Exploring the Underlying Factor Structure of the Parent Reading Belief Inventory (PRBI): Some Caveats

Although mainstream preschool programs have been in existence since the 1970s, little is known about the ways in which typical children attempt to understand what it means for a peer to have a disability. In this study, 4-year-old children without disabilities who were enrolled in a mainstream preschool class explained their peers' disabilities by referring to concepts of immaturity, accident, or adaptive equipment to account for the behavioral differences that they observed. The implications of these cognitions for children's developing attitudes and behaviors toward peers with disabilities are discussed.     

Making on the Move: Mobility,Makerspaces, and Art Education

Combining the excitement from the maker movement and the novel creation of deployable makerspaces, we review the development of the Mobile Atelier for Kinaesthetic Education (MAKE) 3D. MAKE 3D is a mobile makerspace platform that can be deployed anywhere there is electricity to create a curricular spectacle of digital fabrication in particular additive manufacturing or what is more commonly referred to as 3D printing. Our project combines this notion of curricular spectacle and a mobile makerspace platform, to develop strategies in how to meet the novice user almost anywhere and to entice them into a series of hands‐on activities that would give them a range of knowledge and aptitude for additive techniques in digital fabrication. We review the component parts of our Material to Form curriculum and explore thematic connections between the maker movement and art education including STEAM and interdisciplinarity; design thinking and kinaesthetic learning; and place‐based education and the mobile platform. Informal practices in art education and the mobile makerspace advances forms of place and kinaesthetic learning. Similar curricular setups are therefore encouraged to reinforce and expand prior knowledge, broaden participation and provide an adaptable learning space for STEAM initiatives.     

Writing flexibility in argumentative essays: a multidimensional analysis

Reading and Writing - The assessment of argumentative writing generally includes analyses of the specific linguistic and rhetorical features contained in the individual essays produced by students....     

Overshadowing of explicitly unpaired conditioned inhibition is disrupted by preexposure to the overshadowed inhibitor

In two conditioned lick-suppression experiments with rats, the interaction of preexposure to a target stimulus and subsequent overshadowing of conditioned inhibition treatment was examined. Blaisdell, Bristol, Gunther, and Miller (1998) have demonstrated that stimulus preexposure and overshadowing counteract each other in their effects on Pavlovian excitation, producing strong excitatory responding to the target stimulus. In the present experiments, a conditioned inhibition analogue of this effect was examined. Overshadowing of conditioned inhibition (i.e., attenuation of inhibitory control of behavior by the target stimulus) was demonstrated when a more salient stimulus was compounded with the target inhibitor during conditioned inhibition training. However, the overshadowing deficit was attenuated by preexposing the target stimulus prior to overshadowing treatment. To account for this phenomenon, we contrast the comparator hypothesis (Miller & Matzel, 1988) with contemporary models that focus on associative acquisition.     

The expected value of possession in professional rugby league match-play

This study estimated the expected point value for starting possessions in different field locations during rugby league match-play and calculated the mean expected points for each subsequent play during the possession. It also examined the origin of tries scored according to the method of gaining possession. Play-by-play data were taken from all 768 regular-season National Rugby League (NRL) matches during 2010–2013. A probabilistic model estimated the expected point outcome based on the net difference in points scored by a team in possession in a given situation. An iterative method was used to approximate the value of each situation based on actual scoring outcomes. Possessions commencing close to the opposition’s goal-line had the highest expected point equity, which decreased as the location of the possession moved towards the team’s own goal-line. Possessions following an opposition error, penalty or goal-line dropout had the highest likelihood of a try being scored on the set subsequent to their occurrence. In contrast, possessions that follow an opposition completed set or a restart were least likely to result in a try. The expected point values framework from our model has applications for informing playing strategy and assessing individual and team performance in professional rugby league.