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Misinformation regarding vaccine science decreased the receptiveness to COVID-19 vaccines, exacerbating the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on society. To mitigate the negative societal impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, impactful and creative science communication was needed, yet little research has explored how to encourage COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and address misconceptions held by non-Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics majors (referred to as non-majors). We have previously demonstrated that including expert guest lectures in the vaccine module in the non-major introductory biology course helps combat students' vaccine hesitancy. In the present study, we further address how learning about vaccines impacts student knowledge and impressions of the COVID-19 vaccines through a podcast assignment. As a part of this assignment, non-majors created podcasts to address COVID-19 vaccine misconceptions of their choice. We coded pre and post, open-ended essay reflections (n = 40) to assess non-majors' knowledge and impressions of the COVID-19 vaccines. Non-majors' impressions of the vaccines improved following the podcast assignment with more than three times as many students reporting a positive view of the assignment than negative views. Notably, eight of the nine interviewed students still ended the course with misconceptions about the COVID-19 vaccines, such as the vaccines being unnecessary or causing fertility issues. In a post semi-structured interview following this assignment, students (n = 7) discussed the impact of looking into the specific misconceptions related to COVID-19 vaccines themselves, including improved science communication skills and understanding of different perspectives. Thus, podcasts can provide opportunities for students to improve engagement in valuable societal topics like vaccine literacy in the non-majors classroom.

Student well-being is an increasing area of concern within higher education and one of the biggest causes of attrition. This study sought to investigate the potential for sensory modulation strategies as an approach to support student well-being and engagement in studies through an action research project. Sixteen second-year occupational therapy students took part in a two-week trial of items designed to support sensory modulation, following which they were asked to complete an online survey evaluating the effectiveness of the item in relation to affect, regulation, attention, and activity. Eight students completed the survey containing a mix of Likert scale and free text responses. Results of the surveys were analyzed through descriptive statistical analysis of numerical data and quantitative content analysis of textual data informed by a pre-existing framework derived from a model of Sensory Integration. While preliminary in nature, the results of the survey suggested a positive impact on affect, specifically anxiety, overall regulation, and ability to engage in studies, suggesting a connection between these factors. An additional code was identified during the analysis of strategy mismatch to reflect barriers encountered relating to the extent of and longevity of use of the strategies. Further research on a larger scale is needed to more fully investigate the potential of this approach for facilitating increased student well-being.

Trauma is pervasive worldwide and is associated with poor health outcomes if left unaddressed, however, a gap in practice continues to exist in the implementation of trauma-informed care (TIC). Occupational therapy practitioners will encounter individuals, communities, and populations influenced by trauma, which warrants the need for TIC to improve overall service delivery across the lifespan. However, TIC is currently not systematically integrated into any Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) occupational therapy educational standards. The purpose of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a TIC application-based workshop for a sample of entry-level occupational therapy doctorate (OTD) students. The program evaluation component utilized pre-and post- survey design with Likert, forced choice, short-answer, and open-ended questions related to the delivery of content from the trauma-informed care workshop. Outcomes were evaluated through descriptive statistics and content analysis examining participants' perception of change in TIC knowledge, confidence, and competence in application to occupational therapy practice. Overall, participants' perception of TIC application knowledge, confidence, and competence improved following the workshop. The workshop and its associated program evaluation built on prior work across healthcare disciplines establishing the need for proactive TIC education. The current study supports the need for TIC to be intentionally situated within occupational therapy academia to prepare occupational therapy practitioners to understand and apply TIC across the lifespan and practice settings to improve patient outcomes and experiences.

Feminist community-engaged scholars and practitioners value deep relationship building with their community partners, which can be challenging during periods of disruption. Increasingly, disruptions occur at multiple levels (e.g., pandemics, civil unrest, community/campus violence, partner staffing and leadership turnover, experiences of illness or dramatic shifts in caregiving responsibilities). During disruptions, engaging partners in deep and meaningful ways requires innovation and creativity. Authors chronicle a multiyear, campuswide interdisciplinary learning community about feminist community engagement disrupted. Authors describe the ways in which feminist community engagement practices informed how the learning community was envisioned and convened and the various learning community stages over time. Throughout, authors share reflections on how meaningful this learning time and space has been and how participation in the learning community has influenced their thinking and practices. Conclusions address lessons learned useful for other boundary-spanning community-engaged scholars and practitioners and those who develop programming to support them.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between mentoring and Early Career Teacher retention, within an urban school district in Maryland. The research examined mentoring and teacher retention in an urban school district. There were 11 participants in the study. Seven of the participants remained in the district after their three-year mentorship support. The other four participants left the district at the end of the three years. The study was phenomenological, as it examined the lived experiences of the Early Career Teachers. The study's methodology utilized purposeful sampling and data collection using semi-structured interviews. Some of the major themes identified were mentoring is important for new teachers, mentors should operate in full time positions, mentors should possess certain traits, and the summer orientation session is beneficial.

