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The Role of Validation Experiences and Sense of Belonging in Academic Self-Concept and Intent to Persist Among Four-Year College Students
Get PDFResearch indicates that historically underrepresented college students are more likely to report alienating campus climates which can contribute to decreased sense of belonging and wellbeing. In turn, a lack of a sense of belonging and poor mental health may lead to decreased academic engagement and increased likelihood of attrition. Theoretical and empirical literature on critical race theory (CRT), validation, and sense of belonging identifies key factors across individual and institutional levels that influence student wellbeing and academic outcomes without relying on a deficit-based framework. Using an interactional, ecological conceptual framework drawing together CRT, validation theory, and sense of belonging my study further explores the relationships between academic validation, interpersonal validation, and sense of belonging and academic self-concept and persistence outcomes. Three years of survey data, 2015-2017, from four-year institutions were drawn from the Diverse Learning Environments (DLE) survey administered by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). The primary independent variables include academic validation, interpersonal validation, and sense of belonging. The outcome variables are academic self-concept and intent to persist operationalized as whether a student has considered dropping out of their program and whether they plan to attend a graduate program. Covariates include student demographics, identity, and enrollment; student and institutional engagement; and institutional characteristics and climate variables. The primary method of analysis was ordinary least squares (OLS) and logistic regression models. Subgroup analyses were conducted to determine any overall differences among groups and specific differences in the effects of primary predictors. Analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS 26. Across iv
all outcomes, primary independent variables or focal factors and student demographic, identity, and enrollment variables explained the greatest variation in academic self-concept scores and persistence. However, important student and institutional engagement and institutional characteristics and climate factors were also identified. The subgroup analyses did not identify consistently meaningful or significant differences in the effects of the primary predictors. Implications focus on theory, policies, and practices to enhance the implicit or hidden curriculum.
Keywords: critical race theory, validation theory, sense of belongin
Review of José Luis Nogales Baena, editor. Obras completas de Juan Manuel Torres: Tomo 1.
No full textDelaware’s Multidisciplinary Teams for the Investigation of Child Abuse: Communities of Practice?
Get PDFMultidisciplinary teams (MDT) of professionals are mandated to respond to and investigate cases of child abuse in Delaware. Utilizing research and theory about interorganizational collaboration, my exploratory study considered how this mandate operated in practice. Five themes from interorganizational literature (IOC) on facilitators and barriers to collaborative practice--trust, commitment, communication, capacity, and change--were examined using the theories of Goffman and Weber. The concept of power underlies these themes.
The MDT was considered a motivating example to explore whether Lave and Wenger’s socio-cultural learning theory of Community of Practice (CoP) explained learning and practice among multidisciplinary professionals considering barriers and facilitators identified in IOC research. My research, the first study of Delaware’s MDTs, sought to give voice to professionals who served as MDT members and to answer the question: How do divergent groups of professionals interact in the interorganizational collaboration framework of the MDT that investigates child abuse in Delaware?
Through 29 interviews with team members, conducted on Zoom during the Covid-19 pandemic, I explored participants’ perceptions of team operations. Five overarching themes emerged from my coding of interview data: the importance of relationships; communication; learning; team identity; and systemic or process issues.
I concluded that the MDT is a reasonably well functioning interorganizational collaboration with several hallmarks of a CoP. The MDT is not a perfect fit with the idealized model of a voluntary CoP because the MDT process is statutorily mandated and the team is comprised of members from diverse, albeit related professions, where their primary allegiance lies. However, their commitment to the best practice of a multidisciplinary response and mutual engagement created around the joint enterprise of investigating child abuse reflected key elements of a CoP. Learning that members experienced through team participation helped develop and sustain the MDT through changes in membership.
