Comparison of examination methods used in the evaluation of prepubertal and pubertal female genitalia: a descriptive study

OBJECTIVE: To compare the effectiveness of three different examination methods in their ability to help the examiner detect both acute and non-acute genital injuries in prepubertal and pubertal girls suspected of having been sexually abused. METHODS: Forty-six prepubertal and 74 pubertal girls, whose ages ranged from 4 months to 18 years, were evaluated to determine the relative effectiveness of three different examination methods. RESULTS: All the girls had sustained a recent genital injury from various causes. The mean time between an injury and the first examination was 24h for the prepubertal girls and 27h for the pubertal girls. The three "multimethod" examination approaches used were the supine labial separation method; the supine labial traction technique; and the prone knee-chest position. The supine labial separation method was useful in identifying an injury on the external portion of the genitalia in both groups of girls. Injuries within the vestibule, on the hymenal surface, or in the fossa navicularis required greater separation of the labia. This was accomplished through the use of either the supine labial traction technique or the prone knee-chest position. The prone knee-chest position was the most successful method for identifying hymenal lacerations in both groups of girls. Of the 10 hymenal lacerations detected in the prepubertal girls 20% were identified during the use of the supine labial separation method, 60% with the supine labial traction technique, and 100% with the prone knee-chest position approach. Of the 49 hymenal lacerations detected in the pubertal girls 24% were identified with the supine labial separation method, 65% with the supine labial traction technique, and 90% with the prone knee-chest position approach. The data from this study has shown that the results of a medical examination will vary by the method employed. CONCLUSIONS: While no single technique detected all the injuries, the use of the multimethod examination approach did prove to be a valuable adjunct in the evaluation of both the prepubertal and the pubertal girl's genitalia, particularly in the identification of a hymenal laceration. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: This approach uses three different examination methods: the supine labial separation method, the supine labial traction technique, and the prone knee-chest position. According to the results of this study, without the combined use of these three methods a significant number of injuries, particularly hymenal lacerations, could be missed in both the child and the adolescent.     

Roommate Effects on Grades: Evidence from First-Year Housing Assignments

This paper estimates the effect of students’ background characteristics on the academic outcomes of their college roommates. It uses data from four classes of students at Wellesley College, where roommate assignment is credibly random, conditional on student responses to a housing preference form. In linear specifications, there are no peer effects on students’ grade point averages. There is some evidence that students’ SAT scores have nonlinear effect on their roommates’ achievement, but the results are not robust. We conclude that roommate peer effects might exist among small groups of students, but they are not a key determinant of students’ average academic outcomes at Wellesley College.     

C2STEM: a System for Synergistic Learning of Physics and Computational Thinking

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Synergistic learning combining computational thinking (CT) and STEM has proven to be an effective method for advancing learning and understanding in a...     

The Scandinavian Folk High School: A Model For the Education and Integration of Handicapped Youth

For almost 150 years the Scandinavian folk high school has served as an important institution in helping young people in their transition from adolescence to adulthood. In recent decades it has also become an avenue for the education and integration of young adults with special needs. At present, there are in the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland almost 400 folk high schools, each with an enrolment of about 100 students. Some of these schools are sponsored by handicap organizations and are primarily designed for handicapped students, but include a smaller number of nonhandicapped students. The present article describes in detail some of these schools. Several developing countries in Africa and Asia have initiated educational projects based on the Nordic folk high school concept.     

An exploration of trans* kinship as a strategy for student success

Abstract

Although the notion of queer kinship has been well discussed within literature on queer individuals, it has not been used as a lens to make sense of how trans* college students successfully navigate rigidly gender dichotomous collegiate environments. Using interview data from the National Study of LGBTQ Student Success, this study explores the narratives of 18 trans* students concerning their experiences of success in college and the role of queer kinship in supporting their success. Analysis documented three domains of kinship (i.e. material, virtual, and affective), which promoted students’ success.     

First-Grade Spelling Scores Within the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Screening: An Exploratory Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity evidence of first-grade spelling scores from a standardized test of nonsense word spellings and their potential value within universal literacy screening. Spelling scores from the Test of Phonological Awareness: Second Edition PLUS for 47 first-grade children were scored using a standardized procedure and an alternative invented spelling procedure. Correlations were examined among spelling and diagnostic word reading and decoding scores, along with scores from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Spelling scores were significantly correlated with word reading and decoding scores, as well as DIBELS scores, except Phoneme Segmentation Fluency. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that spelling scores reliably accounted for significant variance in decoding but not word reading scores, beyond DIBELS scores. Implications are discussed related to the potential value of including early spelling scores within universal literacy screening.     

