Teaching Effectiveness: The relationship between reaction and learning evaluation criteria

This study used a pre/post design to assess student learning for the purposes of examining relationships among student grades, student learning, and student evaluations of teaching. These relationships were reframed in terms of reaction (Level I) and learning (Level II) evaluation criteria. Participants were 652 undergraduate students enrolled in seven sections of an introductory psychology course. Our results indicated a medium relationship between student grades and the pre/post learning measure. In addition, a small relationship was observed between student ratings of teaching effectiveness and a pre/post measure of learning. We conclude that student ratings and learning measures assess different aspects of teaching effectiveness and should not be used interchangeably. The most appropriate criterion for assessing teaching effectiveness is a function of the goal of evaluation. However, reaction and learning measures may be used in conjunction to obtain a more complete picture of instructor effectiveness.     

Effects of Poverty and Maternal Depression on Early Child Development

Researchers have renewed an interest in the harmful consequences of poverty on child development. This study builds on this work by focusing on one mechanism that links material hardship to child outcomes, namely the mediating effect of maternal depression. Using data from the National Maternal and Infant Health Survey, we found that maternal depression and poverty jeopardized the development of very young boys and girls, and to a certain extent, affluence buffered the deleterious consequences of depression. Results also showed that chronic maternal depression had severe implications for both boys and girls, whereas persistent poverty had a strong effect for the development of girls. The measures of poverty and maternal depression used in this study generally had a greater impact on measures of cognitive development than motor development.     

The impact of adverse childhood experiences on an urban pediatric population

Objective

The goal of this study was to investigate the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in youth in a low-income, urban community.

Study design

Data from a retrospective chart review of 701 subjects from the Bayview Child Health Center in San Francisco are presented. Medical chart documentation of ACEs as defined in previous studies were coded and each ACE criterion endorsed by a traumatic event received a score of 1 (range = 0-9). This study reports on the prevalence of various ACE categories in this population, as well as the association between ACE score and two pediatric problems: learning/behavior problems and body mass index (BMI) ≥ 85% (i.e., overweight or obese).

Results

The majority of subjects (67.2%, N = 471) had experienced 1 or more categories of adverse childhood experiences (ACE ≥ 1) and 12.0% (N = 84) had experienced 4 or more ACEs (ACE ≥ 4). Increased ACE scores correlated with increased risk of learning/behavior problems and obesity.

Conclusions

There was a significant prevalence of endorsed ACE categories in this urban population. Exposure to 4 or greater ACE categories was associated with increased risk for learning/behavior problems, as well as obesity.

Practice implications

Results from this study demonstrate the need both for screening of ACEs among youth in urban areas and for developing effective primary prevention and intervention models.     

Masculinity,subjectivity and neoliberalism in men’s accounts of migration and higher educational participation

In this article, I explore men’s educational experiences and aspirations in the context of UK policy discourses of widening participation and migration. Critiquing discourses that oversimplify gendered access to higher education, I develop an analysis of the impact of masculine subjectivities on processes of subjective construction in relation to be(com)ing a university student. Neoliberalism and self‐regulation emerge as significant themes by which the men make sense of their educational experiences and aspirations. Widening participation policy discursively constructs the subject as ‘disadvantaged’, ‘with potential’ and responsible for self‐improvement through participation in (alternative forms of) higher education (HE). The concept of diaspora illuminates the complex ways the men reconstruct their traumatic experiences in terms of hope and possibility, across different cultural spaces and expectations. A key question is how do the men construct and make sense of their masculine subjectivities in relation to diasporic experiences and aspirations to become HE students?     

Problems and prospects of applied research: The development of an adolescent smoking prevention program

This paper argues that applied research has the potential for making important theoretical contributions if efforts are made to explore and overcome inadequacies in existing social scientific theories by integrating, refining, and expanding these theories to achieve the necessary scope to solve the problem at hand. Ways in which these ends might be achieved are suggested through discussion of the procedures employed and the problems encountered in the development and assessment of Iowa's Program Against Smoking (I‐PAS), a theoretically‐based program to reduce adolescents' tobacco use.     

Development,Evaluation and Use of a Student Experience Survey in Undergraduate Science Laboratories: The Advancing Science by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory Student Laboratory Learning Experience Survey

Student experience surveys have become increasingly popular to probe various aspects of processes and outcomes in higher education, such as measuring student perceptions of the learning environment and identifying aspects that could be improved. This paper reports on a particular survey for evaluating individual experiments that has been developed over some 15 years as part of a large national Australian study pertaining to the area of undergraduate laboratories—Advancing Science by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory. This paper reports on the development of the survey instrument and the evaluation of the survey using student responses to experiments from different institutions in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. A total of 3153 student responses have been analysed using factor analysis. Three factors, motivation, assessment and resources, have been identified as contributing to improved student attitudes to laboratory activities. A central focus of the survey is to provide feedback to practitioners to iteratively improve experiments. Implications for practitioners and researchers are also discussed.     

Individualised dietary strategies for Olympic combat sports: Acute weight loss,recovery and competition nutrition

Olympic combat sports separate athletes into weight divisions, in an attempt to reduce size, strength, range and/or leverage disparities between competitors. Official weigh-ins are conducted anywhere from 3 and up to 24?h prior to competition ensuring athletes meet weight requirements (i.e. have ‘made weight’). Fighters commonly aim to compete in weight divisions lower than their day-to-day weight, achieved via chronic and acute manipulations of body mass (BM). Although these manipulations may impair health and absolute performance, their strategic use can improve competitive success. Key considerations are the acute manipulations around weigh-in, which differ in importance, magnitude and methods depending on the requirements of the individual combat sport and the weigh-in regulations. In particular, the time available for recovery following weigh-in/before competition will determine what degree of acute BM loss can be implemented and reversed. Increased exercise and restricted food and fluid intake are undertaken to decrease body water and gut contents reducing BM. When taken to the extreme, severe weight-making practices can be hazardous, and efforts have been made to reduce their prevalence. Indeed some have called for the abolition of these practices altogether. In lieu of adequate strategies to achieve this, and the pragmatic recognition of the likely continuation of these practices as long as regulations allow, this review summarises guidelines for athletes and coaches for manipulating BM and optimising post weigh-in recovery, to achieve better health and performance outcomes across the different Olympic combat sports.