Further developing the library curriculum: skills for life delivery

This feature discusses how the library curriculum was developed at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust Library Service to aid the delivery of Skills for Life. In particular, the feature describes how, through collaboration with learndirect, literacy and numeracy skills were embedded into the broader library and information skills training programme. The article reports on how the programme resulted in the provision of qualifications and skills development opportunities to NHS staff, and an increase in the NHS library profile.     

Estimation of the measurement uncertainty and practical suggestion for the description of the metrological traceability in clinical laboratories

Clinicians request a large part of measurements of biological quantities that clinical laboratories perform for diagnostic, prognostic or diseases monitoring purposes. Thus, laboratories need to provide patient’s results as reliable as possible. Metrological concepts like measurement uncertainty and metrological traceability allow to know the accuracy of these results and guarantee their comparability over time and space. Such is the importance of these two parameters that the estimation of measurement uncertainty and the knowledge of metrological traceability is required for clinical laboratories accredited by ISO 15189:2012. Despite there are many publications or guidelines to estimate the measurement uncertainty in clinical laboratories, it is not entirely clear what information and which formulae they should use to calculate it. On the other hand, unfortunately, there are a small number of clinical laboratories that know and describe the metrological traceability of their results, even though they are aware of the lack of comparability that currently exists for patient’s results. Thus, to try to facilitate the task of clinical laboratories, this review aims to provide a proposal to estimate the measurement uncertainty. Also, different suggestions are shown to describe the metrological traceability. Measurement uncertainty estimation is partially based on the ISO/TS 20914:2019 guideline, and the metrological traceability described using the ISO 17511:2020. Different biological quantities routinely measured in clinical laboratories are used to exemplify the proposal and suggestions.     

Designing Reading Comprehension Assessments for Reading Interventions: How a Theoretically Motivated Assessment Can Serve as an Outcome Measure

When designing a reading intervention, researchers and educators face a number of challenges related to the focus, intensity, and duration of the intervention. In this paper, we argue there is another fundamental challenge—the nature of the reading outcome measures used to evaluate the intervention. Many interventions fail to demonstrate significant improvements on standardized measures of reading comprehension. Although there are a number of reasons to explain this phenomenon, an important one to consider is misalignment between the nature of the outcome assessment and the targets of the intervention. In this study, we present data on three theoretically driven summative reading assessments that were developed in consultation with a research and evaluation team conducting an intervention study. The reading intervention, Reading Apprenticeship, involved instructing teachers to use disciplinary strategies in three domains: literature, history, and science. Factor analyses and other psychometric analyses on data from over 12,000 high school students revealed the assessments had adequate reliability, moderate correlations with state reading test scores and measures of background knowledge, a large general reading factor, and some preliminary evidence for separate, smaller factors specific to each form. In this paper, we describe the empirical work that motivated the assessments, the aims of the intervention, and the process used to develop the new assessments. Implications for intervention and assessment are discussed.     

Morningness–Eveningness and College Advising: A Road to Student Success?

In addressing the challenges faced by E‐type (evening‐type) students, researchers have pointed to the need for school schedules that reflect chronotypic concerns and the recognition of the importance of sleep for academic achievement and well‐being. One approach to dealing with this issue for adolescent students has been to move the start of the school day later. In college, however, schedules become more varied and the social context in which these challenges occur differs requiring more individualized approaches to scheduling. In spite of this, morningness–eveningness is rarely considered by college administrators, advisors, or individuals involved in student services. It is important that faculty and staff who work with students be aware of chronotypical influences on classroom performance and other aspects of student life so that they can help them succeed in college and beyond.     

Profiles of emergent literacy skills among preschool children who are at risk for academic difficulties

The purpose of this study was to explore patterns of within-group variability in the emergent literacy skills of preschoolers who are at risk for academic difficulties. We used the person-centered approach of cluster analysis to identify profiles of emergent literacy skills, taking into account both oral language and code-related skills. Participants were 492 preschoolers (aged 42-60 months) enrolled in needs-based programs. In the fall of the academic year, children were administered eight measures of emergent literacy: four oral language measures (i.e., expressive and receptive grammar, expressive and receptive vocabulary) and four code-related measures (i.e., print concepts, alphabet knowledge, name writing, and rhyme). Controlling for age, hierarchical-agglomerative and K-means cluster analysis procedures were employed. Five psychometrically sound profiles emerged: highest emergent literacy (prevalence = 14%); three profiles with average oral language and differential code-related abilities (16%, 24%; 23%); and lowest oral language with broad code-related weaknesses (23%). Profiles were then compared on midyear teacher ratings of emergent literacy as well as end-of-kindergarten literacy performance; results provided convergent evidence of predictive validity. This study highlights the considerable heterogeneity of emergent literacy abilities within an “at-risk” group. The resulting profiles have theoretical and practical relevance when examining both concurrent relationships between oral language and code-related skills as well as longitudinal relationships between early patterns of performance and later reading achievement.     

Pupil mobility in schools and implications for raising achievement

This paper examines the causes of pupil mobility and good practice in schools to address mobility issues. Pupil mobility is defined as ‘a child joining or leaving school at a point other than the normal age at which children start or finish their education at that school’. The first part draws upon evidence of a survey, which explores the views of headteachers on the nature and causes of pupil mobility in schools and the priority they give to addressing pupil mobility issues in their schools. It examines the cause of mobility in schools in the context of mobile groups. This is followed by the challenges for managing mobility and strategies to address pupil mobility in schools. The second part of the paper outlines successful strategies that minimize the effects of mobility in schools. Evidence is drawn from case‐study research and focuses on the school systems, pastoral care and access to learning which combine to support the induction, assessment and monitoring of newly arrived pupils in school and effective use of data for self‐evaluation. Examples of flexible curriculum organization, innovative approaches to additional support and effective administrative procedures are drawn upon. Evidence reflects the views of a range of school staff, parents/carers and pupils in the case‐study school, as well as the judgements of senior researchers. Policy implications for government and for all concerned with school performance are highlighted, as well as many practical suggestions for raising achievement of mobile pupils     

The relative effects of university success courses and individualized interventions for students with learning disabilities

Little is known about the relative effects of post‐secondary learning services for students with learning disabilities. We compared outcomes for students with learning disabilities who selected to: (1) take an academic learning success course (course‐intervention), (2) have regular individual interventions (high‐intervention) or (3) use services only as needed (low‐intervention). Pre‐ and post‐test comparisons revealed improvements in academic self‐efficacy and academic resourcefulness for students in the course‐ and high‐intervention groups. The course‐intervention group also showed decreases in their failure attributions to bad luck and increases in their general repertoire of learned resourcefulness skills in comparison to the high‐intervention group and had significantly higher year‐end GPAs in comparison to the low‐intervention group. Here we find positive outcomes for students with learning disabilities taking a course that teaches post‐secondary learning and academic skills.