Understanding students' learning of knowledge components (KCs) is an important educational data mining task and enables many educational applications. However, in the domain of computing education, where program exercises require students to practice many KCs simultaneously, it is a challenge to attribute their errors to specific KCs and, therefore, to model student knowledge of these KCs. In this paper, we define this task as the KC attribution problem. We first demonstrate a novel approach to addressing this task using deep neural networks and explore its performance in identifying expert-defined KCs (RQ1). Because the labeling process takes costly expert resources, we further evaluate the effectiveness of transfer learning for KC attribution, using more easily acquired labels, such as problem correctness (RQ2). Finally, because prior research indicates the incorporation of educational theory in deep learning models could potentially enhance model performance, we investigated how to incorporate learning curves in the model design and evaluated their performance (RQ3). Our results show that in a supervised learning scenario, we can use a deep learning model, code2vec, to attribute KCs with a relatively high performance (AUC > 75% in two of the three examined KCs). Further using transfer learning, we achieve reasonable performance on the task without any costly expert labeling. However, the incorporation of learning curves shows limited effectiveness in this task. Our research lays important groundwork for personalized feedback for students based on which KCs they applied correctly, as well as more interpretable and accurate student models.

This analysis employs a Bayesian framework to estimate the impact of a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) intervention on the recidivism of high-risk people under community supervision. The study relies on the reanalysis of experimental datal using a Bayesian logistic regression model. In doing so, new estimates of programmatic impact were produced using weakly informative Cauchy priors and the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo method. The Bayesian analysis indicated that CBT reduced the prevalence of new charges for total, non-violent, property, and drug crimes. However, the effectiveness of the CBT program varied meaningfully depending on the participant's age. The probability of the successful reduction of drug offenses was high only for younger individuals (<26 years old), while there was an impact on property offenses only for older individuals (>26 years old). In general, the probability of the successful reduction of new charges was higher for the older group of people on probation. Generally, this study demonstrates that Bayesian analysis can complement the more commonplace Null Hypothesis Significance Test (NHST) analysis in experimental research by providing practically useful probability information. Additionally, the specific findings of the reestimation support the principles of risk-needs responsivity and risk-stratified community supervision and align with related findings, though important differences emerge. In this case, the Bayesian estimations suggest that the effect of the intervention may vary for different types of crime depending on the age of the participants. This is informative for the development of evidence-based correctional policy and effective community supervision programming.

Comprehending texts in content areas can be challenging for students with learning disabilities (LD) because they may lack the necessary background and vocabulary knowledge needed to construct meaning from text. As more students with LD are educated in the general education classroom, it is necessary for teachers to implement strategies to increase the vocabulary and background knowledge of their students. The purpose of this paper is to provide effective instructional strategies to build both background knowledge and vocabulary knowledge to increase comprehension of content area material.

Purpose: Disorders on the autism spectrum have characteristics that can manifest as difficulties with communication, executive functioning, daily living, and more. These challenges can be mitigated with early identification. However, diagnostic criteria has changed from DSM-IV to DSM-5, which can make diagnosing a disorder on the autism spectrum complex. We evaluated machine learning to classify individuals as having one of three disorders of the autism spectrum under DSM-IV, or as non-spectrum. Methods: We employed machine learning to analyze retrospective data from 38,560 individuals. Inputs encompassed clinical, demographic, and assessment data. Results: The algorithm achieved AUROCs ranging from 0.863 to 0.980. The model correctly classified 80.5% individuals; 12.6% of individuals from this dataset were misclassified with another disorder on the autism spectrum. Conclusion: Machine learning can classify individuals as having a disorder on the autism spectrum or as non-spectrum using minimal data inputs.

Anatomy education is essential for developing healthcare professionals, and discussion continues about factors that impact and improve the anatomy learning environment. Neglected in this discussion is a consideration of the diverse religious assumptions and beliefs that college students bring to anatomy learning. Surveys of religion among United States college students indicate that many identify as religious and Christian. This viewpoint commentary summarizes main elements of Christian theology and anthropology, discusses the holistic and positive view of the body presented in Christian scripture, and outlines how these Christian beliefs inform and impact student preparation for anatomy education and human body dissection, address ethical issues in body donation, and support professionalism for future career practice.

