An Empirical Investigation Demonstrating the Multidimensional DIF Paradigm: A Cognitive Explanation for DIF

Differential Item Functioning (DIF) is traditionally used to identify different item performance patterns between intact groups, most commonly involving race or sex comparisons. This study advocates expanding the utility of DIF as a step in construct validation. Rather than grouping examinees based on cultural differences, the reference and focal groups are chosen from two extremes along a distinct cognitive dimension that is hypothesized to supplement the dominant latent trait being measured. Specifically, this study investigates DIF between proficient and non-proficient fourth- and seventh-grade writers on open-ended mathematics test items that require students to communicate about mathematics. It is suggested that the occurrence of DIF in this situation actually enhances, rather than detracts from, the construct validity of the test because, according to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), mathematical communication is an important component of mathematical ability, the dominant construct being assessed. However, the presence of DIF influences the validity of inferences that can be made from test scores and suggests that two scores should be reported, one for general mathematical ability and one for mathematical communication. The fact that currently only one test score is reported, a simple composite of scores on multiple-choice and open-ended items, may lead to incorrect decisions being made about examinees.     

Validating a computerized scoring system for assessing writing and placing students in composition courses

How do scores from writing samples generated by computerized essay scorers compare to those generated by “untrained” human scorers and what combination of scores, if any, is more accurate at placing students in composition courses? This study endeavored to answer this two-part question by evaluating the correspondence between writing sample scores generated by the IntelliMetric™ automated scoring system and scores generated by University Preparation English faculty, as well as examining the predictive validity of both the automated and human scores. The results revealed significant correlations between the faculty scores and the IntelliMetric™ scores of the ACCUPLACER™ OnLine WritePlacer Plus test. Moreover, logistic regression models that utilized the IntelliMetric™ scores and average faculty scores were more accurate at placing students (77% overall correct placement rate) than were models incorporating only the average faculty score or the IntelliMetric™ scores.     

Curriculum Design of a Flipped Classroom to Enhance Haematology Learning

A common trend in higher education is the “flipped” classroom, which facilitates active learning during class. The flipped approach to teaching was instituted in a haematology ‘major’ class and the students’ attitudes and preferences for the teaching materials were surveyed. The curriculum design was explicit and involved four major components (1) the preparation of the students; (2) the weekly pre-class work; (3) the in-class active learning strategies and (4) closing the learning loop using formative quizzes. Each of these components is discussed in detail and was informed by sound pedagogical strategies. Several different sources of information and several freely available software tools to engage the students are discussed. Two iterations are reported here, with improved pass rate for the final examination from 47 to 48 % in the traditional class to 56–65 % in the flipped classroom approach. The majority of students (93 and 89 %) came to the class prepared, after viewing the screencasts and engaged fully with the activities within the face-to-face time. The students perceived that solving case studies (93 %) was the most beneficial activity for their learning and this was closely followed by the production of essay plans (71 %). The majority of students recommended that this approach be repeated the following year (69 and 75 %).     

Long-term physical and mental health consequences of childhood physical abuse: results from a large population-based sample of men and women

OBJECTIVE: Child maltreatment has been linked to negative adult health outcomes; however, much past research includes only clinical samples of women, focuses exclusively on sexual abuse and/or fails to control for family background and childhood characteristics, both potential confounders. Further research is needed to obtain accurate, generalizable estimates and to educate clinicians who are generally unaware of the link between childhood abuse and adult health. The purpose of this project is to examine how childhood physical abuse by parents impacts mid-life mental and physical health, and to explore the attenuating effect of family background and childhood adversities. METHODS: We analyzed population-based survey data from over 2,000 middle-aged men and women in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study using self-reported measures of parental childhood physical abuse, mental health (depression, anxiety, anger), physical health (physical symptoms and medical diagnoses), family background, and childhood adversities. RESULTS: Parental physical abuse was reported by 11.4% of respondents (10.6% of males and 12.1% of females). In multivariate models controlling for age, sex, childhood adversities, and family background, we found that childhood physical abuse predicted a graded increase in depression, anxiety, anger, physical symptoms, and medical diagnoses. Childhood physical abuse also predicted severe ill health and an array of specific medical diagnoses and physical symptoms. Family background and childhood adversities attenuated but did not eliminate the childhood abuse/adult health relationship. CONCLUSIONS: In a population-based cohort of middle-aged men and women, childhood physical abuse predicted worse mental and physical health decades after the abuse. These effects were attenuated, but not eliminated, by age, sex, family background, and childhood adversities.     

The locker room : Eroticism and exoticism in a polyphonic text

Critical race theory now encompasses a polyphonic telling of story in which multiple, shifting identities are seen in relation to each other and situated within historical contexts. Locating the fictive voice of an administrator forced to deal with change at a small private university, the article begins with a flashback to confrontations demanding that he reexamine his positions in relation to both work and social life. The second part of the article is an analytic discussion of the voices of narrator and other actors and concludes with a critical reconceptualization of polyphony. Much in the same way that critical race theorists have injected story-telling into legal scholarship in order to deconstruct and then reconstruct knowledge, the authors urge education researchers to move away from methodologies and systems of analysis that derive from white liberal discourse and ironically serve to maintain the status quo by leaving in place conservative structures and reward mechanisms.     

Culturally responsive computing: a theory revisited

Despite multiple efforts and considerable funding, historically marginalized groups (e.g., racial minorities and women) continue not to enter or persist in the most lucrative of fields – technology. Understanding the potency of culturally responsive teaching (CRT), some technology-enrichment programs modified CRP principles to establish a culturally responsive computing (CRC) experience for disenfranchised groups. We draw from our respective praxes developing two such initiatives and reconceptualize CRC as a heuristic. In this theoretical article, we offer a more nuanced vision of CRC considering intersectionality, innovations, and technosocial activism. Implications for the newly defined tenets consider programmatic, theoretical, and methodological concerns.     

(International) R&D collaboration and SMEs: The effectiveness of targeted public R&D support schemes

This study analyses the impact and effectiveness of targeted public support for R&D investment at the firm level. We test whether the policy design aiming at incentivizing (international) collaboration and R&D in SMEs achieves input as well as output additionality. Our results show that the targeted public subsidies trigger R&D spending, especially so in internationally collaborating SMEs. We further evaluate the different impact of privately financed and publicly induced R&D investment on innovation performance. The results confirm that the publicly induced R&D is productive as it translates into marketable product innovations. While both types of R&D investments trigger significant output effects, the effect of policy-induced R&D investment on sales from market novelties is highest for international collaborators as well as for SMEs.     

Mask-making as identity project in a high school English class: a case study

This study reports on the composing process of one student, Peta (a pseudonym), as he reflects on a significant composition he produced during a unit on identity in a 12th‐grade English class in a U. S. high school. The unit was the first thematic exploration of the year for the students and was designed to help them think about themselves as readers, writers, and individuals. The teacher's goal was to have students' engagements with literary and artistic texts serve as vehicles for developing better understandings of themselves. The study demonstrates how students' engagement with more ‘traditional’ artefacts is essentially an example of multimodality and evidences why teachers and researchers should see such work as part of the long tradition of creativity within English. It also demonstrates how such an apparently ‘traditional’ artistic approach in fact covers the same territory as that of the digital revolution, that is that multimodal ‘tools’ engage all the cultural resources of students from their domestic, community and school settings, in contrast with much typical school activity that is perceived as pointless and tedious.