Accessible or not?: academics’ hand written comments on assessment items written by students with print disabilities

Most university courses involve students sitting examinations and submitting written research papers. Many universities provide each student with individual comments on their assessment items. Generally these comments are written throughout the assessment item by the marker to provide the student with guidance on where they can improve and what areas were answered correctly. While hand written comments throughout a paper are extremely valuable for most students, where the student has a vision impairment or another print disability the use of hand written comments can deny such students receiving vital guidance. This note discusses my experiences with comments on assessment items and identifies strategies to ensure that all students have equal access to feedback on their work.     

A Psychometric Analysis of Field Evaluation Instruments Designed to Measure Students’ Generalist-Level Social Work Competencies

ABSTRACT

There is a dearth of research on the evaluation of the psychometric performance of instruments designed to measure students’ generalist-level social work competencies. There is also uncertainty on the performance of various response option formats used to measure students’ competencies in assessment instruments. Using a sample of 198 master of social work students and 198 field instructors, the current study employs confirmatory factor analysis to assess the psychometric performance of a field evaluation instrument designed to measure students’ generalist-level social work competencies. The results provide evidence to support the validity and reliability of the instrument. The results also highlight nuances associated with a 5-point response option format for items used to measure competency indicators. Implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Evaluation of Verbal Behavior in Older Adults

Approximately 5% of older adults have a dementia diagnosis, and language deterioration is commonly associated with this disorder (Kempler, 2005). Several instruments have been developed to diagnose dementia and assess language capabilities of elderly adults. However, none of these instruments take a functional approach to language assessment as described by Skinner (1957). The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a function-based assessment for language deficits of older adults. Thirty-one participants were categorized into a control group (n  =  15) and a dementia group (n  =  16) based on their score on the Dementia Rating Scale-2. Individuals with dementia performed significantly worse on the tact assessment than those without dementia. Participants from both groups performed better on measures of tacts than intraverbals or mands, even though topographically identical responses were required in these assessments. The data provide support for Skinner''s conceptualization of functionally independent verbal operants.     

Social Welfare Policy as a Specialization in the Graduate Social Work Curriculum

This paper describes a new student/teacher evaluation system that helps students monitor and evaluate their progress in each course or unit of instruction. Because it produces a learning curve for each student and for the class as a whole, it is useful to both students and teachers in the assessment and evaluation of joint learning-teaching activities and achievements. Its major purpose is to help maximize learning gains.     

Roots of Futility,by Norman A. Polansky,Robert D. Borgman,and Christine De Saix. Jossey-Bass,San Francisco, 1972. $9.50 Hardbound. 288 Pages

Abstract

This paper describes a study of first year graduate social work students' work in practica and assesses their transfer of practice evaluation knowledge and skills from the classroom to the field. The data are drawn from case material recorded by the students using a structured recording format. The paper addresses three central questions. What were the salient features of the students' practices? Did students apply practice evaluation knowledge to their work with clients? And, what variables influenced the ways that the students practiced? Recommendations for enhancing class and field integration and for increasing knowledge and skill transfer given the significant influence of the practicum instructor's orientation are discussed.     

Budgets,Board Games,and Make Believe: The Challenge of Teaching Social Class Inequality with Non-Traditional Students

According to a 2002 study by the U.S. Department of Education, the percentage of “traditional students” on college campuses is declining. Students increasingly are delaying enrollment, attending college part time, working full time, financially independent, and single parents. In this paper, we explore the extent to which sociologists are adapting their teaching to address these shifting demographics. Based on a content analysis of articles published over a 20 year period in Teaching Sociology that suggest strategies for teaching social class inequality we find that most authors assume that their students are “traditional.” Most often this means that students are assumed to come from a privileged, middle class background, lack direct and substantial experience in the labor market, and enter college shortly after graduating high school. Accordingly, most articles advocate classroom strategies of “looking down,” whereby students pretend to be in the shoes of those less fortunate. Examples include creating household budgets based on poverty wages, playing board games, or assuming the role of the poor for a day. These strategies run the risk of being ineffective, alienating, and potentially ethically suspect when used with non-traditional students, whose real life experiences may resemble these simulations. We conclude with recommendations for pedagogical approaches to teaching social class inequality that are more appropriate for, and inclusive of, students from diverse backgrounds. Our goal in this paper is to start a discussion about pedagogy, social inequality, and the non-traditional student.     

