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Strategic planning has become increasingly important for setting the direction of firms and developing contingency plans for things like pandemics. It is also very important for institutions of higher education where strategic planning can be part of operating an academic unit, regional accreditation, and programmatic accreditation. However, the process and stages of strategic planning is not well understood. This particularly holds true for institutions of higher education. Processes vary based on resources available and other factors. Some institutions engage high-powered, external consultants while others use more home-grown practices. This study examines the strategic planning process in higher education business units (departments, schools, colleges). An electronic questionnaire was designed based on published studies. Four phases of strategic planning were identified (plan initiation, situation analysis, strategy alternatives and selection, and implementation and control). The findings indicate that strategic planning is conducted fairly consistently but key differences were identified based upon the institutional characteristics (enrollment, faith-based, accrediting body, and level of degree granted).

A brief, parent-led, transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach demonstrated utility among youth struggling with emotional problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. Homework completion between sessions is directly associated with psychotherapy treatment outcomes in non-parent-led CBT interventions. The present study sought to examine the relationship between homework completion and treatment response in a parent-led transdiagnostic CBT protocol. The first aim was to determine if completion of between session CBT homework was associated with change in symptom severity. The second aim was to determine if pre-treatment anxiety severity, social anxiety severity, and depressive symptoms were associated with treatment outcomes. One-hundred twenty-nine parents of youth (ages 5-13) with significant emotional problems received 6 sessions of telehealth parent-led CBT during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data on children's anxiety symptomology, clinical severity, homework compliance, depression, family relationships, perceptions on the impacts of the pandemic, treatment response, and therapists rating of symptom improvement were collected. Homework completion explained 9% of the variance in symptom improvement at post-treatment. Greater homework completion was associated with a significantly higher odds of treatment response (OR = 1.52, p = 0.001). Child anxiety severity, depressive symptoms, family relationships, and perceptions on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic were not significantly related to treatment outcome. Completion of homework predicted treatment outcomes in parent-led, transdiagnostic CBT for youth with emotional problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, while controlling for parent-rated anxiety, depression, family relationships, and COVID-related distress. Enhancing and targeting homework compliance between CBT sessions should be a central element of parent-led treatment.

The use of algorithms and automation of public services is not new, but in recent years there has been a step change in processing power and a decrease in the price of these technologies, which means we are seeing more widespread use. These advances are reframing our perception of what matters in ways that impact the ethical dimensions of day-to-day life. In turn, these changes challenge long-standing assumptions about public service ethics and how it is taught. In this multidisciplinary authored paper, we argue that public service leaders must be attentive to ethical questions that converge around adopting "data-driven" techniques, including algorithmic decision-making. Algorithmic and technology focused ethics question assumptions about the current deficits within public service ethics pedagogy in public service programs and university programs and the future direction of the discipline. To do so raises longstanding but neglected questions about the public services' role in the state and recovering what Rohr refers to as the 'ethics of the office.' This, we argue, will have implications for teaching public service ethics.

Gender-affirming voice therapy aims to align a person's voice and communication with their gender identity. Historically, transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) individuals have been marginalized and continue to face significant healthcare disparities. The goal of this research was to examine the self-perceived preparedness of recent speech-language pathology (SLP) graduates for working with TGNC clients. A survey was developed to include both multiple choice and open-ended questions. Topics included graduate-level training on working with TGNC individuals, perceived preparedness to work with this client population, educational resources sought by respondents, and suggested improvements for SLP graduate programs. Thirty recent (since 2016) SLP graduates completed the survey anonymously. Although a majority (83%) of respondents reported that working with TGNC clients was addressed in their graduate education, 66% of respondents felt that instruction time spent on this topic was insufficient or slightly insufficient. Those who had clinical experiences with TGNC clients, or who learned from the perspectives of the TGNC community (e.g., from a guest speaker or video), reported that their graduate education better prepared them to work with TGNC clients. One of the most common recommendations to improve graduate education was to invite TGNC speakers to share their experiences. The majority of respondents identified a need for improvement of gender diversity education in SLP graduate programs. Further research is needed to determine the efficacy of different curricula in increasing the knowledge and skills of SLP graduates specific to TGNC clients to ensure clinical competency and equitable care.

This paper explores how authentic assessment can be implemented to enhance opportunities to develop employability skills through problem-solving tasks. Based on the eight key tenets of authentic assessment (Ashford-Rowe, Herrington and Brown, 2014), this paper presents formative and summative assessment case studies which were created in partnership with external stakeholders on three separate degree programmes at an undergraduate college-based higher education provider. The case studies report on the development of employability skills through authentic learning design on courses ranging from level 4 to level 6 of the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications. The cases add weight to the argument for embedding employability within the curriculum wherein the core skills/intended outcomes are delivered as part of the taught curriculum rather than as paralleled approaches which aim to develop employability as an add-on. Each of the case studies are individually distinct, however they each share commonalities that collectively produce an effective framework for authentic assessment design. These key components include effective collaboration with external stakeholders (employers) from within the respective sectors, the joint formulation of a 'problem' that allows students to apply real world skillsets to overcome, and lastly the opportunity for external stakeholders to contribute towards feedback that students receive in respect to the assessment carried out. Learning developers in higher education should look to utilise the conclusions of this paper to inform learning design in their contexts.

