The role of transnational networking for higher education academics

Amidst rapid socio-economic change, higher education (HE) academics across the world face major challenges to its organisation, finance and management. This paper discusses the role of transnational networking in higher education. Data from 40 interviews with geographically distributed academics engaged in learning and teaching transnational networks (TNNs) were analysed. The findings show that in an increasingly globalised higher education system, transnational networking goes beyond conference attendance to entail multiple combinations of offline and online activities. We do not think that current concepts of communities of practice or networks of practice accurately describe these phenomena. Instead, we suggest that these activities entail different and varying levels of tangibility, more accurately defined by us as TNNs. Moreover, we argue that the term ‘network’ in this context facilitates the individualistic pursuit of a career increasingly essential in a pressurised higher education environment.     

Adolescents’ sleep and adjustment: Reciprocal effects

Reciprocal relations between sleep and adjustment were investigated. Participants included 246 adolescents (M = 15.80 years; 67.5% White, 32.5% Black/African American; 53% female, 47% male) at Time 1 (data collected 2012–2013), 227 at Time 2 (M = 16.78 years) and 215 at Time 3 (M = 17.70 years). Sleep–wake variables were measured with self-reports (sleepiness) and actigraphy (average sleep minutes and efficiency, variability in sleep minutes and efficiency). Adolescents reported on depression and anxiety symptoms, and parents reported on externalizing problems. Greater variability in sleep duration and efficiency as well as sleepiness predicted adjustment problems (range of R²: 36%–60%). Reciprocal relations were supported mostly for sleepiness (range of R²: 16%–32%). Results help understand bidirectional relations between sleep and adjustment.     

Spatial thinking in science,technology, engineering,and mathematics: Elementary teachers' beliefs,perceptions, and self-efficacy

Fostering students' spatial thinking skills holds great promise for improving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. Recent efforts have focused on the development of classroom interventions to build students' spatial skills, yet these interventions will be implemented by teachers, and their beliefs and perceptions about spatial thinking influence the effectiveness of such interventions. However, our understanding of elementary school teachers' beliefs and perceptions around spatial thinking and STEM is in its infancy. Thus, we created novel measures to survey elementary teachers' anxiety in solving spatial problems, beliefs in the importance of spatial thinking skills for students' academic success, and self-efficacy in cultivating students' spatial skills during science instruction. All measures exhibited high internal consistency and showed that elementary teachers experience low anxiety when solving spatial problems and feel strongly that their skills can improve with practice. Teachers were able to identify educational problems that rely on spatial problem-solving and believed that spatial skills are more important for older compared to younger students. Despite reporting high efficacy in their general teaching and science teaching, teachers reported significantly lower efficacy in their capacities to cultivate students' spatial skills during science instruction. Results were fairly consistent across teacher characteristics (e.g., years of experience and teaching role as generalist or specialist) with the exception that only years of teaching science was related to teachers' efficacy in cultivating students' spatial thinking skills during science instruction. Results are discussed within the broader context of teacher beliefs, self-efficacy, and implications for professional development research.     

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury on Instagram: Examining Hashtag Trends

International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling - We sought to investigate how individuals who upload nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) content on Instagram conceptualize self-injury by...     

High-Quality Formative Writing Assessment for Middle School Students in Tier 2 Literacy Interventions

Increased expectations for writing performance have created a need for formative writing assessments that will help middle school teachers better understand adolescents’ grade-appropriate writing skills and monitor the progress of students with or at risk for writing disabilities. In this practice piece, we first explain research-based recommendations for high-quality writing prompts that are interesting to students, provide clear directions, and ensure accessibility and fairness. Then, we use lessons learned from working with adolescents in Tier 2 literacy intervention classes to demonstrate how teachers can apply the recommendations to identify or develop prompts that will encourage students to write responses. In addition, we explain how analytic rubrics may be used to evaluate responses as a means of informing instruction and further refining the prompts.     

A Meta-Analysis of Interventions to Improve Reading Comprehension Outcomes for Adolescents with Reading Difficulties

This meta-analysis synthesized 97 effect sizes extracted from 37 intervention studies for students with reading difficulties (RDs) in Grades 6 to 12 published between 1982 and 2021 to identify the overall impact of reading interventions and the moderating effects of intervention characteristics and study design characteristics. Random-effects robust variance estimation (RVE) was used to account for dependencies within studies. Overall, interventions designed to improve reading comprehension outcomes for adolescents with RDs were effective (g = 0.63). Meta-regression analyses identified several significant moderators that were associated with intervention efficacy, such as text content, duration of intervention, agent of intervention, status of student, type of dependent measure, and study quality. We provide study limitations as well as implications for research and practice.     

A meta-ethnographic understanding of children and young people's experiences of extended school non-attendance

The views of the children and young people experiencing Extended School Non-Attendance difficulties are scarcely represented in the literature. This systematic literature review provides a much needed overview of the existing research evidence through a detailed synthesis of the lived experiences of persistently non-attending young people, using a meta-ethnographic approach. Ten qualitative, UK-based papers were selected and analysed, each of which focused specifically on the direct views of school non-attenders. Using Noblit and Hare's seven-step approach, the analysis generated seven themes: (1) difficult relationships with peer group; (2) inconsistent relationships with and support from adults; (3) negative experiences of school transition; (4) negative experiences of learning in school; (5) emotional wellbeing and mental health needs; (6) others' negative perceptions of the individual's needs; (7) personal beliefs about attendance. Through reciprocal translation of these themes, the overarching higher-order concept was developed relating to the impact of a sense of school belonging. The implications of this review include an enhanced emphasis on the need to gather young people's views early and to use their preferred terminology when discussing their difficulties. While outside the scope of this paper, further research should look to the translation into policy and practice in this area.     

Cultural Socialization and Ethnic Pride Among Mexican‐Origin Adolescents During the Transition to Middle School

The relation between cultural socialization and ethnic pride during the transition to middle school was examined for 674 fifth‐grade students (50% boys; M_age = 10.4 years) of Mexican origin. The theoretical model guiding the study proposes that parent–child relationship quality is a resource in the transmission of cultural values from parent to child and that parental warmth promotes the child's positive response to cultural socialization. Results showed that mother and father cultural socialization predicted youth ethnic pride and that this relation was stronger when parents were high in warmth. The findings highlight the positive role parent cultural socialization may play in the development of adolescent ethnic pride. Furthermore, findings reveal the role of parent–child relationship quality in this process.