School Smarts: A Reflection of Pedagogical and Personal Insights

Recent studies show that many college instructors still believe that Latino students lack the “school smarts” for academic success. This essay challenges the notion of school smarts in order to highlight Latino students’ numerous strengths. I share my model for a mentorship program that facilitates better student–faculty communication and deepens a student-centered learning environment in a large general education course. Establishing the program led me to reflect on how the enduring belief in school smarts affected my own academic training. Directly challenging deficit thinking, I argue that Latino students contribute to a transformative educational process in which faculty are also learners.     

Do adjustments in search behavior depend on the precision of spatial memory?

Various forms of uncertainty are important for decision making. How aware are we of the precision of knowledge, and how accessible it is? In three experiments, an assessment of the precision of spatial memory was needed to make optimal decisions. First, we examined search strategies in a search task in which the most efficient strategy was to head to one side of the target by a margin depending on the precision of spatial information, the “where to start” task. We found that nine out of of our 20 human subjects adapted the margin according to precision. Second, we let the subjects search for the location of a sample picture. On one-third of the trials, the target was not present, making it a “when to stop searching” task. We found that the subjects did not adjust their investment in search according to their precision. In the third experiment, we looked at whether there was transfer between the two tasks. Subjects who had been reminded of the relevance of uncertainty by the “where to start” task increased their search effort more in the “when to stop searching” task. Thus, the results show that the use of information about precision is not automatic, but can be triggered.     

The Achievement Gap Among Newcomer Immigrant Adolescents: Life Stressors Hinder Latina/o Academic Success

This study compares life stressors and school outcomes among newcomer immigrant adolescents from Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean. Participants attended a predominantly low-income, urban international public high school in the northeast. The Latina/o students were exposed to more life stressors and had lower attendance and achievement than non-Latina/o students. Life stressors mediated the relationship between ethnicity and academic outcomes. Results deepen experts’ understanding of the achievement gap, suggesting that newcomer immigrant adolescents from Latin America face unique risks and deserve intervention efforts focused on sociocontextual stressors that may prevent these students from achieving their full academic potential.     

Roles of definitional and assessment models in the identification of new or second language learners of English for special education

This article examines the efficacy of current definitional perspectives on learning disabilities (LD) and related assessment models to support appropriate instructional and support services for learners of English with learning-related difficulties. A revised framework for defining LD and an associated assessment model, curriculum-based dynamic assessment (CDA), are proposed. The results of a teacher assessment study are reported to exemplify how this revised framework may be studied. The study examined the following questions: (a) Can curriculum-based dynamic assessments of authentic learning tasks help educators to differentiate between the work of students with limited English proficiency and their peers identified as having LD? (b) What are the characteristics of curriculum-based work samples of limited English proficient students with LD that may predictably differentiate them from their peers without LD?     

Reasons which influence on the students’ decision to take a university course: differences by gender and degree

After compulsory secondary education; many teenagers face the process of choosing a university degree. This process involves uncertainties referred to their personal abilities, interests, social expectations and professional future. The present work is aimed at determining whether the reasons behind the selection of a particular university degree differ depending on the chosen degree. Another objective is determining whether these reasons differ significantly according to gender. The sample comprises 983 students belonging to the area of social and legal sciences at the University of Seville. The obtained results reveal the existence of four main reasons behind the selection of university degrees for which significant gender-related differences were observed: easy degree, job opportunities, high wages and provision of social services. Besides, these seven reasons are observed to differ widely in six of the considered degrees.     

Cross-domain effects of achievement goals: social costs and benefits

European Journal of Psychology of Education - In this research, we examined cross-domain effects of achievement goals. In two experimental studies, we manipulated achievement goals and assessed...     

Early home intervention with low-birth-weight infants and their parents

We investigated the effects of a year-long home intervention with a sample of preterm infants randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups: a developmental intervention, a parent-infant intervention, and a no-treatment control group. A full-term no-treatment control was also used. Both intervention approaches focused on the parent-child unit, providing training for parents to improve observational skills, emotional support, and information about community resources. However, whereas specific tasks to facilitate the child's development were provided in the developmental intervention group, the quality of the parent-infant interaction was the target for treatment in the other group. All infants were assessed at 4, 8, 12, and 16 months of age corrected for prematurity. The results suggest that although both intervention approaches were effective in modifying some aspects of the home environment and, to a lesser degree, in improving infants' cognitive development, the parent-infant interaction approach seemed to have the greater impact. These findings confirm previous observations regarding the cognitive development of preterm and full-term infants during the first 18 months of life and demonstrate changes in behavior and behavior styles in both pre- and full-term infants as they become older.     

Language,culture and border lives: mestizaje as positionality / Lengua,cultura y vidas de frontera: el mestizaje como posicionalidad

Recent scholarly work has focused on borders, both geopolitical and cultural, giving attention to border lives and identities. This article, which focuses on sociocultural practices, addresses what can be called border languaculture. With attention on the Texas-Mexico border in North America, the authors discuss three key features of hybrid practices on the US ‘side’: (1) code-mixing that has a strong rhetorical component; (2) cross-border continuation but transformation of ‘traditional’ forms and conventions associated historically with Spain and Mexico; and (3) creation of ‘new’ hybrid forms and cultural products that establish social affiliations and distinctions. These languacultural features support the central point of the article: that self-positioning in this borderland is characterized by the multiplicity, contradictions and syncretism now being labeled mestizaje. Although cultural change has often been explained through acculturation, the syncretic nature of these border practices is better explained through transculturation, which emphasizes mutual influences and shifting power relations.