Understanding collaborative learning processes in new learning environments

Trying to understand the complexity of computer-mediated problem-based learning environments is not easy. Sociocultural theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding such environments because it emphasizes the socially situated nature of learning and the critical role of tools in mediating learning. To examine how different aspects of discourse relate to each other, as well as to the tools being used in the collaborative learning process, it is important to understand how collaborative knowledge building unfolds and how these processes are mediated. This requires going beyond coding individual speech acts. The use of Chronologically-Ordered Representations of Discourse and Tool-Related Activity (CORDTRA) diagrams is one way of achieving this understanding. We use this to study contrasting cases of more and less successful groups using the STELLAR learning environment. STELLAR is an integrated online PBL environment for preservice teachers, containing a learning sciences hypermedia, a library of videocases, and online personal and collaborative spaces. Our analyses suggest that an important locus of differences is how students use resources and engage in different kinds of metacognitive talk and knowledge transforming activities, sometimes to the group’s detriment. Frequency analyses provided an easily interpreted snapshot of each group’s activity. The CORDTRA analyses provide a more dynamic view that helps researchers and teachers better understand how collaborative learning unfolds. Such analyses have implications for understanding new learning environments as well as helping identify where interventions might be needed.     

Student-Athletes’ Perceptions of Mental Illness and Attitudes Toward Help-Seeking

Given that there is evidence that college student-athletes may be at risk for psychological disturbances (Pinkerton, Hintz, & Barrow, 1989), and possibly underutilizing college mental health services (Watson & Kissinger, 2007), the purpose of this study was to examine attitudes toward mental illness and help seeking among college student-athletes compared to college student nonathletes. The roles that athletic identity and gender play in treatment-seeking comfort were examined. Contrary to what was hypothesized, the results showed that student-athletes and nonathletes did not significantly differ in willingness to seek mental health treatment. Student-athletes perceived significantly less discrimination toward individuals based on mental illness status.     

Influence of carbohydrate mouth rinsing on running and jumping performance during early morning soccer scrimmaging

Carbohydrate mouth rinse (CMR) is a novel method proposed to enhance endurance performance lasting ≤ 60 min. The current study examined the influence of CMR on anaerobic performance tasks in 11 collegiate female soccer players after an overnight fast. Athletes completed two experimental sessions, during which carbohydrate (CHO; 6% maltodextrin) or taste- and colour-matched placebo (PLA) mouth-rinse solutions were administered in a counterbalanced, double-blinded design. Three rounds of a 5-min scrimmage bout and series of performance tests including a single countermovement vertical jump (1VJ), a set of four consecutive vertical jumps, a 72-m shuttle run (SR72) and 18-m sprint comprised each trial. Thirst sensation (TS), session TS, ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) and session RPE were assessed as secondary outcomes. The first SR72 approached significance (p = 0.069), but no significant between-trials differences were observed for any of the mean performance tasks. The highest 1VJ scores did not differ for the first (CHO = 47.3 ± 3.4, PLA = 47.7 ± 3.5 cm; p = 0.43), second (CHO = 48.0 ± 4.1, PLA = 47.9 ± 3.5 cm; p = 0.82) or third bout (CHO = 47.4 ± 3.9, PLA = 48.1 ± 3.9 cm; p = 0.26). TS approached significance (p = 0.053) during the first bout. No significant differences (p > 0.05) were found for any of the perceptual variables. Current results fail to support ergogenic influence of CMR on anaerobic performance tasks in collegiate female athletes.     

Who has a Problem,the Student or the Teacher? Differences in Teachers' Beliefs About Their Work with At‐risk and Integrated Exceptional Students

In this study, teachers' assumptions and beliefs are explored about the needs of at‐risk and exceptional students, and about their roles and responsibilities in meeting such needs. Teachers appear to hold consistent and coherent belief systems which differ along an ordinal scale. At one end, ‘restorative’ beliefs assume that problems reside largely within the pupil, and therefore the teacher's duty is to refer the pupil for confirmatory assessment as soon as possible. At the other ‘preventive’ end, teachers assume that the environment, including instruction, plays a part in a student's problems. The teacher therefore attempts prereferral interventions, and requests assessment to identify instructional alternatives. This study provides evidence for the validity of the restorative‐preventive construct, reporting the results of both quantitative and qualitative analyses of interviews with 27 regular class elementary teachers. Teachers' ratings on the construct correlated significantly with their self‐ratings of teaching efficacy (Gibson & Dembo, 1984). Teachers with preventive beliefs had higher self‐efficacy scores than those with a restorative profile. Further, teachers with restorative beliefs rated the withdrawal of problem pupils from the classroom as a more desirable resource service than preventive teachers, who preferred in‐class consultative support.     

Tensionalities in the collaborative instructional design process

This paper is a retrospective restorying of an instructional design project in which members of a large urban school board collaborated with faculty members of a large university to design and produce an interactive videodisc. This story has been told from a number of perspectives, but is reframed in this paper as a process of culture building in which the design family is the basis of meaning and action. Conversation-based design is suggested as the tool and the content of the family culture. In particular, conversation is a cultural artifact revealing stories of tensionalities in the design process that frame the theoretical constructs in this collaborative model.     

Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors of Children with Writing Disabilities

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLDs) are more likely to exhibit internalizing and externalizing behaviors than typically developing peers. Virtually none of the literature, however, reports on the behaviors of students at-risk for writing disabilities (AR-WD). We compared the behaviors of writers who are AR-WD and typically developing writers (TDW) from first through fourth grade (N = 138). We found that students who are AR-WD were only significantly different from TDW on Externalizing and Total Behaviors at Grade 2. These findings illustrate the benefits of studying behavior across different forms of SLD, as it appears that students ARWD do not consistently manifest significant behaviors, although interventions that simultaneously target writing and behavior may be warranted and mutually beneficial.