Academic Proficiency Research Articles

Planning for a successful return home: Transnational habitus and education strategies among Japanese expatriate mothers in Los Angeles

Based on ethnographic research of Japanese expatriate families in Los Angeles, this article explores how Japanese expatriate mothers, in dealing with globalization and transnational migration, develop transnational habitus and education strategies. These mothers attempt to assure their children’s successful reintegration into the competitive Japanese education system that is increasingly concerned with raising globally oriented, cosmopolitan Japanese children. Drawing on a transnational perspective, this case study illustrates how the global economy increasingly offers chances to live abroad, which in turn offer opportunities for families to cultivate their children’s academic proficiency, transnational competencies, and various cultural skills. Yet, this article also reveals a cost of such activities, namely the emotional burdens of the mothers, which derive from their increasing engagement in intensive mothering and identity management in a transnational social field. The findings suggest the importance of studying the intersections between globalization and women’s construction of race, ethnicity, gender, and emotion by focusing on their embeddedness in multiple sociocultural contexts.

Invariant principles of speech motor control that are not language-specific

Bilingual speakers must learn to modify their speech motor control mechanism based on the linguistic parameters and rules specified by the target language. This study examines if there are aspects of speech motor control which remain invariant regardless of the first (L1) and second (L2) language targets. Based on the age of academic exposure and proficiency in L2, 21 Bengali–English bilingual participants were classified into high (n = 11) and low (n = 10) L2 (English) proficiency groups. Using the Optotrak 3020 motion sensitive camera system, the lips and jaw movements were recorded while participants produced Bengali (L1) and English (L2) sentences. Based on kinematic analyses of the lip and jaw movements, two different variability measures (i.e., lip aperture and lower lip/jaw complex) were computed for English and Bengali sentences. Analyses demonstrated that the two groups of bilingual speakers produced lip aperture complexes (a higher order synergy) that were more consistent in co-ordination than were the lower lip/jaw complexes (a lower order synergy). Similar findings were reported earlier in monolingual English speakers by Smith and Zelaznik. Thus, this hierarchical organization may be viewed as a fundamental principle of speech motor control, since it is maintained even in bilingual speakers.

Assessing library contributions to university outcomes: the need for individual student level data

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to suggest move beyond examining the impact of the library from the library's perspective but rather to collaborate with university‐wide assessment efforts to determine the impact of the library from the student's perspective, the instructor's perspective, or the researcher's perspective.Design/methodology/approachA limited number of studies have been conducted in an attempt to determine the impact of the use of the library's physical or electronic resources, reference services, and the library as place. Considerably more studies have been prepared that have examined library instruction programs and information literacy programs although the results paint a very mixed picture. A majority of the evaluation efforts for information literacy programs have used opinion surveys, skills testing, and observed actual behavior using rubrics and other methods. A consistent criticism of such studies has been the small sample size and the lack of replication of such studies. Clearly an approach that collaborates with the university's assessment efforts and allows the library to determine the correlation levels between use of a library collection or service and a desired university outcome will be welcome by all academic libraries.FindingsThe suggested approach is to combine library usage data with university data. In the best of worlds the library data would be combined with both indirect measures of learning (such as student persistence, graduation rates) as well as direct measures of student learning such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment, Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency, and the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress. If university libraries were to embark on a coordinated program of data analysis then the results would have greater credibility and impact within the university.Practical implicationsThe paper provides a set of recommendations for combining library data (where the identification of each user is preserved) with institutional performance and demographic data for each user (after which the unique identification information can be eliminated so as to preserve the privacy and confidentiality rights of the user). The resulting large data set can be then used to explore possible relationships between use of library services and important outcomes – student success, student retention, graduation rates, and so forth that is necessary in order to demonstrate the value of the academic library.Social implicationsOnce libraries have a better understanding of the impacts of specific library services in the lives of their students, faculty and researchers, libraries can enhance services that produce positive results and drop services that have marginal or no value. The end result will be that academic libraries will better serve the needs of their customers.Originality/valueThis paper offers a new broad perspective that will encourage libraries to undertake a collaborative effort with others on campus in order to better assess the impact of the academic library.

