Research on Reading Instruction for Students with Emotional and Behavioural Disorders

Although children with emotional and behavioural disorders (EBD) demonstrate significant difficulties in academic achievement including reading, little attention has been placed on effective reading instructional practices for this population of students. The purpose of this article is to briefly review the knowledge base of early reading instruction and the deep gaps in the research literature on how reading is taught to students with EBD. Finally, we will summarise several completed and ongoing research efforts that inform us of the instructional status quo for students with EBD in reading and efforts to improve academic outcomes for this population.     

Methodological issues in value-added modeling: an international review from 26 countries

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Value-added (VA) modeling can be used to quantify teacher and school effectiveness by estimating the effect of pedagogical actions on...     

The decline of Latin American student activism

If Latin America once represented a worldwide reference point for potent student activism, the region now stands out for the decline of activism. While other regions experience new forms and impacts of activism, Latin America's decline should be understood within two broad contexts: macropolitical and higher educational.The macropolitical context subsumes at least three major causal factors. One is the role of authoritarian rule, especially powerful in the 1970s but leaving a legacy that itself works against activism. Second, we must consider the more complex and mixed impacts of the redemocratization that has swept the region. The third factor is the general decline of the left both domestically and internationally.On the higher education side, decades of unprecedented growth in student numbers have fragmented the student body, especially as growth is accompanied by extraordinary institutional proliferation. Many of the newer institutions are inhospitable for student activism. Privatization has had an especially strong demobilizing effect. The institutional changes are accompanied by a changing profile of fields of study, away from some most associated with student politics. Finally, the concentration of top social scientists in research centers apart from the universities - and from the students - is also crucial.     

Cognitive Neuroscience Perspectives on Motivation and Learning: Revisiting Self‐Determination Theory

The Self‐Determination Theory of motivation (SDT) has significantly guided educational policy and research. It maintains that learning succeeds when brought about by autonomous rather than controlled motivation, and that extrinsic reward motivation cannot engender effective learning. We present an alternative approach, rooted in recent insights from the neurobiology of memory. In exploring environments to reap rewards, people pursue interrogative goals, accompanied by dopamine‐based hippocampus activation, leading to the formation of rich relational memories. In contrast, seeking to avoid punishment or loss involves imperative goals, with amygdala activation driving the perirhinal cortex to form disjoint item memories. We suggest that structuring learning and evaluation to diminish failure and increase repeated opportunities for successful performance, as in gamification, may engender effective learning incorporating broad perspectives and rich associations. This may occur even in the absence of intrinsic motivation to master a particular subject. Employing this insight in instructional design may benefit many educational frameworks.     

Examination of peer-group contextual effects on aggression during early adolescence

Peer group contextual effects of aggressive behavior among middle school students (6th-8th graders) were examined using a short-term longitudinal design. More specifically, the homophily hypothesis that peer group membership influences individual-level bullying and fighting was evaluated with multilevel sex-specific models of individual- and peer-level aggression scores. Peer groups were identified via social network analysis. Intraclass correlation coefficients yielded through hierarchical linear modeling demonstrated substantial within-group similarity on self-reported bullying and fighting, suggesting that students affiliate with individuals who bully and fight at the same frequency. Peer group bullying and fighting was associated with individual-level behavior, even after controlling individual baseline levels for males and females. However, peer contextual effects explained more variance in individual bullying than individual fighting. This differential impact of peer group membership suggests that future studies consider peer relations across subtypes of aggression.     

Just for Sport!? Sport,Gambling and Politics in Israel

By adopting a developmental approach, this essay describes and analyses the key processes that led to the establishment and institutionalization of sports gambling in Israel. The socio-historic examination of these processes (1951–1971) suggests that sports gambling in Israel was primarily designed to satisfy a convergence of political interests among governmental decision-makers, leaders of sports institutions and powerful private entrepreneurs.     

