needs and disabilities within a mainstream primary school

ABSTRACT

This article details a study which investigated the social acceptance and friendships of children with SEND, and their typically developing peers, at a mainstream primary school in the North West of England. Participants were 29 children aged five and six years old, separated into three groups; typically developing children, children who were being monitored for SEND, and children with formally identified SENDs. With the use of a peer nomination sociometric technique, findings revealed that children with SEND had less promising peer relations and friendships compared to children tracked for SEND and their typically developing peers, consequently questioning the mainstream ‘ideal’.     

Developing reading comprehension through collaborative learning

The present study explores the development and promotion of reading comprehension in primary school students, in the context of the implementation of an educational programme called ‘Learning Together’ (LT). The programme, which centred on collaborative learning activities, was designed to promote oral and written communication in primary school Mexican children. Analyses revealed that children who participated in the LT programme, in comparison with students in a control condition, produced higher‐quality written summaries of texts they had read, both when working in teams and when working individually. This suggests that the LT participants appropriated and transferred the text comprehension strategies promoted, so that they could apply these strategies effectively not only in collaborative contexts but also independently, that is, in a self‐regulated and autonomous fashion. The theoretical and practical implications of the work are discussed in relation to understanding and promoting oracy and literacy processes in primary school students.