Student Vignettes Research Articles

Does students’ ADHD diagnosis affect teachers’ school-track decisions? An experimental study

With a sample of N = 46 in-service and pre-service teachers, we examined whether the labeling of primary-school students as having ADHD would affect teachers’ recommendations for a school track in secondary school. Student vignettes were used to mimic real students. Student gender, their GPA—suggested by their last school report in primary school, their school-related behavior, and whether they were labeled as having ADHD or not were orthogonally varied. Students were more likely to be recommended for the highest track when their GPA indicated higher achievements and when their behavior was appropriate. Moreover, evidence was found that teachers applied gender stereotypes when making school-placement recommendations. When the students were high-achieving boys, their behavior mattered to a lower degree than when the students were high-achieving girls. However, the labeling of students as having ADHD did not affect teachers’ decisions. Hence, the participants of this study were not prone to stereotyping students according to their label. Implications of the results were discussed.

Experiential Learning: Conferences as a Tool to Develop Students’ Understanding of Community-Engaged Research

The purpose of this paper of practice is to explore the use of a “Conference as Curriculum” model to develop student understanding of critical approaches and challenges and opportunities in the field of community-engaged research (CER). Two higher education institutions in California’s Monterey County sent 22 students to the “All-In: Co-Creating Knowledge for Justice” Conference in Santa Cruz, California USA in October 2022. The undergraduate and graduate students were funded through their academic institutions and accompanied by faculty and staff working on community-engaged research. Participation in the conference involved a pre- and post-conference convening to prepare students for the conference and then guide students through reflections on their learning and future work. The experiential learning activities offered in conjunction with the students’ conference attendance were designed to: (1) foster students’ connection to the community and each other; (2) develop students’ understanding of community-engaged research; and (3) build students’ professional acumen through attending a professional conference. Two authors of this article share their experience as student attendees at the conference. The student vignettes provide insight on the authors’ learning experiences and offer design implications for the use of cohort conference attendance as an experiential learning activity. The article presents a conference experiential learning model that could be replicated and modified by other higher education institutions. We also place the project within a greater inter-institutional initiative to build a model for community-driven collaborations that seeks to address challenges surrounding higher education engagement with local nonprofits and governments.

Students Can (Mostly) Recognize Effective Learning, So Why Do They Not Do It?

Cognitive psychology research has emphasized that the strategies that are effective and efficient for fostering long-term retention (e.g., interleaved study, retrieval practice) are often not recognized as effective by students and are infrequently used. In the present studies, we use a mixed-methods approach and challenge the rhetoric that students are entirely unaware of effective learning strategies. We show that whether being asked to describe strategies used by poor-, average-, and high-performing students (Study 1) or being asked to judge vignettes of students using different strategies (Study 2), participants are generally readily able to identify effective strategies: they were able to recognize the efficacy of explanation, pretesting, interpolated retrieval practice, and even some interleaving. Despite their knowledge of these effective strategies, they were still unlikely to report using these strategies themselves. In Studies 2 and 3, we also explore the reasons why students might not use the strategies that they know are effective. Our findings suggest that interventions to improve learners' strategy use might focus less on teaching them about what is effective and more on increasing self-efficacy, reducing the perceived costs, and establishing better habits.

Technology’s Role in Inclusive Work-Integrated Learning for Students with a Disability

As highlighted through the COVID-19 pandemic, technology plays a key role towards the goal of equitable higher education. In this paper, we focus on the role of technology in supporting inclusive work-integrated learning (WIL) placements for students with a disability. We present three student vignettes, generated from survey data of the perceptions and experiences of students with a disability in WIL (n=132). We used these vignettes in follow-up focus groups (6 focus groups, n=27) which explored students’ ideas on how technology could better support students. From our data, we discuss students’ conceptualisations of how potential technological solutions could improve WIL, across both the mode of WIL offered (e.g., online), but also towards supporting deeper relationships and improving the personalisation of WIL. We conclude by recommending greater collaboration between WIL practitioners and learning technologists to explore the role of technology in creating inclusive WIL experiences.

