bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Parent Empowerment: A Look at the Potential of Social Justice Evaluation in Education
Authors: Cooper Camille Wilson , Christie Christina A.
Published: February 2022

In an effort to improve our nation's underperforming schools, education reformers are designing programs to educate and empower urban school parents. Parent involvement can be critical to a child's academic success, yet the education community still knows very little about the impact of specific parent programs. We evaluated a parent program that was part of a major school-university partnership. A responsive evaluation approach initially guided the design of our qualitative case study evaluation. Our social justice-oriented values, however, prompted us to revise our approach and adhere more closely to a social justice evaluation model. This change caused us to highlight the perspectives of low-income Latina mothers and emphasize the gap between parents’ and educators’ notions of empowerment. In this article, we describe our evaluation and highlight key findings that offer insightful implications for education practitioners, researchers, and evaluators. The findings pertain to the challenge of educators sharing power with urban parents and developing partnerships that are sensitive to the social and cultural factors that affect parents’ values, goals, and modes of participation. We also emphasize the relationship between evaluation theory and practice and point to the potential impact of social justice evaluation in education.
Multilevel Approaches to Documenting Change: Challenges in Community-Based Educational Research
Authors: Gallego Margaret A. , Rueda Robert , Moll Luis C.
Published: February 2022

Increasing availability of funds for development, design, and evaluation of alternative learning environments has challenged educational researchers to develop and validate innovative and effective interventions. The focus on accountability has resulted in an accelerated effort to record events, activities, and participation in substantive ways that suggest significance, statistical and otherwise, and that warrant further program improvements and modification. Yet, relying on traditional individual standardized measures—ones that are specifically designed to discriminate among students and that are better suited to the study of controlled experiments in laboratories rather than the sporadic and often spontaneous interactions common to learning settings in and out of school—leaves educational researchers generally ill equipped. Even as alternative educational programs are financially supported, the sanctioned means with which researchers and program developers document success of all educational programs have progressively narrowed, favoring traditional experimental designs with an emphasis on whether it works rather than on understanding why the program is successful. In this article, we used a multimethod, multilevel analysis to document the underlying dynamics of specific alternative learning contexts to identify generalizable principles while allowing for local variation.
Close up and Personal: The Effect of a Research Relationship on an Educational Program Evaluation
Authors: Mello Robin A.
Published: February 2022

This article addresses the construction of “critical friendships” within the practice of one particular program evaluation. It focuses on the evolution of relationships developed during one 2-year program evaluation study that examined a collaborative educational project. Findings show that a caring interest and mentoring rapport developed between program constituents and evaluator (the author of the study). Further, this study suggests that these relationships were essential to how formative and summative feedback was used. This article suggests that the interplay between evaluator and constituents is best practiced through what House and Howe call a methodological advocacy stance. Finally, it encourages further discourse and investigations into the ways that program evaluation is carried out in order to more thoroughly understand how relationships influence evaluation methodology and practice.
The Impact of Family Functioning on African American Males’ Academic Achievement: A Review and Clarification of the Empirical Literature
Authors: Mandara Jelani
Published: February 2022

This article reviews and clarifies many inconsistencies and misconceptions in the research literature on the effects of family functioning on African American male academic achievement. It was concluded that when parents use an African American version of authoritative parenting, teach children about their cultural heritage and personal power to achieve in spite of barriers, and are actively involved by monitoring homework and limiting counterproductive time, the odds of African American boys succeeding in school are greatly increased. Implications for parenting interventions, educational policy, and future research are also discussed.
Rethinking Cooling Out at Public Community Colleges: An Examination of Fiscal and Demographic Trends in Higher Education and the Rise of Statewide Articulation Agreements
Authors: Anderson Gregory M. , Alfonso Mariana , Sun Jeffrey C.
Published: February 2022

Recent data indicate that a large proportion of students entering community colleges are identifying terminal certificate or occupational associate degrees instead of academic majors or transfer as their short-term goal. Despite this, throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, states established articulation agreements as policy instruments to enhance the transfer of students from public 2-year institutions to 4-year institutions. This conundrum raises an interesting two-part question: In the absence of a significant increase in the demand for transfer by community colleges entrants, why have states enacted these agreements, and what potential impacts may arise from these legislative trends? Applying the state relative autonomy theory, we contend that the rise of articulation agreements constitutes a new state strategy to cope with the stagnation of higher education appropriations, the spiraling costs of tuition, and an excess demand for affordable higher education.
Student Planning and Information Problems in Different College Structures
Authors: Person Ann E. , Rosenbaum James E. , Deil-Amen Regina
Published: February 2022

