Graduate Student Symposium, Selected Papers 2014
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This collection includes papers presented at the Rosa Bruno-Jofré Symposium in Education.
The Rosa Bruno-Jofré Symposium, formerly named the Graduate Students in Education Symposium (GSES), is an interdisciplinary symposium that provides graduate students with a friendly and affordable opportunity to present and discuss their research or work in-progress with other students, faculty, and practitioners from the field.
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Item Unpacking the role of higher-level processing abilities in reading achievement: A review of the literature(2015-02-11) Chan, Jessica S.Reading development related to academic achievement has been a widely studied subject. The purpose of reading is to develop a meaningful representation or understanding of the text. There are a multitude of cognitive processes that are involved in reading that have not yet been examined in theoretical models of reading development. Higher-level cognitive processes refer to cognitive functions that allow readers to be flexible with their learning when they encounter unfamiliar and novel situations by modifying what they already know and have experienced based on their prior knowledge and long-term memory. Two areas of interest are working memory, which describes the temporary storage and processing component, and executive function referring to the supervisory system that ensures that memory processes are operating in an accurate and efficient manner (Diamond, 2013). Our current understanding of reading acquisition and achievement isn’t complete, and recent research in the areas of higher-level cognitive processing may be considered predictors contributing to individual differences in reading ability. Moreover, the sub-components of higher-level cognitive processing warrant consideration in the learning process related to reading performance. The paper begins with a brief overview of higher-level cognitive processing, the reading development process, and a review of the literature highlighting the connection between the cognitive processes related to reading development, and future research considerations.Item Scoring Fairness in China(2015-02-11) Mei, YiTest fairness is a contested topic in the field of language testing in recent decades. Outside of North America, there is currently little research on scoring fairness in educational contexts. Taking fairness issues involved in scoring in the Chinese context as an exemplar, this study examines how the notion of fairness has evolved, and how test fairness, especially scoring fairness, is defined and empirically investigated in China. The analysis shows that the Chinese notion of fairness can be traced back roughly 2,500 years, to the time of Confucius. Since the era of imperial examinations, test fairness has remained a controversial topic regarding whether it is a purely educational issue or should be considered with its social implications (Yang & Gui, 2007). In China, the modern research on test fairness started from the late 1990s under the influence of Western measurement theories (Cao & Zhang, 1999). The findings also reveal three major sources of influence on how the Chinese academia views test fairness. Apart from the indigenous definition of test fairness, fairness theories in the field of language testing and education have exerted considerable influence on recent scholarship. However, research on scoring fairness is not well supported with empirical evidence, which is consistent with the status in the language testing field elsewhere. This study will have implications for endeavors involving localized research approaches to guiding scoring fairness research and practices in China as well as in other educational contexts.Item Principles of Cultural Competency and the Implications for Western Evaluators Using the Program Evaluation Standards (3rd Edition) in Chinese Cultural Context(2015-02-11) Wu, YongfeiThe importance of cultural competence permeates all phases of evaluation since culture shapes how evaluators conceptualize questions, collect, analyze, and interpret data, and report evaluation results. This paper aims at enriching the understanding of Chinese culture from the perspective of Confucianism for the Western evaluators so that they may work efficiently in the Chinese cultural context. To avoid a general discussion, the author focuses on three subsets of the Program Evaluation Standards (3rd Edition), i.e., U4 Explicit Values, P2 Formal Agreements, and P3 Human Rights and Respect, in order to make an in-depth analysis of the cultural competence that the Western evaluators are expected to have to work in the Chinese cultural context. To this end, this paper compares the differences in Chinese and Western values, legal tradition related to entering into and implementing evaluation agreements, and the way in which people show respect. Finally, this paper provides some suggestions for the Western evaluators on how they may enhance their cultural readiness and achieve success in finishing their evaluation projects in China.Item Diabetes Self-care in Education: Mapping Educational Policy and Empirical Research(2015-02-11) Cousins, SeanDiabetes Mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder that affects many people worldwide. Despite the prevalence of DM in Canada, few studies have examined the impact of DM in education, especially in relation to the development of self-care at school. Diabetes self-care is a learned behaviour that individuals with DM develop in partnership with others in the context of their daily lives (Vallis, Higgens-Bowser, Scott, Murray, & Edwards, 2004). It refers to coping with the chronic illness in the pursuit of implementing a diabetes management regimen—making healthy food choices, participating in daily physical exercise, monitoring glucose levels, and taking medication as prescribed by the physician to achieve glycemic control and emotional wellbeing. This paper explores the configuration of diabetes management in Canadian public education systems and describes the educational policy context in which diabetes self-care emerges into being through the agency of key health and educational stakeholders. Future studies that map how Canadian educational practitioners work to support the development of self-care, while giving expression to a socially organized practice of diabetes management at school, can yield fresh insight on an underexplored domain of social science research.