Subjectivity as subjective-science: campus freedom of speech as an intensive single-case study

ABSTRACT

Q methodology [Q] is a mixed method created to scientifically study subjectivity. This study uses a single-case design that offers intense analysis regarding a previous study about freedom of speech on university campuses in the US. The study provides insights regarding privilege, social justice, naivete, and speech crisis viewpoints among a variety of campus stakeholders, especially from a troubled, midsized public university in the US. Factor arrays from the earlier study (also called theoretical sorts) were combined with sorts from an individual who sorted under multiple conditions of instruction. This single-case sorter was selected from the most contentious viewpoint from the earlier study called ‘Speech Crisis’ view. This viewpoint consisted of stakeholders from the troubled public university. The operant factors that emerge from the analyses of these Q-sorts represent generalizations of feeling. This study further exemplifies that perception of a situation, including the stakeholder’s power position, can impact their subjective viewpoint creating perspectives of privilege as well as perspectives of crisis. Moreover, this expansion of an earlier study further illustrates how using a single-case Q study can enhance insight concerning an important topic while challenging the often perceived quantitative-qualitative duality.     

Dilemmas of Prescriptive Practices and Perceived Alignment in Program Implementation

This paper studies the early implementation of a school improvement effort in two high schools. We examine what explains variation in the teacher adoption of program practices. Our findings highlight the tension between encouraging immediate adoption of program practices and the longer term goals of schoolwide culture change. We find that highly structured practices and those that are already aligned with teachers' extant beliefs and classroom practices can be implemented with little preexisting capacity. These conditions could also lead to more consistent and quicker initial adoption. However, this type of implementation might not encourage sufficient understanding of program goals and may inhibit the diffusion of practices into the school culture. Findings highlight dilemmas associated with program practices when the goal is to bring educational reforms to scale.     

Developmental trajectories of sex-typed behavior in boys and girls: a longitudinal general population study of children aged 2.5-8 years

The stability of sex-typed behavior from the preschool to the middle school years was examined. The Preschool Activities Inventory, a measure of within-sex variation in sex-typed behavior, was completed by the primary caregiver when the child was 2.5, 3.5, and 5 years, and a modified version, the Child Activities Inventory, was completed by the child at age 8. The investigation involved a general population sample of 2,726 boys and 2,775 girls. Sex-typed behavior increased through the preschool years, and those children who were the most sex typed at age 2.5 were still the most sex typed at age 5, with those children who showed the highest levels of sex-typed behavior during the preschool years continuing to do so at age 8.     

From Here and Now to There and Then: The Development of Displaced Reference in Homesign and English

An essential function of human language is the ability to refer to information that is spatially and temporally displaced from the location of the speaker and the listener, that is, displaced reference . This article describes the development of this function in 4 deaf children who were not exposed to a usable conventional language model and communicated via idiosyncratic gesture systems, called homesign, and in 18 hearing children who were acquiring English as a native language. Although the deaf children referred to the nonpresent much less frequently and at later ages than the hearing children, both groups followed a similar developmental path, adding increasingly abstract categories of displaced reference to their repertoires in the same sequence. Care-givers in both groups infrequently initiated displaced reference, except with respect to communication about past events. Despite the absence of a shared linguistic code, the deaf children succeeded in evoking the non-present by generating novel gestures, by modifying the context of conventional gestures, and by pragmatic means. The findings indicate that a conventional language model is not essential for children to be able to extend their communication beyond the here and now.     

Background stimuli as a reminder after spontaneous forgetting: Role of duration of cuing and cuing-test interval

