The role of achievement,gender, SES,location and policy in explaining the Indigenous gap in high-school completion

Internationally, there is a gap in high-school completion rates for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. In Australia, gap estimates are commonly based on lag indicators, precluding examination of underlying mechanisms. Using two longitudinal representative samples of Australian youth, we explored differences in high-school completion between Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous rates, and whether the gap varies for students of similar academic ability. Using an intersectional approach, we show the Indigenous gap is significant, is mostly a function of differences in academic achievement, but varies by socioeconomic status (SES) and location. Specifically, high SES and living in urban settings are protective factors for non-Indigenous students, but not for Indigenous students. Conversely, rural and poor non-Indigenous students appeared to have dropout rates as large or even larger than similarly poor and rural Indigenous youth. Overall, the results suggest the need for a more nuanced perspective on ‘Indigenous gaps’ in educational attainment.     

Effect of Time on Perceived Gains from an Undergraduate Research Program

The current study examines the trajectories of student perceived gains as a result of time spent in an undergraduate research experience (URE). Data for the study come from a survey administered at three points over a 1-yr period: before participation in the program, at the end of a Summer segment of research, and at the end of the year. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to examine the effect of time on perceived gains in student research skills, research confidence, and understanding of research processes. The results suggest that the students experienced different gains/benefits at developmentally different stages of their UREs. Participants reported gains in fewer areas at the end of the Summer segment compared with the end of the yearlong experience, thus supporting the notion that longer UREs offer students more benefit.     

Do You Want to Know What I Learned? Using Informational Trade Books as Models to Teach Text Structure

Informational text is an important resource for classroom teachers that places unique comprehension demands on young students. Research on teaching expository text structure to young children shows that explicit instruction improves student comprehension. This practical article addresses how to use “well-structured” expository trade book titles to teach text structure. A lesson plan template and an extended example of an explicit lesson on order/sequence are provided.     

Scale dimensionality and population heterogeneity: Potential problems in the interpretation of attitude data

This paper examines problems in the interpretation of attitude data which may arise when the dimensionality of the instrument and sources of heterogeneity in the population are ignored. As a specific example, the paper describes the development and analysis of an instrument designed to measure primary school children's liking of science-related activities. Careful analysis of the patterns of response to the questionnaire created some disquiet about the conventional methods used to collapse data from attitude scales. The results demonstrate that conclusions drawn from attitude measurement can be misleading when proper attention is not given to the structure of the instrument nor to the structure of the population from which the measurements are made.     

Developing culturally responsive mathematics teachers: secondary teachers’ evolving conceptions of knowing students

Research advances in teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment have not changed the continued underperformance of marginalized students in mathematics education. Culturally responsive teaching is a means of addressing the needs of these students. It is sometimes challenging, however, to convince secondary mathematics teachers about the importance of culture in mathematics education. To contribute to what is known about supporting secondary mathematics teachers in developing a culturally responsive teaching practice, we studied the impacts of a graduate course called Culture in the Mathematics Classroom on 13 teachers enrolled in the course. The course was designed to guide secondary mathematics teachers in understanding and growing their capacity to enact culturally responsive teaching in their classrooms. The purpose of our research was to explore how teachers’ perceptions changed as a result of their engagement in the class with respect to understanding the role of culture in knowing and being responsive to their students. Specifically, we examined how each of the four course projects seemed to individually and collectively influence teachers’ thinking. Overall, teachers appeared to expand their cultural awareness and dispositions for cultural responsiveness that would support them in knowing and supporting their students in the manner of a culturally responsive teacher. Teachers did not, however, develop some more “advanced” understandings related to power and privilege in society. This study provides researchers and mathematics teacher educators with a potential analytic framework for understanding teacher change with respect to culturally responsive teaching.     

Behavioral CRs elicited by a lithium- or an amphetamine-paired contextual test chamber

The behavioral CRs elicited by a drug-paired contextual cue in rats were measured in a series of experiments. The first three experiments measured the pattern of CRs elicited by a lithiumand an amphetamine-paired CS chamber. The final experiment measured the pattern of URs elicited by lithium or amphetamine when administered in the same chamber. The suppression of grooming-related activities (body washing, face washing, and/or scratching) appeared as a nonspecific effect of both drug USs that was capable of becoming conditioned to the contextual chamber cue. A number of other behaviors differed among conditions, which provides evidence that contextual cue-drug associations are drug-specific. Of the behaviors that differed between the two US drug conditions, lithium CRs showed evidence of behavioral activation (enhanced rearing and limb flicking), but amphetamine CRs showed evidence of behavioral suppression (line crossing, rearing, and shaking). The UR patterns shared some similar and some dissimilar elements of the CR patterns elicited by the CS chamber for both lithium and amphetamine; in fact, by the activity and rearing measures, the URs and CRs were opposite in direction. The results exclusively supported neither stimulus substitution nor conditioned compensatory response accounts of Pavlovian conditioning; instead, each process appears to have accounted for different components of the overall CR pattern.