Using generalizability theory to investigate the variability and reliability of EFL composition scores by human raters and e-rater

ABSTRACT: Using the generalizability theory (G-theory) as a theoretical framework, this study aimed at investigating the variability and reliability of holistic scores assigned by human raters and e-rater to the same EFL essays. Eighty argumentative essays written on two different topics by tertiary level Turkish EFL students were scored holistically by e-rater and eight human raters who received a detailed rater training. The results showed that e-rater and human raters assigned significantly different holistic scores to the same EFL essays. G-theory analyses revealed that human raters assigned considerably inconsistent scores to the same EFL essays although they were given a detailed rater training and more reliable ratings were attained when e-rater was integrated in the scoring procedure. Some implications are given for EFL writing assessment practices.Utilizando la teoría de la generalización (teoría G) como marco teórico, este estudio tuvo como objetivo investigar la variabilidad y confiabilidad de los puntajes holísticos asignados por evaluadores humanos y e-rater a los mismos ensayosde inglés como lengua extranjera. Ochenta ensayos argumentativos escritos sobre dos temas diferentes por estudiantes turcos de inglés como lengua extranjera de nivel terciario fueron calificados de manera integral por un evaluador electrónico y ocho evaluadores humanos que recibieron una capacitación detallada como evaluador. Los resultados mostraron que los evaluadores electrónicos y humanos asignaron puntajes holísticos significativamente diferentes a los mismos ensayos de inglés como lengua extranjera. Los análisis de la teoría G revelaron que los evaluadores humanos asignaronpuntajes considerablemente inconsistentes a los mismos ensayos de inglés como lengua extranjera, aunque se les proporcionó una capacitación detallada para los evaluadores y se obtuvieron calificaciones más confiables cuando el evaluador electrónico se integró en el procedimiento de puntaje. Se dan algunas implicaciones para las prácticas de evaluación de escritura EFL

Turkish Academics’ and Students’ Views of English Grammar Teaching: Explicit or Implicit?

The purpose of this study is to find out Turkish academics’ and students’ beliefs about the role of grammar teaching and their preferences for grammar instruction approaches (i.e. explicit or implicit). By comparing the views of these two groups, it attempts to reveal whether teachers and students have common and different perceptions towards the phenomenon of L2 grammar instruction. For this purpose, a two-stage study was designed. 49 Turkish academics teaching English at a state university in Turkey took part in the first stage. Their views about the role and way of grammar teaching were obtained mainly through a four-point Likert-type questionnaire, which consisted of 29 items with three sections (viz. Explicit instruction, Implicit instruction, and General attitudes to the teaching of grammar). The same questionnaire was adapted in a way that makes it possible to attain the views held by students. In the second stage, this questionnaire was applied to the students who were learning English as a foreign language at the same school. Open-ended questions were also added to teacher and student questionnaires in order to obtain the reasons for their preferences. The quantitative data were analysed and both groups’ replies were statistically compared.  Results showed that Turkish academics and students give great importance to grammar instruction, and they favour explicit grammar instruction rather than implicit grammar instruction. Keywords: English grammar teaching, explicit grammar instruction, implicit grammar instruction, academics’ views, students’ views

Do Men Strategically Leverage Women\u27s Intersecting Identities? Intersectional Symbolic Inclusion as an Electoral Competition Strategy in Polarized Turkey