Over the past three decades, colleges have experienced revolutionary changes, and the enrollment revolution has had a particularly profound impact on 2-year colleges. We describe the new kinds of students who are entering college today and the ways that colleges have begun to adapt. Then, analyzing interviews with students and administrators and a survey of nearly 4,400 students in 14 two-year colleges, we examine four questions: (1) Do students have serious information problems, and are college procedures ever responsible? (2) How can college structures improve students’ information and planning? (3) Do colleges with alternative structures affect student information and confidence? (4) Do alternative college structures matter, net of student attributes ? The results suggest new approaches to addressing the information needs of college students, which may have important implications for their confidence and success. The evidence in this study suggests that structured programs, structured advising, and structured peer supports should be added to the menu of college policy alternatives that deserve further consideration.
Deciding to Forgo College: Non-College Attendees’ Reflections on Family, School, and Self
Authors: Lindholm Jennifer A.
Published: February 2022

This article, based on work funded by the American Association of University Women, examines how personal and environmental factors shape non-college attendees’ decisions to forgo college directly after high school. Group interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 48 racially diverse recent high school graduates (27 men and 21 women) who had not attended any 2-year or 4-year college since completing high school. All graduated from public high schools in Los Angeles, California, and were between 18 and 21 years of age at the time that were interviewed. Findings highlight study participants’ current pursuits, their perspectives on college, the factors that influenced their post-high school life decisions (particularly home and school environments), and their reflections on whether they would do anything differently given the opportunity to turn back time. Considered within Persell's multidimensional framework, the findings lend support to the combined effects of societal, institutional, interactional, and intrapsychic variables in producing differential educational outcomes and post-high school life paths. Especially noteworthy is the transcendent effect across race, gender, and socioeconomic status of efficacy beliefs in shaping educational choices.
New York City's Failed Teacher Selection Project: Political Reality Trumps Educational Research, 1947–1953
Authors: De Forest Jennifer
Published: February 2022

This article describes the history of the failed New York City Teacher Selection Project (TSP; 1947–1953), a collaborative effort to replace the city's teacher licensing tests, which emphasized subject matter knowledge with personality tests. The TSP was a partnership between the Board of Examiners and the Citizens Committee for Children, and its members included pioneers from the field of child psychiatry. The author draws on primary documents to detail the TSP's research and shows how the tests that the group designed reflected individual members’ commitment to progressive education and the ethos of mental hygiene. In addition, the article shows how the TSP embraced an experimental scale created to measure applicants’ authoritarian tendencies. The author concludes that the TSP's efforts to influence teacher licensing failed largely because members chose to work with like-minded colleagues in isolation from the political realities of New York City and the public school system.
Single-Sex Programs: Resolving the Research Conundrum
Authors: Salomone Rosemary C.
Published: February 2022

In March, 2004, the federal Department of Education issued proposed Title IX regulations that promise to provide public school districts and charter school organizers considerable flexibility in establishing single-sex classes and schools. At the same time, however, as part of the No Child Left Behind Act, the Department has called for “scientifically based” research to guide educational practices while the Supreme Court has ruled that state actors need an “exceedingly persuasive” justification for drawing distinctions on the basis of sex. The dramatic turnaround in federal policy and the seeming inconsistencies in the law have sparked heated debate that has plumbed the depths of gender, race, and ideology. Yet both sides concur that research findings supporting single-sex schooling are inconclusive. This article works through this conundrum, maintaining that social science evidence has far more to offer the debate than either supporters or detractors of single-sex schooling recognize. To validate that assertion, it examines data on academic performance and social deficits across gender and race as well as tentative evidence from existing programs. Based on these findings, the author draws the critical connection among program planning, implementation, and assessment and urges educators and researchers to explore a broad range of questions and methods both in their search for evidence to inform and guide program development and in their efforts to generate new findings that will prove instructive if not definitive in measuring the overall effects of these programs.
Stories of Boy Scouts, Barbie Dolls, and Prom Dresses: Challenging College Students to Explore the Popular Culture of Their Childhood
Authors: Damico Amy M. , Quay Sara E.
Published: February 2022

This self-reflective article addresses the experiences two professors encountered when teaching a class about the popular culture of girls and boys to undergraduates at a small liberal arts college. The issues addressed include student reactions, teaching strategies, and the use of an online discussion platform and assessment. The instructors note that adjusting their teaching styles contributed to the eventual success of the course.
“It's a Double-Edged Sword, this Technology Business”: Secondary English Teachers’ Perspectives on a Schoolwide Laptop Technology Initiative
Authors: Mcgrail Ewa
Published: February 2022

