An investigation of gender and age differences in academic motivation and classroom behaviour in adolescents

This study investigated gender- and age-related differences in academic motivation and classroom behaviour in adolescents. Eight hundred and fifty-five students (415 girls and 440 boys) aged 11–16 (M age = 13.96, SD = 1.47) filled in a questionnaire that examined student academic motivation and teachers completed a questionnaire reporting student classroom behaviour. Interestingly, early adolescent boys’ (11–12 years) self-reported academic motivation was significantly more closely associated with reports of student classroom behaviour completed by teachers. However, a surprising result was the significant drop in girls’ adaptive motivation from early to mid-adolescence (13–14 years) and a significant increase in mid-adolescence (13–14 years). Furthermore, teachers reported a significant increase in negative classroom behaviour in mid-adolescent and late adolescent girls (15–16 years). The need to further understand the association between academic motivation and classroom behaviour at different stages in adolescence, and to design interventions to improve classroom behaviour, is deliberated

Gender differences in adolescents' academic motivation and classroom behaviour

© 2013 Taylor & Francis. The present study investigated gender differences in adolescents’ academic motivation and classroom behaviour and gender differences in the extent to which motivation was associated with, and predicted, classroom behaviour. Seven hundred and fifty students (384 boys and 366 girls) aged 11–16 (M age = 14.0, 1.59 SD) completed a questionnaire examining academic motivation and teachers completed assessments of their classroom behaviour. Girls generally reported higher levels of academic motivation, whilst teacher reports of behaviour were poorer for boys. Interestingly, boys’ reported levels of academic motivation were significantly more closely associated with teacher reports of their classroom behaviour. Furthermore, cognitive aspects of boys’ motivation were better predictors of their classroom behaviour than behavioural aspects. On the other hand, behavioural aspects of girls’ motivation were better predictors of their behaviour. Implications for understanding the relationship between motivation and behaviour among adolescent boys and girls are discussed, in addition to interventions aimed at improving adolescents’ classroom behaviour

Working memory and its role in children’s scholastic attainment

Previous research has identified links between working memory and scholastic skills. This thesis reports five studies that investigated both the role of working memory in children's scholastic attainment and the resources that underlie working memory task performance. Study 1 demonstrated that both verbal and nonverbal working memory were important predictors of children's academic achievement at 11 and 14 years of age. Study 2 provided evidence for the utility of working memory as a predictor of later academic achievement. Study 3 demonstrated a distinction between the executive processes of inhibition and updating working memory, both of which were uniquely related to children'sscholastic attainment scores. Study 4 revealed that both speeds of processing and working memory span scores predicted unique variance in children's educational attainment. The relationships between speed and span in tasks varying in difficulty were also explored. Speed and span did not always conform to the same linear relationship. Study 5 explored a metric of cognitive cost suggesting that working memory task performance is determined by the difficulty of the retrievals required and the number of these retrievals divided by the time allowed to perform them. The results demonstrated that working memory task performance is constrained by temporal duration and the nature of processing activities. The results were discussed in terms of implications for models of working memory and implications for educational practice

