COMPASS-AIM: A University/P–12 Partnership Innovation for Continuous Improvement

COMPASS-AIM is a set of processes and tools used by participants in a research–practice partnership (RPP) to improve organizational capacities and individual and team competencies for organizational learning and improvement. The “COMPASS” team includes teams of teachers and school leaders who work with a university researcher and expert professional developers. Improvement teams begin by COMParing practices in their own setting to those in higher performing schools identified through research. The next few phases involve Assessing priorities based on those comparisons, Selecting levers (i.e., drivers) to improve a priority area, and Setting a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound) goal or goals designed to address the priority area. Once a “COMPASS” team establishes a goal or goals, the process has it take AIM at Action planning, Implementation, and Monitoring progress through periodic “check the pulse” meetings. Throughout these phases, participants use self-assessment tools, case studies, and a variety of other research reports to inform their work. This research utilization-focused approach bridges research and practice, while accommodating for variability in desired outcomes, affordances, and constraints for change in different school and district contexts.     

Making the right connections: Differential effects of reading intervention for subgroups of comprehenders

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of different types of questioning interventions on students' reading comprehension. Fourth-grade students (n = 246) were identified as struggling, average, or good readers and assigned randomly within school to one of three questioning interventions: two inferential conditions (Causal or General) or one literal condition (“Who, What, Where, When” or W-questioning). Teachers delivered the interventions for 20–30 min, 2–4 times per week, for 8–10 weeks. All readers made reliable pre- to posttest comprehension gains as measured by story recall (ps < .001 to .04). Differential effects for intervention were found between two subgroups of struggling comprehenders—elaborators and paraphrasers. Elaborators benefited more than paraphrasers from Causal questioning (d = .86) whereas paraphrasers benefited more than elaborators from General questioning (d = 1.46). These findings suggest that identifying subgroups is important in developing and evaluating the effectiveness of reading comprehension interventions.     

The influence of temperature and humidity on swelling and surfactant migration in acrylic emulsion paint films

It has often been observed anecdotally and implied through experimentation that acrylic emulsion paintings accumulate and entrain soils over time due to the inherent mechanical softness in artist's acrylic paint films, through the presence of hydrophilic film components, and by virtue of the ubiquitous presence of surfactant moieties on these film surfaces once they dry. In the present study, it has been this last effect that we have sought to describe more fully in terms of surfactant responsiveness to both temperature and relative humidity (RH). Surfactant hydration and dehydration under varying temperature and RH conditions affects the ultimate partitioning of the surfactant at the paint–air interface, as well as the inherent size, aggregation tendencies, and solubility of surfactant in the bulk paint materials which contain components that are highly responsive to changes in temperature and RH (e.g. polyacrylic or polymaleic anhydride-type dispersal materials). In this work, analytical techniques including three-dimensional microscopy and quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation were used to add to and reinforce current understanding of the physical and mechanical changes to acrylic paint films with temperature and RH. The migration of surfactant at the film surface was studied using desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry and attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared microscopy.     

Teaching Research Methodology Through Active Learning

To complement traditional learning activities in a masters-level research methodology course, social work students worked on a formal research project which involved: designing the study, constructing measures, selecting a sampling strategy, collecting data, reducing and analyzing data, and finally interpreting and communicating the results. The final product was accepted in a respected, peer-reviewed journal. In the hopes of motivating social work educators to use active learning strategies when teaching research methods and to provide some pragmatic advice on how to do so, this article presents students' perceptions of involvement and lessons learned by the instructor. Through open- and closed-ended questions, students reported that involvement was meaningful, promoted understanding of research, strengthened relations among students, and made learning more exciting. Additionally, 41% of students reported that work on the project increased their interest in pursuing doctoral level work. Students also reported that engagement was time-consuming, stressful, and occasionally frustrating. Pragmatic suggestions about how to incorporate a formal research project with teaching are given based on experiences of the students and instructor.     

Understanding Students' Motivation in Sport and Physical Education: From the Expectancy-Value Model and Self-Efficacy Theory Perspectives

In this article, the roles of individuals' expectancy beliefs and incentives (i.e., task value, outcome expectancy) in sport and physical education are examined from expectancy-value model and self-efficacy theory perspectives. Overviews of the two theoretical frameworks and the conceptual and measurement issues are provided, followed by a review of developmental and gender/racial differences and the influences of sport and physical education on children's motivational beliefs.     

Violence,Silence and Storytelling: The Dilemma of Matricide in Women’s Memoirs

In this paper I explore how women’s thinking subjectivity is structured by a need to negotiate between identifying with and repudiating our mothers. Oriented by Melanie Klein’s theory of matricide which posits that an infant’s capacity to think for herself originates in her need to separate from her mother, I consider the implications of this structure for women’s gendered experiences of intellectualism. To examine how this dilemma of matricide animates women’s thinking lives I read Helen M. Buss’s criticism of Carolyn Kay Steedman’s memoir Landscape for a Good Woman. I argue that Buss’s criticism of Steedman is symptomatic of her ambivalent relation to the problem of identification and repudiation that drives her own intellectual labour. I then turn to a scene in Buss’s memoir, Memoirs from Away, to examine how the matricidal dilemma resonates through her work of reading other women’s memoirs and of writing her own.     

Title IV‐E Programs: Preparing MSW Students for Public Child Welfare Practice

This article investigates the perceived quality and skill outcomes of Title IV‐E MSW training programs at four universities from the perspective of their graduates. It also sought to identify necessary program supports, expectations of graduates as they began child welfare employment, and pre‐employment factors related to retention. The vast majority of MSWs agreed that their education was high quality and prepared them well for child welfare practice. The skills rated highest were establishing client rapport, case management, the development of a professional identity, and time management and assessment skills. The most consistent pre‐employment predictors of whether they stayed past their stipend commitment period were their commitment to the public child welfare (PCW) agency and their commitment to child welfare practice. Implications for program design are discussed.