Working on Treatment Teams: Educating Social Work Students to Function as Addiction Specialists within Interdisciplinary Groups

Social workers specializing in the addictions field invariably work with multiple disciplines. Any intervention must be organized in consideration of various fields of practice such as mental health, criminal justice, child welfare, and health care. As part of their education, social workers become adept at understanding the influence of factors associated with physical, mental, and social functioning. Thus, they learn to appreciate the need for interdisciplinary collaboration. However, once students become practitioners, they are often left on their own to solidify their specific role as addiction specialists among several other professionals. Working as a member of an interdisciplinary team can be taught in the classroom. The authors apply Bronstein’s model for team collaboration to build a method for teaching interdisciplinary work specific to the role of the addiction specialist. Within the interdisciplinary team model, students take on the various team roles and decide the importance of these roles in a substance use case study. They are taught how to assess, diagnose, identify appropriate evidence-based methods, build client objectives and goals, solidify concrete action plans, and evaluate effectiveness. As these methods have yet to be researched in the classroom, the authors offer recommendations for evaluation and future research.     

Development of the Mental Illness and Disorder Understanding Scale

Abstract: Although administrative bodies such as community health centers have implemented various awareness campaigns to promote community understanding of mental health and to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and disorder, there have been few reports that have quantitatively analyzed the effects of these campaigns in Japan. Therefore, this study was conducted for the purpose of developing the evaluative “Mental Illness and Disorder Understanding Scale (MIDUS)” for awareness campaigns and assessing its reliability and validity. A survey was conducted on 1 004 community residents using a self‐administered questionnaire. An assessment of the reliability and validity of the scale was then conducted. The Cronbach a coefficient of the MIDUS was 0.78, thus indicating adequate reliability. Factor analysis of the MIDUS revealed three factors: “Treatability of illness”, “Efficacy of medication” and “Social recognition of illness”. In addition, a significant correlation was observed between the MIDUS and existing scales, and fixed criterion‐based validity was demonstrated. The MIDUS utilizes items worded in the form of affirmative expressions so as to avoid promoting new bias. It was confirmed to be both reliable and valid, thereby suggesting its usefulness as an evaluative scale of awareness campaigns.     

Mark My Words! Service User and Carer Involvement in Social Work Academic Assessment

This paper discusses the involvement of service users in academic assessment as part of a second year module for social work undergraduate students at Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK. The three main tasks undertaken in partnership are detailed: designing an assessment form, assessment of student group presentations and assessment of a written reflective essay. The paper starts by identifying key questions raised by the assessor team before providing a critical commentary on the process, and identifying challenges and learning points. The experience emphasises the need for a more critical and searching approach towards service user involvement in social work education in academic assessment. Moreover, the team's experience suggests that such work is best achieved in the context of collaborative working relationships based on trust, with opportunities for team reflection and supported by training in academic assessment.     

Evaluation of a school-based sexual abuse prevention curriculum in Malaysia

This article examines a personal safety curriculum (Keeping Me Safe) offered to Standard Three students (mostly nine-year-olds) in five primary schools in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Staff of the Malaysian NGO, Protect and Save the Children, Association of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (P.S. The Children), facilitated six weekly one-hour sessions featuring games and role play to teach children about potentially unsafe situations and touches, and to develop appropriate safety strategies and skills to ask for help. The students (n = 261) and a control group (n = 184) completed a 25 item questionnaire before and after the program, and for the experimental group only, again two months later. The assessment was supplemented by observations of each session, student interviews, and parent and teacher focus groups. The experimental group students showed substantial gains on about two-thirds of the questionnaire items. However, a minority of the students failed to absorb key messages of the curriculum. Challenges to implementing prevention programs in Malaysia are discussed.     

Team adaptation triggers: A categorization scheme

In the present study of the journal of Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation, the purpose was to identify the types of events that activate team adaptive behavior during goal achievement and to provide a roadmap for future research into how team adaptation responses may differ depending on the demands faced. Two hundred and eight engineering students involved in an eight-week team project, participated in our study. They reported, at three time points, 271 events that triggered their team to change their way of functioning. We applied qualitative content analysis to identify the underlying categories of the collected triggers and identified three main categories of internal (interpersonal dynamics, task-related activities, reaching a milestone), and three main categories of external team adaption triggers (change in resources, interventions, alterations in framework), with various subcategories. Our findings demonstrated that team adaptation triggers can stem from the team’s environment and from the team itself. Furthermore, our results suggested that positively connoted events (e.g. achievement of subgoals) as well as negatively connoted events (e.g. loss of a member) are perceived as relevant team adaptation triggers. Our study opens a new avenue for team adaptation theory and research by providing the first categorization scheme of team adaptation triggers. Future studies can from now provide insight into the relationship between trigger features and team adaptation processes, exploring team adaptation success in various contexts.