Building an assessment of community-defined social-emotional competencies from the ground up in Tanzania

Two studies were conducted in 2017 to investigate children's competencies seen as important by communities in Mtwara, Tanzania. Qualitative data from 95 parents (34 women) and 27 teachers (11 women) in Study 1 indicated that dimensions of social responsibility, such as obedience, were valued highly. In Study 2, the competencies of 477 children (245 girls), aged 4–13 years, were rated by teachers and parents. Factor analysis found the obedient factor explained the most variance in parent rating. In line with predictions, urban residence, parental socioeconomic status (SES), and parental education were all positively associated with ratings of curiosity, and parental SES was negatively associated with obedience and emotional regulation. Findings illustrate the need for culturally specific frameworks of social-emotional learning.     

Educating and Measuring Choice: A Test of the Transfer of Design Thinking in Problem Solving and Learning

Educators aim to equip students with learning strategies they can apply when approaching new problems on their own. Teaching design-thinking strategies may support this goal. A first test would show that the strategies are good for learning and that students spontaneously transfer them beyond classroom instruction. To examine this, we introduce choice-based assessments (CBAs). CBAs measure how people learn when there is minimal guidance and they must make decisions as independent learners. Here, sixth-grade students completed multiple design activities that emphasized either seeking constructive criticism or exploring a space of alternatives. Afterward, they completed the CBAs, which measured strategy transfer. Results showed that lower-achieving students benefitted most from instruction, exhibiting a relative increase in their use of design-thinking strategies. In addition, strategy choices correlated with prior achievement measures and appeared to mediate performance in and learning from the CBAs. The choices to use the two strategies themselves were not correlated, which indicates that they are not subsets of a larger construct, such as growth mindset. In sum, CBAs enabled a double demonstration: design-thinking strategies may improve learning and problem solving, and design-thinking instruction may improve the likelihood of lower-achieving students choosing to use effective strategies in novel settings that require new learning.     

Epistemological framing and novice elementary teachers' approaches to learning and teaching engineering design

As engineering learning experiences increasingly begin in elementary school, elementary teacher preparation programs are an important site for the study of teacher development in engineering education. In this article, we argue that the stances that novice teachers adopt toward engineering learning and knowledge are consequential for the opportunities they create for students. We present a comparative case study examining the epistemological framing dynamics of two novice urban teachers, Ana and Ben, as they learned and taught engineering design during a four-week institute for new elementary teachers. Although the two teachers had very similar teacher preparation backgrounds, they interpreted the purposes of engineering design learning and teaching in meaningfully different ways. During her own engineering sessions, Ana took up the goal not only of meeting the needs of the client but also of making scientific sense of artifacts that might meet those needs. When facilitating students' engineering, she prioritized their building knowledge collaboratively about how things work. By contrast, when Ben worked on his own engineering, he took up the goal of delivering a product. When teaching engineering to students, he offered them constrained prototyping tasks to serve as hands-on contexts for reviewing scientific explanations. These findings call for teacher educators to support teachers' framing of engineering design as a knowledge building enterprise through explicit conversations about epistemology, apprenticeship in sense-making strategies, and tasks intentionally designed to encourage reasoning about design artifacts.     

Family Routines and School Readiness During the Transition to Kindergarten

Research Findings: Using data from 3,250 participants in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort, we used structural equation modeling to investigate whether family routines (e.g., bedtime routine, reading routine) established in preschool predict children’s school readiness (i.e., academic skills, social-emotional skills, and physical health) in kindergarten, a foundational year for establishing children’s academic trajectories. Analyses revealed that higher levels of routines in preschool were associated with greater declines in teacher-reported conduct problems and hyperactive/inattentive behavior and greater gains in prosocial behaviors from preschool to kindergarten. Higher routines also predicted greater gains in both reading and mathematics scores as well as greater improvements in physical health. Telling stories appears to be the most salient routine for children’s social-emotional outcomes, whereas bedtime routines most strongly predicts differences in children’s academic skills and health outcomes. Practice or Policy: The results suggest that family routines may be an important tool for preparing and supporting children and parents for the kindergarten transition even before school entry.