Cases of incongruity: exploring the divide between adolescents’ beliefs and behavior related to academic dishonesty

The past several decades of research has produced many important insights into prevalence and correlates of academic dishonesty. While these studies have offered important contributions to our understanding of such cheating, we are in need of research that allows us to hear what students have to say about it. This paper begins to fill the relative void of student voices by presenting results from individual interviews with a sample of adolescents who acknowledge cheating despite believing that is wrong to do so. Specifically, the present investigation uses a multi‐case research design to explore the phenomenon of belief–behaviour incongruity, as it relates to academic dishonesty, among a demographically and academically diverse group of high school students. Four distinct cases of BBI are presented, each representing a complex configuration of psychological, social, cultural and situational factors: unable, under‐interested, under pressure and unrepentant. Educational implications and suggestion for further research are discussed.     

Putting literature at the heart of the literacy curriculum

This paper documents an initiative in Continuing Professional Development, conceived and carried out by London's Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE). The intention was to improve the teaching and learning of writing in Years 5 and 6 of the primary school (9–11‐year‐olds), through working with challenging literature. This teacher education project drew on CLPE's earlier research project, published as The Reader in the Writer ( Barrs and Cork, 2001 ). Classroom approaches developed through the initiative are described, and qualitative and quantitative changes in children's writing are discussed. Patterns of teaching in the classrooms that appear to have made a particular difference to the children's achievement are explored.     

Does linguistic comprehension support the decoding skills of struggling readers?

Abstract

This study investigated the contribution of linguistic comprehension to the decoding skills of struggling readers. Participants were 36 children aged between eight and 12 years, all below average in decoding but differing in linguistic comprehension. The children read passages from the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability and their first 25 miscues were categorised into syntactic, semantic, phonemic, and graphophonic similarity. Children were first grouped in terms of higher and lower linguistic comprehension levels. Analysis of miscues showed no differences between the groups in miscue similarity. They were then grouped according to pseudoword reading skill. There were significant differences between the groups for all miscue types except semantic similarity. An analysis of miscues using multiple regression showed that, after taking account of age, pseudoword reading was the best predictor of quality of miscues. In addition, linguistic comprehension contributed to syntactic similarity of miscues over and above decoding.     

Does learning the alphabet in kindergarten give children a head start in the first year of school? A comparison of children’s reading progress in two first grade classes in state and Montessori schools in Switzerland

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to examine whether the age at which children start to learn to read affects their later progress. The study was conducted in Zürich, Switzerland, and compared a first grade class in a local school with two first grade classes in a Montessori school. It was found that although the Montessori children had an advantage over the local children in alphabet knowledge at entry to Grade 1, this was not translated into a significant advantage at the end of Grade 1 in either phonemic awareness or reading ability. Further analysis revealed that pretest alphabet knowledge for the whole group was significantly related to progress. In addition, scatterplots showed that some children started school with high levels of alphabet knowledge but did not make progress, indicating that alphabet knowledge is necessary for literacy progress but not sufficient.     

What do medical students learn from dissection?

Dissection has long been the accepted method for teaching anatomy to medical students. More recently, some educators have suggested that easier, cheaper, alternative methods are just as effective. But what do the students think? This paper aimed to identify what undergraduate medical students learn, how they cope, and what effects participating in dissection has on them as individuals. A cohort of 267 second year medical students at Otago Medical School were invited to complete three online surveys; before their first dissection laboratory class, after their first musculoskeletal system dissection and following the last semester of studying anatomy. Open‐ended questions showcasing the attitudes, beliefs, and opinions on what dissection had taught the medical students over years two and three were analyzed. A general inductive approach was used and common emergent themes were identified. In total, 194 students completed the second, and 108 students completed the third questionnaire. Students commonly conveyed dissection as an appropriate and valuable educational tool, useful for teaching and learning anatomical knowledge and relationships, appreciating the body in three‐dimension, teamwork, and how to cope with death/dead bodies. The noted effects of personal growth while participating in dissection were highly varied, but in general, impacted positively on the majority of students. This study shows that at Otago Medical School the students also believe that dissection is not only a useful tool to learn anatomy but also that it fosters teamwork, assists professional development and helps them come to terms with death and dying. Anat Sci Educ 11: 325–335. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

THE DIGITAL TURN

Advances in digital technology have made the recent past seem like a foreign country. Media historians did things very differently in 2002. In the last decade, hundreds of historical newspapers and periodicals have been digitised and made available to researchers via online archives. Whilst the emergence of these resources has generated contrasting responses from historians, an increasing number of researchers are now embracing the new methodological possibilities created by keyword-searchable digital archives. As the first examples of this scholarship begin to appear on the horizon, this paper considers whether media history is on the cusp of a ‘digital turn’. It outlines the existing responses to digital methodologies, deconstructs digital newspapers in order to explore how they differ from their paper originals and uses case studies drawn from my own research into the late-Victorian transatlantic press to demonstrate how new methodologies might be applied.     

Dissemination and Discovery of Diverse Data: Do Libraries Promote Their Unique Research Data Collections?

ABSTRACT

Academic libraries acquire and steward numeric datasets as well as large collections of image files, audio archives, digital texts, and other non-numeric resources. This article considers how a sample of libraries in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom present these collections and make them available for discovery. And, importantly, the article examines whether these non-numeric collections are positioned on the library Website as research datasets, rather than as artifacts of limited local and/or historical interest. Findings from this analysis may help collection managers and Web designers as libraries define their role in connecting users to research data.     

Sweat lactate response during cycling at 30°C and 18°C WBGT

Sweat lactate reflects eccrine gland metabolism. However, the metabolic tendencies of eccrine glands in a hot versus thermoneutral environment are not well understood. Sixteen male volunteers completed a maximal cycling trial and two 60-min cycling trials [30°C?=?30±1°C and 18°C?=?18±1°C wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT)]. The participants were requested to maintain a cadence of 60 rev?·?min^?1 with the intensity individualized at ～ 90% of the ventilatory threshold. Sweat samples at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60?min were analysed for lactate concentration. Sweat rate at 30°C (1380±325?ml?·?h^?1) was significantly greater (P<0.05) than at 18°C (632±311?ml?·?h^?1). Sweat lactate concentration was significantly greater (P<0.05) at each time point during the 18°C trial, with values between trials tending to converge across time. During the 30°C trial, both heart rate (20, 30, 40, 50 and 60?min) and rectal temperature (30, 40, 50 and 60?min) were significantly higher than in the 18°C trial. Higher sweat lactate concentrations coupled with lower sweat rates may indicate a greater relative contribution of oxygen-independent metabolism within eccrine glands during exercise at 18°C. Decreases in sweat lactate concentration across time suggest either greater dilution due to greater sweat volume or increased reliance on aerobic metabolism within eccrine glands. The convergence of lactate concentrations between trials may indicate that time-dependent modifications in sweat gland metabolism occur at different rates contingent partially on environmental conditions.