Assessing Understanding of the Learning Cycle: The ULC

An 18-item, multiple choice, 2-tiered instrument designed to measure understanding of the learning cycle (ULC) was developed and field-tested from the learning cycle test (LCT) of Odom and Settlage (Journal of Science Teacher Education, 7, 123–142, 1996). All question sets of the LCT were modified to some degree and 5 new sets were added, resulting in the ULC. The ULC measures (a) understandings and misunderstandings of the learning cycle, (b) the learning cycle’s association with Piaget’s (Biology and knowledge theory: An essay on the relations between organic regulations and cognitive processes, 1975) theory of mental functioning, and (c) applications of the learning cycle. The resulting ULC instrument was evaluated for internal consistency with Cronbach’s alpha, yielding a coefficient of .791.     

Does Spelling Still Matter—and If So,How Should It Be Taught? Perspectives from Contemporary and Historical Research

Educational Psychology Review - A century ago, spelling skills were highly valued and widely taught in schools using traditional methods, such as weekly lists, drill exercises, and low- and...     

Toward an understanding of academic and nonacademic tasks procrastinated by students: The use of daily logs

For five consecutive days, at either the beginning or the end of a term, college students (30 women, 7 men) listed daily academic and nonacademic tasks they intended to complete and whether they actually completed them. Students reported nonacademic tasks (e.g., household chores, making telephone calls, exercising, and playing sports) as completed most often regardless of the time within the term. Results from 2 (early vs. later sessions) by 2 (completed vs. not completed tasks) by 2 (academic vs. nonacademic tasks) ANOVAs found that procrastinated tasks early in the term were more effortful and anxiety provoking than any other task during the term. Procrastinated academic tasks (e.g., homework, reading assignments, studying) in the early part of a term were rated as unpleasurable, while students reported later in the term that pleasantness of the task did not affect whether it was procrastinated or completed. These results imply that academic and nonacademic tasks should be challenging, yet fun, to heighten the likelihood that they are completed by students. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

School-linked and school-based health services: A renewed call for collaboration between school psychologists and medical professionals

Health care and education reform provide opportunities to build systems that promote rather than retard collaboration between school psychologists and medical professionals. School-linked and school-based health services (SLSBHS) are a family of approaches that provide medical, social, and mental health services to students through school settings. These services have potential to provide more than acute care or first-aid services. SLSBHS provide medical care to uninsured children, students with chronic medical needs, at-risk children, and the overall school population. However, there are usually not enough funds to hire new staff members in most school districts. Expanding the roles of current school staff, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and implementing creative fiscal strategies are necessary to develop SLSBHS. Interdisciplinary collaboration may be the largest hurdle to developing SLSBHS. As such, school psychologists and medical professionals may need to rethink their professional roles and develop new techniques of interdisciplinary consultation to fulfill the potential of SLSBHS.     

The development of an instrument to measure readiness for knowledge management

Implementing knowledge management (KM) projects or knowledge-sharing philosophies in organizations require significant organization change. Because the introduction of change is difficult, leaders have been encouraged to proactively prepare their organizations and its members as they begin one of these initiatives. As the first step in this process, managers should comprehensively examine their organization's underlying readiness to embrace these initiatives. Unfortunately, the measurement of an organization's readiness for KM initiatives poses significant challenges because no known instrument is available to do so. Accordingly, this study drew on the KM and organizational change literature to take a first step in the development of a synergistic instrument that measures readiness for KM and applied it in an organizational setting.     

The Roles of Group Status and Group Membership in the Practice of Hypodescent

Hypodescent emerged in U.S. history to reinforce racial hierarchy. Research suggests that among contemporary U.S. adults, hypodescent continues to shape social perception. Among U.S. children, however, hypodescent is less likely to be endorsed. Here, we tested for hypodescent by introducing U.S. children (ages 4–9) and adults (N = 273) to hierarchically ordered novel groups (one was high status and another was low status) and then to a child who had one parent from each group. In Study 1, we presented the groups in a third-party context. In Study 2, we randomly assigned participants to the high-status or the low-status group. Across both studies, participants did not reliably endorse hypodescent, raising questions as to what elicits this practice.     

Susceptibility to peer influence during middle school: Links with social support,peer harassment,and gender

The present study explores concurrent relations between social support, gender, susceptibility to peer influence, and peer-based aggression and harassment in a socioeconomically and racially diverse sample of 774 seventh and eighth grade students. Results indicate that students perceiving lower support from their family or school were relatively more likely to be highly susceptible to peer influence, and to have friends who they believed were also highly susceptible to peer influence. Further, higher susceptibility to peer influence was associated with increased involvement in relational aggression and sexual harassment, both as a perpetrator and as a victim. Gender moderation effects were also found. The negative association of school support and susceptibility to peer influence was found greater in girls than boys. Girls who were highly susceptible to peer influence, or who had friends who were highly susceptible, had a relatively greater risk for involvement in relational aggression and sexual harassment, as compared with boys. Implications of these results for educators and school-based mental health professionals are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.     

The effect of deloading tape on medial gastrocnemius muscle fascicle behaviour during dynamic exercise

This study examined the effect of diamond deloading tape on medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscle behaviour during exercise in healthy adults (n = 27). A randomised cross-over trial assessed the effect of tape (no-tape, sham-tape and deload-tape) on ankle and MG fascicle kinematics during three heel raise-lower exercises [double leg (DL), single leg (SL) and loaded single leg (LSL)]. There was no effect of tape on standing fascicle length (FL) or pennation angle (PA), or ankle or knee joint angle. There was a significant effect of tape on ankle kinematics for all exercises. Both the deload-tape and sham-tape resulted in less ankle plantar flexion but had no effect on dorsiflexion. There was a significant effect of tape on FL change for the SL and LSL exercise. Compared to no-tape, the deload-tape resulted in less fascicle shortening during ankle plantar flexion, and more fascicle lengthening during ankle dorsiflexion. For the LSL exercise, deload-tape caused MG fascicles to operate at longer lengths, for a given joint angle. Diamond taping, with or without added tension, has only a small effect on ankle and MG fascicle kinematics during the heel raise-lower exercise. With the exception of the LSL exercise, both tape conditions resulted in similar changes in the FL-angle relations.