Recruiting and Retaining Asian American and Pacific Islander Teachers

The Urban Review - The lack of Teachers of Color in the United States raises questions about their recruitment and retention and the responsiveness of schools to racial and linguistic diversity....     

Does previewing answer choice options improve performance on reading tests?

Previewing answer-choice options before finishing reading the text is a widely employed test-taking behavior. In the present study we examined whether previewing is related to item response accuracy and response time, using data from Chinese learners of varying English proficiency levels and English native speakers. We examined eye movement patterns of participants who completed online multiple-choice sentence completion tasks, and how previewing was related to reading performance and whether the relation varied as a function of English proficiency level. The results showed that, relative to no previewing, previewing was associated with a significantly lower probability of answering an item correctly but not with significantly longer response time. Importantly, these relations varied across English proficiency levels such that participants with higher proficiency performed better without previewing, but there was no difference for lower-intermediate learners of English. These findings suggest that previewing does not facilitate performance on a sentence comprehension task, but instead interferes with the comprehension process, particularly for individuals with relatively high language proficiency.     

Stories of Success from Eminent Finnish Women: A narrative study

Factors to which women attribute their success were explored in this study using narrative analysis of the life stories of contemporary eminent women living in Finland. The participants were 12 Finnish women who have achieved success and peer recognition in various fields including science, business and finance, politics, and the arts. Four universal themes emerged from an analysis of the interview data. In their stories of achievement, the main factors were their personal self-reliance, the superiority of their work, and their interdependence with others including family members and co-workers. In addition, every woman talked about the egalitarianism that pervades Finnish society and its importance in the home and workplace. The voices of these women confirmed and extended the knowledge base about the course of talent development for females and the meaning of success for eminent women.     

Why the Simple View of Reading Is Not Simplistic: Unpacking Component Skills of Reading Using a Direct and Indirect Effect Model of Reading (DIER)

Pathways of relations of language, cognitive, and literacy skills (i.e., working memory, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, inference, comprehension monitoring, word reading, and listening comprehension) to reading comprehension were examined by comparing four variations of direct and indirect effects model of reading. Results from 350 English-speaking second graders revealed that language and cognitive component skills had direct and indirect relations to listening comprehension, explaining 86% of variance. Word reading and listening comprehension completely mediated the relations of language and cognitive component skills to reading comprehension and explained virtually all the variance in reading comprehension. Total effects of component skills varied from small to substantial. The findings support the direct and indirect effects model of reading model and indicate that word reading and listening comprehension are upper-level skills that are built on multiple language and cognitive component skills, which have direct and indirect relations among themselves. The results underscore the importance of understanding nature of relations.     

Ramadan Fasting and the Propensity for Learning: Is There a Cause for Concern?

The literature indicates that glucose deprivation, dehydration, decreased sleep quality and quantity, and mood changes, independently and adversely can influence cognitive functions and therefore learning. The Ramadan fast is an annual religious act undertaken by Muslims where individuals refrain from consuming food and fluid during daylight hours, daily over 30 days. Alteration in eating times and sleep–wake cycles lead to a disruption in the body's daily circadian rhythm resulting in sleep perturbations and mood swings. Consequently, Ramadan fasting is linked to daytime lower glucose concentration, dehydration, decreased sleep quality and quantity, mood swings and elevated subjective feelings of fatigue and malaise. This review highlights how Ramadan fasting potentially poses learning difficulties as a result of the independent and/or combined effects of these factors.     

Development of Working Memory from Grade 3 to 5: Differences between Children With and Without Mathematical Learning Difficulties

Based on the finding that children with mathematical learning difficulties (MLD) have deficits in working memory (WM), the question arises as to whether these children differ from typical learners only in the level or also in the developmental trajectories of WM functioning. To this end, the WM of 80 children with MLD and 71 typical learners was assessed longitudinally from third to fifth grade. Typical learners outperformed children with MLD in the phonological, visuospatial and central executive WM functioning in third grade. Latent change analyses indicated that both phonological and central executive WM functioning developed in a parallel pattern in children with MLD and in typical learners. In contrast, visuospatial WM functioning revealed a different development in children with and without MLD since the gap between both groups decreased over time. Overall, despite starting at a lower level, the WM functioning in children with MLD did not develop more slowly.     