Researchers who work on course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) and issues related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) retention have begun exploring changes in student thinking about what it means to be a scientist. To support this effort, we developed rubrics to score answers to three open-response prompts: What does it mean to think like a scientist? What does it mean to do science? and Did you do real research in your coursename labs? The rubric development process was iterative and was based on input from the literature, experienced researchers, and early-career undergraduates. A post hoc analysis showed that the rubric elements map to 27 of 31 statements in the Culture of Scientific Research (CSR) framework, suggesting that scored responses to the three prompts can assess how well students understand what being a science professional entails. Scores on responses from over 400 students who were starting an introductory biology course for majors furnish baseline data from the rubrics and suggest that (i) undergraduates at this level have, as expected, a novice-level understanding of CSR, and (ii) level of understanding in novice students does not vary as a function of demography or academic preparation. Researchers and instructors are encouraged to add CSR to their list of learning objectives for CUREs and consider assessing it using the rubrics provided here.

Students minoritised because of their race and/or ethnicity have a different university experience from their peers, which is reflected in degree completion statistics, awarding gaps, and graduate outcomes. One factor influencing these outcomes is students' sense of inclusion and belonging with the university, which is lower in minoritised students. We aimed to identify whether barriers to inclusion were present across students and alumni in one university, and whether this varied according to ethnic and/or racial backgrounds. Three-hundred and twenty-three students and alumni completed an online questionnaire measuring students' belonging, experience of the curriculum and microaggressions, and 14 students and alumni attended focus groups to further explore the barriers to inclusion and belonging, and proposed recommended actions to reduce these barriers. From the questionnaire, ethnicity and/or race did not influence students' sense of belonging, experience of the curriculum or microaggressions, though having a long-term health condition was consistently associated with these outcomes. However, students' culture and ethnicity/race were consistently reported as factors associated with experiencing obstacles in academia and microaggressions. From the focus groups, three key themes emerged: 1) Hidden racism at the university, which included a prevailing nature of microaggressions and 2) Eurocentric curriculum; that representation is valued in the community and curriculum; and 3) The role of diversity and inclusion initiatives for building community. These findings are discussed in terms of their impact for Higher Education institutions.

The purpose of this study was to better understand threats to the wellbeing of multiply marginalised and underrepresented (MMU) teachers by unpacking the ways their multiple social identities intersect with each other and with their teacher identities. This study foregrounded the eudaimonic aspect of wellbeing, examining the extent to which the participants' needs for relatedness, autonomy, and competence are met within school systems that tend to privilege dominant societal beliefs and structures. We employed a case study to delve into the lives of two MMU teachers, Eva and George, through narrative interviews. Within their school and social contexts, they struggled to fully embrace and enact their identities. They consistently negotiated their multiple intersecting identities, which sometimes required them to conceal certain identities. Concealing sexual identity resulted in protective support for Eva, but put George's wellbeing at risk. The different ways Eva's and George's relatedness, autonomy, and competence are met and interconnected illustrate the complex nature of teacher wellbeing. Expanding the definition of wellbeing to incorporate positive and negative dimensions and underlying psychological processes, as well as implications for school leadership and district policies are discussed.

Background: Little is known about the health literacy of children living with long-term conditions. This study aimed to gain insight into the life of children with a long-term condition in the context of health literacy, specifically their understanding of their health and the barriers and facilitators to sharing information about their condition with others. Design: Child-centred qualitative arts-based approach with children aged 6-12 years. Setting: Children participating in the study came from three countries -- the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Method: A participatory arts-based qualitative child-centred approach prompted children to draw, label and use stickers, body-outlines and collage to describe elements central to health literacy. This encompassed their long-term condition, their understanding of their condition, its management and decision-making associated with sharing information about their condition with others. The sessions were audio-recorded, and reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken. Results: Four central themes related to key elements of child health literacy: (1) pragmatic understanding -- what it feels like and what happens in my body; (2) management regime -- what do I have to do to keep on going; (3) information sharing -- I don't tell random people; and (4) benefits of sharing -- they've got my back. Conclusion: Children indicated a pragmatic or process type understanding of their condition and its management. Children were discerning about who they shared information about their condition with, but tended to establish a network of well-informed peers capable of providing support if needed. Despite gaps in children's health literacy, parents and families have an important role to play in checking children's understandings and developing critical health literacy.

