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This paper reports on the rationale for the implementation of a pilot project using a scenario-based Virtual Reality (VR) resource, originally developed by Health Sciences at Coventry University and now being repurposed for Italian language learning as a collaborative project with Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of Southampton. The original aim of the resource was to prepare health care students for home visits by allowing them to experience a semi-linear conversation with a virtual Non-player Character (NPC). The authors will discuss how they are planning to repurpose the resource for Italian language learning and teaching and will analyse the potential pedagogical uses within the modern language curriculum, including emotional language, employability skills, and the year abroad. [For the complete volume, "Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University: Treasuring Languages," see ED604577.]

The recent technological developments and widespread use of mobile technologies challenge traditional knowledge and skills, with language learning increasingly taking place beyond the language classroom in learners' own environments. The paper presents the ImparApp study that focuses on a pervasive and gamified approach to language teaching and learning. The study investigated language learning with mobile devices as an approach to augmenting language learning by taking learning outside the classroom into the real-world context. The paper reports on the design, development and testing of an introductory Italian Language Learning game, i.e. ImparApp, that is developed with the use of MIT's TaleBlazer authoring tool. Preliminary findings of the pre-pilot of the game prototype are drawing on data collected through participant observation of a play-test session followed by a focus group interview. The paper contributes to the field of mobile-assisted language learning with insights on pervasive and gamified approaches to teaching and learning a foreign language. [For the complete volume of short papers, see ED572005.]

This paper reports on an exploratory research project on the evaluation of the engagement with a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) carried out by six members of staff and two "expert students" involved in the MA in English Language Teaching (ELT) in the Department of English and Languages at Coventry University (CU), United Kingdom, between November and December 2014. Its main aim was to investigate how both expert and trainee English teachers and teacher trainers would find the experience of engaging with a FutureLearn MOOC on this subject created by the University of Southampton in collaboration with the British Council--"Understanding Language: Learning and Teaching." The participants involved agreed to record their thoughts while they were taking part in the MOOC and then met once per week for four weeks at the end of each MOOC unit to carry out a collaborative staff/student reflective evaluation of their experience. The paper will discuss the way in which the participants engaged with this project, which became a blended learning community of professional development practice linked to the global community of practice on the MOOC, and present their perspectives on the pros and cons of integrating a MOOC as an Open Educational Resource (OER) into an existing curriculum. [For full proceedings, see ED564162.]