19. Improving Student Readiness: Examining K-16 Alignment of Content and Performance Standards

Student readiness continues to be an issue among the professoriate (Cramer, 2010; Greenberg, 2010; Kelley, 2010). Enrolment growth trends in Canadian universities suggest this concern may remain prevalent for some time (Overall, 2011). At the secondary level, government bodies have developed and implemented policies and standardized assessment instruments with the expressed means of improving accountability and student academic proficiency. Despite these efforts, there does not appear to be a perceived change in the readiness of students attending tertiary institutions. The purposes of this study were to determine the current state of alignment between high school and university learning outcomes and assessment standards, and outline policies/factors that would establish or strengthen this alignment.

Relative age-related participation and dropout trends in German youth sports clubs

Relative age describes a youth's age within their age group cohort. Compared to relatively younger peers, relatively older youth in an annual age group cohort have been found more likely to be selected to sports teams, and to receive higher grades in education. This study examined the influence of youth sport participants’ relative age on participation and dropout. Using data from the 1995 German Youth Sport Survey (N total=2612), comparisons (stratified by gender and sport type) were made between the relative age of current and former participants. Analyses also considered the type of school youths were enrolled in while exploring the influence of relative age on sport participations. No relative age effects for dropout emerged among males in team or individual sport contexts. Female dropouts were more likely to be relatively older (Q1, ORadjusted: 0.52, 95% CI: 0.34–0.80; Q2, ORadjusted: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.36–0.84; Q3, ORadjusted: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.39–0.89), an effect that was mirrored among ‘artistic’ sport participants. Boys and girls in schools that were for children of higher academic proficiency were more likely to be currently participating in sport. Findings suggest that relative age-related dropout effects may be context sensitive and different for males and females. For the most part, relative age did not appear to have any relationship with dropout in this sample, with some notable exceptions for females. Overall, factors such as the type of school youths were enrolled in appear to be a more salient influence on sport participation than relative age.

Placing data in the hands of discipline-specific decision makers: Campus-wide writing program assessment

► ACT's CAAP Writing Skills test was used together with an internally-developed writing rubric. ► We provide and display both rubric data and CAAP Writing Skills data per student major. ► Correlations between CAAP Writing Skills data and data from internal rubric use are presented. ► This model informs both the university and departments. ► We argue that best practices in writing assessment use multiple measures. Writing is complex, and assessment of writing is equally complex, particularly when considering the need to measure outcomes at the institutional level while providing meaningful data that informs curriculum reform and supports learning at the discipline-level. Using a multi-layered assessment that incorporates standardized measures of writing assessment, such as two writing subtests of the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) published by ACT, as well as locally-developed rubric ratings, data from the assessment process can provide useful information to departmental faculty, assisting them in understanding students’ skills in their given content areas. The data generated in this system provides unique perspectives on discipline-specific writing expectations and outcomes.

Attended/unattended this in academic student writing: Quantitative and qualitative perspectives

AbstractThis paper addresses the question of what governs the optional attendance of the determiner this by a noun phrase in academic student writing. Previous research on this has largely focused on the noun phrases accompanying this, while the question of what determines writers' choice between attended and unattended this in the first place has received only little attention. In the present study, we present the results of a more comprehensive analysis, including quantitative methods (logistic regression analysis, Distinctive Collexeme Analysis, textual distribution measures) and qualitative methods (cluster extraction), of more than 5,800 hits of sentence-initial this obtained from the Michigan Corpus of Upper Level Student Papers (MICUSP). Overall, the results point to a strong influence of the verb accompanying (un)attended this, which is moderated to some extent by author-related variables like academic discipline, academic proficiency level, native speaker status, and gender. A qualitative pattern analysis of the most prominent this + verb clusters reveals that semantic biases evidenced in the verbs distinctively associated with (un)attended this are reflected at the text-organizational level in terms of positional preferences within paragraphs and texts. In combination, the results point towards an ongoing delexicalization of this + verb clusters like this is and this means into textual organization markers, which stands in sharp contrast to traditional cautions against unattended this as mere “vague reference” that is to be avoided.

The argument for evaluating monolingual language tests for equivalence across language groups

The demonstration of scalar equivalence in language proficiency tests (which can be viewed as monolingual language tests) has often been deemed as unnecessary as it is argued that the biases associated with the language of a test (used across multilingual language groups) will not occur. However it is increasingly acknowledged that scalar equivalence is as important in monolingual language tests as it in multilingual language tests. This paper will provide empirical support for the argument that the meaning of tests scores across groups (scalar equivalence) is as important in monolingual language proficiency testing as it is in any other cross-linguistic testing. The authors will present research conducted on the equivalence of an adapted English version of a standardised academic language proficiency test (Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey, WMLS, 2001), with its intended use being across English-first-language speakers and isiXhosa-first-language speakers. More specifically, the focus will be on an item bias analysis across the English- and isiXhosa-firstlanguage speakers for all the sub-tests of the adapted English version of the WMLS.

