Sluggish cognitive tempo and impairment: The role of lifestyle factors

The purpose of this study was to assess whether sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT) behaviors were associated with a unique impairment profile for college students after accounting for lifestyle (sleep, substance use, health) and mental health factors (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], anxiety, depression). A general sample of 910 undergraduate students completed several measures via online survey. Most participants were female (64.9%) and were Caucasian (60.7%), with an average age of 19.41 years. Students who endorsed elevated SCT behaviors reported significantly more impairment compared to students who reported low levels of SCT behaviors. However, regression analyses suggested that SCT behaviors do not account for significant amounts of unique impairment after controlling for related mental health (ADHD, anxiety, depression) and lifestyle variables (sleep, health, substance use). The lack of impairment associated uniquely with SCT behaviors suggests that SCT may serve as a construct underlying many variables, rather than standing independently as a distinct disorder.     

Incorporating a new bioinformatics component into genetics at a historically black college: outcomes and lessons

Many students at minority-serving institutions are underexposed to Internet resources such as the human genome project, PubMed, NCBI databases, and other Web-based technologies because of a lack of financial resources. To change this, we designed and implemented a new bioinformatics component to supplement the undergraduate Genetics course at Clark Atlanta University. The outcomes of the Bioinformatics course were assessed. During the first week of the semester, students were assigned the Felder-Soloman's Index of Learning Styles Inventory. The overwhelming majority of students were visual (82.1%) and sequential (75.0%) learners. Furthermore, pre- and postcourse surveys were administered during the first and the last week of the course to assess learning, confidence level, and mental activity. These indicated students increased the number of hours spent using computers and doing homework. Students reported confidence in using computers to study genetics increased, enabling them to better visualize and understand genetics. Furthermore, students were more mentally engaged in a more social learning environment. Although the students appreciated the value of the bioinformatics component, they reported the additional work load was substantial enough to receive additional course credit.     

Kindergarten Teachers’ Ratings of Children’s Behavioral and Learning Competencies: Predictive Impact on Children’s Third and Fourth Grade Achievement Trajectories

Early Childhood Education Journal - Teachers’ valid observational assessments of children’s competencies in kindergarten are critical, as formal classroom testing is not prevalent....     

Speaking up for vocabulary: reading skill differences in young adults

This study is part of a broader project aimed at developing cognitive and neurocognitive profiles of adolescent and young adult readers whose educational and occupational prospects are constrained by their limited literacy skills. We explore the relationships among reading-related abilities in participants ages 16 to 24 years spanning a wide range of reading ability. Two specific questions are addressed: (a) Does the simple view of reading capture all nonrandom variation in reading comprehension? (b) Does orally assessed vocabulary knowledge account for variance in reading comprehension, as predicted by the lexical quality hypothesis? A comprehensive battery of cognitive and educational tests was employed to assess phonological awareness, decoding, verbal working memory, listening comprehension, reading comprehension, word knowledge, and experience with print. In this heterogeneous sample, decoding ability clearly played an important role in reading comprehension. The simple view of reading gave a reasonable fit to the data, although it did not capture all of the reliable variance in reading comprehension as predicted. Orally assessed vocabulary knowledge captured unique variance in reading comprehension even after listening comprehension and decoding skill were accounted for. We explore how a specific connectionist model of lexical representation and lexical access can account for these findings.     

Private room as a test accommodation

The effects of a private vs. group test setting were examined on a reading comprehension test for a sample of typical college students. Participants took Forms G and H of the Nelson Denny Reading Comprehension Test in both private and group (classroom) settings. Contrary to expectations, performance was slightly better in the group setting. Performance was also better during the second session, regardless of setting. There was no setting by session interaction. The correlation between scores in the two settings was quite high, indicating that both settings produced similar results. The findings suggest that a private room does not produce a performance advantage for typical students, thus meeting one of the criteria of a valid test accommodation.     

Students’ Participation in an Interdisciplinary, Socioscientific Issues Based Undergraduate Human Biology Major and Their Understanding of Scientific Inquiry

The purpose of this study was to examine whether Socioscientific Issues (SSI) based learning environments affect university students’ epistemological understanding of scientific inquiry differently from traditional science educational contexts. We identify and compare conceptions of scientific inquiry of students participating in an interdisciplinary, SSI-focused undergraduate human biology major (SSI) and those participating in a traditional biology major (BIO). Forty-five SSI students and 50 BIO students completed an open-ended questionnaire examining their understanding of scientific inquiry. Eight general themes including approximately 60 subthemes emerged from questionnaire responses, and the numbers of students including each subtheme in their responses were statistically compared between groups. A subset of students participated in interviews, which were used to validate and triangulate questionnaire data and probe students’ understanding of scientific inquiry in relation to their majors. We found that both groups provided very similar responses, differing significantly in only five subthemes. Results indicated that both groups held generally adequate understandings of inquiry, but also a number of misconceptions. Small differences between groups supported by both questionnaires and interviews suggest that the SSI context contributed to nuanced understandings, such as a more interdisciplinary and problem-centered conception of scientific inquiry. Implications for teaching and research are discussed.