Persons with co-occurring disorders (COD) are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Not only are they at greater risk of arrest, they are also disproportionately represented among state prisoners and jail inmates. In this paper, we consider the role of procedural injustices, which feed a distrust in the legal system and law enforcement agents and thus erodes individuals' willingness to obey the law. Drawing from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 118 low-level offenders in the San Francisco Bay Area, we find that a much higher percentage of persons with COD reported police-based procedural injustices, and such reports were associated with much higher levels of legal cynicism and an unwillingness to obey the law. However, despite the fact that police officers were the direct source of violent and aggressive procedural injustices, persons with COD reported higher than expected perceptions of police legitimacy. We explain this paradox by noting possible neighborhood effects. Specifically, persons with COD were more likely to reside in neighborhoods they considered unsafe. There, police officers' patterns of behavior were in part understood as a function of the violent and disordered contexts officers patrolled. This understanding produced more tempered views of the police's illegitimacy than anticipated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of negative responses by students regarding the quality and helpfulness of feedback tutors have begun to explore ways in which new technologies can improve feedback. This paper reviews the literature in the area of student feedback and provides some initial results into trials conducted using screen capture software for student feedback. The final part of the paper discusses some of the procedural and practical issues which need to be addressed in developing a clear methodology for this type of feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research exploring Blalock's (1967) theory of minority threat has predominantly explored the social control capabilities of law related agencies, such as the police and courts. However, recently scholars have begun to apply these concepts to social control within schools, as schools remain one of the more important social agencies in the life of adolescents. This literature suggests that minority students are disproportionately punished at rates above their representation in schools. Moreover minority students are punished more in schools where they represent a greater proportion of the population. This paper builds on the past research applying a multilevel framework examining the effects of school and individual level factors on the likelihood of school punishment, using data from approximately 3,000 students from 31 schools nationwide. This paper will explore whether students have a greater probability of punishment in schools that have a larger proportion of minority students and whether minority students are more likely to be punished in schools where there is a greater degree of racial tension. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blalock's (1967) "racial threat" hypothesis focused primarily on relations between whites and African Americans. Demographic shifts during the past decades, coupled with the recent political and sociological focus on immigration from Latin American countries, however, suggests that an expansion of Blalock's original hypothesis to include Hispanics/Latinos is warranted. The current study uses survey data collected from more than 1,000 youths in nine U.S. cities to examine two primary research questions: 1) Do differences exist in the prevalence and frequency of victimization experienced by Latino, (non-Hispanic) white, and African American youths? and 2) If differences in victimization exist, what effect does numerical minority/majority status in a neighborhood have on the likelihood and extent of victimization experienced? Implications for victimological theory and public policy are offered. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor implementation of school-based programs is relatively common. In spite of this lack of program fidelity, evaluators often assume that programs are delivered as intended or rely exclusively on implementers' self-reports of program implementation. Recent studies suggest that such assumptions are unwarranted and that discrepancies between self-reported implementation and actual implementation exist. Observation of program implementation provides a different perspective and allows evaluators to assess program fidelity, including dosage, adherence to the intended program, and quality of program delivery. Observations of program implementation also enable evaluators to gauge program participants' interest and level/intensity of involvement in sessions. In this paper we examine more than 500 observations of program delivery of a school-based prevention program. These observations are part of the national evaluation of the G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education and Training) program that involves 97 treatment and 89 control classrooms in 29 schools in seven cities across the country. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we examine the validity of two different measures of gang membership. During the recent past, survey researchers have utilized a "filtering" approach (i.e., self-nomination) to determine gang affiliation and a body of research has been established assessing the validity of this approach. The Eurogang Program of Research has proposed a new "funneling" technique that relies upon the application of definitional criteria to peer group characteristics to identify gang members. Utilizing a large American data set, we describe these different procedures, examine the extent to which these different approaches identify the same individuals as gang members, and assess the predictive validity of both approaches. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from a national sample of students nested within schools will be used to examine both school- and student-level effects on school punishment. Research on the use of social control has revealed that minorities are more likely than whites to be subjected to formal social control. While much of this research has explored the justice system, a body of research suggests similar disparity exists within schools. As schools have embraced zero tolerance policies regarding school misbehavior, the rationalization for discipline has moved from facilitation of learning to social control. Some have argued that the shift in the meaning of punishment coupled with the increased presence of justice system symbols in schools has created an environment similar to that found in prisons. The end result, some argue, has been disparate use of punishment along racial lines mirroring the justice system. To date, much of the research investigating this issue has been conducted at the aggregate level, ignoring micro-level measures that could help to explain racial disparity. In this paper I take into account school-level context and student-level characteristics to investigate whether minority students are more likely to be sanctioned or sanctioned more severely than similarly situated White students. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research examining the formal sanctioning of adolescents has given unequal attention to the consequences of sanctions. Most of this research has been couched in either the interactionist or deterrence perspectives. Theoretical models of labeling and interactionism take into account both the causes and effects of sanctions. However, little attention has been paid to the characteristics leading to formal sanctioning of adolescents. Within the context of interactionist and labeling theories, sanctions are attributable to delinquency and one's place within society. Furthermore, members of at risk groups have been posited to be most at risk of sanctioning. Using a sample of approximate 1,200 adolescents from nine cities, we examine causes of formal sanctioning. In particular we concentrate on characteristics of the individual, family, peer group, and community. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past research has suggested that community context is an important predictor of individual perceptions of the police. Measures of individual perceptions of community disorder as well as structural indicators have been employed in the extant research to examine the effect of community circumstances on perceptions of the police. However, it is unclear whether perceptual or contextual measures are more salient in their predictive power. Some have suggested that the relationship between community conditions and perceptions of the police will vary based on place. Yet much of the literature relies on geographically limited samples, which do not allow for investigation of place based differences. Using data from approximately 1,500 adolescents and census data from nine cities, we examine the relationship between perceived community conditions, community context, and perceptions of the police. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past three decades, researchers have produced a considerable body of literature examining attitudes toward the police. The majority of studies have focused on adult samples, largely ignoring juveniles. Interestingly, those studies that have included adolescent samples often find that, in comparison to adults, juveniles report attitudes towards the police that tend to be neutral. With few exceptions, studies rely on small geographically limited samples. In the present paper we use a sample of 1,499 juveniles from four states to examine the effect of police contact on attitudes toward the police. We employ both overall contact measures and situation specific measures of contact (e.g. questioned, arrested, and reported crime). Results suggest that individuals who have had any contact with the police, as well as those that were arrested or questioned by the police, hold more negative attitudes than those youths without police contact. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Routine activities theory states that crime rates will be higher in areas where there is a confluence of motivated offenders, suitable targets, and a lack of capable guardians. Current research investigating routine activities illustrates that areas that are rich in suitable targets will experience higher rates of crime. Also, certain activities have been shown to be associated with certain criminal activities. Furthermore, some places within cities are prone to attract offenders due to demographic and physical characteristics of communities. The current paper examines how the proliferation of public transportation influences neighborhood crime rates. It is expected that neighborhoods that have a large number of public transportation nodes will have higher crime rates. The increase in routes through a neighborhood will allow motivated offenders greater access to the neighborhood. Relying on public transportation data, neighborhood property and robbery measures, and census data, the current paper will use spatial data analysis and spatial regression to investigate the relationship between public transportation and crime rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]