In response to national technology mandates, schools across the United States have committed themselves to laptop technology programs as a way to encourage student-centered learning and critical thinking in collaborative classrooms. Most secondary English teachers in this study did not reject technology per se; rather, they saw some benefits of laptop technology in English instruction. Unfortunately, however, when asked to describe their overall experiences and attitudes toward technology, these teachers revealed a great deal of ambivalence about it in their instruction, especially in the context of a schoolwide laptop technology initiative. Four larger clusters of conflict contributed to this ambivalence: (1) conflicts surrounding institutional control in implementing the laptop program and teacher agency; (2) conflicts surrounding standardized testing's uncertain relationship with technology mandates; (3) conflicts surrounding technology uses in the general curriculum and technology allocation in specific class types; and (4) conflicts surrounding professional identity and the challenges that both student and teacher technology use brought to this identity. The study concludes that these teachers needed to be given greater agency in planning and implementing the laptop technology initiative and in revising their curriculum to embrace this new technology, and the necessary professional development to prepare them for such an educational innovation.
The Triumph of the Market and the Decline of Liberal Education: Implications for Civic Life
Authors: Roosevelt Grace
Published: February 2022

The purpose of this article is to argue that the growing commercialization of education and the simultaneous decline of what has traditionally been called “liberal education” will limit the range of political discourse and thus have negative effects on civic life. In a context driven mainly by the profit motive, not-for-profit educational institutions have until recently provided one of the few protected spaces (besides the church) in which the profit motive itself may be openly questioned. But with today's new emphasis on marketable products, measurable outcomes, and business skills, many institutions of higher education are unlikely to expose students to visions of justice and equality that challenge the ethics of the market system. Debates over the extent to which profit making should be regulated in the public interest are crucial to the vitality of any political community. Without the political imagination and broad-based critical thinking that liberal learning has traditionally fostered, there is little hope that liberal politics can continue to survive. The article includes (1) some salient facts about the commercialization of education in the United States today, (2) a brief overview of the history of the idea of liberal education, and (3) concluding reflections about the link between liberal education and liberal politics.
The Production of Whiteness in Education: Asian International Students in a College Classroom
Authors: Diangelo Robin J.
Published: February 2022

This study uses a poststructural analysis to explicate the social production of Whiteness in a college classroom. Whiteness scholars define Whiteness as reference to a set of locations that are historically, socially, politically, and culturally produced, and intrinsically linked to relations of domination. Using this framework of social production, I analyze a graduate-level college classroom for evidence of Whiteness. More than 50% of the class members were Asian international students. I suggest that Whiteness was operating on multiple levels, which I categorize as: Whiteness as Domination; Resources and the Production of the Other; and the Discourse of Cultural Preference. I argue that Whiteness not only served to deny Asian international students and other students of color an equal opportunity to learn in that classroom, but most pointedly, Whiteness also served to elevate the White students by positioning the students of color as their audience.
Identity Texts and Literacy Development among Preschool English Language Learners: Enhancing Learning Opportunities for Children at Risk for Learning Disabilities
Authors: Bernhard Judith K. , Cummins Jim , Campoy F. Isabel , Ada Alma Flor , Winsler Adam , Bleiker Charles
Published: February 2022

There is little research on English language learners (ELLs) in relation to learning disability (LD) assessment and identification. More important, there is a scarcity of research on models and strategies that enhance learning opportunities and outcomes for ELLs prior to an LD diagnosis. We describe in this article an innovative language intervention program involving the creation of bilingual, student self-authored identity texts. Called the Early Authors Program (EAP), the intervention stands as an example of how spaces and opportunities for literacy development among young ELLs can be created in a classroom instructional environment. The EAP, which reached 800 families, was evaluated using a combination of methods and instruments. The goal of the evaluation component was to collect data spanning one year from 325 randomly selected participating children in both control and experimental groups. Among its several beneficial outcomes, the EAP had demonstrably positive effects on children's language scores and appears to have strengthened their identities and fostered their self-esteem. Because a proportion of these students would be at risk for LD, we propose the implementation of programs of this type generally for ELL children, and especially for those considered likely to have future school-related difficulties.
The Special Education Referral and Decision-Making Process for English Language Learners: Child Study Team Meetings and Placement Conferences
Authors: Klingner Janette K. , Harry Beth
Published: February 2022