On Becoming Allies: A Qualitative Study of Lesbian‐, Gay‐, and Bisexual‐Affirmative Counselor Training

The authors present a qualitative analysis of a process by which a research team of counselors‐in‐training confronted their heterosexist biases while investigating heterosexual attitudes toward sexual minorities. Members of the research team discovered that it was essential to reflect on and evaluate their attitudes, assumptions, and biases before they could conduct scientific research about affirmative attitudes toward lesbian, gay male, and bisexual male and female individuals. Self‐reflective narratives written by each research team member were analyzed using consensual qualitative research methodology. Results yielded 10 general categories or themes. Implications for counseling theory, training, and future research are discussed.     

Psychosocial development through Masters sport: What can be gained from youth sport models?

Although sport participation is encouraged throughout the lifespan, little research has been conducted on the role of sport in development later in life. This qualitative study explored adults’ experiences of development within the context of Masters sport. We interviewed 14 adults (nine men and five women) aged 46–61 years involved in Masters sport. Data was interpreted drawing upon frameworks from youth sport (i.e., Personal Assets Framework for Sport; Côté, J., Bruner, M., Strachan, L., Erickson, K., & Fraser-Thomas, J. (2010). Athletes’ development and coaching. In J. Lyle & C. Cushion (Eds.), Sport coaching: Professionalism and practice (pp. 63–83). Oxford, UK: Elsevier, Côté, J., Turnnidge, J., & Evans, M. B. (2014). The dynamic process of development through sport. Kinesiologia Slovenica, 20(3), 14–26, Côté, J., Turnnidge, J., & Vieerima, M. (2016). A personal assets approach to youth sport. In K. Green & A. Smith (Eds.), Routledge handbook of youth sport (pp. 243–255). New York, NY: Routledge; 4/5Cs of positive youth development; Lerner, R. M., Fisher, C. B., & Weinberg, R. A. (2000). Toward a science for and of the people: Promoting civil society through the application of developmental science. Child Development, 71(1), 11–20. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00113; Vierimaa, M., Erickson, K., Côté, J., & Gilbert, W. (2012). Positive youth development: A measurement framework for sport. International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching, 7(3), 601–614. doi:10.1260/1747-9541.7.3.601), combined with past research on mid-life and older athletes. Six key themes emerged as contributing to adults’ personal development through sport: competence and confidence, character, commitment, connection, cognition, and challenge. Masters sport contexts appeared to facilitate changes in assets (i.e., 6Cs) similar to those within youth sport, but assets often held different meanings within the context of later life. Applying frameworks from youth sport and developmental psychology to Masters sport contexts appears useful. The current findings support the modification of existing models and highlight their potential in identifying lifelong developmental outcomes of sport participation.     

Reducing prolonged sedentary time using a treadmill desk acutely improves cardiometabolic risk markers in male and female adults

This study evaluated the acute effects of interrupting prolonged sitting with an accumulated 2 h of light-intensity walking on postprandial cardiometabolic risk markers. In this randomised crossover trial, 24 participants (twelve males) aged 18–55 years took part in two, 6.5 h conditions: 1) prolonged sitting (SIT) and 2) sitting interrupted hourly with 20 min light-intensity treadmill desk walking at between 1.2–3.5 km/h^?1 (INT-SIT). Standardized meals were provided at 0 h and 3 h. Blood samples and blood pressure measures were taken hourly. Statistical analyses were completed using linear mixed models. Postprandial incremental area under the curve responses (mmol/L?6.5 h) for glucose (4.52 [3.47, 5.56] and 6.66 [5.62, 7.71] for INT-SIT and SIT, respectively) and triglycerides (1.96 [0.96, 2.96] and 2.71 [1.70, 3.71] for INT-SIT and SIT, respectively) were significantly lower in INT-SIT than SIT. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure responses were lower by 3% and 4%, respectively, in INT-SIT than SIT (P < 0.05). There was no significant condition x sex interaction effect for any outcomes (P > 0.05). These findings suggest that interrupting sitting with an accumulated 2 h of light-intensity walking acutely improves cardiometabolic risk levels in males and females compared with prolonged sitting.