The right to the school: urban schooling, place-based education, and youth agency at the intersection of gentrification

ABSTRACT The ways in which urban schooling intersects with gentrification in US cities is an understudied yet growing reality. Within this wider reality, even less is known about how youth resist gentrifying agendas that seek to displace them from learning in rebranded cities. Drawing from an ethnographic study on urban place-based education at a high school situated amid efforts to rebrand the downtown of a southwestern city, the author proposes the right to the school as an extension to the right to the city. The right to the school is a framework to trace and understand how youth geographies intersect with (a) localized struggles over urban public schooling in the context of gentrification and (b) the formation of youth agency amid those struggles. To illustrate the right to the school, general findings and student vignettes are provided.

Prediction of students’ reading outcomes in learning progress monitoring: Evidence for the effect of a gender bias

Learning progress monitoring (LPM) is an effective tool for teachers to improve students’ performance by systematically and quickly responding to achievement data. However, studies show that in-service and preservice teachers often have difficulties using LPM because of lacking graph literacy, especially with high data ambiguity. The present study examines whether (a) preservice teachers are biased by gender stereotypes when predicting students’ performance based on progress data, (b) the preservice teachers’ gender affected their predictions differentially depending on student gender, and (c) the insertion of a trend line or lowered data variability diminishes the gender bias in predictions. N = 134 preservice teachers received 16 experimental student vignettes online via the internet in random order which depicted the learning progress of boys and girls in oral reading fluency assessment over a period of 11 weeks. Half of the participants were presented with progress data accompanied by a trend line, the other half received progress data only. Results evidenced that preservice teachers were prone to a gender bias favoring girls. The gender bias was attenuated when a trend line was presented or when data variability was low, with male participants benefitting more from the trend line, and female participants benefitting more from low data variability. The adaptation of international training programs to enhance graph literacy and to diminish gender stereotyping in German teachers is recommendable.

Accommodating students with exceptional needs by aligning classroom assessment with IEP goals

ABSTRACT The majority of students with exceptional needs receive most of their formal education in general education or inclusive classrooms. These students often need a variety of accommodations to ensure their success with the general education curriculum. The purpose of this article is to explore accommodation approaches and strategies for teaching students with exceptional needs in inclusive classrooms. We first discuss the relationship of classroom assessment and IEP goal development, followed by a discussion on how to accommodate learning objectives for classroom assessment. We further discuss how to use classroom assessment to document IEP progress. Finally, we present assessment accommodation categories by providing vignettes of students with exceptional needs who receive appropriate and adequate accommodations in inclusive classrooms. We conclude with a brief discussion on practice, policy, and research implications of accommodations for inclusive practices.

Designing for Wellbeing: An Inclusive Learning Design Approach with Student Mental Health Vignettes

Student mental health is a growing concern for universities; increasing numbers of students are experiencing wellbeing issues, and distance learners are particularly at risk. Evidence indicates that triggers for mental health difficulties can reside within higher education environments, systems and study practices, implying that a proactive, inclusive design approach should be considered to complement mental health service provision. Student vignettes that illustrate experiences of mental health difficulties in study are a valuable learning design tool; they have potential to support more inclusive practice by informing learning design. This paper explores the role learning design can play in creating learning that supports student mental wellbeing, it shares vignettes created in the study, discusses a case study of their use, and gives examples of barriers students experience and learning design considerations that may address these. This method was found to be engaging and effective in illustrating barriers and in supporting practitioners to identify learning design considerations to mitigate these.

Achievement development is less important for school-placement recommendations when students are stereotyped

With this study we examined with a sample of N = 102 primary-school teachers whether their use of information about students’ achievement development for placement recommendations depended on student ethnicity. We applied student vignettes to mimic real students, and orthogonally varied student ethnicity, their GPA development, suggested by their last two school reports in primary school, and their grand mean of grades. We found that students were more likely to be recommended for the highest track when their grand mean of grades indicated higher achievements and when their GPA improved rather than declined. Moreover, we found strong evidence that teachers applied ethnic stereotypes when making school-placement recommendations. If the students fitted an ethnic stereotype, teachers tend to ignore information about their achievement development, whereas if the students did not fit an ethnic stereotype, teachers’ judgments were rather based on all information that was provided about the students. Hence, achievement development was less important for school-placement recommendations when students were stereotyped than when they were not stereotyped. Implications of the results were discussed.