Academic leadership at the programme level to address the BME attainment gap

© 2018 Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. As the publisher of this work, the Leadership Foundation would like to encourage its circulation as widely as possible while retaining the copyright. Permission is granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending are prohibited. If you would like to use this work for your own non-commercial personal or educational purposes – for example download, save, perform or distribute it in any format, including translation – you may do so without written permission. Please note that the following will be required: The Leadership Foundation and the author(s) are credited, Our website address www.lfhe.ac.uk is prominently displayed, The text is not altered and is used in full, The work is not resold, and a copy of the work or link to its use online is sent to the Leadership Foundation.The BME attainment gap (i.e. the difference in the percentage of White students achieving a first or upper second class degree (2i) compared to the percentage of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students achieving a first or 2i degree) has been a long-standing concern within the higher education sector. Many initiatives and projects have identified the need for Institutional commitment and senior leadership to develop inclusive practice strategies but there has been limited discussion on the importance of localised leadership to ensure that strategies are operationalised and enhancements are embedded and sustained. Within the University we have recognised the crucial role of the programme leader and the impact of localised leadership on the student experience. This project provided us with an ideal opportunity to consider how programme leaders reviewed their programmes and identified inclusivity related enhancements. The consideration of programme level data (Value Added (VA) scores) enabled programme leaders to consider ethnicity related attainment gaps within their courses and to discuss appropriate actions with their programme teams. The aim of the project was to support academic leadership at the programme level to enable inclusive curriculum enhancements and subsequent improvements in outcomes for students from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds. The project thus enabled the integrated discussion of leadership, equality and learning and teaching. Following attendance at workshops that focused on promoting inclusive curriculum approaches for programme leaders, and up to three members of their programme team, structured interviews were conducted with 30 programme leaders. The aims of the interviews were to: explore examples of inclusive practice and actions identified by the programme leader as well as any potential challenges they perceived in trying to enhance inclusive practice. Objective review of annual monitoring and evaluation reports (AMERs) plus follow up discussions with programme leaders, enabled the identification of the range of actions implemented by programme teams as well as consideration of any benefits and challenges associated with implementing inclusive practice changes. Analysis of the initial interview transcriptions resulted in classification of responses into one of three categories on the basis of their expressed intention, or lack of intention to influence change. The three categories were: • Effecting programme level change • Personal commitment to inclusivity • Limited action Effecting programme level change: some programme leaders had an in-depth understanding of the challenges associated with ethnicity related attainment gaps. They had engaged in training previously and were aware of national data and in some cases, discipline related data. They had already made some changes to their own practice and identified clear actions to influence change across the programme. Some examples included; programme leaders raising the profile of BME authors by reviewing reading lists and resources to ensure they were inclusive and representative; increasing the use of BME case studies in the curriculum; and showcasing BME role models within the programme. Personal commitment to inclusivity: for some programme leaders, the workshop stimulated personal change, for example, in their own teaching, and/or within their module. They identified the need for enhancements but were not yet influencing change in the wider programme team. Barriers identified by programme leaders in this group included the challenge of leading without line management responsibility. Limited action: A number of programme leaders identified limited actions or no actions. Lack of action seemed to relate to one of four themes: i) general lack of awareness; ii) competing priorities and discussion of other issues such as gender equality; iii) deficit approaches where actions focused on student support; iv) deflection of responsibility. The reviewing of AMERs enabled the identification of a range of actions associated with inclusive practice and follow-up discussions with programme leaders provided details on how actions were being implemented as well as challenges associated with implementing change. Despite all programme leaders having attended a very similar workshop there was variability in approach when considering inclusive curriculum actions. Programme leaders had different levels of understanding based on their own previous experiences as well as the amount of race-related staff development in which they had previously engaged and their willingness to consider their practice and their own privilege. To support programme leaders in leading change at the programme level, 11 case studies of good practice have been produced. The case studies provide different examples of race related actions and are drawn from programmes reflecting a range of disciplines, size of cohort and level of study

Cerebral visual impairment on the web:An exploration of an educational web resource as a bridge to public understanding

Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) is the most common form of childhood visual impairment. Yet it remains the least well understood by parents and professionals alike. There is an urgent need to provide a bridge between academic knowledge concerning CVI, and to give a practical understanding of the condition to those affected, parents, carers, and professionals alike so that a common language can be shared between patients, their carers and professionals. The wide ranging manifestations of CVI, and the lack of accessible well recognised terms to describe it, render it difficult to understand how someone with their own unique form of CVI actually “sees”. However, with graded progressive explanation, knowledge can be gained, leading to an understanding of the visual effects of CVI from the perspective of those affected. The current position of limited understanding of the condition presents a major challenge for health and education professionals: How does one bring about the requisite CVI literacy, to render the subject accessible to families, affected children and adults, and the public? One way of doing this is by means of a plain language, multi-media resource, hosted on a publicly available website, driven by a partnership of adults with CVI, parents of children with the condition and experienced professionals from around the world, including those from the vision sciences and education. Within this context, we have explored the website resource of the not-for-profit organisation CVI Scotland (https://cviscotland.org/). This comprises a growing body of CVI knowledge created for teaching, sharing, learning and developing knowledge and understanding. By analysing anonymised data concerning the activity of 80,000 users from 170 countries, we have examined where the users who are accessing the website come from, what users are seeking in terms of information, how they have accessed the website, and what devices they use. The results are interpreted though frequency analysis and linear regression. Based on this analysis several recommendations are made in terms of disseminating information about CVI to members of the public as well as developments to enhance the website itself. To our knowledge this is the first study to examine the use of a website dedicated to CVI using Google analytics.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Implementing a Virtual Reality Paradigm in Human Anatomy/Physiology College Curricula