Study results are not generalizable to MDTs in other locations because the study was based on a nonprobability sample in one small state. Benefits of my study include the production of useful knowledge about the lived experiences of MDT members in Delaware and the applicability of the CoP theory in understanding mandated collaborations
Impact of the electron density and temperature gradient on drift-wave turbulence in the Large Plasma Device
Get PDFIn this paper we present an experimental study of edge turbulence in the Large Plasma Device at UCLA. We utilize a scan of discharge power and prefill pressure (neutral density) to show experimentally that turbulent density fluctuations decrease with decreasing density gradient, as predicted for resistive drift-wave turbulence (RDWT). As expected for RDWT, we observe that the cross-phase between the density and potential fluctuations is close to 0. Moreover, the addition of an electron temperature gradient leads to a reduction in the amplitude of the density fluctuations, as expected for RDWT. However, counter to theoretical expectations, we find that the potential fluctuations do not follow the same trends as the density fluctuations for changes either in density gradients or the addition of a temperature gradient. The disconnect between the density and potential fluctuations is connected to changes in the parallel flows as a result of differences in the prefill pressure, i.e. neutral density. Further analysis of the density and potential fluctuation spectra show that the electron temperature gradient reduces the low frequency fluctuations up to 10kHz role= presentation style= box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; position: relative; \u3e10kHz10kHzand the introduction of a temperature gradient leads to an unexpected ∼π role= presentation style= box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; position: relative; \u3e∼∼πshift of the density–potential cross-phase at ∼10kHz role= presentation style= box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline; word-spacing: normal; word-wrap: normal; white-space: nowrap; float: none; direction: ltr; max-width: none; max-height: none; min-width: 0px; min-height: 0px; position: relative; \u3e∼10kHz∼10kHz, while maintaining the typical resistive drift-wave cross-phase at lower frequencies. These experiments partly confirm existing knowledge on resistive drift-wave turbulence, but also introduce new observations that indicate a need for dedicated nonlinear three-dimensional turbulence simulations that include neutrals
Early deprivation alters structural brain development from middle childhood to adolescence
Get PDFHypotheses concerning the biologic embedding of early adversity via developmental neuroplasticity mechanisms have been proposed on the basis of experimental studies in animals. However, no studies have demonstrated a causal link between early adversity and neural development in humans. Here, we present evidence from a randomized controlled trial linking psychosocial deprivation in early childhood to changes in cortical development from childhood to adolescence using longitudinal data from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Changes in cortical structure due to randomization to foster care were most pronounced in the lateral and medial prefrontal cortex and in white matter tracts connecting the prefrontal and parietal cortex. Demonstrating the causal impact of exposure to deprivation on the development of neural structure highlights the importance of early placement into family-based care to mitigate lasting neurodevelopmental consequences associated with early-life deprivation
Targeting Using Differential Incentives: Evidence from a Field Experiment
Get PDFIn a field experiment in Nepal, we varied the amount of financial incentives provided to health outreach workers by the ethnicity of the client they recruited for a free sugar level assessment. We find that our differential incentive in the ratio of 2.5∶1, geared toward encouraging a disadvantaged referral, raises the chances of such a referral by 11.6 percentage points (95% confidence interval, 1.1–22.1). This effect translates to an incentive elasticity of referral of 0.2. There is no evidence that the outreach workers refer less sick individuals to benefit from higher financial incentives; nor do they target fewer overall referrals
Standardized NEON organismal data for biodiversity research
Get PDFUnderstanding patterns and drivers of species distribution and abundance, and thus biodiversity, is a core goal of ecology. Despite advances in recent decades, research into these patterns and processes is currently limited by a lack of standardized, high-quality, empirical data that span large spatial scales and long time periods. The NEON fills this gap by providing freely available observational data that are generated during robust and consistent organismal sampling of several sentinel taxonomic groups within 81 sites distributed across the United States and will be collected for at least 30 years. The breadth and scope of these data provide a unique resource for advancing biodiversity research. To maximize the potential of this opportunity, however, it is critical that NEON data be maximally accessible and easily integrated into investigators\u27 workflows and analyses. To facilitate its use for biodiversity research and synthesis, we created a workflow to process and format NEON organismal data into the ecocomDP (ecological community data design pattern) format that were available through the ecocomDP R package; we then provided the standardized data as an R data package (neonDivData). We briefly summarize sampling designs and data wrangling decisions for the major taxonomic groups included in this effort. Our workflows are open-source so the biodiversity community may: add additional taxonomic groups; modify the workflow to produce datasets appropriate for their own analytical needs; and regularly update the data packages as more observations become available. Finally, we provide two simple examples of how the standardized data may be used for biodiversity research. By providing a standardized data package, we hope to enhance the utility of NEON organismal data in advancing biodiversity research and encourage the use of the harmonized ecocomDP data design pattern for community ecology data from other ecological observatory networks