Mixed Feelings about Choice: Exploring Variation in Middle School Student Experiences with Making Choices in a Personalized Learning Project

While providing choice can be a powerful way to personalize learning for young adolescents, there is also evidence that choice can be challenging for learners. This study investigated middle school students’ (N = 72) feelings about making choices in how they learn during a personalized project. Findings include students’ self-reported enjoyment and stress associated with choice within the project as well as five student vignettes illustrating some of the variations across student experiences. Informed by this variation, we offer several implications for research and practice related to supporting students in making choices in their own learning.

Workplace-Based Assessment in Cross-Border Health Professional Education

Construct: The globalization of healthcare has been accentuated by the export of health professional curricula overseas. Yet intact translation of pedagogies and practices devised in one cultural setting may not be possible or necessarily appropriate for alternate environments. Purposeful examination of workplace learning is necessary to understand how the source or “home” program may need adapting in the distributed or “host” setting. Background: Strategies to optimize cross-border medical education partnerships have been largely focused on elements of campus-based learning. Determining how host clinical supervisors approach assessment in experiential settings within a different culture and uphold the standards of home programs is relevant given the influence of context on trainees’ demonstrated competencies. In this mixed-methods study, we sought to explore assessor judgments of student workplace-based performance made by preceptors sharing a pharmacy curriculum in Canada and Qatar. Approach: Using modified Delphi consensus technique, we asked clinical supervisors in Canada (n = 18) and in Qatar (n = 14) to categorize trainee performance as described in 16 student vignettes. The proportion of ratings for three levels of expectation (exceeds, meets, or below) was calculated and within-country group consensus achieved if the level of agreement reached 80%. Between-country group comparisons were measured using a chi-square statistic. We then conducted follow-up semi-structured interviews to gain further perspectives and clarify assessor rationale. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic content analysis. Results: The threshold for between-country group differences in assessor impressions was met for only two of the 16 student vignettes. Compared to Canadian clinical supervisors, relatively more preceptors in Qatar judged one described student as meets rather than exceeds expectations and one as meets rather than falls below expectations. Analysis of follow-up interviews exploring how culture may inform variations in assessor judgments identified themes associated with the profession, organization, learner, and supervisor performance theories but not their particular geographic context. Clinical supervisors in both countries were largely aligned in expectations of student knowledge, skills, and behaviors demonstrated in patient care and multidisciplinary team interactions. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that variation in student assessment was more frequent among clinical supervisors within the same national context than any differences identified between the two countries. In these program settings, national sociocultural norms did not predict global assessor impressions or competency-specific judgments; instead, professional and organizational cultures were more likely to inform student characterizations of performance in workplace-based settings. Further study situated within the specific experiential learning contexts of cross-border health professional curricula is assuredly warranted.

Preservice teachers’ evaluations of students’ achievement development in the context of school-track recommendations

We experimentally examined whether preservice teachers considered both the gender of primary school students and their development of GPAs, indicated by two successive school reports, when making secondary school-track recommendations. We used student vignettes to mimic real students and orthogonally varied student gender, their GPA development (positive vs. negative), and the grand mean of grades. We found that students who improved were more than twice as likely to be recommended for the highest track than those who deteriorated. Moreover, we could show that with deteriorating students, male participants preferred boys relative to girls. These results are discussed regarding possible rules of extrapolating current achievements and concerning the gender of students and participants, and conclusions are drawn with respect to preservice teacher education.

Threat or challenge? Teacher beliefs about gifted students and their relationship to teacher motivation

ABSTRACTThis study investigated the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about gifted students’ characteristics compared to students with average-ability and the teachers’ motivation (i.e., enthusiasm, self-efficacy). We investigated pre-service teachers’ beliefs and motivational orientations as substantial components of their professional competencies and aimed to make an empirical contribution to the discussion on the professionalization of teachers in gifted education. We expected that beliefs about the gifted would be in line with the disharmony hypothesis assuming they were intellectually strong, but deficient in non-cognitive domains. German (n = 375) and Australian (n = 315) pre-service teachers participated in a between-subjects experimental design that used student vignettes varying in ability and gender. Repeated-measures ANOVAs showed that besides a high intellect, pre-service teachers from both countries associated maladjustment with giftedness and showed lower self-efficacy for teaching the gifted. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that high intelligence ratings when paired with high maladjustment ratings were associated with lower teacher motivation. This result is of high practical relevance as perceived self-efficacy relates to actual teaching behavior in a classroom. Implications for teacher education in gifted education are discussed.

