Desiring Dual Language Bilingual Education: One Community’s Perspectives on Past and Future Directions for Bilingual Learners

Perceptions and beliefs about past, present, and future bilingual educational programs were gathered from key members of a bilingual community, including teachers, parents, and educational administrators. Participants’ responses were analyzed and three overarching themes emerged. Current perceptions of bilingual education programs are strongly influenced by: (a) sociohistorical and political factors, (b) the effectiveness of instructional techniques; and (c) beliefs about bilingualism in general. Implications of these results are described with a focus on how they can inform policies and practices for bilingual learners

The Effects of Teaching Undergraduate Freshmen Biology Courses in Spanish and English

This study examines the attitudes and experiences of bilingual learners across two instructional types, identifying how the language of instruction affects the context of learning, and how the experience of the learners differs. Participants included 269 predominantly Hispanic undergraduate students in a general biology course attending a Hispanic Serving Institution in a bilingual community along the US-Mexico border. A bilingual faculty member, who recognizes the sociocultural and contextual factors that affect student learning and adopts a teaching philosophy founded in Culturally Responsive Practices (CRP) and valuing students’ Funds of Knowledge taught the class. This study utilized a mixed method design including analyses of quantitative student learning outcomesa and qualitative data on students’ experiences in educational contexts. While all learners were enrolled in sections of the course in which the instructor used CRP, only half of the learners received instruction bilingually in Spanish and English, allowing a comparison of the effects of bilingual instruction. Analyses of student experiences and knowledge gained revealed significantly greater learning in the bilingual courses, compared to English monolingual sections taught by the same faculty member. Results suggest that the use of bilingual instructional approaches can lead to positive outcomes for bilingual undergraduate students. These findings can be used by educators and policy makers alike, with interest in promoting the academic and sociocultural development of bilingual undergraduate students

Improving STEM Education in Research: Preliminary Report on the Development of a Computer-Assisted Student-Mentor Research Community

Research education in STEM disciplines currently suffers from 1) The inability to feasibly collect highly detailed data on both the student’s and mentor’s activities; 2) The lack of tools to assist students and mentors in organizing and managing their research activities and environments; and 3) The inability to correlate a student’s assessment results with their actual research activities. Together these three problems act to impede both the improvement and educational quality of student research experiences. We propose a computer-assisted student-mentor research community as a solution to these problems. Within this community setting, students and their mentors are provided tools to make their work easier, much like a word processor makes writing a letter easier. Through their use of these tools, details of student-mentor activities are automatically recorded in a relational database, without burdening users with the responsibility of archiving data. Equally important, student assessments of outcome can be directly related to student activity, allowing educators to identify practices resulting in successful research experiences. Community tools also facilitate the use of labor-intensive teaching laboratories involving real inquiry-based research. The community structure has the added benefit of allowing students to see, communicate and interact more freely with other students and their projects, thus enriching the student’s research experience. We provide herein a preliminary report on the development and testing of a prototype, student-mentor research community, and present its tools, an assessment of student interest in participating in the community, and discuss its further development into a nationally-available student-mentor research community

Survey of Spanish Language Neuropsychological Test Use in the Assessment of Hispanic Americans/Latino/as/x

Objective To identify the Spanish language neuropsychological tests most frequently used in the evaluation of Hispanic Americans/Latino/as/x across eight neuropsychological domains. To compare these with previously surveyed most frequently used English language tests in the US/Canada. To describe the norms used with Spanish language tests. Method An anonymous, uncompensated, 12-min survey was emailed to 169 members of the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology, Hispanic Neuropsychological Society, and National Academy of Neuropsychology who self-identified as providing neuropsychological evaluations in Spanish via organizational websites. Results The response rate was 36%. Respondents were all licensed U.S. psychologists with the majority fluent in Spanish, conducting less than half their evaluations in Spanish. There was an overlap between the versions of the three most frequently used Spanish versus English neuropsychological tests, but it varied by domain with 3/3 similar for visual–spatial/visuoconstructional skills and sensory/motor functioning domains and 2/3 similar for all other domains except memory (0/3). English language norm use predominated within the mood/personality and sensory/motor functioning domains. In all other domains, Spanish language norms collected in the continental US were preferred to those from foreign Spanish-speaking countries. The most frequently used foreign norms were from Mexico. Conclusion Except for the memory domain, there was a sizeable overlap between the three most frequently used Spanish and English language neuropsychological tests in the US. Spanish language tests are primarily interpreted with Spanish norms collected in the continental US except within the mood/personality and sensory/motor functioning domains where English language norms predominate

Rater wealth predicts perceptions of outgroup competence

a b s t r a c t National income has a pervasive influence on the perception of ingroup stereotypes, with high status and wealthy targets perceived as more competent. In two studies we investigated the degree to which economic wealth of raters related to perceptions of outgroup competence. Raters' economic wealth predicted trait ratings when (1) raters in 48 other cultures rated Americans' competence and (2) Mexican Americans rated Anglo Americans' competence. Rater wealth also predicted ratings of interpersonal warmth on the culture level. In conclusion, raters' economic wealth, either nationally or individually, is significantly associated with perception of outgroup members, supporting the notion that ingroup conditions or stereotypes function as frames of reference in evaluating outgroup traits. Published by Elsevier Inc

Abrupt transitions in gravity currents

Pyroclastic flows and snow avalanches sometimes exhibit a rapid deceleration of their dense flow fronts and detachment of their dilute clouds. This behavior is also inferred for submarine flows and could explain stepped thickness patterns in their deposits. A similar �abrupt transition� process occurs in particle-laden, lock release laboratory currents with relatively high concentrations. New experiments on nonparticulate, solute-driven density currents were run to investigate the cause of abrupt transitions. Abrupt transitions occur in laboratory currents with Reynolds numbers (Re) less than 1000 and are interpreted, supported by theoretical scaling analysis, to signify a change in dynamic regime. Currents with high Re, which do not show abrupt transitions, undergo a downstream change in dynamic regime from (1) inertial slumping to (2) inertial-buoyancy spreading to (3) viscous-buoyancy spreading. In low Re currents that undergo abrupt transitions, however, the duration of the second regime is very short, and hence they appear to pass directly from the quickly moving slumping phase into the slowly moving viscous phase. Scaling analysis indicates that an abrupt transition should occur in currents below a critical value of Re of ?10�5000 for currents with different initial aspect ratios. Given that natural flows typically have greater Reynolds numbers, we suggest that abrupt transitions in laboratory and natural currents are likely to be dynamically different. This work has important implications for the physical modeling of gravity flows