Many children living in linguistically diverse low- and middle-income countries learn to read and write in multiple languages. Recent research provides implications for effective reading instruction with multilingual learners (e.g., Hall et al. in New Dir Child Adolesc Dev 166:145-189, 2019). However, there is limited empirical evidence on effective instructional practices for multilingual early grade learners who are at-risk of reading failure. The goal of our research was to examine the effect of a structured literacy intervention on literacy skills for a cohort of first grade children at-risk of reading failure as they learned to read in Kiswahili and English. Data were drawn from a larger longitudinal randomized control trial of the Primary Math and Reading Initiative in four counties in Kenya (Kiambu, Nakuru, Nairobi, and Kisumu, with 165 at-risk children identified (71 control; 94 treatment). Children in the treatment condition received daily structured instruction in letter knowledge, phonological awareness, decoding, word reading, and reading comprehension in Kiswahili and English. Children in the control condition continued with the business-as-usual approach, typically whole word instruction. Path analysis was used to examine the intervention effect of the PRIMR program through second grade. The path models further explored the within- and cross-language relationships of variables that predict oral reading fluency over time. Our analyses revealed that children in the treatment condition exhibited significantly higher growth in letter-sound knowledge for both Kiswahili and English. While growth was also observed for non-word fluency in Kiswahili and English for both treatment and control groups, there were no significant findings for this skill that can be attributed to the PRIMR intervention. Our analysis revealed that cross-linguistic elements of English reading skills contribute to oral reading fluency skills in Kiswahili. We discuss implications for aspects of structured literacy instruction essential for multilingual learners at-risk of reading failure.

Two metacognitive knowledge types in deductive domains are procedural and conditional. This work presents a preliminary study on the impact of metacognitive knowledge and motivation on transfer across two Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs), then two experiments on metacognitive knowledge instruction. Throughout this work, we trained students on a logic ITS that supports a "default" forward-chaining and an alternative backward-chaining (BC) strategy, then a probability ITS that only supports BC. Students were grouped into those with conditional knowledge who know "how" and "when" to use each strategy ("StrBoth"), those with procedural knowledge who know "how only" ("StrHow"), and the rote students who persist in the default strategy and know neither how nor when ("Rote"). The online traces' initial accuracy was used to further split students into high- and low-motivation groups. The preliminary study showed that only high-motivation "StrBoth" students transferred their metacognitive knowledge across the two ITSs. The two experiments provided metacognitive knowledge instruction for "StrHow" and "Rote" students to catch up with their "StrBoth" peers. In "Exp." 1 we utilized prompted nudges to teach when to use BC, and in "Exp." 2 we combined nudges with worked examples to teach how and when to use BC. Based on our findings, we propose a "Metacognitive knowledge, initial Motivation, and instructional Interventions (MMI)" framework for transfer across ITSs. The framework suggests that the key factors for facilitating transfer are the motivation for "StrBoth" students, nudges for their "StrHow" peers, and the combination of worked examples and nudges for "Rote" students.

Learning to derive subgoals reduces the gap between experts and students and makes students prepared for future problem solving. Researchers have explored subgoal-labeled instructional materials in traditional problem solving and within tutoring systems to help novices learn to subgoal. However, only a little research is found on problem-solving strategies in relationship with subgoal learning. Also, these strategies are under-explored within computer-based tutors and learning environments. The backward problem-solving strategy is closely related to the process of subgoaling, where problem solving iteratively refines the goal into a new subgoal to reduce difficulty. In this paper, we explore a training strategy for backward strategy learning within an intelligent logic tutor that teaches logic-proof construction. The training session involved backward worked examples (BWE) and problem solving (BPS) to help students learn backward strategy towards improving their subgoaling and problem-solving skills. To evaluate the training strategy, we analyzed students' 1) experience with and engagement in learning backward strategy, 2) performance and 3) proof construction approaches in new problems that they solved independently without tutor help after each level of training and in posttest. Our results showed that, when new problems were given to solve without any tutor help, students who were trained with both BWE and BPS outperformed students who received none of the treatment or only BWE during training. Additionally, students trained with both BWE and BPS derived subgoals during proof construction with significantly higher efficiency than the other two groups.

Research experiences are an integral part of training future scientists and fostering diversity in science. Providing culturally responsive research mentorship, defined as mentorship that incorporates cultural knowledge to improve learning experiences for a particular group, is a critical step in this endeavor. While culturally responsive mentoring is most commonly associated with mentoring students with underrepresented races and ethnicities in the sciences, it can also be helpful for mentees with a diversity of abilities, sexualities, economic backgrounds, and religions. In this essay, we discuss how mentors can provide more culturally responsive mentoring of Muslim research mentees in the sciences. Muslims are a stigmatized minority group in the United States who participate in a religious culture that often differs from the secular culture of science. Notably, there are few resources for how to engage in culturally responsive mentoring of Muslim research mentees. To address this gap, we drew from the extant literature on the challenges that Muslims encounter in the United States, which likely extends to the context of scientific research, and identified potential culturally responsive accommodations in research.