Career Decision-Making Within the College Social Microcosm

The present investigation sought to examine whether the college social environment influences students’ career decision-making (CDM) processes. It was comprised of three overarching hypotheses: (1) uncertainty about one’s academic major would be devalued in the college social microcosm, (2) social exclusion would negatively impact four basic psychological needs (belonging, sense of control, social state self-esteem, and meaning in life), and in turn, (3) social exclusion along with the four needs would negatively impact career decision self-efficacy and vocational outcome expectations. Study 1 ( N = 433) presented participants with two fictional student vignettes (certain about major vs. uncertain) which they were asked to rate using a series of positive personality traits. Results revealed that the vignette portraying a student certain about his or her academic major was judged significantly more positively compared to an uncertain student ( d = .71). Study 2 ( N = 148) experimentally manipulated social exclusion to examine its effects on the four needs and on the two CDM variables. Two types of exclusion were used (career-based and personal); both led to significantly lower levels of the four needs when compared to the career-based inclusion condition. Moreover, belonging, sense of control, and meaning in life made significant contributions to both vocational variables. Conclusions and implications are discussed.

Impact of professional learning on teachers’ representational strategies and students’ cognitive engagement with molecular genetics concepts

A variety of practices and specialised representational systems are required to understand, communicate and construct molecular genetics knowledge. This study describes teachers’ use of multimodal representations of molecular genetics concepts and how their strategies and choice of resources were interpreted, understood and used by students to demonstrate their conceptual understanding. Recordings of teachers’ and students’ discourse around representations, teacher interviews and student pre- and post-tests were used as data sources. Vignettes of students’ dialogue with teachers around the form and function of representations and teacher interview responses highlight higher order conceptual understanding. Coding for cognitive domains within lesson phases where different modes of representation were utilised showed classrooms operated at higher domains compared to lessons where modalities were absent. This study shows how pedagogy that focuses on representational form and function as well as students’ engagement in critical discussion around affordances and constraints of representations results in a higher cognitive engagement with molecular genetics knowledge.

Dominant Goal Orientations Predict Differences in Academic Achievement during Adolescence through Metacognitive Self-Regulation

<p>This study investigated whether academic achievement was predicted by the goal which generally drives a student’s learning behaviour. Secondly, the role of metacognitive self-regulation was examined. The dominant goal orientation was assessed using a new method. 735 adolescents aged 10-19 years read vignettes of students that reflect four goal orientations. Participants indicated which student they resembled most, which revealed their dominant goal orientation. Age, sex and level of parental education were controlled for. Results showed that students with motivation goals of the mastery and performance-approach types obtained higher grades than students characterized by the performance-avoidance and work-avoidance goal type. A mediation analysis showed that goal orientations predicted achievement through the level of metacognitive self-regulation. Intrinsically motivated students showed the best metacognitive self-regulation skills of all students, whereas work-avoidant students had the lowest level of self-regulation skills. The scores of students with performance goals fell in-between. The research showed that the higher grades obtained by performance-approach students, compared to performance-avoidant and work-avoidant students, can partially be explained by their higher levels of metacognitive self-regulation. Thus, goal orientation predicted achievement differences through metacognitive self-regulation skills. This suggests that intrinsic motivation and self-regulation skills should ideally be supported in the classroom. Furthermore, it suggests that teachers could use vignettes to distinguish different types of students in order to identify students who are vulnerable to lower academic achievement.</p>

Accuracy of teachers’ tracking decisions: short- and long-term effects of accountability