Do party elites use intersectionality as an electoral competition strategy? In this dissertation, I study this question in the context of mayoral elections in Turkey by focusing on the competition between the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the People\u27s Republican Party (CHP). Examining the gender and religious orientation of candidates from these parties, local variations in party affiliations, and partisan polarization that is decisive in vote choice at the district level, I argue that the Islamist AKP strategically selects secular-appearing women to leverage their intersecting identities in races where secularist partisan polarization against this party is high. Drawing on the original candidate dataset and qualitative interviews with political party elites, I find that the Islamist AKP leverage stereotypes associated with women and their intersectional identities to appeal to voters of the secularist CHP in races where negative partisanship against the AKP is high. The findings reveal that the AKP nominates secular-appearing women candidates to signal tolerance to the voters who are concerned about Islamization and the government’s intervention in secularist lifestyle choices. I also find that the party selects these candidates to mimic democracy in districts where voters are concerned about recent authoritarianism under the AKP regime, as secular-appearing women are stereotyped as Westernized, modern, and democratic. These findings make significant contributions to the women’s representation literature. They show that women with intersecting identities are selected strategically to run in challenging districts when their intersectional identities provide party elites with strategic benefits to signal to voters of the rival party in highly polarized elections on social identities. These findings show that, in electoral contexts where women\u27s identities play a central role in symbolic contestations between two opposing partisan groups, the symbolic value attached to women\u27s identities increases and creates incentives for party elites to leverage women\u27s intersecting identities

Explaining inequalities of homeschooling in Germany during the first COVID-19 lockdown

Current studies suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic is worsening existing social inequalities in the field of education worldwide. In this paper, we argue that the pandemic is especially challenging for students from socially disadvantaged and educationally deprived homes, as parental engagement and resources are very important in terms of guiding and supporting students’ learning processes during this school closure period. To examine how well parents were able to help their children with schoolwork during the homeschooling period in Germany, we used data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS, n = 3,714) collected during the first such period in May/June 2020 when students were in Grade 7. Taking known mechanisms of inequality of educational opportunity into account, we explored the effects of parents’ aspirations and cultural, social, and economic capital on their ability to help their children. Our results showed that although the majority of the examined parents were able to provide good schoolwork support, as expected, we found inequalities related to social background. Parents with low education were twice as likely as highly educated parents to be unable to provide sufficient support. In our multivariate analyses, family resources had a significant positive effect on the likelihood of a parent being able to help. Moreover, regardless of the social or cultural capital endowment of the parents, good household technical equipment was associated with a higher probability of support. Thus, ensuring that students have access to technical home equipment could be a way to promote an educationally supportive learning environment across all social groups

Der Gesundheitszirkel als Methode der partizipativen Gesundheitsforschung : working paper

Der Beitrag stellt eine kommunikations- und systemtheoretisch reflektierte Modifikation des aus der betrieblichen Gesundheitsförderung stammenden Instruments des Gesundheitszirkels vor. Ziel ist es, den Gesundheitszirkel als Forschungsmethode in das Paradigma der partizipativen Gesundheitsforschung zu überführen. Als partizipative Forschungsmethode wird der Gesundheitszirkel dabei eingebettet in einen Institutionalisierungsprozess, der Partizipation als regulatives Ideal begreift und in Form eines Verfahrens zu verwirklichen sucht. Anhand eines Beispiels im Krankenhaussetting wird aufgezeigt, dass diese partizipative Methode es auf Dauer gestellt ermöglicht, die Arbeitswirklichkeit gemeinsam mit Beschäftigten in einem geschützten Raum diskursiv zu analysieren und auf dieser Basis im Sinne von durch Belastungserfahrungen Betroffenen strukturell zu verändern

Design and baseline characteristics of the finerenone in reducing cardiovascular mortality and morbidity in diabetic kidney disease trial

Background: Among people with diabetes, those with kidney disease have exceptionally high rates of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality and progression of their underlying kidney disease. Finerenone is a novel, nonsteroidal, selective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist that has shown to reduce albuminuria in type 2 diabetes (T2D) patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) while revealing only a low risk of hyperkalemia. However, the effect of finerenone on CV and renal outcomes has not yet been investigated in long-term trials. Patients and Methods: The Finerenone in Reducing CV Mortality and Morbidity in Diabetic Kidney Disease (FIGARO-DKD) trial aims to assess the efficacy and safety of finerenone compared to placebo at reducing clinically important CV and renal outcomes in T2D patients with CKD. FIGARO-DKD is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, event-driven trial running in 47 countries with an expected duration of approximately 6 years. FIGARO-DKD randomized 7,437 patients with an estimated glomerular filtration rate >= 25 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and albuminuria (urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio >= 30 to <= 5,000 mg/g). The study has at least 90% power to detect a 20% reduction in the risk of the primary outcome (overall two-sided significance level alpha = 0.05), the composite of time to first occurrence of CV death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, nonfatal stroke, or hospitalization for heart failure. Conclusions: FIGARO-DKD will determine whether an optimally treated cohort of T2D patients with CKD at high risk of CV and renal events will experience cardiorenal benefits with the addition of finerenone to their treatment regimen. Trial Registration: EudraCT number: 2015-000950-39; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02545049

Evaluation of nutritional status in pediatric intensive care unit patients: the results of a multicenter, prospective study in Turkey

IntroductionMalnutrition is defined as a pathological condition arising from deficient or imbalanced intake of nutritional elements. Factors such as increasing metabolic demands during the disease course in the hospitalized patients and inadequate calorie intake increase the risk of malnutrition. The aim of the present study is to evaluate nutritional status of patients admitted to pediatric intensive care units (PICU) in Turkey, examine the effect of nutrition on the treatment process and draw attention to the need for regulating nutritional support of patients while continuing existing therapies.Material and MethodIn this prospective multicenter study, the data was collected over a period of one month from PICUs participating in the PICU Nutrition Study Group in Turkey. Anthropometric data of the patients, calorie intake, 90-day mortality, need for mechanical ventilation, length of hospital stay and length of stay in intensive care unit were recorded and the relationship between these parameters was examined.ResultsOf the 614 patients included in the study, malnutrition was detected in 45.4% of the patients. Enteral feeding was initiated in 40.6% (n = 249) of the patients at day one upon admission to the intensive care unit. In the first 48 h, 86.82% (n = 533) of the patients achieved the target calorie intake, and 81.65% (n = 307) of the 376 patients remaining in the intensive care unit achieved the target calorie intake at the end of one week. The risk of mortality decreased with increasing upper mid-arm circumference and triceps skin fold thickness Z-score (OR = 0.871/0.894; p = 0.027/0.024). The risk of mortality was 2.723 times higher in patients who did not achieve the target calorie intake at first 48 h (p = 0.006) and the risk was 3.829 times higher in patients who did not achieve the target calorie intake at the end of one week (p = 0.001). The risk of mortality decreased with increasing triceps skin fold thickness Z-score (OR = 0.894; p = 0.024).ConclusionTimely and appropriate nutritional support in critically ill patients favorably affects the clinical course. The results of the present study suggest that mortality rate is higher in patients who fail to achieve the target calorie intake at first 48 h and day seven of admission to the intensive care unit. The risk of mortality decreases with increasing triceps skin fold thickness Z-score

Tears evoke the intention to offer social support: A systematic investigation of the interpersonal effects of emotional crying across 41 countries

Tearful crying is a ubiquitous and likely uniquely human phenomenon. Scholars have argued that emotional tears serve an attachment function: Tears are thought to act as a social glue by evoking social support intentions. Initial experimental studies supported this proposition across several methodologies, but these were conducted almost exclusively on participants from North America and Europe, resulting in limited generalizability. This project examined the tears-social support intentions effect and possible mediating and moderating variables in a fully pre-registered study across 7007 participants (24,886 ratings) and 41 countries spanning all populated continents. Participants were presented with four pictures out of 100 possible targets with or without digitally-added tears. We confirmed the main prediction that seeing a tearful individual elicits the intention to support, d = 0.49 [0.43, 0.55]. Our data suggest that this effect could be mediated by perceiving the crying target as warmer and more helpless, feeling more connected, as well as feeling more empathic concern for the crier, but not by an increase in personal distress of the observer. The effect was moderated by the situational valence, identifying the target as part of one's group, and trait empathic concern. A neutral situation, high trait empathic concern, and low identification increased the effect. We observed high heterogeneity across countries that was, via split-half validation, best explained by country-level GDP per capita and subjective well-being with stronger effects for higher-scoring countries. These findings suggest that tears can function as social glue, providing one possible explanation why emotional crying persists into adulthood.</p

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world