Learning To Read Each Other: Black Female Graduate Students Share Their Experiences at a White Research I Institution

This paper uses Black Feminist Thought to explain the lived experiences of three Black female graduate students at a White Research I institution. Through mentoring from Black female professors, the students received instrumental and psychosocial support that helped them to navigate through their graduate level work. Common themes of identity, community service missions, and empowerment provides a thread that ties the student’s narratives together. We close by offering some suggestions for further research on the Black graduate experience and mentoring Black graduate students. Meca R. Williams, Denise N. Brewley, R. Judith Reed and Dorothy Y. White are affiliated with University of Georgia. Rachel T. Davis-Haley is affiliated with University of New Orleans.     

Problem-solving skills of high school chemistry students

What strategies do high school students use when solving chemistry problems? The purpose for conducting this study was to determine the general problem-solving skills that students use in solving problems involving moles, stoichiometry, the gas laws, and molarity. The strategies were examined for success in problem solving for 266 students of varying proportional reasoning ability, using interviews incorporating the think-aloud technique. Data were coded using a scheme based on Polya's heuristics. Results indicated that successful students and those with high proportional reasoning ability tended to use algorithmic reasoning strategies more frequently than nonsuccessful and low proportional reasoning students. However, the majority of all students solved the chemistry problems using only algorithmic methods, and did not understand the chemical concepts on which the problems were based.     

Educating students with FASD: linking policy,research and practice

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD ) is a prevalent neurodevelopmental disability with significant implications for learning and behaviour. International research suggests that the prevalence of FASD in school‐aged children is 2.3–6.3%. In this paper, we address the questions: (1) what is FASD ; (2) what is the prevalence of FASD in schools; (3) what is the impact of FASD ; and (4) why develop special FASD education strategies and programmes? We summarise the 18‐year history of W innipeg S chool D ivision's development of its FASD P rogramme of services, describe the specialised FASD classrooms and then present the results from a consensus‐generating workshop comprised of 36 FASD education professionals, with over 209 years of collective FASD education programme experience, who were asked to identify and reach consensus on best strategies and lessons learned in FASD education programmes. We then suggest that effectively educating children with FASD is critical to get right if positive educational outcomes are to be realised.     

Empowering teacher leadership: a cross-country study

ABSTRACT

The contextual, purpose-driven challenges facing schools and school systems across the world call for creative and innovative responses to revitalize school practices. The process of revitalization will require new thinking, new mindsets within an adaptive school culture and new leadership roles (formal and informal). Often the perception of leadership held within a school is that it is the province of the principal; however, if we move from a top-down model of leadership we can ulitize the capacity of others within to lead the learning. To enable this to happen, teacher leaders need to work with agency and principals need to nurture and grow their formal and informal leadership roles within the school. For many teachers, the question is how they can establish and commit to leadership roles and responsibilities within the school community while remaining in a teaching position. This case study examined the practices of teachers as they experienced leadership across three cross-cultural contexts: Colombia, Canada and Australia. It presents exemplars of teacher leadership in action and provides images of teacher leadership as enacted in addition to an understanding of the factors that were important in supporting their leadership actions.     

Childhood sexual abuse, social support, and psychological outcomes: a loss framework

OBJECTIVE: The objectives of the study were: (a) to develop a scale to assess CSA-related loss among a college sample of CSA survivors (CSALM), (b) to examine the measure's convergent validity through associations among depression, alexithymia, coping, and social support, and (c) to test whether social support moderates the relation between multiple experiences of CSA and loss. METHOD: The study involved a survey methodology and included college-age women (n=116) reporting CSA experiences. RESULTS: Based on the Sexual Victimization Questionnaire (SVQ; [Finkelhor, D. (1979). Sexually victimized children. New York: The Free Press]), 90% of the sample reported CSA before age of 12, 12.3% (n=15) reported CSA before age 12 with an adult over 16, and 42.2% (n=49) reported CSA after age 12 with an adult. Exploratory Factor Analysis of the CSALM revealed a three-factor solution: (a) Loss of Optimism, (b) Loss of Self, and (c) Loss of Childhood. Convergent validity of several scales was evidenced through associations with depression, alexithymia, coping, and social support. Social support from family and friends was found to moderate the association between CSA experiences and loss dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide preliminary psychometric support for the CSALM, a tool that will be useful in future investigations of loss among college-age CSA survivors. Findings also support using a loss framework to understand the current mental health of these survivors.     

A Meta-Analysis of Approaches to Engage Social Work Students Online

ABSTRACT

With an increase in social work courses being offered in online and hybrid formats, it is imperative that social work programs understand the new teaching tenets and engagement mediums employed to meet the new Council on Social Work Education’s Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. This meta-analysis explores best-practices pedagogy for student engagement using the delivery of content through both asynchronous and synchronous methods.     

Big girls don't cry: the effect of child witness demeanor on juror decisions in a child sexual abuse trial

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the effect of child witness demeanor (defined as crying) on mock jurors' decisions in a simulated First-Degree rape trial. METHOD: One hundred and thirty-three undergraduates serving in the role of mock jurors read a trial summary in which the primary independent variable was the demeanor of the alleged child victim (i.e., calm, teary, hysterical crying). In addition to reading the summary, participants viewed pencil drawings of the witnesses that were presented as "courtroom drawings." RESULTS: The results showed that the teary condition led to more guilty verdicts and a greater belief in the alleged victim than the other demeanor conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study indicate that demeanor can impact the perception of a child who is an alleged sexual assault victim in court. However, it is not simply the case that any display of demeanor will lead to a positive outcome for the alleged victim. Instead, it appears that too little or too much emotion from the alleged child victim negatively affected credibility in the eyes of the mock jurors.     

Finding process in product: Prewriting and revision in timed essay responses

It is widely assumed that the constraints of timed essay exams will make it virtually impossible for students to engage in the major hallmarks of the writing process, especially revision, in testing situations. This paper presents the results of a study conducted at Washington State University in the Spring of 2008. The study examined the occurrence of prewriting and revision in 890 timed essay responses as well as the impact of writing process on student scores. It was found that both prewriting and revision occur more frequently in timed essays than was previously realized. While prewriting corresponded to higher scores, revision corresponded to lower scores. These results encourage composition scholars to reevaluate their assumptions about both the validity of timed writing exams and the efficacy of current practices in teaching the writing process.