Curriculum authoring tools and inclusive classroom teaching practice: a longitudinal study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal application of a suite of curriculum authoring tools (CATs) to inclusive classroom teaching practice in a secondary school setting. The study sought to establish whether the incorporation of the CATs into the teachers’ curriculum development and implementation covaried with improved implementation integrity of classroom teaching practice over time. A repeated measures design was used to establish whether those teachers with high levels of tool use also recorded higher levels of implementation integrity in their use of specific inclusive teaching practices. The effects of the tools were measured using 578 50‐minute classroom observations gathered over a 2.5‐year period. The results indicated that higher levels of implementation integrity in classroom practice covaried with the extent to which the tools were used for the design and implementation of curriculum.     

Government,business and the public: The role of environmental education in creating sustainable urban places

This paper focuses on the need to further environmental education research within a context in which local government, local business and tertiary institutions are viewed as interlinked components of the development process. Research and interaction with local stakeholders offers an opportunity to chart a path that intersects and then fuses environmental education with that of environmental and development practice. The paper focuses on three research initiatives that highlight the intrinsic need to create a learning society and how to gain more robust recognition for the role of environmental education research as a developmental process. The three research initiatives deal with the integration of environmental management systems thinking in local government (case 1), how a local government envisaged environmental education campaign constitutes challenges for environmental education research (case 2), and how pollution highlights the need for partnerships in addressing the Polluter Pays Principle (case 3). Findings from the research underscore the lack of environmental concerns within the decision-making process in local government. Paucity of capacity to monitor and act on challenges within this sector also point to the need for coordinated action against industrial misdemeanours, where self-regulation is still far from a reality. Most importantly, we argue that environmental education research and practice should contribute to the strengthening of facilitation skills and systems thinking amongst researchers who work within networks of stakeholders who must ensure sustainable urban places in the future.     

Making desegregation work: Extracurricular activities

Southern desegregated high schools with high levels of black or white student extracurricular participation have students who report more interracial contact, higher self-esteem, more positive attitudes toward school, more parent visits to schools, and more personal contact with teachers. The results are derived from regression equations based on responses from 10,000 students in 200 schools, controlling on student and school background factors. The author recommends that secondary schools place high priority on encouraging extracurricular participation and argues that this enhances the school's ability to teach because it increases student attachment to the school, reduces student alienation, provides alternative channels for students to develop self-esteem, and increases the opportunity for positive interracial contact.     

Adverse childhood experiences and hallucinations

OBJECTIVE: Little information is available about the contribution of multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to the likelihood of reporting hallucinations. We used data from the ACE study to assess this relationship. METHODS: We conducted a survey about childhood abuse and household dysfunction while growing up, with questions about health behaviors and outcomes in adulthood, which was completed by 17,337 adult HMO members in order to assess the independent relationship of 8 adverse childhood experiences and the total number of ACEs (ACE score) to experiencing hallucinations. We used logistic regression to assess the relationship of the ACE score to self-reported hallucinations. RESULTS: We found a statistically significant and graded relationship between histories of childhood trauma and histories of hallucinations that was independent of a history of substance abuse. Compared to persons with 0 ACEs, those with 7 or more ACEs had a five-fold increase in the risk of reporting hallucinations. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that a history of childhood trauma should be looked for among persons with a history of hallucinations.     

Exploring the structure of the Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal: One scale or many subscales?

Critical thinking (CT) has been of longstanding interest among scholars, educators, and others who are concerned with thinking skills. The Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) is the oldest and among the most widely used and studied CT measure. It was constructed around five subscales (or CT skills): inference, recognition of assumptions, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation of arguments. This paper describes a two part analysis of the psychometric properties of the WGCTA, based on 13 sets of subscale inter-correlations and 60 sets of subscale means retrieved from published studies. We performed a meta-analysis on the inter-correlations of the10 combinations of subscales and found that all of the average correlations that resulted were significant, but that all but one was significantly heterogeneous. Subsequently, we conducted principal components analysis on 60 subscale means of two different versions of the WGCTA. Each produced a one-factor solution, accounting for 82.69% and 79.55% of the total variance, respectively. Together these two parts of this study suggest that the WGCTA should be viewed as a measure of general competency, and that the subscales should not be interpreted individually.     

Active learning: A small group histology laboratory exercise in a whole class setting utilizing virtual slides and peer education

Histology laboratory instruction is moving away from the sole use of the traditional combination of light microscopes and glass slides in favor of virtual microscopy and virtual slides. At the same time, medical curricula are changing so as to reduce scheduled time for basic science instruction as well as focusing on student‐centered learning approaches such as small group active learning and peer‐instruction. It is important that medical schools resist the temptation to respond to this conjunction of events by turning histology into a self‐study activity. This article describes a lymphoid histology laboratory exercise, occurring in a specially equipped Learning Studio housing an entire medical class that utilizes virtual slides in the context of small group active learning and peer instruction. Anat Sci Educ © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.     

Is a cerebellar deficit the underlying cause of reading disabilities?

This study investigated whether children with dyslexia differed in their performance on reading, phonological, rapid naming, motor, and cerebellar-related tasks and automaticity measures compared to reading age (RA)-matched and chronological age (CA)-matched control groups. Participants were 51 children attending mainstream English elementary schools in Quebec. All participants completed measures of IQ, word and nonword reading fluency, elision, nonword decoding, rapid naming, bead threading, peg moving, toe tapping, postural stability, and muscle tone. Results from both group contrasts and analyses at the individual case level did not provide support for claims of motor–cerebellar involvement in either typical or atypical reading acquisition. Results were more consistent with a phonological core process account of both typical reading and reading difficulty. Phonological deficits for children with dyslexia compared to RA-matched controls were, however, only evident in group contrasts. Findings thus also have important implications for identifying at-risk readers among their same-aged peers.     

Types and frequencies of feedback interventions in classroom interaction in secondary education

Contributing to the growing amount of literature on learning–enhancing feedback, this article attempts to distinguish between progress feedback and discrepancy feedback. Building on relevant literature drawn from psychology, we propose the use of a ratio of 3:1, positive:negative feedback. We analyzed contiguous 10 min blocks of classroom interactions from 78 teachers. Findings indicate that teachers seldom provide the types of feedback interventions identified as effective in enhancing learning in the course of typical classroom interactions. We examine potential explanations for this, discuss the consequences of this finding on teacher education and professional development, and offer several opportunities for future research.     

Math fluency is etiologically distinct from untimed math performance, decoding fluency, and untimed reading performance: evidence from a twin study

The authors examined whether math fluency was independent from untimed math and from reading using 314 pairs of school-aged twins drawn from the Western Reserve Reading and Math Projects. Twins were assessed through a 90-min home visit at approximately age 10 and were reassessed in their homes approximately 1 year later. Results suggested that the shared environment and genetics influenced the covariance among math fluency, untimed math measures, and reading measures. However, roughly two thirds of the variance in math fluency was independent from untimed math measures and reading, including reading fluency. The majority of this independent variance was the result of genetic factors that were longitudinally stable across two measurement occasions. These results suggest that math fluency, although related to other math measures, may also be a genetically distinct dimension of mathematics performance.