Finding,Serving, and Housing the Homeless: Using Collaborative Research to Prepare Social Work Students for Research and Practice

Social work plays a key role in engaging with clients and communities directly affected by housing insecurity and homelessness, and advocating for the right to safe and affordable housing. This article describes methodologies of the Point-in-Time Count and Homeless Management Information Systems and proposes strategies for integrating additional content around homelessness into the social work curriculum in research courses and beyond. This integration can meet student needs regarding experiential research, as well as agency and community needs for effective collection and use of data. A case example and proposed best practices describe opportunities for university–community collaborations in homelessness research.     

Peer partnership to enhance scholarship of teaching: a case study

This paper reports on the outcomes of a peer partnership program trialled at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. The program was designed based on a community of practice methodology to bring together academic staff for the purpose of advancing teaching practice. The program encouraged professional and supportive environments for the purpose of critical reflection and personal development. The belief was that quality teaching is core business and vital to university organisational goals. Peer partnership programs support improvement in teaching and learning. Participants in the program reported the program enhanced their commitment and insight into teaching and that there is willingness to be involved if supported by colleagues and an organisation. Feedback from participants in the program was positive and outcomes arising from the QUT Peer Partnership Project were the development of an online peer partner tool-kit, staff development training, an instructional DVD and integration of the project goals within QUT staff development programs.     

Rings of Fandom: Overlapping Motivations of Sport,Olympic, Team and Home Nation Fans in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games

Surveying 2,245 people from six nations immediately following the conclusion of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, this study focused on the extent to which fan identification can predict media consumption and nationalistic feelings toward one’s country. Findings revealed that, while sport fanship, fanship toward the Winter Olympics, and fandom for one’s national Olympic team(s) each predicts increased consumption, a hierarchy was established with Winter Olympic national team fandom being a stronger predictor than the others. Differences in fan identification’s impact on media consumption and nationalistic qualities among participants were found among the represented nations as well.     

Teaching Bioinformatics and Neuroinformatics by Using Free Web-based Tools

This completely computer-based module''s purpose is to introduce students to bioinformatics resources. We present an easy-to-adopt module that weaves together several important bioinformatic tools so students can grasp how these tools are used in answering research questions. Students integrate information gathered from websites dealing with anatomy (Mouse Brain Library), quantitative trait locus analysis (WebQTL from GeneNetwork), bioinformatics and gene expression analyses (University of California, Santa Cruz Genome Browser, National Center for Biotechnology Information''s Entrez Gene, and the Allen Brain Atlas), and information resources (PubMed). Instructors can use these various websites in concert to teach genetics from the phenotypic level to the molecular level, aspects of neuroanatomy and histology, statistics, quantitative trait locus analysis, and molecular biology (including in situ hybridization and microarray analysis), and to introduce bioinformatic resources. Students use these resources to discover 1) the region(s) of chromosome(s) influencing the phenotypic trait, 2) a list of candidate genes—narrowed by expression data, 3) the in situ pattern of a given gene in the region of interest, 4) the nucleotide sequence of the candidate gene, and 5) articles describing the gene. Teaching materials such as a detailed student/instructor''s manual, PowerPoints, sample exams, and links to free Web resources can be found at http://mdcune.psych.ucla.edu/modules/bioinformatics.     

Parameter Recovery and Classification Accuracy Under Conditions of Testlet Dependency: A Comparison of the Traditional 2PL,Testlet, and Bi-Factor Models

ABSTRACT

Testlets, or groups of related items, are commonly included in educational assessments due to their many logistical and conceptual advantages. Despite their advantages, testlets introduce complications into the theory and practice of educational measurement. Responses to items within a testlet tend to be correlated even after controlling for latent ability, which violates the assumption of conditional independence made by traditional item response theory models. The present study used Monte Carlo simulation methods to evaluate the effects of testlet dependency on item and person parameter recovery and classification accuracy. Three calibration models were examined, including the traditional 2PL model with marginal maximum likelihood estimation, a testlet model with Bayesian estimation, and a bi-factor model with limited-information weighted least squares mean and variance adjusted estimation. Across testlet conditions, parameter types, and outcome criteria, the Bayesian testlet model outperformed, or performed equivalently to, the other approaches.     