     

Data craft: a theory/methods package for critical internet studies

ABSTRACT

Disinformation campaigns continue to thrive online, despite social media companies’ efforts at identifying and culling manipulation on their platforms. Framing these manipulation tactics as ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior,’ major platforms have banned culprits and deleted the evidence of their actions from social activity streams, making independent assessment and auditing impossible. While researchers, journalists, and civil society groups use multiple methods for discovering and tracking disinformation, platforms began to publish highly curated data archives of disinformation in 2016. When platform companies reframe manipulation campaigns, however, they downplay the importance of their products in spreading disinformation. We propose to treat social media metadata as a boundary object that supports research across platforms and use metadata as an entry point for investigating manipulation campaigns.

We illustrate how platform companies’ responses to disinformation campaigns are at odds with the interests of researchers, civil society, policy-makers, and journalists, limiting the capacity to audit the role that platforms play in political discourse. To show how platforms’ data archives of ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’ prevent researchers from examining the contexts of manipulation, we present two case studies of disinformation campaigns related to the Black Lives Matter Movement. We demonstrate how data craft – the exploitation of metrics, metadata, and recommendation engines – played a prominent role attracting audiences to these disinformation campaigns. Additionally, we offer some investigative techniques for researchers to employ data craft in their own research of the disinformation. We conclude by proposing new avenues for research for the field of Critical Internet Studies.     

Keynote Address

Abstract

Because of the increasing prevalence of eating disorders in college populations, it is increasingly important for student health services to identify affected individuals. Therefore, the authors analyzed the student health forms of member schools of the New York State College Health Association for the presence of items that would identify an eating disorder. Directors of health services that include specific questions about eating disorders on health forms were then surveyed for their opinions about this practice.

Specific items about eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia, vomiting to lose weight, laxative use to lose weight) were included on 5 of 111 forms. Less specific items including dissatisfaction with weight, being on a diet, or binge eating appeared on 10% of forms.

Approximately one-third of the students known by health service staffs to have an eating disorder reported this on their health form, when provided a specific opportunity to do so. Even though underreporting by students is potentially a problem in such circumstances, the health service directors all recommended the inclusion of items relating to eating disorders on student health forms.

“Human Papillomavirus Type 16 and Early Cervical Neoplasia,” CHRISTOPHER P. CRUM, et al. Flat warts (condylomata) of the uterine cervix are sometimes cytologically atypical and have abnormal mitotic figures; they are thought to be possible precursors of cancer of the cervix. Flat warts are caused by any of a number of types of human papillomaviruses (HPVs), one of which (HPV 16) has been previously associated with invasive cancer of the cervix. To determine whether HPV 16 is also associated with flat warts with abnormal mitoses, we analyzed 23 flat warts by DNA-hybridization techniques for the presence of HPV 16 and other HPV types, and correlated the results with the histology. Of 10 lesions with abnormal mitotic figures, 7 contained HPV 16, and 1 contained another type of HPV. Of 13 lesions without abnormal mitotic figures, only 1 contained HPV 16, and 7 contained other types of HPV.

We conclude that the presence of HPV 16 correlates with the presence of abnormal mitotic figures in flat warts of the cervix, and that this type of flat wart is a precursor of invasive cancer of the cervix. (New England Journal of Medicine 1984;310:880–3.)     

How can sociology contribute to integrating service learning into Academic curricula?

This article argues that sociology can make a unique contribution to the integration of service experiences into the academic content of courses across the curriculum. By virtue of its theoretical, conceptual, methodological and pedagogical legacies, sociology contributes to an understanding of the potential and promise of community service for academic inquiry. The article describes a unique venture in which an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students designed a major and minor in Public and Community Service Studies using service learning pedagogy.

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Children Caught in the Middle

Children from divorced homes are caught in the middle of parental conflict significantly more often and are experiencing more resulting stress than children from intact homes. Our intention was to use a brief educational intervention to reduce the number of times divorced parents put their children in the middle. Participants were 45 high school students with divorced parents (male = 22, female = 23; Mage = 15.8). These subjects rated the frequency and stressfulness of 32 such situations. The parents of the intervention group were mailed the subjects' averaged responses on the 32 items and an explanatory letter. The same 32-item questionnaire was given about 1 month after the mailing as the intervention evaluation. Subjects in the intervention group improved more than the two control groups combined, F(1,42) = 3.45, p < .10. These results imply that having divorced parents read some brief information is sufficient to produce behavior changes in the majority of those parents.     