The purpose of this study was to examine the special education referral and decisionmaking process for English language learners (ELLs), with a focus on Child Study Team (CST) meetings and placement conferences/multidisciplinary team meetings. We wished to learn how school personnel determined if ELLs who were struggling had disabilities, to what extent those involved in the process understood second language acquisition, and whether language issues were considered when determining special education eligibility. We observed CST meetings and placement conferences for 19 students who were considered ELLs when they were referred. Findings revealed that in practice, only cursory attention was given to prereferral strategies. Most students were pushed toward testing, based on an assumption that poor academic performance or behavioral difficulties had their origin within the child and indicated a need for special education. Although some school personnel were quite knowledgeable about language issues, many were not. There was tremendous variation in the quality of what transpired during meetings. These differences were influenced by the intentions, knowledge, skills, and commitment of CST or multidisciplinary team members. All the factors we describe point to aspects of the process that should be improved.
Student Engagement and Learning in a Community-Based Arts Classroom
Authors: Thomas Elizabeth
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Young people are often limited in the range of roles and the dialogue routinely scripted for them, and then enacted with them, in schools and other learning settings. Community-based arts classrooms may offer young people access to a valuable alternative resource for learning and development, yet these programs have rarely been examined in empirical research. Greater understanding is needed of the community-based activities and learning experiences afforded adolescents situated in a range of economic, social, and cultural contexts.

Focus of study

This article examines a community-based arts classroom that represents practices and relationships not often found in schools to understand more about the possibilities of learning and identity for disenfranchised students.

Setting

The community-based arts classroom examined in this article was a printmaking workshop located in a working-class neighborhood of a large Midwestern city of the United States. The workshop was facilitated by a mainstream arts institution as part of its community-based education program. Working artists served as instructors.

Research design

Qualitative methods were used to privilege students’ and teachers’ perspectives and to describe complex, dynamic teaching and learning practices. Data sources included field notes based on participant observation, interview transcripts, and transcripts of audiotaped recordings of workshop dialogue. I used interpretive and discourse analysis procedures to develop appropriate units of analysis and categories of learning and engagement practices.

Findings

Participation in the workshop provided at least three sets of resources for students. First, it promoted routine ways of speaking with instructors and with one another about being an artist and doing creative work. Workshop participation also facilitated entry into a second pattern of dialogue and activity related directly to the process of printmaking itself. These practices allowed students to demonstrate growing confidence and competence in the classroom. A third set of resources was provided in the form of rituals that promoted ownership and membership in a community of artists.

Conclusions

The workshop practices described in this study provide conceptual tools and strategies for educators interested in developing student competence and membership in a classroom setting. The practices in this alternative educational context illustrate how a group of young people, about whom there are few positive expectations, and their teachers engage and learn in ways that are thoughtful, creative, and supportive of one another. These practices are critically important as they suggest strategies for (re)engaging students in a variety of contexts including school classrooms as well as community-based settings.
John Dewey Speaks to Brown: Research, Democratic Social Movement Strategies, and the Struggle for Education on Equal Terms
Authors: Rogers John , Oakes Jeannie
Published: February 2022

This article explores how a revitalized public life promises to be far more effective than conventional school reform in bringing more equitable education policy. Participatory social inquiry stands in contrasts to the limited and mostly technical focus of equity reforms that began with Great Society policies in the 1960s and 1970s and that continues today. These equity reforms have largely failed to account for the deeply held and pervasive cultural norms about race, merit, and schooling that sustain inequality. The authors find an alternative model for equity reform in John Dewey's later work. Engaging citizens in Deweyan-inspired public social inquiry can yield knowledge that defines high-quality education, merit, and achievement in racially inclusive ways. By participating in social inquiry, low-income parents and parents of color have the opportunity to remake their image, becoming actors in an organizing “movement” context. Their engagement helps frame a powerful story of parents and communities who want and deserve high-quality education and who know what education can and should be. As such stories take hold in the public consciousness, cultural obstacles to equity can be challenged more successfully, thereby advancing Brown's promise of education on equal terms.
Assessing the Effects of Small School Size on Mathematics Achievement: A Propensity Score-Matching Approach
Authors: Wyse Adam E. , Keesler Venessa , Schneider Barbara
Published: February 2022

Background

Small schools have been promoted as an educational reform that is capable of improving student outcomes. However, a survey of the research on small schools indicates that much of the movement for decreasing school size is based primarily on correlational methods that do not control for selection effects in the data. In addition, several recent studies have suggested that smaller schools may be able to increase student attendance and graduation rates but that these gains might not necessarily translate into gains in student achievement.