Quality of Clinical Education in Birjand Medical School from the Students Perspective

Background: A main factor to change the education from static to dynamic situations is continuous evaluation of academic systems. This study is performed to analyze the students’ viewpoints in terms of the quality of clinical education in Birjand University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This is a descriptive and analytical study. The statistical population consists of 135 individuals including 64 interns and 71 stagers chosen from the students who had spent all their clinical courses. A census method was performed. Clinical training in three areas of scientific quality, training management, communication and consultation were studied. Results: Mean age of the students was 25.2±1.3 years, their average score was 16.8±0.86. 61.5% of them were female, 62.2% single and exotic. Regarding the students’ evaluations, the highest and lowest average scores are, for academic proficiency in Neurology (25.3±4.1) and ENT (123±5.7) respectively, for the Educational Management in Infectious Diseases (29.1±5.1) and Orthopedic (20.9±6.9) and for Communication and Consultation, in Pediatrics (20.5±4.4) and psychology (14.6±5.9), which shows the education quality is relatively good (53.5%). Conclusions: This study showed that the students’ evaluation on the quality of clinical education in different sections is relatively good. Necessary interventions are required in low-quality sections. Specifically, for the scientific mastery, this must be done in ENT, orthopedic, and psychology, for the educational management, in orthopedics, ENT, psychology and for the area of communication and consultation in psychology, ENT, and surgery. This intervention must be done by the university officials.

Cross-discipline investigation of the relationship between academic performance and online resource access by distance education students

Educational technology implementation often owes more to the technical proficiency of the teaching staff and/or the capacity of the institution than to a student outcome-centred design process. Creation of online resources takes considerable time and involves significant cost to both the institution, for devices and platforms, and to students for devices and Internet connectivity charges. Here, we present a cross-discipline investigation of student engagement with a range of simple resources. Our aim was to determining if the provision of such resources had an impact on student academic performance regardless of the students’ level of academic proficiency. This research focused on students studying first-year introductory subjects at a distance (off campus) from two different faculties, Arts and Science. Analysis of the web access data from the learning management system (Sakai) demonstrated that students who accessed the most resources in terms of diversity and percentage of available resources achieved higher grades. We postulate that the resources prompted students to spend more ‘‘time-on-task’’ and facilitate more active styles of learning. We suggest, however, that students need to be made aware of the value of the resources and how they are best used to enhance academic performance.Keywords: distance education; online resources; academic performance; virtual learning environments; e-learning(Published: 3 February 2012)Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20: 14430 - DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0/14430

Cross-discipline investigation of the relationship between academic performance and online resource access by distance education students

Educational technology implementation often owes more to the technical proficiency of the teaching staff and/or the capacity of the institution than to a student outcome-centred design process. Creation of online resources takes considerable time and involves significant cost to both the institution, for devices and platforms, and to students for devices and Internet connectivity charges. Here, we present a cross-discipline investigation of student engagement with a range of simple resources. Our aim was to determining if the provision of such resources had an impact on student academic performance regardless of the students’ level of academic proficiency. This research focused on students studying first-year introductory subjects at a distance (off campus) from two different faculties, Arts and Science. Analysis of the web access data from the learning management system (Sakai) demonstrated that students who accessed the most resources in terms of diversity and percentage of available resources achieved higher grades. We postulate that the resources prompted students to spend more ‘‘time-on-task’’ and facilitate more active styles of learning. We suggest, however, that students need to be made aware of the value of the resources and how they are best used to enhance academic performance. Keywords: distance education; online resources; academic performance; virtual learning environments; e-learning (Published: 3 February 2012) Citation: Research in Learning Technology 2012, 20 : 14430 - DOI: 10.3402/rlt.v20i0/14430

A Study of the Effectiveness of Supplemental Educational Services for Title I Students in Baltimore City Public Schools