Asian medical students: quality of life and motivation to learn

Issues linked with the notions of quality of life (QOL) and motivation to learn among Asian medical students have not been well documented. This is true in both the international and the New Zealand contexts. Our paper addresses this lack of research by focusing on the QOL of international and domestic Asian students studying in New Zealand, where Asian students form a significant proportion of tertiary students. Although there is evidence to suggest that Asian students do well academically, it was felt that an investigation into their QOL would be instructive as QOL will likely have an impact on cognition, behavior, general well-being, and motivation. The present study surveyed fourth- and fifth-year medical students to examine the relationship between QOL and motivation to learn and to consider how Asian medical students compare against European medical and non-medical student peers. The study utilized the World Health Organization—Quality of Life questionnaire (BREF version) and a shortened version of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. The results show that the Asian medical students in this study generated significantly lower scores in terms of their satisfaction with social relationships compared with their non-Asian peers. In addition, international Asian medical students appear to be more at risk than domestic Asian students with respect to test anxiety. The paper considers the findings and the implications for quality of life, motivation to learn, medical education, and the Asian student community.     

Child and adult witnesses: the effect of repetition and invitation-probes on free recall and metamemory realism

Witnesses?? event recall and the realism in their evaluation of the correctness of their recall are of great importance in forensic processes. These issues were investigated in the present study by use of calibration methodology. More specifically, we analyzed the effects of two recalls of the same event (repetition) and of probes (non-informative follow-up questions at recall) on 9?C11?year-old children??s and adults?? open free recall and the degree of realism in the participants?? confidence judgments of the correctness of the recall after they had seen a short video clip. The findings were that repetition resulted in more units recalled both for children and for adults, and in that the children showed higher overconfidence compared with one recall, but not the adults. Moreover, when only the statements in the repetition conditions that were recalled twice were included in the analysis, higher confidence was found for the children (independent of an increase in the proportion correct statements of all statements) but not for the adults. Probing increased the number of units recalled for both children and adults, decreased the children??s proportion correct statements but not the adults??, decreased both children??s and adults?? confidence and increased the children??s overconfidence, but not the adults??. Finally, the combination of two recalls and probing disrupted the children??s but not the adults?? metacognitive performance.     

定量分析能源效率以及温室气体减排项目和政策中的协同效益方面的国际经验

提高能效和燃料转换效率是温室气体减排战略的一部分。过去二十年,很多研究显示这两方面带来气候变化以外的好处,多半介于这些政策方案实施成本的30%到超过100%。国际上,政策制定者对于分析能效政策和燃料转换效率政策同时纳入对温室气体和非温室气体两方面影响的探讨愈来愈感兴趣。欧盟、美国与日本已开发出一套相当成熟的方法。通常,协同效益的定量工作可分为三类:(1)协同效益模型;(2)事前的政策评估方法;(3)由学者建立的框架,意在改善这方面的研究,并将协同效益应用到更多的地区和政策方案上。 表ES-1将协同效益定量方面的几个重点模型、指南和框架做了摘要。     

Preschool children’s use of meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions

In collaborative decision-making, partners compare reasons behind conflicting proposals through meta-talk. We investigated UK-based preschoolers’ (mixed socioeconomic status) use of meta-talk (Data collection: 2018–2020). In Study 1, 5- and 7-year-old peer dyads (N = 128, 61 girls) heard conflicting claims about an animal from two informants. One prefaced her claim with “I know”; the other with “I think”. Dyads identified the more reliable informant through meta-talk (“She said she knows”). In Study 2, 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 64, 34 girls) searched for a toy with an adult partner making incorrect proposals. Children refuted this through reporting what they had witnessed (It cannot be there because “I saw it move”, “she moved it”). In preschool period, children start using meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions.