Breaking the Language Barrier: Equitable Assessment in General Chemistry

Because language provides the framework through which knowledge is constructed, it is crucial to consider the ways in which students with limited English proficiencies are able to express their understanding. English language learners (ELLs) make up a significant portion of the student body in the education system and represent many ethnic and racial minorities in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) fields (Burke & Mattis, 2007). Despite the national push to build a more diversified, STEM-ready workforce, there is little research that considers the way ELLs are assessed in STEM courses at the postsecondary level. Literature reports that science tests that assess the knowledge of students who are still in the process of learning language skills are inadequate and threaten the validity of assessments. The way students interpret and respond to test items are mediated by linguistic and cultural factors, such as home language and prior educational experiences in the country of origin. Therefore, language and cultural factors must be taken into consideration in order to improve the validity of classroom assessments in science courses. Students’ experiences in introductory science courses, such as biology and general chemistry, are critical in their choice of staying in or switching out of STEM majors (Astin & Astin, 1992). Of these, general chemistry is one of the most feared science courses for undergraduate students (Carter & Brickhouse, 1989), and it is a required course for many STEM-bound career paths. Most students struggle with understanding chemistry and many do not succeed on chemistry assessments (Woldeamanuel et al., 2014). Research suggests that scientific language literacy has a significant influence on all students’ success in chemistry assessments, including that of both ELLs and Native English Speakers (NES) (Woldeamanuel et al., 2014). Therefore, one way to support the success of all students—and particularly of ELLs—on chemistry assessments is to address the linguistic complexity inherent in chemistry assessment questions. One way to ease the burden of linguistic complexity during testing is to apply the Equity Framework of Classroom Assessments (EFCA) (Siegel, 2008) to written test items. This framework aims to make test items more accessible without simplifying the content. In general chemistry, the EFCA can be implemented to make commonly-used items more accessible to all students using modifications such as division of prompt into smaller parts, reduction of non-essential information, adding representation, and simplifying sentence structure. This study investigated the perceptions of ELL and NES students about general chemistry assessment items that were modified according to the EFCA. ELL students reported to experience difficulties understanding items that included complex linguistic features such as complex sentence structures and vocabulary. The results show that ELLs perceived language-independent features of items to be the most helpful on assessment items. These features included the formatting of items and the visual representations embedded in items. Although NES students also found the visual features of items to be helpful, they used language-dependent features to understand and set up the problems. The results suggest that ELL students particularly benefited from scaffolding-related features in assessment items. Features that provided content support and guidance for identifying key information and setting up the problems were more helpful for ELL than NES students. Both groups of students found features that provided contextualization in the form of storylines and/or background information which were not directly related to solving the assessment items to be irrelevant, challenging, and/or confusing. Both groups of students reported that they preferred the revised versions—which included the modifications recommended by the EFCA—over the original versions of the assessment items presented to them. The findings suggest that most of the modifications employed in the EFCA are effective in mitigating linguistically complex elements of written assessments items about limiting reactant and percent yield in general chemistry and support the assessment of both ELL and NES students

Conceptualizing the relationship between Spiritual and Entrepreneurial Orientation in developing sustainable enterprises

Entrepreneurship is considered a critical element that promotes the development of an economy and the society of a country. At the organizational level, the Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) of decision-makers is recognized as a key driver in the entrepreneurship literature that propels firms to act ‘autonomously’, ‘innovate’, ‘take risks’, and be ‘proactive’ relative to marketplace opportunities. However, the current EO literature is evolving and has not explored its impact on developing sustainable operations. This paper intends to bridge this gap by introducing a concept of Spiritual Orientation (SO) playing the role of a mediator to explain the association between EO and sustainable operations. We argue that spirituality fortifies entrepreneurs’ commitment to developing sustainable business entities, by empowering firms to be adaptable and creating a pro-social business model with a sense of interconnection with the community and natural ecosystem. Thus, it is important to understand the spiritual development of entrepreneurs, because it leads entrepreneurs to exhibit fairness, kindness, and improved awareness of other people’s needs and thereby be sensitive to the alterations in the natural ecosystem. This paper argues that Spiritual Orientation leads entrepreneurs to exercise greater ‘autonomy’ as a result of seeing the interconnectedness of their actions. A spiritually oriented entrepreneur would place emphasis on the ethics, principles, virtues, values, and be sensitive to emotions, which will lead to taking proactive actions. As such, spirituality elucidates how business visionaries continue despite challenging situations by expanding their ideas of future-oriented sensemaking. This paper theorizes how a spiritually driven EO will lead to sustainable business ventures that focus on people, profit, and the planet. We assert that entrepreneurs must develop the spiritual maturity to create the right balance of EO dimensions, thus leading to creating sustainable organizations. Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Entrepreneurial Orientation; Spirituality; Spiritual Orientation; Sustainability; Triple Bottom lin

Sex or Sensibility? The making of chaste women and promiscuous men in a Sri Lankan university setting

It is often claimed that education confers a range of benefits to individuals. From realising their thinking capacities to overcoming class boundaries, the outcomes of education are considered especially beneficial for women. Feminist theorists make a direct and strong link between education and female autonomy. Those who critique this line of thinking point to the numerous societal and structural factors which come into play in preventing education from delivering its promises of a world with greater productivity, equality and freedom. However even these critics concur that higher education does help to overcome the many structural inequalities which affect the everyday lives of women and also men from lower socio-economic backgrounds. This thesis explores the ways in which the sexuality of students, at a Sri Lankan university, is constructed. It looks at the extent to which social factors – be it through personal interactions, established norms or explicit rules – exert control over and determine how individuals can express their sexuality in a setting which is ostensibly liberating and progressive. Based on 15 months of fieldwork at the University of Kelaniya, the findings are used to argue that when it comes to constructing their sexuality students continue to be constrained by a reiteration of social and cultural expectations which are at play in larger society. The onus on women to uphold these expectations is reinforced by other women and the men play a key role in ensuring their maintenance. Hailing predominantly from working-class backgrounds, these young women expect university education to provide them with the ticket out of their workingclass background to better opportunities. Thus they endeavour to maintain, produce and reproduce social norms which will mark them as respectable and chaste women. The potentiality of a better life offered by university education becomes the very thing that constrains women students from using their autonomy to express their independence and sexuality. Based on these findings, it is then argued that since higher education itself is shaped and constrained by factors of nationalism, class and gender, the numerous benefits it offers to women do not always provide them with the autonomy that is needed to overcome the double standards that apply to how sexuality is constructed in most societies. The intersections between gender, class and nationalism dominated the milieu in which this Sri Lankan university is placed and thus it is these factors, rather than education, which determined the ways in which women could construct their sexuality. The aspirations brought on through their university education of a better life, rather than liberating them, further constrained their behaviours. As such these women engaged in a system of surveillance – both of self and the other – which maintained and reproduced notions of respectability and sexual sobriety in their everyday behaviour

An investigation of corporate responsibility practices amongst MNCs' subsidiaries in Sri Lanka. Implementation and influencing factors.

This thesis examines the implementation of Community Corporate Responsibility (CCR) practices among ten subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in Sri Lanka and the different factors which influence such implementation. Within this context, it specifically focuses on examining the internal factors residing within the MNC as an organisation and those factors which exist outside in the institutional environment of the host country. The study combines three broad theoretical domains: Corporate Responsibility implementation literature, International Business Strategy literature and Neo-Institutional theory. It uses a qualitative research methodology based upon the interview method. Qualitative interview data collected through sixty-two in-depth interviews with managers of the ten subsidiaries and key institutional actors in the host country were analysed using descriptive coding, interpretive coding and conceptualisation to arrive at the findings. The findings showed that non-specialist functional departments were mainly responsible for implementing CCR practices, indicating a lack of strategic and structural integration of CCR practices. The findings reinforces the dominant role of the MNC headquarters in implementing CCR practices within subsidiaries operating in a developing country, indicating that ¿power¿ relationships between subsidiary and parent is an important denominator in internal organisational practices implementation. Furthermore, dynamic and complex relationships were found between the subsidiaries and the Sri Lankan government and other institutional actors indicating the existence of a strategic approach towards legitimisation by iii subsidiaries, using CCR practices. Based upon these findings, this research proposes the need to conduct future studies across different MNCs and their subsidiaries located in multiple developing countries to further examine the implementation of CCR practices as it would enable public policy makers and business managers to better influence the global CSR of MNCs.Bradford University School of Managemen

Developing and Testing Operational Definitions for Functional and Higher Order Driving Instruction

