The journey of two Latino educators: our collective resilience

This article represents a journey into education undertaken by two Latino educators from diverse generations. Through the content of the narratives, we emphasize that success was achieved within the presence of oppression. The narratives reveal significant constructs that shaped our journey. For the first author, Pablo, role models, pivotal moments, and resistance had a powerful influence in his journey. Family lessons and self-sacrifice were key to the success of the second author, Yolanda. These constructs contributed to both of our resilience and success. We suggest that the aforementioned constructs have significant implications for Latino youth in the educational system.     

Orthographic similarity and phonological transparency in spelling

In a brief, exploratoryspelling intervention, second through fourthgrade students, divided in two groups of 70students, learned to spell Latin loan wordsthat ended in -ion with either alinguistically explicit or implicit method. The -ion words were chosen because theypossess similar orthographic structure inaddition to uniform pronunciation. In theexplicit instruction, linguistic andorthographic properties of the words weresimultaneously considered and non-overlappingdistributive patterns between sound andspelling were discussed, whereas in theimplicit instruction discussion was limited tothe orthographic pattern. The explicitinstruction was based on the Orton–Gillinghammethod. Linguistically explicit instructionimproved discrimination of /zh/ and /sh/sounds, spelling of word endings tion andsion and, most importantly, spellinggeneralization to novel words over implicitinstruction. These results were consistent pergrade. The children in each instructionimproved equally on spelling of the stressedvowel, which did not receive explicit attentionin the intervention, as well as on reading ofboth the stressed vowel and the word endings. Thus, the effectiveness of drawing explicitversus implicit attention was shown across andwithin type of instruction. The results appearto support sound-based spelling instruction.     

Pathways to Achievement: Career and Educational Aspirations and Expectations of Latina/o Immigrant Parents and Early Adolescents

Drawing on sociocultural and related theories, 4 questions examined career and educational aspirations and expectations among 24 immigrant Latina/o early adolescents and their parents as predictors of students’ grades. First, adolescents’ career aspirations and expectations were correlated, and both parents and adolescents held educational aspirations that exceeded their expectations. Second, most adolescents and parents held congruent educational aspirations. Third, congruence between students’ career and educational aspirations was uncommon. Fourth, parents’ educational aspirations and adolescents’ career–education congruence predicted students’ grades. Discussion highlights students’ ongoing reconciliation between aspirations and academic skills and multiple ways immigrant Latino parents contribute to their adolescents’ future.     

Student perceptions of the cell biology laboratory learning environment in four undergraduate science courses in Spain

Cell biology is an academic discipline that organises and coordinates the learning of the structure, function and molecular composition of cells in some undergraduate biomedical programs. Besides course content and teaching methodologies, the laboratory environment is considered a key element in the teaching of and learning of cell biology. The aim of this study was to determine students’ opinions about the quality of the teaching and learning environment in cell biology laboratory practice. For this study, we used a short form of the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI), which we adapted and translated into Spanish. The questionnaire, administered to students enrolled in four undergraduate programs, consisted of 24 questions divided into four scales: integration of content, clarity of laboratory rules, cohesion between students and teachers, and quality of laboratory infrastructures and materials. The results suggested that (1) students positively assessed the learning environment provided for cell biology practice, (2) the short Spanish form of the SLEI was a valid, reliable instrument for evaluating student satisfaction, laboratory activities, the degree of cooperation between students and teachers, and theoretical and practical organisation of content and (3) the questionnaire detected differential perceptions of the learning environment based on gender and the program studied.     

LibGuides by Design: Using Instructional Design Principles and User-Centered Studies to Develop Best Practices

LibGuides are an essential resource in academic libraries. Although librarians use LibGuides primarily as instructional tools there is little discussion about the application of pedagogical and learner-centered design principles to the design of LibGuides. Current research focuses almost exclusively on issues of usability, resulting in best practices that are user-centered but not necessarily learner-centered. This paper fills the gap in the literature by integrating the findings from user studies with instructional design principles to propose best practices for LibGuides that are both user- and learner-centered. The ADDIE model of instructional design is used as a procedural framework for implementing these best practices.     

Embracing Urban Youth Culture in the Context of Education

The rise of post industrial urban centers and global communication technologies has created a distinctive Urban Youth Culture (UYC) with roots in Black history and social activism. In the discourse on education and Black youth, UYC is rarely seen as a positive force promoting academic achievement and self esteem. Drawing on the voices of Black urban youth in an all-male high school mentoring program, this article offers an affirming view on the significance and pragmatism of UYC to a group of young men at an East Coast high school. Findings reveal that the young men related to and relied on UYC to help them negotiate school and establish positive academic and social identities for themselves.     

Spoken Soul: The Language of Black Imagination and Reality

Despite American schools administrators' refusal to accept the language of African-American students and their overzealousness to frame language and literacy skills in terms of an “achievement gap,” African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) is the language of African-American imagination and reality. This article discusses the characteristics of AAVE that make it a real language, as well as The Dozens—an original use of AAVE and one of many creative vehicles of expression used in the African-American community. The article also describes how African-American adult learners used AAVE in their composition class discussions and writings.     

Performing intelligible genders through violence: bullying as gender practice and heteronormative control

The purpose of the present study was to analyse adolescents’ perception of bullying and particularly of the ways intelligible masculinities and femininities are performed through violence in the framework of Queer Theory. We conducted a qualitative study using focus groups. The sample was composed of 93 Spanish adolescents (48 girls and 45 boys, mean age 13.7 years) who attended 4 compulsory secondary education schools in Spain and participated voluntarily in the study. Students’ statements revealed that bullying is a strongly gendered phenomenon and an additional way of ‘doing gender’, that is, of performing hegemonic femininities and masculinities at school, imitating and reproducing gender norms and punishing those who transgress them.     

Argumentation and education: notes for a debate / Argumentación y educación: apuntes para un debate

Abstract

The objective of the present article is twofold. On the one hand, it aims to analyse the relationship between argumentation and education with a special emphasis on the difficulties that occur when defining and assessing argumentative skills. These difficulties are related to the thinking patterns underlying the argumentation models and, at the same time, are reflected in the educational models used to train and to assess students’ argumentative skills. On the other hand, this article presents and discusses common and distinctive aspects of the papers selected for this monograph.     

Research on Scaling Up Evidence-Based Instructional Practice: Developing a Sensitive Measure of the Rate of Implementation

Few evidence-based instructional practices achieve large-scale use, often remaining only in the schools directly involved in their development. Research on scaling up effective educational practice often lacks sensitive measures of the practice's implementation and the required research protocol. This article describes how we used rate of implementation as a sensitive measure to help identify barriers to implementation of class-wide peer tutoring (CWPT). Using communication technologies and a learning management system, we monitored the rate of CWPT implementation and its research protocol across nine schools in five states. Rate of implementation was defined as the number of weeks in which a school successfully completed the 12 implementation tasks required to reach full implementation. We discuss factors related to the variation in implementation rate (30-50 weeks) between schools, and implications of this measurement strategy for research on instructional practices and the technology used to facilitate scalability research.