Early Childhood Preservice Teachers' Use of Verbal and Non-Verbal Guidance Strategies Across Classroom Contexts

Observations of preservice teachers often lack information about specific strategies they use when guiding children's behavior. This study investigated how preservice teachers used verbal and non-verbal behavior modification techniques within structured and transition classroom contexts. Using an on-the-mark 20-second observe and 10-second record method, eleven preservice teachers were observed in classrooms for two morning hours. A repeated measures MANOVA revealed two significant two-way interactions, which included types of modification techniques and types of contexts (Wilks's λ = .38, F(2, 9) = 7.37, p .05, Cohen's f = .88) and types of communication skills and types of contexts (Wilks's λ = .64, F(1, 10) = 5.53, p .05, Cohen's f = .74). Implications for future research and practice include more focused observations of preservice teachers and children's responses to various verbal and non-verbal strategies along with more education about how to use positive guidance strategies in real-life classroom situations.     

“There’s More Than One Right Path to The Destination”: Does Degree Type Make a Difference in Police Recruiting?

Each year colleges and universities market criminology and criminal justice programs to potential applicants by suggesting these programs offer a uniquely tailored path for those seeking entry into a policing career. Despite such claims, little empirical research exists to suggest that degree content is a factor in influencing recruitment outcomes. In this paper, we present results from an ongoing, exploratory study into pre-recruitment education to show that program content—in this case, a criminology or criminal justice diploma or degree—has generally little influence on how police agencies evaluate a potential applicant. Drawing on interviews with thirty-two (n = 32) police recruiters and senior officers from police services across the province of Ontario in Canada, we show that, while many agencies prefer candidates with degrees, criminology and criminal justice degree holders are not privileged in the recruiting process over those applicants from other disciplines.     

Ground reaction forces,kinematics, and muscle activations during the windmill softball pitch

Abstract

The aims of the present study were to examine quantitatively ground reaction forces, kinematics, and muscle activations during the windmill softball pitch, and to determine relationships between knee valgus and muscle activations, ball velocity and muscle activation as well as ball velocity and ground reaction forces. It was hypothesized that there would be an inverse relationship between degree of knee valgus and muscle activation, a direct relationship between ground reaction forces and ball velocity, and non-stride leg muscle activations and ball velocity. Ten female windmill softball pitchers (age 17.6 ± 3.47 years, stature 1.67 ± 0.07 m, weight 67.4 ± 12.2 kg) participated. Dependent variables were ball velocity, surface electromyographic (sEMG), kinematic, and kinetic data while the participant was the independent variable. Stride foot contact reported peak vertical forces of 179% body weight. There were positive relationships between ball velocity and ground reaction force (r = 0.758, n = 10, P = 0.029) as well as ball velocity and non-stride leg gluteus maximus (r = 0.851, n = 10, P = 0.007) and medius (r = 0.760, n = 10, P = 0.029) muscle activity, while there was no notable relationship between knee valgus and muscle activation. As the windmill softball pitcher increased ball velocity, her vertical ground reaction forces also increased. Proper conditioning of the lumbopelvic–hip complex, including the gluteals, is essential for injury prevention. From the data presented, it is evident that bilateral strength and conditioning of the gluteal muscle group is salient in the windmill softball pitch as an attempt to decrease incidence of injury.     

Process and collaboration: Assessing digital humanities work through an embedded lens

ABSTRACT

To assess the implications of supporting and participating in a digital humanities project team as embedded subject librarians, those involved must examine the dynamic of the group responsible for the work and the processes or infrastructure employed to support this work. Using the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) method with interview questions based on the American Historical Association's “Career Diversity Five Skills,” this case study interviews respondents involved in “‘A Shaky Truce’: Starkville Civil Rights Struggles, 1960–1980,” a digital public history project created in 2015 by a team of subject librarians, history graduate students, history faculty, and undergraduates.     

Productive dissent in learning communities

“Community” has become a commonplace term in the learning sciences. Alongside this popularization comes the view that communities are, in general, something to strive towards. We draw on contemporary trends to problematize this assumption and motivate a discussion for the productivity of dissent.     

Student Diversity Representation and Reporting in Universal School-Based Social and Emotional Learning Programs: Implications for Generalizability

This paper addresses two major and potentially conflicting movements: the importance of diversity as both a conceptual and political issue and the rise of the evidence-based practice movement in education. This tension is particularly important when evaluating and reporting universal interventions because of their intended applicability across diverse groups of children and adolescents. This study contributes to this discussion through an analysis of published school-based universal social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention evaluations in terms of their theoretical and empirical attention to student diversity characteristics. We defined student diversity in terms of five characteristics: gender, race/ethnicity, SES, disability status, and sexual orientation/gender identity. We assessed how and when demographic characteristics were reported, how these characteristics were analyzed as moderators of program outcomes, and how differential effects based on diversity were incorporated into reported intervention generalizability discussions. Results showed that diversity characteristics were inconsistently reported across articles. Most studies did not test for moderating effects, but those that did found inconsistent effects across diversity characteristics. Further, conceptual and/or empirical support for conducting the moderation analyses was often not provided or sufficiently supported by previous literature or a hypothesis. This research highlights the need for a more nuanced understanding of how SEL program effects may be moderated by student demographic characteristics and suggests caution about the generalizability of the reviewed SEL programs across diverse groups of children and adolescents.     

Contextual Explanations of Local Dependence in Item Clusters in a Large Scale Hands-On Science Performance Assessment

This study provides hypothesized explanations for local item dependence (LID) in a large scale hands-on science performance assessment. Items within multi-step item clusters were classified as low or high in LID using contextual analysis procedures described in this and other studies. LID was identified statistically using the average within cluster (AWC) correlation procedure described in previous studies. Levels of LID identified in contextual analyses were compared to levels of LlD identified in correlation analyses. Consistent with other studies, items that appear to elicit locally dependent responses require examinees to answer and explain their answer or to use given or generated information to respond