The authors of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 anticipated that a majority of school districts or schools would not be able to attain state and national achievement standards without assistance. Consequently, the Act created a major tenet known as Supplemental Educational Services (SES) programs to improve the learning outcomes of students placed 'at-risk' and to hold public schools accountable for increasing the proficiency levels of students in reading and mathematics. This study examined whether provision of supplemental educational services significantly improved academic achievement of students in Baltimore City Public Schools after they received supplemental services. A quasi-experimental research design was utilized in this study to compare SES participants and non-participants. Keywords: supplemental educational services, adequate yearly progress, Maryland State Assessment School districts have attempted to meet the terms of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2001). The mandate requires that districts provide Supplemental Educational Services (SES) to improve academic performance and close the achievement gap for low income minority children. This is especially important for minority students living in urban communities and enrolled in Title I schools. The authors of NCLB anticipated that a majority of school districts or schools would not be able to attain state and national achievement standards without assistance. Consequently, the Act created SES programs to improve the learning outcomes of at-risk students and to hold public schools accountable for improving the proficiency of students in reading and mathematics. Those SES programs refer to tutoring outside of the regular school day for low-income and minority children that are in Title I schools. Tutoring normally begins in December and usually last for three months. However, some students are wait listed and may not receive SES until after the state examination. Although SES programs exist in virtually every school district in the U.S., policymakers and school districts are apprehensive about using SES programs to close the achievement gap. This is especially important for the nation's 48 million children from high-poverty school districts in Title I Schools (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). Lacking hard data, officials are skeptical about SES programs improving the academic proficiency of students and reducing the number of poor-performing schools not meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP) as required by NCLB. Similar to other urban school districts, the Baltimore City Public Schools System (BCPS) faced challenges more extreme than most school districts. For example, the school district experienced high leadership turnover; there have been three superintendents since 2003. Of the 91,738 students in BCPS in 2003, 90% were minority students who consistently scored low on standardized tests (MD State Department of Education, MSDE, 2003). 2003, BCPS was the first complete school district in Maryland classified as In Corrective Action (White, 2003a, 2003b). the same year, BCPS had the highest percentage of schools in Maryland that failed to make AYP: Eighty-four of 183 schools were identified as chronically low-performing (Grasmick, 2003). Simultaneously, BCPS faced a $58 million deficit, a $52 million cash-flow shortfall, and a mandate to relinquish financial control in order to receive a $42 million advance from the governor (Donovan & White, 2004; Olesker, 2004). Additionally, BCPS was charged with mismanaging federal Title I funds that were targeted to improve the academic performance of students enrolled in high-poverty schools. Subsequently, under NCLB guidelines, BCPS developed and implemented plans to eliminate Maryland State Department of Education sanctions. Plans included the full implementation of SES. For the next five years, BCPS delivered SES to approximately 10,000 minority students who were not meeting criteria in schools that failed to achieve AYP. …

Academic Proficiency (Language and Content) and the Role of Strategies

This report continues the work of Krashen and Brown (2007), developing and evaluating a set of hypotheses for the development of academic proficiency. That article defined academic proficiency as having two components: academic language proficiency and knowledge of academic content.

Possibility of Crosslingual Transfer: A Comparative Study of Chinese (L1) and English (L2) Lessons

This article reports a comparative study of first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English lessons in Hong Kong secondary schools. Aiming to explore how to take advantage of L1 academic proficiency for the benefit of L2 development, the study asked how Chinese and English lessons compare in terms of the content knowledge covered and the levels and depth of such coverage. Through a corpus‐aided approach, 3 differences were identified, namely, the “aboutness” of the lessons through a keyword analysis, the “abstractness” reflected in the use of metalanguage, and the “richness in coverage” of meanings in classrooms. The findings indicated that the Chinese lessons were either text‐based, involving discussion of literary concepts in metalanguage, or task‐based, engaging students in debating about a current issue, while English lessons were based on linguistic knowledge and composed mainly of discrete grammatical drills through simple classroom routines. This article argues that the 3 differences identified were deficiencies in the L2 classrooms. However, they could also be areas where crosslingual transfer might be possible. Constant exposure to literary text‐related concepts and cognitively complex tasks in the L1 may lead to students’ development of academic language proficiency; such proficiency could be capitalized for the development of academic proficiency in the L2.

Maths beyond pictures

We all fall into the same trap, sometimes. It is an easy thing to do when teaching pupils in the later stages of learning English as an additional language (EAL). We find ourselves assuming that, because they can communicate all of their needs, participate in all playground games, follow instructions to the same extent as their peers, and chat away all day long (perhaps they are the ones that never stop), then they must also be able to cope with the language demands of the classroom. We are aware of their grammatical errors in English because it is evident in their writing, and we work hard to support them in this. But what about their learning in other subjects? Studies show that EAL pupils often underachieve more in maths than in English, proving the extent to which the subject is about language. This is an area in which many teachers require further support. We are using children’s conversational fluency to overestimate their cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP), that is, the language they have available to them for academic study. As it usually takes between five and seven years for an EAL pupil’s CALP to reach that of an average first language English speaker, the primary years are a crucial time for its development, and a time when it should always be assumed that extra language support is needed. The old EAL adage of using visual images and culturally-relevant examples, while important, is not enough.