Background: Schools increasingly prioritize social-emotional competence and bullying and cyberbullying prevention, so the development of novel, low-cost, and high-yield programs addressing these topics is important. Further, rigorous assessment of interventions prior to widespread dissemination is crucial. Objective: This study assesses the effectiveness and implementation fidelity of the ACT Out! Social Issue Theater program, a 1-hour psychodramatic intervention by professional actors; it also measures students' receptiveness to the intervention. Methods: This study is a 2-arm cluster randomized control trial with 1:1 allocation that randomized either to the ACT Out! intervention or control (treatment as usual) at the classroom level (n=76 classrooms in 12 schools across 5 counties in Indiana, comprised of 1571 students at pretest in fourth, seventh, and tenth grades). The primary outcomes were self-reported social-emotional competence, bullying perpetration, and bullying victimization; the secondary outcomes were receptiveness to the intervention, implementation fidelity (independent observer observation), and prespecified subanalyses of social-emotional competence for seventh- and tenth-grade students. All outcomes were collected at baseline and 2-week posttest, with planned 3-months posttest data collection prevented due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Intervention fidelity was uniformly excellent (>96% adherence), and students were highly receptive to the program. However, trial results did not support the hypothesis that the intervention would increase participants' social-emotional competence. The intervention's impact on bullying was complicated to interpret and included some evidence of small interaction effects (reduced cyberbullying victimization and increased physical bullying perpetration). Additionally, pooled within-group reductions were also observed and discussed but were not appropriate for causal attribution. Conclusions: This study found no superiority for a 1-hour ACT Out! intervention compared to treatment as usual for social-emotional competence or offline bullying, but some evidence of a small effect for cyberbullying. On the basis of these results and the within-group effects, as a next step, we encourage research into whether the ACT Out! intervention may engender a bystander effect not amenable to randomization by classroom. Therefore, we recommend a larger trial of the ACT Out! intervention that focuses specifically on cyberbullying, measures bystander behavior, is randomized by school, and is controlled for extant bullying prevention efforts at each school.

Children and young people with disability are a "vulnerable" population within a pandemic context as they face structural inequities and discrimination as a result of their impairments. In this paper, we report research that sought to examine the learning experiences of children and young people with disability during the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to understand how this group fared and whether different interventions impacted on these experiences. Data were collected from an online survey organized by Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) that garnered responses from more than 700 families. The study contributes empirical evidence to the growing literature about COVID-19-related impacts on learners already recognized as experiencing multiple disadvantages in schooling. We find some significant gaps in supports offered to students with disability and their families. Notwithstanding that some students did not receive any support from their schools, where supports were offered, social supports had the greatest positive impact on feelings of learner engagement. Our findings support key propositions in the social and emotional learning literature, namely that particular resourcing should be dedicated to social interaction and feelings of belonging as these are crucial to learners engaging in learning processes. There are clear implications of these findings in terms of what educational institutions might do to help engage students with disability in remote learning.

The importance of early vocabulary development to later reading comprehension has been well-established. However, there have been a number of criticisms that the assessments typically used to measure oral vocabulary knowledge do not adequately capture the complexity of this construct. This conceptual review works towards a more robust theoretical framework for vocabulary knowledge, focusing especially on the understudied dimension of vocabulary depth, which can be used to evaluate and design measures for early childhood learners. This framework is then used to review measures commonly used for preschool to 1st grade learners in the context of vocabulary interventions and observational studies. Recommendations are made for the use of existing measures and the design of future measures.

We developed labs on the evolution of antibiotic resistance to assess the costs and benefits of replacing traditional laboratory exercises in an introductory biology course for majors with a course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). To assess whether participating in the CURE imposed a cost in terms of exam performance, we implemented a quasi-experiment in which four lab sections in the same term of the same course did the CURE labs, while all other students did traditional labs. To assess whether participating in the CURE impacted other aspects of student learning, we implemented a second quasi-experiment in which all students either did traditional labs over a two-quarter sequence or did CURE labs over a two-quarter sequence. Data from the first experiment showed minimal impact on CURE students' exam scores, while data from the second experiment showed that CURE students demonstrated a better understanding of the culture of scientific research and a more expert-like understanding of evolution by natural selection. We did not find disproportionate costs or benefits for CURE students from groups that are minoritized in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Purpose: Our study analyzes probabilistic constraints on subject expression previously found in adult Spanish in the speech of typically developing (TD) Spanish-speaking children and children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Previous work shows that children with DLD produce fewer overt subjects than typically developing children, and that the latter acquire constraints on subject expression as they age into adolescence. Our study complements these findings and provides further substance to the grammatical profile of children whose morphosyntactic development diverges from that of typically developing children. Method: Data are drawn from unstructured spontaneous production data from a sample of 19 monolingual Mexican, Spanish-speaking children, collected in 2006-2007. This sample includes 19 children diagnosed with DLD and 19 age-matched, typically developing children. We collected all instances of finite verbs that either did or could have occurred with a subject personal pronoun uttered by the child participants and coded them for several factors including tense-mood-aspect, switch reference, and person and number. Results: We find that children with DLD produce fewer overt subject pronouns in switch reference contexts than typically developing controls, with a significant interaction of group and switch reference. Furthermore, a discriminant function analysis shows that overt pronoun use in switch reference contexts can form part of a useful diagnostic discriminant function, with high levels of sensitivity and specificity. Conclusions: Overall, we find important differences between TD Spanish-speaking children and those diagnosed with DLD regarding rates of overt subjects and sensitivity to the probabilistic constraint of switch reference. This finding contributes to our understanding of the morphosyntactic profiles of children with DLD, as well as the utility of factors such as switch reference in the identification of language disorders.