Bias in teachers’ judgment formation and decision making has long been acknowledged. More specifically, studies have repeatedly demonstrated discrepancies between teacher ratings of minority and majority students with similar academic profiles. Studies have also demonstrated that increasing accountability reduced bias. Little is known, however, about the effect of accountability and bias on the accuracy of decisions. This study investigated the short- and long-term effect of accountability priming on the accuracy of transition decisions. It considered both the extent to which teacher decision accuracy differed for minority and majority students with similar academic profiles (accuracy bias) and differences in levels of confidence for accurate versus erroneous decisions (metacognitive judgment bias). In a longitudinal experimental design, we presented 38 primary school teachers with 9 student vignettes at 3 points in time (baseline, post priming, and 6-month follow-up), varying students’ ethnic background, and asked them to make a school tracking decision for each student. We measured decision accuracy as well as teachers’ level of confidence for each decision. Accuracy and confidence levels were combined to provide two indices of metacognitive judgment accuracy. Results confirmed the hypothesis that accuracy of decisions would improve as a result of increased level of accountability. More specifically, we found that teachers made more accurate decisions after priming, whereby ethnic background differences disappeared. In addition, teachers’ metacognitions varied, whereby after priming decision accuracy was better matched with teachers’ confidence levels. Although accuracy levels were still higher at follow-up than at pre-test, the ethnic bias recurred. This study shows that increased levels of accountability are associated with not only increased decision accuracy but also reduced metacognitive judgment bias, especially in regard to minority students. It also demonstrates accountability may be an effective way of reducing systematic errors in decision making. Findings are discussed in terms of theory and current changes in educational practice.

Training School Personnel to Identify Interventions Based on Functional Behavioral Assessment

Over 15 years after passage of legislation requiring the use of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) to inform the development of positive behavior support plans (BSPs) in special education, schools are still struggling to implement BSPs based on FBA and the function of behavior. A primary concern is that school teams regularly fail to use function of behavior to generate behavioral interventions, even after completing an FBA and receiving training. The current study evaluated outcomes of an efficient 60-min training that taught explicit strategies for using function of behavior and FBA information to identify function-based intervention through modeling, guided practice, and feedback using student vignettes for escape-maintained and attention-maintained behaviors. The training yielded significant, positive results in participants’ ability to identify function-based interventions on behavioral vignettes. Future research and next steps are suggested for expanding the training to address the challenge of extending the science of FBA to guide the implementation of effective behavioral interventions in schools.

Productive academic talk during inquiry-based science

This study reports on the types of academic talk that contribute to enhanced explanatory responses, reasoning, problem-solving and learning. The study involved 10 groups of 3–4 students who were provided with one of three linguistic tools (i.e. Cognitive Questioning, Philosophy for Children and Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR)) to scaffold the questioning process and promote discussion during small group work. Groups were videotaped as they worked on inquiry-based science activities and the videotapes were fully transcribed to identify those helping discourses that contribute to productive talk and learning. In addition, three vignettes of students' discussions are also presented in order to illuminate the different types of productive talk that the students demonstrated in their groups. In the first vignette, the students predominately engaged in analogizing as a tool for constructing meaning. In the second, productive talk involved mainly asking questions and providing elaborations and statements while the third is characterized by questions, reasons, rebuttals and statements where students essentially demonstrate the full complement of discourses characteristic of productive academic talk. The study provides insights into how students appropriate various stratagems for talking and thinking together while simultaneously communicating their shared intentionality and motivation to complete the task.

Sex differences in goal orientation in adolescents aged 10–19: The older boys adopt work-avoidant goals twice as often as girls

This study investigated sex differences in goal orientation during adolescence. 910 adolescents aged 10–19years read vignettes of students reflecting four goal orientations and indicated which student they resembled most. Boys and girls from two age-groups (10–14 versus 14–19years old) were compared. Multinomial logistic regression was performed with goal orientation as dependent variable, including level of parental education as a covariate. Results showed that girls were more likely than boys to endorse mastery goals (48% vs 39%) or performance-avoidant goals (20% vs 14%). Boys more often endorsed work-avoidant or performance-approach goals. At age 14–19years, work-avoidance was more than twice as common for boys as girls (27% vs 12%). With age, mastery goals decreased (from 52% to 36%), whereas work-avoidant goals increased (from 8% to 18%). These age and sex differences in goal orientations may be a possible explanation for boys' lower academic achievement compared to girls' and show a need for early intervention.