Purpose

This study investigates the potential effect of attending smaller schools on student mathematics achievement using propensity score matching techniques.

Research Design

Data in the study are from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 and represent over 12,000 high school students. Observed student responses from 10th and 12th grade are used in the analyses.

Data Collection and Analysis

An estimate of the potential effect of attending smaller schools is determined by matching students in the largest schools to smaller schools of four different sizes using propensity score matching techniques. These methods are used to attempt to account for selection effects present in these data and to approximate what the effect of attending a smaller school would be in each case.

Results

Results from the study suggest that simply switching students to smaller school environments does not necessarily raise the mathematics achievement of students in the largest schools. Further analysis indicated that there did not appear to be an optimal range of school sizes that would provide maximum levels of student mathematics achievement.

Conclusion

This study suggests that creating smaller schools might not be the best mechanism to raise student achievement. It is suggested that policy makers make careful deliberations before deciding to invest in small schools as an educational reform, because it is hard to establish when they will or will not be successful. Further research is needed into what makes some small schools effective.
“What Happened to Their Pets?”: Third Graders Encounter the Holocaust
Authors: Schweber Simone
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Though widely believed to contain moral lessons of import for audiences of all ages, the Holocaust is often considered too complex, too appalling, too impenetrable, or too emotionally disturbing a subject to be taught to young children, even if taught only in its most “preparatory version,” to use Jerome Bruner's famous phrasing. The subject matter, after all, deals at its core with human brutality, barbarous indifference, and industrialized mass murder. Nonetheless, a burgeoning market in materials designed to expose young children to the Holocaust implies that students are learning about the topic in earlier and earlier grades, a phenomenon that may be referred to as “curricular creep.” Such a trend raises the question of whether students should be exposed, purposefully and formally, to the horrors of the Holocaust, or, conversely, whether curricular creep should be somehow corralled. Although authors have weighed in on the ethics of Holocaust education, its history, practices, and materials, few have discussed its rightful place in the elementary school curriculum. Fewer still have empirically examined what the Holocaust looks like when taught to a young audience.

Focus of Study

To propose a policy answer to the question of how old is old enough to teach students about the Holocaust, this study attempted to determine what aspects of Holocaust history were taught in the third-grade classroom of a very experienced and well-respected teacher. Importantly, the study also proposed to examine how such teaching affected students, emotionally and intellectually.

Research Design/Data Generation

Data for the qualitative case study were generated through observations of this teacher's class sessions on the Holocaust, interviews with the teacher and a select group of students and their parents, and the collection of all class materials and student work. The interviews were transcribed, the field notes were doctored, and all the documents were coded iteratively and written up as a portrait of the unit.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The article concludes by considering third graders to be too young, as a group, to be taught about the Holocaust, thus recommending that curricular creep be reigned in for this topic. That said, the competing interpretations of the teacher, parents, and some of the students are included for consideration as well.
#fridaysforfuture – What does Instagram tell us about a social movement?
Authors: Herrmann Christoph , Rhein Sebastian , Dorsch Isabelle
Published: February 2022

Understanding social movement structures is important for political decision-makers to enable them to recognise the various motivating factors behind these movements. The Fridays for Future movement characterises a political group that has a majority of young people, frequently using social media to organise actions. By conducting a social network analysis on hashtags, this study contributes to the understanding of the global Fridays for Future movement. Particularly, we focus on the use and connection of hashtags on Instagram. We collected 59,112 posts tagged with #fridaysforfuture and analysed 91,172 hashtags used therein. Subsequently, the 140 most used hashtags were divided into 11 clusters, which provide not only information about the organisation of the social movement via social media, but also insights into lifestyle-related aspects. The clusters include the topics: climate; nutrition, lifestyle and health; memes; cycling; art; sustainable consumption and the Earth Day. The article shows that the motives of the Fridays for Future movement are broad. We can demonstrate that Fridays for Future is connected to other social movements and gain insights into the everyday life of the Fridays for Future stakeholders.
Correlation Between a Diagnosis of Anxiety or Depression and Initial VHI‐10 Scores in Benign Dysphonia
Authors: Enin Kwasi , Parikh Ayush , Kallogjeri Dorina , Naunheim Matthew R. , Huston Molly N.
Published: February 2022

Objective

Anxiety and depression have demonstrated a positive correlation with vocal handicap among patients with benign causes of dysphonia. Our objective is to explore differences in initial Vocal Handicap Index–10 (VHI‐10) scores between patients with a mental health history of anxiety or depression and those without.