Psychometric Confirmation of the Sexual Health Survey as a Useful Tool for College Health Professionals

Abstract

Objective: To conduct a confirmatory factor analysis on the 17-item Sexual Health Survey (SHS), a comprehensive instrument designed to be used with college students. Participants: College students (N = 515) aged 18 to 26 years enrolled at a Midwest public university October 2009. Methods: Confirmatory factor analysis with maximum likelihood estimation was performed to test the stability of the constructs. Results: All factor loadings were significant (p < .001), ranging from .55 to .99 (standardized). The range of squared multiple correlations of items was .31 to .98, and the intercorrelations among the 5 factors were from ?.03 to .52. These small to moderate levels of intercorrelation support discriminant validity of 5 constructs. Conclusions: This study supports the 5-factor version of the 17-item SHS as a viable scale that can measure sexual health overall and 5 distinct areas. College health professionals should consider use of this scale for assessment purposes and evaluation of programmatic efforts.     

Assessing the Validity and Reliability of the Perceptions of the Consent to Sex Scale

Although sexual assault prevention education tends to focus on consent promotion as a means to reduce rates of sexual assault, little is known about how college students consent to sexual activity. The current study aimed to better understand college students' consent via the systematic development of the Consent to Sex Scale (CSS), utilizing mixed methods via three phases and two waves of data collection. In Phase 1, qualitative data were collected from college students (n = 185) to provide a foundation for item writing. In Phase 2, closed-ended items were written for a quantitative instrument and reviewed by a team of experts. In Phase 3, a quantitative survey, including items written in Phase 2, was administered to college students (n = 685); the measure was assessed for its psychometric properties. Exploratory factor analysis was utilized, resulting in a five-factor solution. The CSS and corresponding factors demonstrated high internal consistency reliability and expected gender differences, supporting the construct validity of the measure. The CSS assesses college students' cues for indicating consent to sex, a construct not addressed by previous measures. The validated scale may be useful in future research to better understand how consent relates to other behaviors or constructs.     

The theory evaluation scale: An epistemological tool for analyzing social work theories

The profession of social work places a strong emphasis on the utilization of theories in classroom settings as well as in clinical milieus. Therefore, it is understandable that social work students, scholars, researchers, and practitioners feel compelled to make sense of theoretical underpinnings in their professional lives. This study sought to develop an instrument to critically appraise social work theories. Through Qualtrics, a panel of 14 internationally recognized experts in social work theories assessed the content of 16 items, which emanated from the literature on scale development. All of these items were described in accordance with Lawshe’s (1975) content-validity framework. Nine of the original 16 criteria survived expert scrutiny to constitute the Theory Evaluation Scale. Coherence, conceptual clarity, philosophical assumptions, connection with previous research, testability, empiricism, limitations, client context, and human agency were the final criteria on the empirically supported instrument. Implications for research, practice, and social work education are discussed.     

Student Views on Good Practice in Social Work Education

This article focuses on the delivery of a social work degree programme in England, one of the constituent jurisdictions of the United Kingdom, and explores student perceptions of their learning experience and what constitutes effective teaching. The data are drawn from a larger research project which is ongoing and focuses upon the specific ways in which the BSc Hons Social Work degree at a university in the East Midlands prepares students to meet the demands of employers. Linked to the national evaluation of the new social work degree, social work academics at the university worked with final year social work degree students as co-researchers to evaluate student views on the quality of teaching practices across the teaching team.     

The Social Care Work Portfolio: An Aid to Integrated Learning and Reflection in Social Care Training

The focus of the paper is on the use of a specifically designed portfolio in social care training as an aid to both integrated learning and reflection. Integrated learning is achieved through the use of discrete sections in the portfolio which require students to discuss their practice placement agencies from perspectives that demonstrate their understanding of subjects such as theories and practices of social care, psychology, social policy, legal studies. Reflection, which is considered a core element of social care training, is examined as a learning tool. A model for the promotion of reflection is presented to help students gain new perspectives on their learning experiences. Criteria for the assessment of both integrated learning and use of reflection are discussed. Some comments of students, recorded during the evaluation process, are presented as evidence of their learning through the use of the portfolio model.