Child Sexual Abuse, Academic Functioning and Educational Outcomes in Emerging Adulthood

In many parts of the world, emerging adults, aged 18 to 25 years old, require education beyond high school to transition to a stable, secure adulthood. Child abuse, trauma, victimization, and adversity have been shown to negatively affect academic functioning and educational attainment during childhood and adolescence. Despite this, many emerging adults who have experienced these adverse events also show remarkable resilience. Understanding both maladaptation and resilience among emerging adults will inform efforts to increase academic success and post-secondary educational attainment. In the current review, we synthesize literature on associations between child sexual abuse and academic functioning and educational outcomes in emerging adults and college students, including possible social, emotional, and cognitive mediators. We find initial evidence that academic functioning and educational outcomes are separable, with more research needed on reasons for leaving college other than low grades, more research on community colleges, trade schools, on-the-job training, military training, and other sites of post-secondary learning, and as well as the antecedents and consequences of academic experiences in emerging adulthood. Overall, we have a limited understanding of the social and emotional functioning important to educational success in college and other post-secondary educational settings.

Adapting implementation science for higher education research: the systematic study of implementing evidence-based practices in college classrooms

Finding better ways to implement effective teaching and learning strategies in higher education is urgently needed to help address student outcomes such as retention rates, graduation rates, and learning. Psychologists contribute to the science and art of teaching and learning in higher education under many flags, including cognitive psychology, science of learning, educational psychology, scholarship of teaching and learning in psychology, discipline-based educational research in psychology, design-based implementation research, and learning sciences. Productive, rigorous collaboration among researchers and instructors helps. However, translational research and practice-based research alone have not closed the translation gap between the research laboratory and the college classroom. Fortunately, scientists and university faculty can draw on the insights of decades of research on the analogous science-to-practice gap in medicine and public health. Health researchers now add to their toolbox of translational and practice-based research the systematic study of the process of implementation in real work settings directly. In this article, we define implementation science for cognitive psychologists as well as educational psychologists, learning scientists, and others with an interest in use-inspired basic cognitive research, propose a novel model incorporating implementation science for translating cognitive science to classroom practice in higher education, and provide concrete recommendations for how use-inspired basic cognitive science researchers can better understand those factors that affect the uptake of their work with implementation science.

Four Empirically Based Reasons Not to Administer Time-Limited Tests

For more than a century, measurement experts have distinguished between time-limited tests and untimed power tests, which are administered without time limits or with time limits so generous that all students are assured of completing all items. On untimed power tests, students can differ in their propensity to correctly respond to every item, and items should differ in how many correct responses they elicit. However, differences among students' speed of responding do not confound untimed power tests; therefore, untimed power tests ensure more accurate assessment. In this article, we present four empirically based reasons to administer untimed power tests rather than time-limited tests in educational settings. (1) Time-limited tests are less valid; students' test-taking pace is not a valid reflection of their knowledge and mastery. (2) Time-limited tests are less reliable; estimates of time-limited tests' reliability are artificially inflated due to artifactual consistency in students' rate of work rather than authentic consistency in students' level of knowledge. (3) Time-limited tests are less inclusive; time-limited tests exclude students with documented disabilities who, because they are legally allowed additional test-taking time, are often literally excluded from test-taking classrooms. (4) Time-limited tests are less equitable; in addition to excluding students with documented disabilities, time-limited tests can also impede students who are learning English, students from underrepresented backgrounds, students who are older than average, and students with disabilities who encounter barriers (e.g., stigma and financial expense) in obtaining disability documentation and legally mandated accommodations. We conclude by offering recommendations for avoiding time-limited testing in higher educational assessment.

Do Exam Wrappers Increase Metacognition and Performance? A Single Course Intervention

Previous research has indicated that an intervention called “exam wrappers” can improve students’ metacognition when they are using wrappers in more than one course per academic term. In this study, we tested if exam wrappers would improve students’ metacognition and academic performance when used in only one course per academic term. A total of 86 students used either exam wrappers (an exercise with metacognitive instruction), sham wrappers (an exercise with no metacognitive instruction), or neither (control). We found no improvements on any of three exams, final grades, or metacognitive ability (measured with the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory, MAI) across conditions. All students showed an increase in MAI over the course of the semester, regardless of condition. We discuss the challenges of improving metacognitive skills and suggest ideas for additional metacognitive interventions.