Study Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Demographic data, diagnoses, and initial VHI‐10 scores were collected for patients presenting with dysphonia to 2 tertiary laryngology clinics.

Methods

A Kruskal‐Wallis test and subsequent Mann‐Whitney U test for pairwise comparisons were used to compare distribution of VHI‐10 scores among patients with anxiety, depression, anxiety and depression, and no such conditions. Bonferroni correction was used to control for multiple comparisons. Robust regression was used for multivariable analysis.

Results

A total of 620 cases of benign dysphonia were analyzed. Forty‐two percent of the patient cohort had a preexisting diagnosis of anxiety (n = 121, 20%), depression (n = 64, 10%), or anxiety and depression (n = 74, 12%). VHI‐10 scores were higher in patients with depression than in those without anxiety or depression (median difference, 4 [95% CI, 1‐8]; P =. 005) but did not differ significantly among the other groups. The effects of depression and anxiety status on initial VHI‐10 scores among the causes of benign dysphonia varied.

Conclusions

Patients with a history of depression who presented with dysphonia had worse vocal handicap than those without anxiety/depression history. Future studies may clarify how optimization of anxiety and depression can affect patient‐reported vocal handicap.
Intimacy, attachment to the partner, and daily well-being in romantic relationships
Authors: Poucher Jesse , Prager Karen J. , Shirvani Forouz , Parsons Julie , Patel Juhi
Published: February 2022

Self-disclosure ordinarily benefits individual well-being; however, if someone discloses with an unresponsive listener, self-disclosure may fail to enhance well-being. Because prior research has primarily studied the additive effects of disclosure and listener’s responsiveness on well-being, this study investigated their interactive effects on well-being in romantic relationships. Because attachment orientation is closely associated with needs for intimacy, we further inquired into moderating effects of attachment on associations between intimacy and well-being. One-hundred fifteen cohabiting couples completed 21 daily diaries in which they recorded their experiences interacting with their partners. High self-disclosure during interactions that lacked expressed understanding yielded negative rather than positive outcomes. Multiple interactions between participants’ and partners’ attachment insecurity and intimacy were especially associated with depressive symptoms and relationship satisfaction. Results highlight the importance of the relational context of self-disclosure and well-being.
California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory: Reliability Generalization Meta-Analysis
Authors: Orhan Ali
Published: February 2022

The aims of this reliability generalization study were to provide the overall alpha values of the California critical thinking disposition inventory (CCTDI) total score and subscales scores and investigate the characteristics of the studies that may be associated with the variability in the reliability values of the CCTDI total score and subscales scores. This study was carried out with 98 alpha values from 87 unique studies for total CCTDI scores. In the random effects model, total CCTDI was found to be reliable across samples with alpha value of 0.83. Also, the general alpha coefficients were 0.65, 0.56, 0.64, 0.66, 0.74, 0.72, and 0.61 for TS-scale, OM-scale, A-scale, S-scale, SC-scale, I-scale, and M-scale, respectively. Examination of study characteristics indicated that sample type was a significant predictor for alpha value of total CCTDI and all subscales. Samples with university students reported larger Cronbach’s alpha estimates for total CCTDI and all subscales. Also, while language was found to moderate the general alpha coefficient of total CCTDI, OM-scale, A-scale, S-scale, and I-scale, it was not a significant moderator on the general alpha value of TS-scale, SC-scale, and M-scale. Total CCTDI and all subscales showed higher Cronbach’s alpha values for the English-language administrations. Besides, country of the study was a significant moderator on the general alpha coefficient of total CCTDI, S-scale, and I-scale. However, subgroup of discipline was not a significant moderator on the general alpha coefficient of total CCTDI and its subscales. The mean of the test scores significantly explained %5 of the variance of alpha values of the total CCTDI. SD of the test scores significantly explained %10, %55, and %54 of the variance of alpha values of the total CCTDI, A-scale, and S-scale, respectively. It was found that gender and ethnicity significantly moderated the alpha values for M-scale.
Law and design thinking: Preparing graduates for the future of legal work
Authors: Hews Rachel , McNamara Judith , Nay Zoe
Published: February 2022