This study addresses the dearth of research on preparing pre-service early childhood educators to support young children's language development. Taking a design-based approach to an undergraduate course for early childhood majors, qualitative data analysis examined the seven participating pre-service teachers' knowledge of, perspectives on, and strategies for facilitating language development. In addition to traditional course content and assignments on language development, pre-service teachers explored sociocultural influences on language, participated in in-class and field-based practical experiences, videotaped and reflected on their work with preschool children, and engaged in coaching and feedback with peers and course instructors. In response to ongoing data collection and analysis, course elements were adjusted to meet emerging needs of the pre-service teachers. Findings indicate participants gained knowledge in language development, shifted perspectives on the value of linguistic diversity, demonstrated analytical reflection that led to action, expanded their view of the role of the teacher in language facilitation, and connected course content to their teaching practice. Implications of the findings for practice- and social-justice-oriented teacher education and limitations of the study context are discussed.

Shared book reading is a common and effective way to support vocabulary knowledge. However, it is not the only pedagogy for supporting this learning goal. We propose a "toolbox" of activities that teachers can use to foster vocabulary acquisition in young children. We first discuss the science behind why these activities are effective (they are active, engaging, meaningful, socially interactive, iterative, and joyful), and then give examples of playful learning experiences that have been effectively used in classroom vocabulary interventions. Finally, we offer ways in which these activities can be easily adapted to help educators reach vocabulary-teaching goals in their own classrooms.

Metacognitive reading strategies represent a goal-driven system that plays a role in critical thinking verbal tasks in students. Research reveals that greater attentional focus and use of executive functions is associated with lower trait anxiety, and better verbal reasoning. However, high verbal reasoning is also positively associated with trait anxiety. In this study, 122 undergraduate students were given Metacognitive Awareness Reading Strategy Inventory, critical thinking verbal task (WGCTA), and trait anxiety inventory. High global reading (GLOB) and high problem-solving strategy (PROB) groups had highest WGCTA scores, but moderate levels of anxiety. Low GLOB and low PROB groups had lowest WGCTA and high anxiety scores. There was no significant difference between support reading strategy groups for WGCTA and trait anxiety. Overall, high GLOB and PROB groups revealed effective use of a goal-directed system, which offset the effects of anxiety resulting in high WGCTA scores.

Researchers have called for undergraduate courses to update teaching frameworks based on the Modern Synthesis with insights from molecular biology, by stressing the molecular underpinnings of variation and adaptation. To support this goal, we developed a modified version of the widely used Assessing Conceptual Reasoning of Natural Selection (ACORNS) instrument. The expanded tool, called the E-ACORNS, is explicitly designed to test student understanding of the connections among genotypes, phenotypes, and fitness. E-ACORNS comprises a slight modification to the ACORNS open-response prompts and a new scoring rubric. The rubric is based on five core concepts in evolution by natural selection, with each concept broken into elements at the novice, intermediate, and expert-level understanding. Initial tests of the E-ACORNS showed that (1) upper-level undergraduates can score responses reliably and quickly, and (2) students who were just starting an introductory biology series for majors do not yet grasp the molecular basis of phenotypic variation and its connection to fitness.

Duo-ethnography is a collaborative methodology in which participants juxtapose their experiences around a topic to parse multiple perspectives. It explicitly positions ethnographers as sources of information, not data collectors. This method has been used to explore racial identities, class dynamics, decolonizing pedagogies, and gender in academic life. Building on previous work, we consider our contribution to be articulating duo-ethnography as an explicitly feminist methodology that allows for mutual exploration of difference as well as reciprocal care and support. As part of a larger collaboration, we used duo-ethnography to create explicit dialog spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic to talk about differences in our experiences related to sexuality, race, class, tenure position, and seniority. Duo-ethnography is one method we used to challenge junior/senior relations and transform how we related to one another.

The performance of South Africa's educational system in national and international tests indicates that a large proportion of its public schools are underperforming. Ineffective leadership has been put forward as one reason. This paper analyses a leadership development programme, Partners for Possibility (PfP), which seeks to strengthen leadership in underperforming schools. PfP employs a one-year, cross-sector social partnership that pairs school principals with business leaders. Literature on leadership development attests to the problem of learning transfer. Interviews were conducted with 9 PfP principal business leader dyads and 4 PfP unpaired participants. The research also included observations of PfP meetings and analysis of PfP reports. Although PfP's partnerships were found to support the school principals' learning, the cost of the programme limits its scalability. PfP's group learning component was also found to sometimes divert partnerships from transformational to transactional forms. This study contributes to the understanding of learning transfer within social partnerships. It also highlights a limitation of programmes such as PfP, which aim at school improvement, but are not focused on instructional practice. The article explores ways in which partnership programmes could be strengthened.

This essay describes how an honors classroom introduces public speaking and active listening to encourage heroism and social justice among students. Asserting that people often look for a hero in times of crises, the author suggests that honors programs can become safe places where students learn the skills necessary to advocate for those in need and demonstrably help their communities. By cultivating essential skills in rhetoric and oral presentation, honors students identify with heroic, altruistic aspects of themselves and others.

Background: Parents with learning disabilities report facing a widely held 'presumption of incompetence', placing them under pressure to prove their parenting competence. In collaboration with a learning disability theatre company, an inclusive research methodology explored experiences of parenting with learning disabilities, with a specific focus on the operation of stigma in parents' lives. Method: Interviews with 17 mothers and 5 fathers who self-identified as having learning disabilities were co-facilitated by learning-disabled co-researchers, and analysed using thematic analysis, with input from people with learning disabilities. Results: Thematic analysis generated four key themes; (1) positions of powerlessness, (2) assumptions of incompetence, (3) challenging assumptions and proving competence and (4) claiming power. Conclusion: Parents reported experiencing stigma and disempowerment within their networks, yet continued to embrace their valued parental identity and drew strength from involvement with self-advocacy organisations. The research informed arts-based performance pieces and resources aimed at training professionals and raising public awareness.

