Serogroup C invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) outbreaks in men who have sex with men (MSM) have been occurring with greater frequency in urban areas across the United States. An effective vaccine for IMD is available and is recommended for MSM in outbreak settings. Particular subgroups of MSM have been disproportionately represented in…

The ability to interpret graphs is highly important in modern society, but has proven to be a challenge for many people. In this paper, two teaching methods were used to remediate one specific misinterpretation: the area misinterpretation of box plots. First, we used refutational text to explicitly state and invalidate the area misinterpretation…

The paper-and-pencil Mental Rotation Test (Vandenberg & Kuse, 1978) consistently produces large sex differences favoring men (Voyer, Voyer, & Bryden, 1995). In this task, participants select 2 of 4 answer choices that are rotations of a probe stimulus. Incorrect choices (i.e., foils) are either mirror reflections of the probe or…

Although statistics and research are key components of social work education, students are often described as reluctant consumers and users of statistics. Self-efficacy theory has been used to understand students' engagement with the statistical knowledge needed for practice. This quantitative study explores the relationship between self-efficacy,…

Monitoring accuracy, measured by judgements of learning (JOLs), has generally been found to be low to moderate, with students often displaying overconfidence, and JOLs of problem solving are no exception. Recently, primary school children's overconfidence was shown to diminish when they practised problem solving after studying worked examples. The…

This article explores ways to assess interactional performance, and reports on the use of a test format that standardizes the interlocutor's linguistic and interactional contributions to the exchange. It describes the construction and administration of six scripted speech tasks (instruction, advice, and sales tasks) with pre-vocational learners (n…

As online automatic speech recognition (ASR) engines become more accurate and more widely implemented with call software, it becomes important to evaluate the effectiveness and the accuracy of these recognition engines using authentic speech samples. This study investigates two of the most prominent cloud-based speech recognition engines--Apple's…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Laban Effort Action (slash) instruction in an undergraduate conducting class on college wind ensemble member's ratings of conductors' gestural clarity. Participants--undergraduate and graduate wind ensemble members (N = 28)--rated 32 videos of eight undergraduate conducting students who had…

Objective: To improve the CAGE (Cut down, Annoyed, Guilty, Eye opener) questionnaire's predictive accuracy in screening college students. Participants: The sample consisted of 219 midwestern university students who self-administered a confidential survey. Methods: Exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, receiver operating…

The purpose of the present study is to examine whether performance on the "TOEFL iBT"® Reading practice test is affected by 3 different levels of feedback provided to learners upon completion of reading exercises: (a) correctness of learner response (the knowledge of correct results [KCR] feedback), (b) KCR feedback and rationales for…

Even though there has been a significant advancement in human rights, social justice and social practices around the world; some Ecuadorian indigenous students still struggle against many social and linguistic limitations, especially in Chimborazo province. This research was carried out with 30 Ecuadorian indigenous students who studied English as…

Scholars debate whether corrective feedback contributes to improving L2 learners' grammatical accuracy in writing performance. Some researchers take a stance on the ineffectiveness of corrective feedback based on the impracticality of providing detailed corrective feedback for all L2 learners and detached grammar instruction in language…

Literature on the learning benefits and interpersonal mechanisms of peer assessment (PA) and teacher assessment (TA) has been inconsistent. As part of a large-scale study, the research reported here has addressed the effect of formative PA on language grammar uptake and complexity, accuracy, and fluency triad scale levels, in comparison both to TA…

This study first briefly describes an instructional approach to teaching grammar known as X-Word Grammar and then compares its effectiveness in assisting students in achieving grammatical accuracy with traditionally taught grammar. Two groups of L2 pre-college students were taught using curricula and practice procedures in two different grammar…

Does correctly answering a test question about a multiterm fact enhance memory for the entire fact? We explored that issue in 4 experiments. Subjects first studied Advanced Placement History or Biology facts. Half of those facts were then restudied, whereas the remainder were tested using "5 W" (i.e., "who, what, when, where",…