The rapidly evolving legal landscape is changing the nature of law and increasing the need for lawyers to acquire new skills and capabilities suited to the future of legal work. Australia’s first dedicated design thinking unit in undergraduate law – Queensland University of Technology’s (QUTs) Law and Design Thinking – teaches students to respond to legal challenges in innovative and creative ways. Three years on, this unit provides a valuable case study that establishes design thinking as an essential addition to traditional legal curricula and one that will ensure graduates are equipped for the future of work.
Quantifying Quality of Reaching Movements Longitudinally Post-Stroke: A Systematic Review
Authors: Saes M. , Mohamed Refai M. I. , van Beijnum B. J. F. , Bussmann J. B. J. , Jansma E. P. , Veltink P. H. , Buurke J. H. , van Wegen E. E. H. , Meskers C. G. M. , Krakauer J. W. , Kwakkel G.
Published: February 2022

Background

Disambiguation of behavioral restitution from compensation is important to better understand recovery of upper limb motor control post-stroke and subsequently design better interventions. Measuring quality of movement (QoM) during standardized performance assays and functional tasks using kinematic and kinetic metrics potentially allows for this disambiguation.

Objectives

To identify longitudinal studies that used kinematic and/or kinetic metrics to investigate post-stroke recovery of reaching and assess whether these studies distinguish behavioral restitution from compensation.

Methods

A systematic literature search was conducted using the databases PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Wiley/Cochrane Library up to July 1st, 2020. Studies were identified if they performed longitudinal kinematic and/or kinetic measurements during reaching, starting within the first 6 months post-stroke.

Results

Thirty-two longitudinal studies were identified, which reported a total of forty-six different kinematic metrics. Although the majority investigated improvements in kinetics or kinematics to quantify recovery of QoM, none of these studies explicitly addressed the distinction between behavioral restitution and compensation. One study obtained kinematic metrics for both performance assays and a functional task.

Conclusions

Despite the growing number of kinematic and kinetic studies on post-stroke recovery, longitudinal studies that explicitly seek to delineate between behavioral restitution and compensation are still lacking in the literature. To rectify this situation, future studies should measure kinematics and/or kinetics during performance assays to isolate restitution and during a standardized functional task to determine the contributions of restitution and compensation.
Constructing and evaluating a validity argument for a performance outcome measure for clinical trials: An example using the Multi-luminance Mobility Test
Authors: Weinfurt Kevin P
Published: February 2022

Background

Clinical trials that evaluate new medical products often use clinical outcome assessments to measure how patients feel or function. Determining the evidentiary support needed for clinical outcome assessments is challenging but necessary to ensure scores from a clinical outcome assessment reflect the relevant aspects of patients’ health. Modern validity theory—from educational and psychological testing—addresses the challenge by requiring that investigators state key assumptions underlying the proposed use of a clinical outcome assessment and collect evidence for or against those assumptions.

Methods

This article describes the argument-based approach to validity using an example of a performance outcome measure—the Multi-luminance Mobility Test—designed to assess patients with inherited retinal dystrophy that causes progressive loss of night vision. For the proposed interpretation and use of a performance outcome measure to be reasonable, several key assumptions need to be plausible. I describe the assumptions along with examples of supporting evidence from the published literature to evaluate each assumption within the rationale.

Results

This article provides an example of a validity rationale to evaluate a clinical outcome assessment using the Multi-luminance Mobility Test as an example.

Conclusion

The demonstration illustrates the use of the argument-based approach to validity evaluation and the challenges in supporting parts of a validity rationale for clinical outcome assessments that measure how patients feel and function in a more indirect way. By making clinical outcome assessment validation practices consistent with modern validity theory, investigators, sponsors, and regulators should be able to communicate more clearly and direct resources more efficiently to support the creation of patient-centered endpoints in clinical trials.
Medial and Lateral Combined Ligament Arthroscopic Repair for Multidirectional Ankle Instability: Case Series
Authors: Mansur Nacime S. , Lemos Andre Vitor , Baumfeld Daniel , Baumfeld Tiago S. , Prado Marcelo P. , Raduan Fernando C. , Nery Caio A.
Published: February 2022

Category:

Arthroscopy; Sports

Introduction/Purpose:

The high prevalence of ankle sprains in the population produces a significant number of patients with lateral instability. Maintenance of this condition may lead to the progressive involvement of medial structures, causing a multidirectional rotational instability.

Methods:

This is a retrospective study with patients diagnosed with multidirectional instability, submitted to an ankle arthroscopy with medial (arthroscopic tensioning) and lateral repair (arthroscopic Bröstrom) between January 2018 and January 2020. All patients were evaluated for pain and function according to the VAS and the AOFAS Score at a mean of 14.8 months (5-27 months) in follow-up.