By 4.5 Months,Linguistic Experience Already Affects Infants’ Talker Processing Abilities

Contemporary models of adult speech perception acknowledge that the processing of linguistic and nonlinguistic aspects of the speech signal are interdependent. But when in development does this interdependence first emerge? In the adult literature, one way to demonstrate this relationship has been to examine how language experience affects talker identification. Thus, in this study, 4- to 5-month-old infants (N = 96) were tested on their ability to tell apart talkers in a familiar language (English) compared to unfamiliar languages (Polish or Spanish). Infants readily distinguished between talkers in the familiar language but not in the unfamiliar languages, supporting the hypothesis that the integrated processing of linguistic and nonlinguistic information in speech is early emerging and robust.     

Assimilating to a boy’s body shape for the sake of performance: three female athletes’ body experiences in a sporting culture

This paper explores three female swimmers’ relationships with their male coaches and the body practices they were exposed to within Australian swimming. Particular attention is given to how the relationships and practices might relate to gender. Additionally, the article examines how (if at all) the conduct contributed to the social construction of an accepted female swimmer body. Through narrative accounts, the three adolescent female athletes articulate hierarchical male coach–female athlete relationships and specific body encounters they were exposed to and/or engaged with. Their experiences reveal how a sexually maturing body (growing breasts, female body shape and menstruating) was deemed unsuitable for performance and the swimmers were thus encouraged to transform their bodies and behaviours towards that of the boys. Using a feminist Foucauldian perspective, these accounts points to how the three swimmers came to regulate their diet, training and appearance in order to fulfil expectations. This self-regulation is problematic in two ways: first, no scientific evidence shows that a boy like physique is essential for best performance. Second, the stress from being pressured to achieve a particular body, as well as the shame that resulted from being unable to achieve the idealised physique, eventually caused the swimmers to develop an unhealthy relationship with their developing bodies. We highlight how those immersed in sporting contexts should recognise the serious implications of gender practices and power relations underpinning the male coach–female athlete dynamic in competitive sport.     

The Stability of Perceived Motor Competence of Primary School Children from Two Countries over One Year

ABSTRACT

Children’s positive perceived motor competence (PMC) provides motivation for physical activity. Theoretically young children (<8 years) have inflated PMC but as children cognitively develop, perceptions are hypothesized to decrease. This study investigated strength of PMC association over time, whether any change was negative (i.e. PMC decreased) and sex differences. A total of 198 children participated, 88 (44.4%) girls and 110 (55.6%) boys, aged 8.37–11.3 years at time point one (T1). Test–retest reliability using intraclass correlation was moderate for locomotor and moderate-to-good for object control perception. Hierarchical regression analysis showed PMC at T1 positively predicted significant variance one year later (T2) for locomotor (23.1%) and object control skill (5 items: 37.7%; 7 items: 39.9%). Whilst boys and girls differed on perception level there was no interaction between PMC and sex. Incongruent with previous theoretical perspectives this study identified stability in children’s PMC across an important developmental period.     

Portfolio People: Teaching and Learning Dossiers and Innovation in Higher Education

As teaching portfolios have become more commonplace in higher education, interest has grown in student portfolios. Both innovations embody the same core process—reflection—and both have similar potential benefits and similar drawbacks. This paper commends portfolios as innovative in themselves and as a response to the new mandates that are confronting higher education. Accounts of the potential of and problems with portfolios are summarized, and attention is then given to key issues in successfully introducing them. The underlying position is that students can best gain from their years of study when the systemic reflection that is characteristic of portfolios engages them (through learning portfolios) and their teachers (through teaching portfolios). Embedding such thinking in practice is, itself, a powerful and innovative approach to re-framing the curriculum.