The Magellan project: Developing global citizens through independent study abroad

Washington & Jefferson College undergraduate Magellan Scholars explore the world on their own. Tori Haring‐Smith describes this unique program and explains why it offers so much more than a traditional study abroad experience.     

Improving Writing Skills of Thai EFL Students by Recognition of and Compensation for Factors of L 1 to L2 Negative Transfer

In this study, we examined the likelihood of a TAME （extended technology acceptance model）, in which the interrelationships among computer self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, intention to use and self-reported use of computer-mediated technology were tested. In addition, the gender- and age-invariant of its causal structure were evaluated. The data were collected from a self-reported questionnaire administered to 477 administrative staff of a public university in Malaysia. The results of structural equation modeling supported the adequacy of TAME. Although the TAME＇s causal structure was applicable to both male and female staff, age group appeared to moderate the structural relationships among the constructs of interest.     

Classroom behavior of children and adolescents with learning disabilities: a meta-analysis

Meta-analysis was used to review the results of 25 studies that compared the classroom behavior of children and adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) to children without learning disabilities. The data were analyzed from several different methodological perspectives. Results showed that both methodologically strong and weak studies demonstrated significant behavioral deficits of children with learning disabilities compared to their nondisabled peers in each of five overall areas: on-task behavior, off-task behavior, conduct disorders, distractibility, and shy/withdrawn behavior. Both observational and teacher rating data demonstrated these differences. Effect sizes for both groups of studies seemed to cluster around 1 standard deviation, suggesting noticeable and educationally significant impairment in the behavior of children with disabilities. Analysis of grade-level effect sizes suggests some explanation for the large number of referrals often witnessed during the elementary school years. Educational implications of these behavioral differences in terms of implications for mainstreaming are discussed.     

Sustained attention: Stimulus control determined by schedule of cue production interacting with cue duration

In a study of sustained attention (“vigilance”), pigeons performed a conditional discrimination in a 3-key operant chamber. Pecking a white center key initiated a 0.2- or 2.0-sec cue (a red or green disk). The side keys then displayed white disks, and a peck on the right or left key was reinforced depending on whether the preceding cue was red or green. Pecks on the white center key initiated the cue according to one of two schedules of cue production (FR 1 or VI 7.5 sec). Control of side key choices by 0.2-sec cues was disturbed by transition from FR 1 to VI 7.5, and recovered after the schedule of cue production changed from VI 7.5 back to FR 1. Control of choices by 2.0-sec cues was not affected by changing schedules of cue production. Rates of pecking the cue were higher than rates of cue-producing responses.     

Teaching imaginary children: University students’ narratives about their Latino practicum children

This study investigates the dialogic processes involved in how teachers talk about their students and what consequences their ways of talking (i.e., “narratives”) may have for their guidance. We take a sociocultural perspective on learning as transformation of students’ subjectivity. Teaching, as a process of guiding and facilitating learning, cannot be effective if the teacher does not actively seek how the student perceives and understands reality. We borrow and adapt from Bakhtin (1999) four narrative ways of talking about others: objectivizing, subjectivizing, problematizing and finalizing. The presence of these narratives in web discussion postings of our pre-service teachers about the Latino children they worked with in a community center are analyzed. We then compare their ways of talking about children with print- and web-based discussions about children made by in-service teachers, model teachers and our pre-service teachers in a school-based practicum. Using mixed quantitative and qualitative methodologies, we found an overwhelming predominance of objectivizing and finalizing in our pre-service teachers’ narratives about the children with whom they work that seems to define a certain pedagogical regime that we call here “teaching imaginary children/students.” This “way of talking” about children seems to be characterized by unchecked speculations guiding instruction that are not tested by finding out from the children themselves how they understand the instruction and the world. These speculations, in turn, can lead to a dogmatic approach towards children.     

Correlation between academic and skills-based tests in computer networks

Computing‐related programmes and modules have many problems, especially related to large class sizes, large‐scale plagiarism, module franchising, and an increased requirement from students for increased amounts of hands‐on, practical work. This paper presents a practical computer networks module which uses a mixture of online examinations and a practical skills‐based test to assess student performance. For widespread adoption of practical assessments, there must be a level of checking that the practical assessments are set at a level that examinations are set at. This paper shows that it is possible to set practical tests so that there can be a strong correlation between practical skills‐based tests and examination‐type assessments, but only if the practical assessment are set at a challenging level. This tends to go against the proposition that students who are good academically are not so good in a practice test, and vice versa. The paper shows results which bands students in A, B, C, and FAIL groups based on two online, multiple‐choice tests, and then analyses the average time these students took to complete a practical online test. It shows that there is an increasing average time to complete the test for weaker students. Along with this, the paper shows that female students in the practical test outperform male students by a factor of 25%.