Results:

A total of 30 ankles (29 patients) were included in the study. AOFAS score increase from a 49.7 (CI 5.8) to a 91.9 (CI 2.4) mean (p=0.001) and was followed by significant improvement in the mean VAS (6.83; CI 0.37 to 0.95; CI 0.31). The majority of patients had associated procedures (53.3%) and a low complication rate was found (16.6%).

Conclusion:

Combined medial and lateral arthroscopic repair might be an effective and safe alternative in the treatment of multidirectional instability. Inclusion of the deltoid ligament complex and the low invasiveness of the arthroscopic technique can improve the clinical outcomes of these patients.
Entanglement density, macromolecular orientation, and their effect on elastic strain recovery of polyolefin films
Authors: Traon Fanny , Grohens Yves , Corre Yves-Marie
Published: February 2022

For amorphous polymers, restoring forces are generated by the progressive orientation of the macromolecular chains in the stretching direction leading to a decrease in the system entropy. Orienting the chains in the future stretching direction thus reduces the entropy variation induced by the stretching and limits the entropic restoring force magnitude. Entropic restoring forces created during stretching have been correlated to the number of junction points by previous studies. Reducing the entanglement density (i.e., the number of junction points) is supposed to limit the entropic restoring force magnitude. In this study, the influence of blend ratio of low molecular weight wax and orientation level on the mechanical properties of the thin films, especially the elastic recovery, were evaluated. Elastic energy strain recovery was calculated from hysteresis curve obtained during 60% loading (stretch) and unloading (recovery) cycle and compared to rheological and orientation measurement. It has been shown that a decrease in entanglement density can minimize elastic recovery, Nevertheless, a compromise must be found, in order to limit the permanent deformation caused by chain flow. Macromolecular orientation is also a way to adjust the film mechanical properties. A LDPE 3 × 3 biaxial orientation leads to a 25% reduction in transversal direction elastic recovery (compared to MDO cast film) without altering machine direction mechanical behavior. However, for ethylene vinyl acetate, the uniaxial macromolecular orientation seems to impact the film behavior in the transverse direction by causing a smaller inter-atom distance, favoring a higher bond strength. The latter acts as transient physical nodes, increasing entropic restoring forces.
Mode of delivery, perinatal outcome and neurodevelopment in uncomplicated monochorionic diamniotic twins: a single-center retrospective cohort study
Authors: Chimenea Angel , García-Díaz Lutgardo , Antiñolo Guillermo
Published: February 2022

Background

There is no agreement on the effect of planned mode of delivery in the perinatal morbidity and neurodevelopment in uncomplicated monochorionic diamniotic as well as regarding the safest mode of delivery. In this paper we have aimed to analyze the impact of the mode of delivery in uncomplicated monochorionic diamniotic twins ≥ 32 weeks of gestation.

Material and methods

This study included 72 women, followed and attended at our department, with uncomplicated monochorionic diamniotic pregnancies who had a birth between 32.0 and 37.6 weeks of gestation from January 2012 to December 2018. Outcomes were recorded in women who underwent planned vaginal delivery (induced or spontaneous onset of labor), and women who underwent a planned cesarean section for any reason that excluded vaginal delivery. Primary outcomes included: (1) A composite of any of the following: neonatal death, 5-min Apgar score < 4, respiratory distress syndrome, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, sepsis, periventricular leukomalacia, intraventricular hemorrhage, and necrotizing enterocolitis. (2) Neurodevelopmental status at 2 years of corrected age.

Results

In this period, 42 women (58.3%) had a planned vaginal delivery, and 30 women (41.7%) had a planned cesarean section. In the first group, 64.3% had a vaginal delivery. The rate of successful vaginal delivery was similar regardless the onset of labor. We did not find a higher composite perinatal morbidity in the planned vaginal delivery group (planned vaginal delivery: 3.6% vs. planned cesarean section: 8.3%, aOR 1.36, 95% CI 0.24–7.81). Considering the onset of labor, it was more frequent in the spontaneous subgroup (8.3% vs. 0%). The rate of neurodevelopmental impairment was higher in the planned cesarean section group, without reaching statistical significance [10.2% vs. 4.9%, aOR 1.53 (95% CI 0.37–6.29)].

Conclusions

In uncomplicated monochorionic diamniotic twins at ≥ 32 weeks of gestation, when the first twin is in vertex presentation, our results suggest that planned vaginal delivery is safe, with a successful outcome as well as high vaginal delivery rate.