With a relatively complex maze, reliable forgetting is seen clearly when the training-to-test interval is 25 days. This forgetting is demonstrated by longer time to run the maze and by an increase in the number of errors and retracings from the last training trials to the first test trial. In this case, forgetting is a lapse, not a loss, since performance attains the last training trial level at a subsequent test. Furthermore, a reminder—a 90-sec exposure to background stimuli in the experimental room just prior to the test trial—that does not in itself contain sufficient information to facilitate performance in naive animals, significantly improves maze performance in rats that have “forgotten,” even on the first test trial. Two additional experiments were aimed at assessing the role of time and duration of pretest cuing. In the first experiment, the animals were presented the reminder (90 sec in duration) at different times before the test trial. The results show that this reminder significantly alleviates forgetting only when presented just prior to the test, and is less effective when given 1 or 24 h before the test. In the second experiment, contextual cues, which were presented just prior to testing in all experimental groups, varied in duration. The results showed that (1) animals given the reminder treatment for only 10 sec perform at the same level as controls; (2) cuing for 30 sec and especially for 90 sec alleviates forgetting; and (3) a longer exposure to background stimuli (300 sec) leads to intermediate levels of performance, probably due to a partial extinction of the cue value of these stimuli.     

Dynamic visual support for story comprehension and mental model building by young,at-risk children

Multimedia technology allows precise coordination of linguistic and visual information and may provide teachers with tools for enhancing literacy foundations in children–especially those who might otherwise be at-risk for school failure. This research explores the hypothesis that a multimedia environment with dynamic visual support facilitates language comprehension when children listen to short stories. Kindergarten children heard stories in three conditions: Helpful video, in which dynamic, silent video accompanied the beginning of stories; No video, in which children only heard the stories; and Minimal video, in which static images of characters and places accompanied the beginning of stories. In all conditions, the ending of the story was presented without visual support. Overall, the pattern of results suggests that dynamic visual support can provide a framework for understanding and remembering linguistic information.This research was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Development, grant P01 HD15051-12. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of that organization.     

Neighborhood disadvantage: pathways of effects for young children

The present study used Canadian National Longitudinal data to examine a model of the mechanisms through which the effects of neighborhood socioeconomic conditions impact young children's verbal and behavioral outcomes (N= 3,528; M age = 5.05 years, SD= 0.86). Integrating elements of social disorganization theory and family stress models, and results from structural equation models suggest that both neighborhood and family mechanisms played an important role in the transmission of neighborhood socioeconomic effects. Neighborhood disadvantage manifested its effect via lower neighborhood cohesion, which was associated with maternal depression and family dysfunction. These processes were, in turn, related to less consistent, less stimulating, and more punitive parenting behaviors, and ultimately, poorer child outcomes.     

The dissertation examination: identifying critical factors in the success of Indigenous Australian doctoral students

Indigenous Australians represent 2.2% of the working age population, yet account for only 1.4% of all university enrolments. In relation to higher degree research students, Indigenous Australians account for 1.1% of enrolments, but only 0.8% of all higher degree research completions. This paper reports on findings that emerged from an Australian Research Council-funded study which aimed to establish a model of best practice for the supervision of Indigenous doctoral students. The project identified the dissertation examination as one of the critical factors underpinning the success of doctoral candidates. Whilst research into the examination process for doctoral students is limited, the research that specifically explores the examination of dissertations submitted by Indigenous students is entirely inadequate. Our research identified key epistemological concerns that impact approaches to the examination process, to demonstrate how the dominance of Western methods of research impact the examination process for Indigenous doctoral students. This paper explores the experiences of 50 successful Indigenous Australian doctors with a specific focus on their examiner preference and disciplinary requirements. It highlights the limitations that some Indigenous students and their supervisors experience in finding an appropriate examiner.     

Adjusting the Cumulative GPA Using Item Response Theory

In college admissions, the predictive validity of preadmissions measures such as standardized test scores and high school grades is of wide interest. These measures are most often validated against the criterion of the first-year grade point average (GPA). However, neither the first-year GPA nor the four-year cumulative GPA is an adequate indicator of academic performance through four years of college. In this study, Item Response Theory (IRT) is used to develop a more reliable measure of performance, called an IRT-based GPA, which is used to estimate the validity of traditional preadmissions information. The data are preadmissions information and course grades for the Class of 1986 at Stanford University (N = 1564). Principal factor analysis is used as a precursor to determine the dimensionality of the course data and to partition courses into approximately unidimensional subsets, each of which is scaled independently. Results show a substantial increase in predictability when the IRT-based GPA is used instead of the usual GPA.