Modes of instruction in the college course called Human Anatomy/Physiology are changing. Due to ethical concerns and the ever-increasing source of new physiological data, there is a need for enhancements to assist the instructor and student. The computer science of virtual reality (VR) provides a method to electronically educate, train, prototype, and test and evaluate new enhancements to the college curricula. This study detailed the modeling and simulation of a skeletal human hand with degrees of freedom of movement, which provided the students with a physiological representation of some of the movements of the hand. The primary objectives of the study were to assess the use of the VR simulation by college students and to assess the potential learning outcomes of students in their use of the VR simulation. The simulation was implemented into classes of Human Anatomy/Physiology are as an adjunct enhancement for the students\u27 use. The expectation centered on the constructivist theory that students develop an analytic outlook to the various articulations of the human skeleton. Positive results were shown based on the answers to the questionnaire, summary and post -test taken by the students, after their use of the VR simulation. The results supported the constructivist theory that critical thinking took place. The results showed that the virtual reality simulation enhanced the learning ability of the students. The recommendations of the study include future experimentation to be done on increasing the number of VR simulations, incorporating the VR simulations into undergraduate courses, testing the outcomes, and following the progression of students into graduate programs that are using VR simulations. Faculty and administration are advised to consider implementing the paradigm of VR simulations in undergraduate courses of Human Anatomy/Physiology are

734-4 Can Intracoronary Ultrasound Improve PTCA Results?: Preliminary Core Lab Ultrasound Analysis from the CLOUT Pilot Study

The CLOUT Pilot Study hypothesis is that intracoronary ultrasound (ICUS) guidance can maximize the potential of balloon angioplasty through the safe application of carefully chosen oversized balloons. PTCA was performed until success was obtained using standard angiographic criteria. ICUS was then performed and, based on the degree of reference segment disease, balloons were upsized from 0.25 to 0.75mm (mean 0.4mm) regardless of the angiographic results. There have been no complications using this strategy in the initial 14 of a planned 100 patients. ICUS measures were performed using semiautomated programs at a core laboratory.ResultsIn the reference segment, ICUS revealed a mean lumen diameter of 2.60±0.35mm and plaque thickness of 0.78±0.11mm; on average 54.75±11.05% of the reference vessel was occupied by atheroma. At initial ICUS evaluation after angiographically successful PTCA, the lesion had a minimal lumen diameter (MLD) of 1.78±0.22mm and lumen area of 3.14±0.88mm2. Following balloon upsizing, the lesion MLD increased to 1.95±0.15mm (8.7% gain, p<0.02) and lumen area to 3.76±0.63mm2(16.7% gain, p<0.01). When compared to the reference segment lumen area, the lesional %lumen area reduction improved from 38.14±16.74% to 25.91±12.17% (p<0.01). Lumen improvement occurred primarily by expansion of the total vessel area (12.08±3.01mm2to 12.51±3.11 mm2, p=ns). As expected, there was a large degree of residual atheroma (68.62±7.47% cross sectional narrowing). After routine PTCA, only 5 of 12 patients reached a target MLD of 75% of the reference lumen diameter. Following balloon upsizing, 8 of 12 had reached this criteria.ConclusionsICUS guided balloon upsizing based on the degree of reference segment disease may be safely performed and results in significant improvement in luminal cross sectional area above that achieved by angiographic guidance alone. This may potentially lower restenosis rates if these initial gains are sustained long term

What Part Should the United States Play in the War?

Radio transcript of Lindenwood College students debating whether or not the United States should join World War II. circa April 1941

Diabetes, Obesity, and Hypertension May Enhance Associations between Air Pollution and Markers of Systemic Inflammation

Airborne particulate matter (PM) may lead to increased cardiac risk through an inflammatory pathway. Therefore, we investigated associations between ambient PM and markers of systemic inflammation among repeated measures from 44 senior citizens (≥ 60 years of age) and examined susceptibility by conditions linked to chronic inflammation. Mixed models were used to identify associations between concentrations of fine PM [aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5 μm (PM(2.5))] averaged over 1–7 days and measures of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and white blood cells (WBCs). Effect modification was investigated for diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and elevated mean inflammatory markers. We found positive associations between longer moving averages of PM(2.5) and WBCs across all participants, with a 5.5% [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.10 to 11%] increase per interquartile increase (5.4 μg/m(3)) of PM(2.5) averaged over the previous week. PM(2.5) and CRP also exhibited positive associations among all individuals for averages longer than 1 day, with the largest associations for persons with diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. For example, an interquartile increase in the 5-day mean PM(2.5) (6.1 μg/m(3)) was associated with a 14% increase in CRP (95% CI, −5.4 to 37%) for all individuals and an 81% (95% CI, 21 to 172%) increase for persons with diabetes, obesity, and hypertension. Persons with diabetes, obesity, and hypertension also exhibited positive associations between PM(2.5) and IL-6. Individuals with elevated mean inflammatory markers exhibited enhanced associations with CRP, IL-6, and WBCs. We found modest positive associations between PM(2.5) and indicators of systemic inflammation, with larger associations suggested for individuals with diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and elevated mean inflammatory markers