This study explored the perceived impact of integrating Generative Artificial Intelligence Systems (GenAI) such as ChatGPT into a postgraduate Master of Education program, drawing on the dual perspectives of participants who were students and educators teaching students at different levels of education in England. Using the Situated Expectancy-Value Theory and Activity-Centered Analysis and Design theoretical frameworks, the findings revealed opportunities, benefits, and challenges. Benefits included personalized learning and efficiencies in course design while the challenges consisted of ethical concerns, holistic skill development and problem solving. The surprising outcome of this study was the strong emotive anxiety around using AI and GenAI in participants' academic and personal lives. A balanced, critically reflective approach can help realize ChatGPT's educational potential while navigating implementation barriers and associated challenges. Participants insights can add to the dialogue negotiating ways of effectively integrating GenAI into the higher education curriculum.

The current study conducted a comparative analysis of the effects of select components of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, labeled praise, behavior descriptions, and reflections on child vocalizations in two children with autism spectrum disorder and accompanying language delays using a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design. The frequency of verbalizations, the frequency of different verbalizations, and the mean length of utterance of words (MLUw) were measured during a baseline condition followed sequentially by two experimental conditions during a free play environment. The total number of therapist-child interactions remained consistent across all experimental conditions such that only the topography of the interactions varied across conditions. During the first experimental condition the clinician used labeled praise and behavior descriptions during child play. After establishing stability of changes under these conditions, the therapist systematically added reflections of child vocalizations in the second experimental condition. Total verbalizations, different verbalizations, and MLUw increased following the introduction of labeled praise and behavior descriptions. Total verbalizations and different verbalizations increased and the frequencies accelerated following the systematic introduction of reflections. The study showed the relative value of reflections of child verbalizations as a powerful component of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy procedures to facilitate verbalizations by children with autism.

A student's socioeconomic status (SES) has a significant relation to their academic achievement. Much of this work has explored this in math and reading, but less is known about how SES relates to science achievement, particularly in the early grades. Using quantile regression with nationally representative data, we explored this relation in 12,676 kindergarten students (51.2% boys, 52.2% White, 21.8% Hispanic, 12.7% Black and 6.6% Asian) and 10,339 fifth-grade students (51.3% boys, 49.4 White, 27.2% Hispanic, 9.4% Black and 8.2% Asian). We found less variability in science achievement scores for those high on SES than those low on SES. The scores of the high SES students cluster together on the high end of science achievement, whilst those from low SES score across the distribution. These findings highlight the need to explore what can mitigate the relation between SES and science achievement and where resources to support science achievement are most needed.

This paper presents an overview of the arts-based methodology used in a research project that aimed to explore the impact of the lived experiences of racism on 10- and 11-year-old children in the United Kingdom. The research responds to the relative lack of literature concerning the racialised experiences of young children. We discuss how we developed the arts-based method of body mapping as an ethical approach to foregrounding the children's voices. We consider that this approach contributes to knowledge and understanding about exploring the nuanced and complex relationship between the children's external worlds and their internal feelings, and supporting them to process and communicate this. We suggest that the method presented is transferable, and present our ethically engaged, arts-based planning framework that can be used if others wish to adopt this way of working.

Black women remain severely underrepresented in computing despite ongoing efforts to diversify the field. Given that Black women exist at the intersection of both racial and gendered identities, tailored approaches are necessary to address the unique barriers Black women face in computing. However, it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the efficacy of interventions designed to retain Black women in computing, since samples of computing students typically contain too few Black women for robust statistical analysis. Using about a decade of student survey responses from an National Science Foundation--funded Broadening Participation in Computing alliance, we use regression analyses to quantitatively examine the connection between different types of interventions and Black women's intentions to persist in computing and how this compares to other students (specifically, Black men, white women, and white men). This comparison allows us to quantitatively explore how Black women's needs are both distinct from--and similar to--other students. We find that career awareness and faculty mentorship are the two interventions that have a statistically significant, positive correlation with Black women's computing persistence intentions. No evidence was found that increasing confidence or developing skills/knowledge was correlated with Black women's computing persistence intentions, which we posit is because Black women must be highly committed and confident to pursue computing in college. Last, our results suggest that many efforts to increase the number of women in computing are focused on meeting the needs of white women. While further analyses are needed to fully understand the impact of complex intersectional identities in computing, this large-scale quantitative analysis contributes to our understanding of the nuances of Black women's needs in computing.