The capstone course serves to integrate accumulated knowledge with a culminating experience or project and is a common component in undergraduate and graduate programs. The research on capstones courses shows that many capstone experiences or projects involve students working with outside clients, such as local businesses and organizations, to solve problems or develop new projects or campaigns. Such capstone experiences or projects seek to offer students real-world, career-building experience, while the clients seek to benefit from the learned academic knowledge of the students. Where the literature is scarce on client-based capstone projects is when the client is the student's employer or career-related organization. A graduate program in administration at a public Midwestern university in the USA offers a different approach to the student--client model by requiring a degree-culminating capstone project that challenges adult students to apply their learned knowledge to solve administrative problems not for an outside client but at their place of employment or career-related organization. The researchers surveyed 66 alumni and interviewed 6 on how the capstone project had benefited their work-related learning and its impact on their employer or career-related organization. Students perceived an improvement in their ability to define and analyze administrative problems in their workplace, while the employers or organizations which implemented the project recommendations experienced positive organizational change. This case study contributes to the literature on capstone courses by examining the relevance of a work- or career-related capstone project to students and their workplace.

Background: Issues of identity, interdependence, relationality and violence are far larger than the human species alone, although humanity has often pretended as if it alone were the beneficiaries of studying such ideas. Aim: Pedagogically, the complexity of existence beyond human being must influence the traditional humanities curriculum or risk further isolation and alienation within humanity-dominant narratives. Setting: As climate change continues to alter our comprehension of what is truly at stake in the survival of life on this planet, however, humankind needs a complete rethinking of its relationship with the multiple forms of life that dwell alongside it, as well as the traditional division between the humanities and the sciences within academic settings. Methods: It is with this scenario before us that I turn to the work of Bruno Latour who reconceives of humanity's relationship with nature as an interdisciplinary and boundary-crossing project, one that has deep pedagogical implications. Results: I demonstrate how Latour's collaborative and highly original work ranges across disciplines and provides new ways to contemplate research in academia. Conclusion: Latour's thought moves beyond polarising anti-humanist language and towards a way to limit the sovereign claims of humanity, opening discourse towards other non-human participants.

This paper reports results from two studies conducted to examine word learning among preschool children in group book reading while we developed a scalable method of teaching words during book reading. We sought to identify factors that fostered both depth and breadth of learning by varying the type of information children heard about words while holding exposures constant. We also asked whether prior word knowledge affects children's learning across our different instructional approaches. In Study 1 we evaluated pre-post gains from two types of explicit instruction ("Didactic" and "Conceptual"), an implicit instructional approach ("Review"), and repeated "Exposure." For all three instructed conditions growth in receptive knowledge (our measure of breadth) was statistically equivalent when compared to control (d?=?0.43) and exposure words (d?=?0.41). In Study 2, words were taught using an augmented explicit approach and through repeated exposure. Moderate and statistically significant growth in receptive knowledge was found when comparing instructed to control words (d?=?0.48) and large effects were found with an expressive task measure of depth of knowledge (d?=?1.19). There also was evidence of learning from exposure. Children's vocabulary knowledge moderated learning gains. In Study 1 children with limited knowledge of vocabulary (0.75 SD below the group mean) learned fewer words than others. In Study 2, pre-test vocabulary knowledge moderated gains on the expressive measure for directly taught words and gains on the receptive measure for words taught through exposure. Thus, when words were intentionally taught, all children except those with the weakest initial knowledge acquired the initial lexical representations captured by the receptive measure at a similar rate. Those with stronger vocabulary more quickly acquired initial representations from exposure alone and deeper knowledge when they received intentional instruction. We conclude that teachers can build depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge by combining intentional instruction of target words with repeated use of varied words by reading books multiple times and instructional comments that include use of novel words.

Few realized the extent of disruption that the COVID-19 global pandemic would impose upon higher anatomical education. While many institutions were obliged to adopt a fully-remote online model, the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine strove to develop a curriculum that would allow medical students to receive an in-person anatomy education. A hybrid model that emphasized learning from prosected cadavers and self-study stations was implemented, with the remainder of the students' time directed toward studying at home. Through an anonymous survey aimed at gleaning student satisfaction, this study demonstrates that this hybrid prosection-based anatomy course aligned with student preferences both assuming "no" health risk (64.6% agreed) and "given" the current risk of contracting COVID-19 (78.5% agreed). Generally, students felt that their education was equal to that of previous years (Likert scale = 3.24 ± 1.05), fostered an appreciation for anatomy (4.56 ± 0.59), promoted teamwork (4.13 ± 0.85), and prepared them for practical examinations (4.18 ± 0.74). Linear mixed-effect models demonstrated that specific differences in results could be attributed to students' preconceived preferences toward student-led dissections and to past medical training. Importantly, most students "disagree" (1.97 ± 1.00) that they were concerned about the risk of exposure to COVID-19 during in-person anatomy laboratory sessions. Areas requiring improvement were identified by the model, including the provision of access to the cadavers outside of the regularly scheduled laboratory times (3.89 ± 1.08). These findings should be utilized when designing future gross anatomy courses in response to the "new normal".

