Tracking Students Through Life: A Critical Structural Analysis of Academic Tracking of Mexican Immigrant Students in the United States and Korean Immigrant Students in Japan

Students in the United States and Japan from high and middle socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds are afforded greater academic opportunities due to the systemic presence of hegemony in public schools (Darvin and Norton in J Lang Identity Educ 13(2):111–117, 2014). Minority and immigrant students, the majority coming from low SES, are more likely to suffer the negative effects of tracking. This paper explains how Mexican immigrant students in the United States, and Korean students in Japan are tracked into lower-level courses throughout their educational careers. Using critical structuralism as a theoretical framework, the paper analyzes the two educational systems and explains the implications of tracking on students’ access to higher education. The paper presents mediating mechanisms against the negative effects of lower-level tracking, while arguing for college preparatory education for Mexican and Korean immigrants in the U.S. and Japan respectively.     

娜塔莉——打破常规

还记得《这个杀手不太冷》里面那个抱着一盆植物跟在杀手雷昂后面的娃娃头女孩吗?娜塔莉·波曼12岁的时候就让我们见识了她非凡的演技。而这位出色的童星,并没有因为成了炙手可热的明星而立刻踏入演艺圈,却意外地在哈佛大学完成了自己的心理学专业。这个聪明的女孩总是给自己作出出乎意料的选择。     

Domain‐General Learning and Memory Substrates of Reading Acquisition

Prior research has demonstrated that linguistic skills and knowledge contribute to successful reading acquisition. In contrast, little is known about the influence of domain‐general learning abilities on reading. To investigate associations between general memory functions and reading during the early stages of learning to read, performance measures of word‐level reading and of declarative and procedural learning were obtained in a cohort of 140 children, annually during their first 4 years of school. We hypothesized that differences in learning task performance would relate to reading ability in the early years, when children are first learning to read. We employed a series of linear mixed effects models to test the relationships between learning abilities and reading across time. Declarative learning performance predicted reading ability in first grade, while procedural learning performance predicted reading ability in second grade. Our findings suggest that reading acquisition may depend in part on general capacities for learning.     

Informed consent among chronically ill elderly: Assessing its (in)adequacy and predictors

Physicians are legally and ethically required to obtain informed consent from patients prior to providing medical care. However, the chronically ill elderly may poorly understand the facts that are needed for them to make informed choices, and they also may wish to avoid discussing potentially discouraging information. Interviews of 142 elderly hemodialysis patients were conducted to determine whether informed consent for performing dialysis had been obtained and to explore potential causes of inadequate informed consent. As predicted, most patients lacked information needed to render fully informed consent. However, when we examined potential causes for the very low levels of knowledge reported by patients, we found that patients’ education level, cognitive capacity, and willingness to discuss medical contingencies were stronger predictors of informed consent than were the communicative practices of doctors. Neither doctors’ willingness to promptly disclose the need for dialysis nor their willingness to discuss forgoing dialysis were related to any of the patient characteristics. Results suggest that obtaining fully informed consent for chronically ill elderly requires both a modification of doctors’ communication practices and greater adaptation to the cognitive capacity, education, and communication practices of the patient.     

A Review of “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Social Media But Were Afraid to Ask; Building Your Business Using Consumer Generated Media”

Curriculum materials center (CMC) collections in academic libraries play a vital role in supporting teacher education programs. The collection items consist of print and non-print materials including nontraditional items such as kits, games, models, and toys. Following a comprehensive literature review of research on CMC collections, this study seeks to raise awareness of the role played by curriculum materials centers in the history of teacher education and the challenges faced by the CMC librarians. The article provides a general overview of the CMC at Long Island University (LIU) Post library and describes local collection development strategies and issues in collection access and maintenance.     

Participants’ evaluation of consultation: implications for training in school psychology

Evaluation of graduate students’ consultation skills is essential to competent practice in school settings. Congruence of evaluation of the consultation experience has been shown as an important factor in the development of competent consultants in other, related disciplines. The current study analysed student consultant and teacher consultee perspectives on several dimensions, including school system entry, knowledge gaps, territorial concerns, role ambivalence, and problems inherent in student–staff member interaction. Results of tests for congruence of ratings of providers and recipients of consultation services suggest a number of concerns regarding the preparation of graduate student consultants for successful practise in school settings, including inadequate preparation for systems entry, conflict over shared problem solving and the need to balance expertise with collaboration, and graduate student’s lack of knowledge of instructional practices. Implications for training graduate students in school-based consultation are discussed.     

Peer and Faculty Mentoring for Students Pursuing a PHD in Gerontology

The Graduate Center for Gerontology at the University of Kentucky incorporates three levels of mentoring in its PhD program. This project assessed satisfaction with peer and faculty mentoring and explored their perceived benefits and purposes. Core and affiliate faculty and current and graduated students were surveyed. Participants seemed satisfied with the mentoring they were giving and receiving, although all groups discussed limitations. Peer mentors were seen as social support and advice givers, while faculty mentors were viewed as responsible for direction and skill-building. These results can contribute to the development of new mentorship programs and the modification of existing ones.     

Gestures and conceptual integration in mathematical talk

Spontaneous gesture produced in conjunction with speech is considered as both a source of data about mathematical thinking, and as an integral modality in communication and cognition. The analysis draws on a corpus of more than 200 gestures collected during 3 h of interviews with prospective elementary school teachers on the topic of fractions. The analysis examines how gestures express meaning, utilizing the framework of cognitive linguistics to argue that gestures are both composed of, and provide inputs to, conceptual blends for mathematical ideas, and a standard typology drawn from gesture studies is extended to address the function of gestures within mathematics more appropriately. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of the original article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.