This article analyses the activities and early outcomes of an ongoing co-designed and co-delivered research impact project entitled "Decolonising the English Literature A-Level". It draws on examples from three case studies, classroom experiences, and student and teacher feedback to show how efforts to support the decolonisation of taught content and pedagogies aimed at A-Level learners can generate benefits for students relating to knowledge and understanding; skills development; personal motivation and well-being; academic attainment; and educational and career ambitions and prospects.

This study examines how individuals assess administrative burdens and how these views change over time within the context of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), which provides food to pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under age five. Using interview data from the Baby's First Years: Mothers' Voices study (n = 80), we demonstrate how the circumstances of family life, shifting food needs and preferences, and the receipt of other resources shape how mothers perceive the costs and benefits of program participation. We find that mothers' perceptions of WIC's costs and benefits vary over time and contribute to program participation trajectories, so many eligible people do not participate; need alone does not drive participation decisions.

This study examines a common pedagogical approach whereby students view teacher feedback outside of class time. Facilitated through Moodle, it aimed to investigate not only the effect of written corrective feedback (WCF) on learning outcomes, but importantly, how frequently students review the feedback they receive. The study was conducted at a Japanese Women's University in Tokyo (age: M = 19.6, SD = 0.6). Over a 15-week semester, students were required to write weekly homework assignments. These were then marked by the researcher and returned via Moodle, with students encouraged to read their feedback before attempting the next assignment. In line with existing research in the field, a no-WCF control group was compared against treatment groups that received indirect WCF with meta-linguistic explanations. Further to this, using an online system such as "Moodle" allowed the provision of linked grammar resource pages through basic HTML code embedded within the WCF itself. At the end of the semester student texts were analysed to measure improvement. When pre-test and post-tests were compared there were no significant differences within groups or between groups on measures of fluency and accuracy. However, what sets this study apart from others that have investigated student engagement, is the use of online activity logs which in combination with survey data allowed the investigation of actual study habits rather than merely those that are self-reported. The results of which give better insight and valid explanations for the outcomes of the study and call into question the efficacy of take-home feedback.

Few studies have analyzed students' teamwork (pairwork) habits in programming projects due to the challenges and high cost of analyzing complex, long-term collaborative processes. In this work, we analyze student teamwork data collected from the GitHub platform with the goal of identifying specific pair teamwork styles. This analysis builds on an initial corpus of commit message data that was manually labeled by subject matter experts. We then extend this annotation through the use of self-supervised, semi-supervised learning to develop a large-scale annotated dataset that covers multiple course offerings from a second-semester CS2 course. Further, we develop a series of predictive models to automatically identify student teamwork styles. Finally, we compare trends in students' performance and team selection for each teamwork style to see if any of them reflected better student outcomes or different trends of help-seeking among students. Our analysis showed that applying self-supervised semi-supervised methods helps us to label larger subsets of data automatically and maintains and even sometimes improves the performance of the fully supervised models on a held-out validation set. Our analysis also showed that members of teams in which all members have significant contributions tend to have better performance in class, but their help-seeking behaviors are not significantly different.

Drawing upon Bourdieu's concept of capital, this article examines the enactment of the "Programa Nacional de Bilingüismo" (National Bilingual Program), a policy that aims to provide Colombian students equal opportunities to learn English. In this exploratory, sequential mixed-methods study, data were collected from teachers and students from three Grade 5 classrooms of public schools in Colombia. The findings revealed that the plan's differentiated enactment generates unequal access to opportunities to build language capital and unequal levels of academic language achievement among the three schools. We argue that the enactment of the plan to equalize opportunities and achievement and therefore build the language capital of Colombian students is obstructed by existing funding structures.

This article reviews the impact of further education (FE) colleges -- in particular, mixed economy colleges -- on the surrounding environment and community, and attempts to answer the question of whether the mixed economy college can still be considered an anchor in the community. A mixed methods small-scale case study of a medium-sized mixed economy college was used to evaluate a range of issues that impact on the local community, considering the future and expansion of 16-19 education, against the backdrop of decreases in college provision in the East of England. The aim was to present the background and brief history of the mixed economy college's impact on the surrounding community, particularly through associated financial, economic and environmental measurements. In conclusion, the authors argue that FE/mixed economy colleges can add significant value to the surrounding environment, community and wider society, and that they are still an anchor in the environment and local communities in which they are situated. They further posit that the goal is for all involved in the FE/mixed economy community to contribute to the shared aim of widening access to lifelong learning, thus further improving the communities and environment in which students and staff reside and work.

