Literacy,languages and development in Africa: a policy perspective

International Review of Education - In the multilingual environments of Africa, national literacy policies vary in terms of the attention they give to the roles and purposes of local, national and...     

Socio-scientific reasoning and environmental literacy in a field-based ecology class

The complex environmental challenges humanity faces require citizens who are scientifically and environmentally literate. Many environmental education programs are situated in the field where students are immersed in their learning. These field-based activities are engaging but may lack opportunities for students to develop critical thinking and reasoning skills necessary to be environmentally literate. We suggest a socio-scientific issue (SSI) based teaching approach can increase epistemic engagement and lead to student gains in scientific and environmental literacy. This study describes how we modified an existing field-based ecology course, framing the learning around a local environmental socio-scientific issue. We used a convergent parallel mixed-methods approach to examine the changes in socio-scientific reasoning (SSR) over time for high school students in this course as a measure of scientific and environmental literacy. Results indicate that a focused SSI field-based environmental education curriculum can support development of socio-scientific reasoning and environmental literacy competencies among high school students.     

Views of cheating among college students and faculty

College students (N = 446) and faculty (N = 97) completed a survey examining views of cheating. Agreement was noted on most situations. When differences were noted, students tended to be stricter than faculty in their evaluations and were more likely than faculty to label a situation as cheating. Opinions and views of cheating were influenced more by behavior, whether “premeditated” or “opportunistic,” than by intention.     

Creating a more inclusive journal: the Journal of the Medical Library Association's evolving process for selecting editorial board members

The Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) selects new editorial board members every year. In the spring of 2021, JMLA used a new process for reviewing and selecting applicants for the limited number of open editorial board positions. This reevaluation of the selection process was spurred by a desire to create a more diverse and representative board. Changes to the procedures for selecting new editorial board members included having an open call for editorial board members, creating an application form, creating a selection committee to screen applicants, creating a form for the selection committee to extract data from applications, and creating a two-step process for screening and then selecting board members. As part of construction of this new process, areas for continued improvement were also identified, such as refining the application form to allow more specific answers to areas of interest to the selection committee. The newly created selection process for editorial board members constitutes a significant change in JMLA processes; however, more can be done to build on this work by further refining the selection process and ensuring that new members are selected in a transparent and streamlined manner.     

Multimethod behavioral treatment of long-term selective mutism

This single-subject, experimental research design examined the efficacy of treating severe, long-term selective mutism in a 9-year-old male using shaping, multiple re-inforcers, natural consequences, stimulus fading, and mild aversives. Different treatment regimens were implemented in the home and school environments. A multiple baseline design across settings with changing criterion was used to evaluate the home intervention, and an A-B-A design was used for the school intervention. The home intervention resulted in an increase in the number of verbalizations in each setting and prompted generalization to additional settings. The school intervention increased the number of people spoken to, but the results were not maintained at follow-up nor did they generalize outside of the training situation. Possible explanations for the discrepancy in maintenance and generalization data between the two programs are presented.     

Acute effects of different warm-up protocols on highly skilled golfers’ drive performance

Previous research has highlighted the positive effect that different warm-up protocols have on golf performance (e.g. Sorbie et al., 2016; Tilley & Macfarlane, 2012) with the design of warm-ups and programmes targeting and improving golf performance through the activation and development of specific muscle groups. This study aimed to examine the acute effects of two warm-up protocols on golf drive performance in comparison to a control condition. Using a randomised counterbalanced design over three testing sessions, twenty-three highly skilled golfers completed the control, dynamic and resistance-band warm-up conditions. Following each condition, a GC2 launch monitor was used to record ball velocity and other launch parameters of ten shots hit with the participants’ own driver. A repeated-measures ANOVA found significant increases in ball velocity (η_p² = .217) between the control and both the dynamic and resistance-band warm-up conditions but no difference between these latter two, and a reduction in launch angle between control and dynamic conditions. The use of either a dynamic stretching or resistance-band warm-up can have acute benefits on ball velocity but golfers should liaise with a PGA Professional golf coach to effectively integrate this into their golf driving performance.