Suggestions for a expression education for enhancing the academic proficiency of multicultural children

Suggestions for a expression education for enhancing the academic proficiency of multicultural children

48 Do Annual In-Training Exams Predict Clinical Productivity in Emergency Medicine Residents?

Annual in-training exams are used both to track residents' academic proficiency and to predict success when taking written boards. We sought to determine if these exams predict clinical productivity, which is an important skill in becoming a capable emergency medicine physician.

Resultados a longo prazo com o uso do implante coclear em crianças: revisão sistemática

INTRODUÇÃO: Os benefícios do Implante coclear (IC) nos primeiros anos de uso em crianças já foram detalhadamente descritos na literatura. Porém, são escassos os estudos que relatam os resultados após longos períodos de uso do dispositivo. OBJETIVO: Revisar a evidência disponível na literatura para responder ao questionamento: "O Implante Coclear contribuiu de modo efetivo para o desenvolvimento das habilidades comunicativas em adolescentes e adultos jovens que cresceram usando este dispositivo?". MÉTODO: Para responder ao questionamento proposto, foi realizada a revisão sistemática da literatura. Diversas bases de dados eletrônicas e anais de congressos foram selecionados para localizar a evidência referente aos resultados do uso prolongado do IC. Os títulos potencialmente relevantes para responder ao objetivo da revisão sistemática foram recuperados e revisados usando um protocolo de análise dos dados. Para cada artigo incluído na presente revisão sistemática foi realizada a resenha em uma ficha protocolar e a classificação segundo o nível de evidência e grau de recomendação. SÍNTESE DOS DADOS: Quinze estudos contemplaram os critérios e foram incluídos na revisão sistemática. Os resultados descritos mostraram que a primeira geração de crianças implantadas alcançou níveis de competência linguística e acadêmica similares aos indivíduos com audição normal da mesma idade. COMENTÁRIOS FINAIS: O IC foi contribuiu de maneira efetiva para o desenvolvimento de habilidades comunicativas funcionais em adolescentes e jovens adultos que cresceram usando o dispositivo eletrônico.

Exploring Domain-General and Domain-Specific Linguistic Knowledge in the Assessment of Academic English Language Proficiency

This study examined the role of domain-general and domain-specific linguistic knowledge in the assessment of academic English language proficiency using a latent variable modeling approach. The goal of the study was to examine if modeling of domain-specific variance results in improved model fit and well-defined latent factors. Analyses were carried out on data from the ACCESS for ELLs® test battery, which comprises multiple test forms targeting different grade and proficiency levels. The results of the study provide empirical evidence in support of the conceptual distinction of domain-specific and domain-general linguistic knowledge. Domain-specific factors tended to become more salient with increasing language proficiency, whereas the salience of domain-general factors tended to decrease. However, overall domain-general factors remained stronger than the domain-specific factors. In one test form targeting high levels of proficiency, this factor pattern was reversed, suggesting some degree of fluidity in the relationship between domain-general and domain-specific linguistic knowledge.

The Laboratory Score/Reference Method Score Ratio (LSRSR) Is a Novel Tool for Monitoring Laboratory Performance in Immunohistochemistry Proficiency Testing of Hormone Receptors in Breast Cancer

Canadian Immunohistochemistry Quality Control (CIQC) operates an academic proficiency testing (PT) program using a traditional expert panel-based qualitative assessment system. The image analysis approach is increasingly considered for use in PT to follow demand for precision in immunohistochemical test calibration. CIQC introduces and explores the usefulness of a novel image analysis-based tool, the laboratory score/reference method score ratio (LSRSR) for PT. Two CIQC runs with 33 and 57 participants, respectively, were analyzed for interlaboratory concordance for estrogen receptor results using expert panel-based and LSRSR systems. Samples included tissue microarrays with 40 tissue cores each. The LSRSR was calculated from participants' and reference laboratory H scores measured by image analysis. We found lower concordance with reference method results for participating laboratories by LSRSR than those reported by the expert panel; although the expert panel observed those differences, it was not able to measure them without LSRSR. LSRSR may be useful in monitoring laboratory performance for quantitative immunohistochemical testing.