Early Home Activities and Oral Language Skills in Middle Childhood: A Quantile Analysis

Oral language development is a key outcome of elementary school, and it is important to identify factors that predict it most effectively. Commonly researchers use ordinary least squares regression with conclusions restricted to average performance conditional on relevant covariates. Quantile regression offers a more sophisticated alternative. Using data of 17,687 children from the United Kingdom's Millennium Cohort Study, we compared ordinary least squares and quantile models with language development (verbal similarities) at 11 years as the outcome. Gender had more of an effect at the top of the distribution, whereas poverty, early language, and reading to the child had a greater effect at the bottom. The picture for TV watching was more mixed. The results are discussed in terms of the provision of universal and targeted interventions.     

“If We Lose Their Language We Lose Our History”: Knowledge and Disposition in Māori Language Acquisition Policy

Localising knowledge and dispositions helps to predict the likely success of top-down language policies. In so far as language acquisition is a pillar of language revitalisation policy, then community perspectives on learning a minority language deserve attention. This article presents the knowledge, dispositions, and ideas of around 1,300 indigenous and non-indigenous university students in New Zealand about learning te reo Māori as public policy. The article analyses the students’ level of agreement to a series of propositions about language acquisition policy, and the epistemic and dispositional stances they took in their free-text commentary to describe the rationale for learning te reo Māori, how and where acquisition occurs, who should learn the language and to what extent, what policy should deliver, and what policy changes are needed. The article concludes that the knowledge and dispositions of the students are at odds with government policy and traditional tenets of language revitalisation theory.     

A Structural Equation Modeling Approach for the Analysis of Cortisol Data Collected Using Pre–Post–Post Designs

Abstract

This study introduces a novel application of structural equation modeling (SEM) for the analysis of cortisol data that are collected using a pre–post–post design. By way of an extended example, an SEM model is developed that permits an examination of both the overall level of cortisol, as well as changes in cortisol (reactivity and regulation), as predictors of cognitive (executive) and behavioral functioning in 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 171) attending Head Start. The SEM model makes use of the parameterization of latent curve models. Throughout the extended example, the strengths of using an SEM approach for the analysis of cortisol data that are collected using pre–post–post designs is highlighted.     

Computed tomography‐enhanced anatomy course using enterprise visualization

Rapid changes in medical knowledge are forcing continuous adaptation of the basic science courses in medical schools. This article discusses a three‐year experience developing a new Computed Tomography (CT)‐based anatomy curriculum at the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, including describing the motivations and reasoning for the new curriculum, the CT‐based learning system itself, practical examples of visual dissections, and student assessments of the new curriculum. At the heart of this new curriculum is the emphasis on studying anatomy by navigating inside the bodies of various living individuals utilizing a CT viewer. To assess the students’ experience with the new CT‐based learning method, an anonymous questionnaire was administered at the end of the course for three consecutive academic years: 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2010/2011. Based upon the results, modifications were made to the curriculum in the summers of 2009 and 2010. Results showed that: (1) during these three years the number of students extensively using the CT system quadrupled (from 11% to 46%); (2) students' satisfaction from radiologists involvement increased by 150%; and (3) student appreciation of the CT‐based learning method significantly increased (from 13% to 68%). It was concluded that discouraging results (mainly negative feedback from students) during the first years and a priori opposition from the teaching staff should not weaken efforts to develop new teaching methods in the field of anatomy. Incorporating a new curriculum requires time and patience. Student and staff satisfaction, along with utilization of the new system, will increase with the improvement of impeding factors. Anat Sci Educ 6: 332–341. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

Reconciling multiple sources of influence: Longitudinal associations among perceived parent,closest friend,and popular peer injunctive norms and adolescent substance use

Prospective associations over a 5-year period were examined among perceived parent, closest friend, and popular peer injunctive norms and the onset and frequency of adolescent substance use within a diverse (53% female, 45.5% White non-Hispanic, 22.3% Hispanic, 21.5% Black, 1% Asian, and 6.4% another race) sample of 868 seventh- and eighth-grade adolescents from 2012 to 2017. Analyses revealed adolescents' substance use norms were more lenient than perceptions of their parents' and stricter than perceptions of their closest friends'. Stricter perceptions of parent and closest friend norms, but not popular peer norms, were significantly associated with a later onset of alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette use, and the magnitude of the effect of each source' on later substance use varied across development.     

Instructional design learners make sense of theory: a collaborative autoethnography

Educational technology research and development - Understanding theory is essential to instructional design (ID) research and practice; however, novice designers struggle to make sense of...