The amount and type of driving instruction provided to novice teen drivers during the learner period may be associated with future crash risk. The purpose of this study was to (1) operationally define two types of driving instruction: functional and higher order instruction, and to (2) test these definitions in a sample of newly licensed novice teenage drivers during the first ten hours of supervised driving. Functional driving instruction was defined as instruction that relates to the present time or immediate future; and related to specific events that are occurring during the drive itself. Higher order driving instruction was instruction that could be extrapolated to a future driving situation; that conveys general principles of driving related to potential events that occur. These operational definitions were tested in conversation occurring during driving instruction in a sample of 90 teen drivers, recruited within three weeks of receiving their learner permit. Teen drivers’ vehicles were equipped with microphones; conversations were recorded and coded for each type of instruction that was observed. As expected, parents provided substantial driving-related instruction on a variety of topics. During the first ten hours of supervised driving only 17.5% of observed driving-related instructions was higher order. This test provides face validity of the operational definitions of driving instruction. These definitions may assist in quantifying the type and amount of driving instruction occurring during the supervised practice stage of licensure, and provide an empirical basis for evaluating the association between driving instruction and independent driving performance

Attitudes Toward Business Ethics in Different Contexts: a Cross-Cultural Comparison between professionals in Jordan and UK

Understanding the attitude and perception of business professionals towards ethics, in an era of dynamic globalisation is important for investors to make strategic decisions. We explore this manifestation of business ethics across cultures in terms of ethical perceptions, moral philosophies and ethical judgments, by focusing upon the attitudes of professionals towards ethics, in two culturally and institutionally different countries: Jordan and the UK. We base our theorisation on Hofstede's Theory of International Cultures, selected business philosophies and incorporate individual and situational factors influencing ethical perception to develop our hypotheses, which were then tested by applying ATBEQ and EPQ. Our findings show significant differences in between in professionals’ views to Social Darwinism and ethical relativism in Jordan and UK. This difference was detected in based on variations between Muslims in UK and Jordan in their views to business ethics. Collectively our study shows that but the culture and societal factors have the higher effect when compared to religion. Moreover, weighing the views toward Ethical Relativism by using of Attitudes Toward Business Ethics Questionnaire (ATBEQ) and Ethics Position Questionnaire (EPQ) is inconsistent in the current research, which can be an opportunity to develop a new measures for attitude toward business ethics

Assessing the Effectiveness of Phone Call Proactive Naloxone Co-Prescribing Enrollment

Opioid use is increasing at never-before-seen rates. As a result, it is imperative that medical facilities educate and provide resources for those who may be at risk of an opioid overdose. With our study, we aimed to see the demographics of our population here at Rowan Medicine and identify associations of those participating in our naloxone co-prescription program. Majority of enrollees in our program were aged 50 or older and identified as Caucasian. A large proportion also reported being unable to work. Given this information, improvements in our naloxone coprescription program may include spreading more awareness of the benefits of naloxone to minority populations, as well as to the younger population at risk of an opioid overdose

What Motivates Patients to Enroll in a Naloxone Co-Prescribing Program?

Patients were contacted via phone call to establish knowledge of and prescription status regarding naloxone. They were then invited to enroll in a research study consisting of two online surveys. The patients who had been prescribed naloxone by the time the study had started ranked being persuaded by a medical professional as being the most important reason for accepting the naloxone prescription. Insufficient data collected during the six-week time frame to draw statistically significant conclusions about what motivates patients to receive naloxone co-prescriptions. Correlations seen in this study are interesting and warrant further investigation

Determinants of Corporate Environmental Disclosures in Sri Lanka: the role of Corporate Governance

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.Purpose – This study explores the levels of, and trends in corporate environmental disclosure (CED) among a sample of Sri Lankan listed companies from 2015 to 2019. Further, this article examines the firm-level determinants of CED, including corporate governance (CG) mechanisms, in Sri Lanka from a multi-theoretical perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of 205 firm-year observations, this paper distinctively applies a panel quantile regression (PQR) model to examine the determinants of CED in Sri Lanka. This method was supported by estimating a 2-step generalised method of moment (GMM) model to tackle any possible existence of endogeneity concerns. Findings – Our findings indicate an increasing trend in CED practice among the sampled companies (i.e., 41 firms, the only adopters of the GRI framework) in Sri Lanka from 2015 to 2019. However, it is still considered at an early stage compared with other developed counterparts. Furthermore, this study suggests that board size, board independence, board meetings, industry type, profitability and firm size are positively associated with CED level. In contrast, and consistent with our expectation, CEO duality is negatively attributed to the disclosed amount of environmental information in the Sri Lankan context. Research limitations/implications– Our empirical evidence reiterates the crucial need to propagate and promote further substantive CG reforms, mandating CED in Sri Lanka. Originality/value – Our findings provide much-needed insights for indigenous companies, operating across similar emerging economies, to understand how CED can be incorporated into their reporting process based on the GRI framework in order to enhance their firm value, reduce legitimacy gaps and mitigate other operational risks