Recently, society and further education institutions have seen an increase in the reporting of poor mental health and wellbeing. Although further education settings (typically comprising of study programmes ranging between levels one to six, including A levels, apprenticeships, T levels, GCSEs, BTECs and higher education qualifications) are appropriately placed to be part of a solution to this issue, they are suffering from a shortage of resources and an inability to intimately understand poor mental health and wellbeing. Consequently, it has become difficult for institutions to implement appropriate interventions that prevent poor mental health and wellbeing. Appreciative inquiry was used to explore a further education institution and how they encouraged students to flourish. The novel use of photovoice allowed the researchers to empower the participants and produce a dynamic and deep conversation. The study found that informal peer and teacher support were crucial in ensuring students flourished. More pertinently, a trusting and collaborative environment was established through informal conversations between teacher and student. An unexpected outcome was students consistently citing happiness as an essential element of a flourishing student. Due to the differing cultural and geographical contexts, other institutions should conduct similar research to investigate what enables their students to flourish.

This study examined preschool teachers' fidelity in implementing a vocabulary intervention. The purpose of the study is to inform the scaling up of vocabulary interventions, identifying strategies that are both feasible for teachers and effective for vocabulary learning. We analyzed data from a vocabulary intervention in which teachers (n = 10) taught 80 new target words to children (n = 138) during shared book reading (BR) and playful learning experiences (PLEs). Teachers were asked to use core intervention strategies, which included both teacher- and child-focused practices. Results showed that teachers had higher adherence to strategies in BR than in PLEs and for teacher-focused strategies versus child-focused practices. Across settings, teachers' use of core strategies and the use of child-focused practices were significantly related to children's vocabulary outcomes. Results not only suggest the importance of child-focused vocabulary teaching strategies but also indicate the need for additional coaching in this area for teachers.

Within the context of a competitive UK Higher Education (HE) environment, this paper explores the transitions made by former or current practitioners who are now university academics, referred to in this study (and others) as 'pracademics'. Drawing together the concepts of pracademia, academic selves and professional identity, this paper makes a tri-fold contribution. First, this case study examines pracademics' perceptions from a post-1992, UK-based higher education institution (HEI) through collaborative reflexivity. Secondly, it suggests how pracademics' professional self-identities can be fluid and context-dependent. Thirdly, it explores affinities and tensions between academia and practice, and identifies opportunities for building links between them. In doing so, the research makes a number of specific recommendations. The authors advocate for the recruitment of academics with practitioner experience and the facilitation of their effective transition into and within the HEI environment.

Global protests and civil unrest in 2020 has renewed the world's interest in addressing injustice due to structural racism and oppression toward Black and Latinx people in all aspects of society, including computing. In this article, we argue that to address and repair the harm created by institutions, policies, and practices that have systematically excluded Black and Latina girls from computer science, an intersectional, transformative justice approach must be taken. Leveraging testimonial authority, we share our past 8 years of experience designing, implementing, and studying Digital Youth Divas, a programmatic and systemic approach to encouraging middle school Black and Latina girls to participate in STEM. Specifically, we propose three principles to counter structural racism and oppression embedded in society and computing education: computing education must: (1) address local histories of injustice by engaging community members; (2) counter negative stereotypes perpetuated in computer science by creating inclusive safe spaces and counter-narratives; and (3) build sustainable, computational capacity in communities. To illustrate each principle, we provide specific examples of the harm created by racist policies and systems and their effect on a specific community. We then describe our attempt to create counter structures and the subsequent outcomes for the girls, their families, and the community. This work contributes a framework for STEM and computing educators to integrate transformative justice as a method of repairing the harm that both society and the field of computing has and continues to cause Black and Latinx communities. We charge policy makers, educators, researchers, and community leaders to examine histories of oppression in their communities and to adopt holistic, transformative approaches that counter structural oppression at the individual and system level.

In this study, the authors examined the impact of a vocabulary intervention designed to support vocabulary depth, or the building of semantic networks, in preschool children (n = 30). The authors further investigated the effect of specific instructional strategies on growth in vocabulary depth. The intervention employed shared book reading and guided play methods to teach words in conceptually linked categories, such as taxonomic and thematic groups. Using a within-subjects design, analyses indicated that the intervention had significant positive effects on children's depth of vocabulary knowledge. Children showed significantly greater growth in vocabulary depth for words taught in taxonomies as compared with words taught in themes. Three types of semantic information were learned more deeply for taxonomy words as compared with theme words: information about category membership, perceptual features, and object function. Results suggest that fostering deep vocabulary knowledge involves not only teaching single word entities but also introducing systems of conceptually related words to build semantic networks. [This article was published in "Reading Research Quarterly" (EJ1200818).]