In this study, we examine the association between attending a Non-Formal Learning Center (NLFC) in Sokoto and Bauchi states for at least nine months and reading outcomes for out-of-school children (OOSC) who are mainstreamed into formal schooling by grade 4 (P4). We use Hierarchical Linear Modeling with data from 1,116 pupil Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRA) and pupil surveys collected by the NEI Plus program. Overall, NFLC-mainstreamed pupils read at the same low levels as their peers who have received formal schooling, despite having had disruptions to their education. Given this evidence, policymakers should consider maintaining the NFLCs to jumpstart OOSC into school.

In this qualitative study, we used possible-selves theory to explore how teachers in the northeastern US made sense of their professional identity and possible selves during the forced school shutdowns that occurred because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected data through an initial questionnaire, weekly reflections, and semi-structured interviews, and used thematic analysis to gain insights into teachers' experiences. Our findings revealed that the challenges posed by school shutdowns during the pandemic disrupted teachers' actual identities and prompted them to draw on identity-related supports and possible selves. We used quotes from our participants to illustrate how they navigated these challenges and adapted to changing circumstances. Overall, our study sheds light on how teachers shape and reshape their identities in response to challenging situations. This knowledge can be used to support teachers' identity development in times of uncertainty and change.

Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic caused unprecedented disruptions in education. School closures quickly followed the onset of the pandemic to contain the spread of the virus, forcing millions of students out of their regular academic calendars. Countries put in place interventions aimed to reduce the deleterious effects of school closures and disruptions in learning. For instance, many countries used various mediums to provide students with distance learning. This scoping review examines the interventions that education systems in low- and middle-income Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries (LMIC) implemented to mitigate learning loss in reading and writing skills among early grade learners (i.e., children attending primary schools) and discusses the reach of those programs. This review highlights the proportion of students reached by the targeted mitigation measures, revealing that LMIC countries in SSA provided students with remote learning opportunities through radio and television programming, provided teachers with professional development on the use of novel tools, and provided parents and families with support to help learners at home. However, these disruptions affected the traditional assessment methods. Various assessment methods were implemented to measure student progress, but there is a need for appropriate progress monitoring tools and accurate data to measure the effectiveness of the interventions. Many LMIC implemented Return-to-School policy frameworks, processes, and principles that ensured safe learning continuity.

With increased attention on the school belonging experiences of young people from refugee backgrounds, there is limited understanding of how parents construct and respond to their children's experiences. Given the important role that parents play in their children's education, this study explored the perspectives of three mothers from newly arrived refugee backgrounds, as they responded to drawings created by their children about their schooling experiences in an Australian primary school. Employing an arts-based approach, data were collected from students' drawings and semi-structured interviews. The findings revealed that the mothers viewed language as a mediator in children's belonging experiences. English language proficiency bridged opportunities for their children's academic and social success, with translation support providing opportunities for both the children and the mothers to actively participate in the school community. Additionally, mothers felt that peers from the same language and cultural backgrounds contributed to their children's sense of belonging while 'local' peers amplified difference. The study found the mothers often focused on what their children lacked or how they were different when discussing barriers to belonging, suggesting there is a need, particularly within schools, to shift focus from what these students' lack to what they contribute to their school communities.

This article examines the place of evolutionary science in protestant and Catholic residential colleges associated with Australian public universities across the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Although faith-based universities are a relatively recent phenomenon in Australia, a quasi-federal model of secular teaching and accrediting universities linked to church-run non-teaching residential colleges developed with the founding of the first Australian university, the University of Sydney, in the 1850s. The model was subsequently replicated, with local variations, across the first generation of Australian public universities. This interface between mainstream secular and more selective religious spaces makes the colleges an instructive setting in which to examine science-and-religion ideas in institutional context. As principally pastoral, residential institutions the colleges did not have curricula or significant research programmes of their own, but student publications produced within them shed light on the attitudes and beliefs of students and some staff regarding evolutionary science, and science more generally, in relation to religion. The article analyses a corpus of more than 700 student publications published between 1907 and 2020 and associated with the Universities of Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland, the three institutions with the most developed collegiate systems. The analysis shows the complexity of ways in which evolutionary science was understood within the denominational colleges, and the limits set to those understandings by college authors' plural institutional contexts.

This paper focuses on school choice "within" the public school system in Queensland, Australia. While school choice has typically been framed as a logic of economic rationalism (for middle-class families), in this paper we use Ahmed's concept of the cultural politics of emotion to describe a more complex dimension of choice through gendered community. We argue that mothers become responsibilized for school choice, and in the process become emotionally invested in school choosing. In managing their soft bodily desires and hard cognitive rationalities, they are responding to the emotional histories that "stick" to schools. The problem we frame through our empirical case is that there is a clash of cultures between the type of school mothers desire, and the reality of what schools are, and could ever be. This is the double-bind or 'cruel optimism' of mothering school-aged children.

