Interdisciplinary scholarly collaboration in data-intensive,public-funded,international digital humanities project work

The information practices of collaborative interdisciplinary researchers, especially in distributed environments, remain understudied. Embracing the naturalistic paradigm, this qualitative case study relies upon semi-structured interviews, snowball sampling, and grounded analysis. Based on interviews with 53 participants from 11 Digging Into Data 3 (DID3, 2014-2016) projects, this study examines the working practices of scholars (library and information science professionals, humanists, and computer scientists) engaging in collaborative, international, data-intensive, publicly-funded interdisciplinary research. Benefits of such work include avoiding redundancy, exploding disciplinary silos, and more ambitious, larger-scale outputs. Challenges and lessons learned center on innovation, flexibility, and failure, translation, intermediaries, divisions of labor and delegation of responsibilities and tasks, conflict resolution, technology, outputs and publication, and timeframe, sustainability, and infrastructure.     

Maximising resource allocation in the teaching laboratory: understanding student evaluations of teaching assistants in a team-based teaching format

Minimal research papers have investigated the use of student evaluations on the laboratory, a learning medium usually run by teaching assistants with little control of the content, delivery and equipment. Finding the right mix of teaching assistants for the laboratory can be an onerous task due to the many skills required including theoretical and practical know-how, troubleshooting, safety and class management. Using larger classes with multiple teaching assistants, a team-based teaching (TBT) format may be advantageous. A rigorous three-year study across twenty-five courses over repetitive laboratory classes is analysed using a multi-level statistical model considering students, laboratory classes and courses. The study is used to investigate the effectiveness of the TBT format, and quantify the influence each demonstrator has on the laboratory experience. The study found that TBT is effective and the lead demonstrator most influential, influencing up to 55% of the laboratory experience evaluation.     

Searching for Safety Online: Managing "Trolling" in a Feminist Forum

A common phenomenon in online discussion groups is the individual who baits and provokes other group members, often with the result of drawing them into fruitless argument and diverting attention from the stated purposes of the group. This study documents a case in which the members of an online community--a feminist web-based discussion forum--are targeted by a "troll" attempting to disrupt their discussion space. We analyze the strategies that make the troller successful and the targeted group largely ineffectual in responding to his attack, as a means to understand how such behavior might be minimized and managed in general. The analysis further suggests that feminist and other nonmainstream online forums are especially vulnerable, in that they must balance inclusive ideals against the need for protection and safety, a tension that can be exploited by disruptive elements to generate intragroup conflict.     

Pre-service educators’ dispositions toward inclusive practices for students with emotional and behavioural difficulties

ABSTRACT

In response to challenging behaviour from students with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD), teachers around the world often label students as challenging, defining them by their disability. Negative views of students with EBD are a barrier to their inclusion and a major challenge for policy in the United States and elsewhere associated with access to the education system for students with disabilities. Pre-service teacher education has been highlighted as an optimum time to instil in pre-service educators a more equitable disposition toward behaviour management and inclusive practices. Therefore, the purpose of the current mixed-methods study was to assess whether or not an undergraduate course focused on relationship-based approaches to positive behaviour support could impact pre-service educators’ dispositions toward inclusive classroom practices for students with EBD. Survey results from 41 pre-service educators indicated that participants made significant improvements in their knowledge and understanding of compassionate behaviour management, intentional relationship building, and establishment of a welcoming classroom environment. Analysis of participants’ written responses to open-ended questions revealed several themes regarding changes in dispositions toward students with EBD. Implications for pre-service educator preparation and inclusion of students with EBD are discussed.     

Peer relations and emotion regulation of children with emotional and behavioural difficulties with and without a developmental disorder

Children with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) and those who also have developmental disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), can experience the same adverse consequences in their peer interactions and relationships. This present study compared the emotion regulation and peer relationships of children aged 8–12 years (M = 9.86 years, SD = 1.49) with EBD (N = 33) and children with EBD plus a diagnosed developmental disorder (N = 28). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with Bonferroni adjusted alpha levels revealed no significant main effect for emotion regulation according to EBD status. There was, however, a multivariate main effect for sex, with females presenting with higher levels of negative emotional intensity (e.g., frustration, anger, aggression) than males. A second MANOVA revealed no significant main effect for peer relationships according to EBD status and sex. Significant correlations revealed that the EBD-only group experienced greater adverse peer interactions than the EBD-plus-developmental disorder group. These findings are important for educators and researchers involved in the development and evaluation of prevention and intervention programms for children with EBD.     

Assessing General Education and Special Education Majors’ Self‐Efficacy for Teaching Reading

In an era of teacher quality reforms, one overlooked area for assessing readiness for teaching is education majors’ self‐efficacy for teaching reading. This gap is unfortunate, as teaching reading is a common responsibility among general and special education teachers. In the current push for RTI—one in which more general education teachers are increasingly called upon to provide reading support to students with learning disabilities, in addition to the support received from special educators—it is important to determine preservice teachers’ self‐efficacy for teaching reading. Self‐efficacy is an important construct to consider as it is related to eventual teacher attrition. The purpose of the current study was to develop a scale to measure elementary and special education majors’ self‐efficacy for teaching reading. With a sample of 110 education majors, a three‐factor scale was developed and demonstrated strong psychometric properties. Implications for the future of teacher education programs are discussed.     

Major Differences: Variations in Undergraduate and Graduate Student Mental Health and Treatment Utilization Across Academic Disciplines

This article explores variations in mental health and service utilization across academic disciplines using a random sample of undergraduate and graduate students (N = 64,519) at 81 colleges and universities. We report prevalence of depression, anxiety, suicidality, and self-injury, and rates of help-seeking across disciplines, including results from multivariate logistic regressions. We find significant variations: Students in humanities and art and design are significantly more likely to have mental health problems; and for students with apparent mental health problems, treatment rates are lowest among those in business and engineering. Noting these variations could enhance efforts to promote student mental health, particularly within academic departments.