Students are more commonly completing coursework online and as such many professors teach online courses. Due to the popularity of online courses and the need for professors to teach in a format varying from the traditional classroom setting, it is important to evaluate whether or not certain teaching approaches, such as establishing rapport, should be altered to accommodate the needs of the online student. While previous research has given some consideration to the importance of verbal immediacy in the online classroom, this research seeks to fill a gap in the online teacher immediacy literature by looking more specifically at instructor tone. Through a two-semester evaluation of online courses, it is evident consideration must be given to teachers establishing a rapport with online students. After evaluating e-mail communication with students and examining student success rates and teaching evaluation data, there is a connection between e-mail tone and student performance in an online class.

Published banks of multiple-choice questions are ubiquitous, the questions in those banks often being classified into levels of difficulty. The specific level of difficulty into which a question is classified might or should be a function of the question's substance. Possibly, though, insubstantive aspects of the question, such as the incidence of incorrect answers that are readily dismissed, also affect the difficulty level into which a question is classified. The present research investigates the relationship between classified question difficulty and the incidence of implausible incorrect answer options.

Background: Many countries use market forces to drive reform across disability supports and services. Over the last few decades, many countries have individualised budgets and devolved these to people with disability, so that they can purchase their own choice of supports from an available market of services. Key points for discussion: Such individualised, market-based schemes aim to extend choice and control to people with disability, but this is only achievable if the market operates effectively. Market stewardship has therefore become an important function of government in guiding markets and ensuring they operate effectively. The type of evidence that governments tend to draw on in market stewardship is typically limited to inputs and outputs and has less insight into the outcomes services do or do not achieve. While this is a typical approach to market stewardship, we argue it is problematic and that a greater focus on outcomes is necessary. Conclusions and implications: To include a focus on outcomes, we argue that market stewards need to take account of the lived experience of people with disability. We present a framework for doing this, drawing on precedents where people with disability have contributed lived experience evidence within other policy, research, knowledge production and advocacy contexts. With the lived experience evidence of people with disability included, market stewardship will be better able to take account of outcomes as they play out in the lives of those using the market and, ultimately, achieve greater choice and control for people with disability.

In New Zealand and Japan, despite health education on food, exercise, and hygiene, children's health is an important concern in preschools. This study investigated the relationship between children's health and health education in New Zealand and Japan using a qualitative interpretative descriptive design method and semi-structured interviews with preschool teachers. Major children's health issues identified by preschool teachers in New Zealand were asthma, allergies, and dental hygiene. Although few preschool children are overweight in New Zealand, it becomes a serious concern in primary school. Identified as a suspected cause of children's health problems was parents providing their children with sweet and/or unhealthy foods. Preschool teachers want parents to understand and implement health education, and they stated that parents' education was necessary. In Japan, children's health problems identified by teachers were allergies, food preferences, and sleep deprivation. The suspected causes included too much convenience, parents' irregular lifestyles because they were busy, and parents' depending on preschools to discipline children in ways that should be done at home. The goals for preschool health education were similar in New Zealand and Japan. The goals should be to obtain lifelong health knowledge, an ability to make wise health-related decisions in adulthood, and healthy lifestyle choices for themselves and their families. Some children's health issues were beyond the scope of the abilities of individual preschools. Therefore, the entire nation and government should work together to cope with children's health issues and health education.

This paper evaluates the effect and potential of a new educational learning model called Peer to Peer (P2P). The study was focused on Laurea, Hyvinkaa's Finland campus and its response to bridging the gap between traditional educational methods and working reality, where modern technology plays an important role. The study describes and evaluates an undergraduate business management programme. A qualitative methodological approach was used in assessing the students' experience of projects with businesses and their theoretical learning without formal lectures. Student feedback via in-depth interviews forms the basis which provides empirical findings from students from different countries. Specific projects involving real businesses within this unique P2P programme are described and assessed within the overall objective. The study concludes that although it requires a different role from both teachers and students the relevance for European education is that both academically and practically this type of model delivers a more employable graduate with more transferable business skills.

Prospective longitudinal data collection is an important way for researchers and evaluators to assess change. In school-based settings, for low-risk and/or likely-beneficial interventions or surveys, data quality and ethical standards are both arguably stronger when using a waiver of parental consent--but doing so often requires the use of anonymous data collection methods. The standard solution to this problem has been the use of a self-generated identification code. However, such codes often incorporate personalized elements (e.g., birth month, middle initial) that, even when meeting the technical standard for anonymity, may raise concerns among both youth participants and their parents, potentially altering willingness to participate, response quality, or generating outrage. There may be value, therefore, in developing a self-generated identification code and matching approach that not only is technically anonymous but also appears anonymous to a research-naive individual. This article provides a proof of concept for a novel matching approach for school-based longitudinal data collection that potentially accomplishes this goal.

Against the backdrop of a diverse and challenging Higher Education (HE) environment within the United Kingdom (UK), this paper extends existing debates around extracurricular activities (ECAs) and considers students' engagement in ECAs within this context. Adopting a case study approach, and involving a team of student researchers, students' perceptions of ECA-programmes at a post-1992 Higher Education Institution (HEI) are explored. A total of 38 students took part in a series of six focus groups. The data collected was thematically analysed and two key themes emerged, namely: perceptions that there is a hierarchy of ECAs, and an enhanced awareness of the barriers to students' participation in ECAs, including the potential for harm. This paper examines the prospective impact of these findings and makes recommendations for the future development of ECA-programmes within HEIs.