Establishing early academic momentum via credit accumulation is strongly associated with community college student success. Using data from one of the nation's largest and most racially diverse community college systems, our quasi-experimental study examined how different first-semester credit loads influenced persistence. For part-time students (less than 12 semester credit hours), enrolling in one additional course (3 more credits) significantly improved their chances of persistence to the subsequent term and next academic year. For part-time students, an increased credit load was significantly and positively related to persistence. However, for full-time students, an increase from 12 to 15 credits was not related to persistence. These patterns were consistent across subgroups by students' level of academic preparation (developmental education status) and degree objective (workforce credential or transfer associate degree). Moreover, the increased course load did not significantly hinder students' early academic performance as measured by GPA for any group and in some cases was related to increased GPA. We discuss the implications of these findings for academic advising, course scheduling, and completion initiatives at community colleges.

The term "Science of Reading" (SOR) has become a popular phrase in practitioner circles. To best serve students, it is important that teachers and interventionists are knowledgeable about the SOR. This article provides a special educator's guide to the SOR by reviewing critical elements that have emerged in public discourse about the SOR. Background information is provided on the National Reading Panel, the Simple View of Reading, and the breadth of scientific evidence on reading instruction. We highlight key instructional considerations for special education practitioners who want to incorporate instruction aligned with the SOR in their classrooms.

The purpose of this study was to understand the lived experience of the Spanish-speaking Latino community during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders. A single remote focus group meeting was conducted with nine Spanish-speaking participants to explore how residents living amidst shelter-in-place orders made informed decisions about health, safety, and security during the early months of the pandemic. The focus group meeting lasted about 60-90 minutes, and this meeting was facilitated by bilingual/bicultural Latino research assistants trained in qualitative research methods. Study participants also completed the Household Pulse Survey developed by the U.S. Census Bureau, a 20-minute survey to understand the social, health, and economic impact of COVID-19. The mean age was 33 years [range 21-60, SD = 12.44], and most participants attended some or completed a college degree. The participants self-reported as heterosexual, and five self-reported as single or never married. At least four noted making less than $25,000 annually, and four reported that they were self-employed. Most of the participants resided in New Jersey (n = 6), whereas two were from Michigan and one was from New York. The themes that emerged from the focus group meeting were the following: (1) social media and televised news outlets propagated confusing and harmful public messages; (2) COVID-19 elicited negative feelings of uncertainty; and (3) participants had widespread concerns about the health of their family, others, and self. Public messages on COVID-19 were not only confusing but harmful, as Latino families were highly dependent on them when determining how to protect their families in the early days of the pandemic.

There is global recognition of the need to teach and assess complex competencies, which are often referred to as twenty-first century or work-ready knowledge and skills. While several assessment frameworks have been co-developed by researchers and teachers to assess competencies in schools, little is known about how these frameworks are shaped, both in product and process, by the active participation of other key stakeholders. This study, therefore, examined the co-construction of a competency-based assessment framework, incorporating the perspectives of teachers, students, and industry partners from an Australian secondary school community. Our findings reveal that the students confidently designed, articulated and justified the framework and then presented this to the adult participants, despite existing power dynamics. In addition, the students were able to navigate the co-construction process through acts of leadership and the use of questioning techniques, unmasking the opportunities for student leadership and voice within the design of assessment frameworks. We argue that the co-construction of assessment frameworks, involving a range of stakeholders, allows for workplace competencies to reflect school priorities and structures while also addressing the realities of the workplace and the needs, capabilities and imagined futures of students.

Objective: Previous research suggests that both adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), positive childhood experiences (PCEs), and current life experiences are associated with emotional wellbeing and mental health. The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of these life experience and coping processes on college student emotional and mental health. Participants: College students (N = 555) were recruited from a large western university. Methods: Participants completed an online cross-sectional survey measuring early and current life experiences, cognitive and emotional coping efforts, and emotional and mental health outcomes. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: There was an indirect effect of PCEs on emotional and mental health through cognitive and emotional coping efforts. No association was observed between ACEs and mental health. Conclusions: Increases in PCEs are protective, enhance coping efforts, and strengthen emotional and mental health outcomes among college students.

This paper explores how storying can be used to uncover experiences of student belonging throughout their time in Higher Education. It adopts a framing of belonging that is fluid and which recognises shifting notions of belonging over time. A focus on storying is particularly useful for understanding belonging as it enables university staff to listen carefully and with empathy to what matters to students, what shapes their experiences, and how to communicate these in a way which invites positive action. Through storying with undergraduate student articulations gathered through a survey, interviews and focus groups at a university in the UK, the paper identifies the multifaceted and connected spaces of belonging, temporalities and relationships that come to affect student belonging. Ultimately the paper argues for the collective responsibility of staff and students to create a space of belonging for all, rather than the prevalent discourse which often puts the onus on an individual to "fit in".