Research indicates that there are many key things a professor may do to contribute to the success of a college student. Teaching style, instructor enthusiasm for the subject, and knowledge of a professor all have impacts on the kind of experience a student has in the classroom. There is a strong body of research to pull from indicating effort on an instructor's part to create a meaningful learning experience through classroom organization, encouraging active learning practices, and offering meaningful feedback are also contributing factors to student success. There has been a great amount of research dedicated to examining in- and out-of-class relationships between students and professors, and it is evident all of these things make a difference in the effort put into coursework, learning outcomes achieved, and success levels of students. This research attempts to further the existing body of research on student-faculty relationships by exploring the element of feeling cared for in a classroom. This research seeks to find a connection between a student's perceptions of how much a professor cares about his or her success in a course and/or cares about that student in general and whether that perception relates to student effort and learning outcomes in a course.

Systematic inquiry is an inherent part of social work practice. Despite this fact, social work students and practitioners continue to view research as difficult, intimidating and irrelevant. This disconnect is compounded by a lack of rigorous study on how best to teach research concepts to social work students. One way to bridge this gap is to provide a more robust integration of research principles and practices into the MSW curriculum through practice-based research specializations. Yet, a systematic evaluation of the number and character of these specializations is still lacking. To address this reality, we first review the ways that social workers engage in research as a function of their everyday practice, and discuss how social work curricula can better integrate research as a part of practice. We then provide data on research curricula delivery collected in 2017 from 227 accredited two-year MSW programs in the U.S. that include the number of research specializations and research courses each graduate program offers. Based on these findings we suggest a model that bridges the research-practice divide, and conclude with an illustrative case example.

High-quality lexical representations are important for reading comprehension; however, prior research has focused primarily on the verbal aspects of these lexical representations. In this article, the authors argue for the importance of considering nonverbal representational elements of lexical knowledge and for more systematic attention to how nonverbal supports, such as gestures, pictures, and sounds, contribute to the acquisition of word knowledge. Drawing from various theoretical perspectives, the authors argue that the semantic content and the attention-directing attributes of nonverbal supports are critical in assisting primary-grade students in building high-quality multimodal lexical representations. The authors examined the use of nonverbal supports in vocabulary studies for young learners and present implications about the role of nonverbal supports in students' vocabulary acquisition. Results suggest that nonverbal scaffolds can help refine and deepen students' knowledge of words for a variety of word types, including abstract words.

This exploratory study addresses a gap in the literature for the potential in assessing domain-specific self-efficacy within the context of Higher Education (HE). Focusing on HE students' participation in extracurricular activities (ECAs), the study builds on the authors' previous research which recognised the impact of ECAs on HE students' lived experiences. An initial sample of two hundred and ninety-four students from a from a post-92 Higher Education Institution (HEI) in the North of England (UK) completed a survey designed to measure self-concepts of student self-efficacy, encompassing academic and social tasks, and fifty-four of those students completed a follow-up survey. The key finding was that there is a positive association between involvement in certain ECAs and self-efficacy in students within the university context. Furthermore, the results indicate a relationship between engagement with certain ECA-types and specific domains of self-efficacy. These findings have important implications in that supporting students to develop higher levels of self-efficacy specific to the university setting could have an impact on key HE outcomes, such as employability. Further research needs to be undertaken to establish if there is a causal link between involvement in ECAs and the development of self-efficacy whilst at university.

This article documents the application of transmedia play in a higher education business context, providing a case study of how transmedia play can be infused into an undergraduate marketing course. We share our findings regarding learner experience and engagement, detailing results from structured interviews with 22 course participants. Evidence shows that the transmedia approach has value and can be successfully enacted in an undergraduate course to create connected learning opportunities and elicit cognitive, affective, and behavioral engagement. However, we note that the participatory nature of the pedagogy did create challenges for digital novices. In order to transition digital novices from peripheral to full participants in a transmedia learning community context, further research is warranted.

Little research has been conducted examining advocacy efforts in the school library field despite the fact that program advocate is a prominent role for school librarians. One element of advocacy is the engagement in political initiatives that may affect school library programs. This case study investigates the effectiveness of one advocacy effort in response to a call for support of a national petition in support of school libraries. Data were collected, and factors underlying this advocacy campaign were analyzed. This report is a case study analysis of a time-constrained advocacy initiative, including the number of participants, demographic factors in relationship to participation, and the interaction of participants on an e-mail discussion list. With the emergent focus on lobbying for the reauthorization of ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act), this study has import for the design and development of successful advocacy efforts now and in the future.

This study moves beyond previous investigations to examine whether an educational intervention combining shared book reading with a vocabulary game increases children's vocabulary knowledge. Four-year-olds (N = 44) were randomly assigned to dyads in either an intervention (shared book reading plus vocabulary review game) or comparison condition (shared book reading, after-reading vocabulary review, and game that did not teach vocabulary). After two 30-min sessions, results demonstrated that the intervention condition outperformed the comparison condition on measures of receptive and expressive knowledge of taught vocabulary words. Children in the intervention group who scored the lowest at pretest on the receptive measure saw the most gains in taught word knowledge. Findings suggest that combining vocabulary gameplay with shared book reading improved children's learning of the vocabulary words in comparison to a comparison group. [This paper was published in "Mind, Brain, and Education," (EJ1108482).]