Academic advising has been described as the second-most important function in the community college (behind only instruction) toward helping students achieve their goals. Using interview data from 78 students and 33 advisors at one of the nation's largest and most racially diverse community college systems, our qualitative case study examined how academic advisors inform, and directly influence, students' enrollment decisions. Advisors emphasized their role as supporting and scaffolding student decision-making, but not making decisions for students. Most advisors endorsed a developmental approach focused on building students' knowledge and capacity to make better decisions about their own academic trajectory. However, some students had conflicting expectations of the advising relationship (e.g., advisors should tell them exactly what to study, which courses and how many to take), which resulted in frustration and desires for highly prescriptive advising. Advisors recognized a one-size-fits-all advising model would not work well for their diverse student population and rejected prescriptive recommendations, such as uniform advice that each student take 15 credit hours per semester. Instead, advisors considered the totality of each advisee's circumstances (e.g., background, academic preparation, goals, family and work life, transportation) when providing guidance on course load. But determining each student's optimal course load/combination was complicated by the wide range of academic and personal factors advisors had to consider. Consequently, most advisors accentuated the potential risks (for students and themselves) of advising students to attempt too heavy a course load.

The aim of this study is to examine which predictor variables are related to literacy attainment in Irish (Gaelic)-English bilinguals. The participants were in their second (n = 115) and third (n = 125) year of schooling in Ireland and were drawn from both native speaker and new speaker backgrounds. The constructs of phonemic awareness, verbal fluency (RAN) and verbal short-term memory were investigated as predictors of Irish word reading accuracy and spelling. The results indicate that the predictors of Irish and English literacy attainment differ, though phonemic awareness is the most effective predictor of literacy attainment in each language. Notably, the Irish predictor tasks were significant predictors of English literacy attainment, while the English predictor tasks were not significant predictors of Irish literacy attainment, supporting the unidirectional transfer of skills from Irish to English in this cohort. The implications of this study highlight the importance of developing bilingual screening and diagnostic assessments for literacy in the Irish-English context, something which is currently lacking.

Schools, globally, have experienced an influx of culturally and linguistically diverse students, due to voluntary migration and forced displacement. To respond to the needs of these students, particularly those from refugee backgrounds, schools must understand how these students navigate their pathways to membership and belonging within their new school environments. This study, therefore, examines the experiences of belonging among five children from refugee backgrounds as they articulate, visually and orally, their experiences within their Australian primary schools. This qualitative study captured their experiences through identity texts (e.g. experience drawings) and interviews. By drawing on Bourdieu's thinking tools of habitus, capital and field, the findings reveal the importance of key social actors (e.g. peers, teachers and translators) and school structures (e.g. policies) in creating a sense of belonging for these students. We argue that accumulating bonding capital, with the support of peers from the same cultural and linguistic background, is key for bridging relationships with teachers and the wider school community. The implications of this study suggest that schools and teachers must ensure that these young people feel visible and heard and that their cultural and linguistic values are reflected within the school practices and structures.

This paper examines the extent to which refugee girls and young women were able to access learning during COVID-19 education closures in Pakistan, and the role that EdTech played in their learning access. It is based on findings from a survey with 403 Afghan refugee students, along with in-depth interviews with six young female refugees. The research shows that, while the majority of female refugee students were able to continue accessing education in some form during school closures, learning access was nevertheless limited, and a sizable minority were not engaged in any learning during this time. Teacher and institutional support was either absent or inadequate for many students, and infrastructure and devices that serve to support remote learning were not always reliable or accessible. Although male respondents were less likely than females to engage in independent study during the closures, refugee girls and young women were significantly less likely than their male counterparts to own the devices they needed for learning. The findings demonstrate how targeted investment in specific types of EdTech and teacher professional development, as well as supporting educational institutions in the establishment of remote learning opportunities, could help sustain learning during future periods of educational restriction.

Pitching velocity is a crucial factor in effective baseball pitching performance. Upper-body-focused training is prevalent in baseball training to increase pitching velocity. However, significant pitchers, including youth league baseball players, suffer from upper body injuries due to the heavy training load of the throwing arm. This article emphasizes lower-body training to increase baseball pitching velocity. Three step-by-step recommended activities, with accompanying research support, include power training in the lower limbs, exploring and maintaining optimized stride length, and timing and mechanics of pitching sequences. The suggested lower body focused training will be beneficial in increasing pitching velocity and reducing the risk of injuries in the throwing arm. These recommendations are crucial for young baseball players, youth baseball coaches, strength coaches, and parents who aim to improve pitching performance while addressing concerns about overtraining and injury prevention.