The pandemic induced a radical shift to online learning with increased parental involvement. This study investigates the challenges that students with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) ...encountered during the pandemic and the mediating role of parental stress. A total of 294 parents of children with SpLD (mean age = 10.6; SD = 1.5) were recruited. Parents reported concerns over their children's difficulties maintaining learning routines, lack of suitable environment for online classes, and ineffective remote learning. Results of mediation analysis showed that online learning challenges, SpLD symptoms, and emotional and behavioral difficulties positively predicted parental stress. In turn, parental stress negatively predicted children's self-esteem and family quality of life. The study implies that parents of children with SpLD need both psychological and technical support under suspension of face-to-face teaching.
Detecting patients with a high-risk profile for treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) can be beneficial for implementing individually adapted therapeutic strategies and better understanding the TRS ...etiology. The aim of this study was to explore, with machine learning methods, the impact of demographic and clinical patient characteristics on TRS prediction, for already established risk factors and unexplored ones. This was a retrospective study of 500 patients admitted during 2020 to the University Hospital Group for Paris Psychiatry. We hypothesized potential TRS risk factors. The selected features were coded into structured variables in a new dataset, by processing patients discharge summaries and medical narratives with natural-language processing methods. We compared three machine learning models (XGBoost, logistic elastic net regression, logistic regression without regularization) for predicting TRS outcome. We analysed feature impact on the models, suggesting the following factors as markers of a high-risk TRS profile: early age at first contact with psychiatry, antipsychotic treatment interruptions due to non-adherence, absence of positive symptoms at baseline, educational problems and adolescence mental disorders in the personal psychiatric history. Specifically, we found a significant association with TRS outcome for age at first contact with psychiatry and medication non-adherence. Our findings on TRS risk factors are consistent with the review of the literature and suggest potential in using early pathophysiologic features for TRS prediction. Results were encouraging with the use of natural-langage processing techniques to leverage raw data provided by discharge summaries, combined with machine leaning models. These findings are a promising step for helping clinicians adapt their guidelines to early detection of TRS.
Background
Student engagement and concentration is critical for successful learning. Due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, there has been a dramatic increase in the use of online learning which may affect ...engagement and concentration, particularly for those students with specific learning difficulties.
Aims
Students would show lower scores on all the measures of student experience when judging these during online learning versus learning within the classroom.
This negative impact of online learning on concentration, engagement, perceived learning, and self‐worth compared to classroom education would be more significant for those with specific learning difficulties.
The drop in student experience scores due to online learning would be associated with poorer mental well‐being.
Sample
Four hundred seven pupils aged 11–18 years at a secondary education school in Wales.
Methods
A retrospective online survey comparing pupils’ normal classroom experience to learning online during the first national lockdown in the United Kingdom (March–July 2020).
Results
Pupils’ learning experiences (concentration, engagement, ability to learn, and self‐worth from learning) were significantly lower for online learning compared to the classroom learning. These differences were more marked in students with specific learning difficulties. Perceived ability to learn and engage during classroom and online learning were also associated with mental well‐being.
Conclusions
The move to online learning appears to have affected students’ ability to concentrate and engage in their schoolwork and appears to have reduced their ability to learn and get self‐worth from their work. These decreases are associated with a decrease in mental well‐being. The effects appear to be exacerbated in some students with specific learning difficulties.
Dyslexia and dyscalculia are two examples of high‐incidence specific learning difficulties (SpLDs) that have similar prevalence and can often co‐occur. It is currently unclear how familiar educators ...in the UK are with dyscalculia and how this compares to dyslexia and what, if any, neuromyths educators might endorse. The current study examined the awareness and endorsement of neuromyths related to dyscalculia and dyspraxia with 229 educators in the UK. Educators were asked to complete a short online survey that included questions about their awareness of SpLDs and some neuromyths, as well as some background questions. Despite educators being more familiar with dyslexia, they endorsed more neuromyths related to dyslexia than dyscalculia. However, being more familiar with dyslexia and being a maths lead did result in the endorsement of fewer neuromyths. These findings suggest that greater awareness of SpLDs in general might not reduce the endorsements of neuromyths, but that to counter the limited awareness of dyscalculia, educators need information about the cognitive mechanisms of learning in these students.
This research investigates the perceived clarity and usefulness of infographic versus traditional text-based assessment guidelines among undergraduate nursing students with and without specific ...learning difficulties (SpLDs). Through quantitative analysis, the study reveals that undergraduate nursing students with SpLDs significantly prefer infographics over text-based guidelines, both in terms of clarity and usefulness (p < .001). Interestingly, there were no statistically significant differences in the perceptions of students without SpLDs. These findings suggest that the use of infographics as a tool for presenting assessment guidelines could contribute to more inclusive educational practices. The research further highlights the potential of infographics to not only make complex information more accessible but also to cater to diverse learning needs. As higher education institutions strive to be more inclusive, adapting assessment guidelines to suit the varied learning styles and cognitive needs of all students, particularly those with SpLDs, becomes increasingly important. This paper provides initial evidence to support the adoption of infographic-based assessment guidelines as a step towards achieving this goal.
•Infographic guidelines significantly improve clarity for students with SpLDs.•No difference in perception of guidelines between students without SpLDs.•Infographics foster inclusivity in assessment practices.•First study to compare infographic vs. text guidelines in higher education.
One of the most important factors in the successful inclusion of students with specific learning difficulties in mainstream classrooms is the teacher. Despite strong support for inclusion, mainstream ...teachers still demonstrate mixed responses to the inclusion of certain students in the classrooms. Further, their attitudes towards inclusion seem to be formed during their initial training. The purpose of this research was to examine the attitudes of pre-service teachers towards students with specific learning difficulties by analyzing their attributional responses to hypothetical students. Participants included 205 pre-service teachers, and the results demonstrated that the pre-service teachers' attributional responses differed according to whether or not the hypothetical students had a specific learning difficulty. Their attributional responses were likely to have an unintended negative impact on students' attributions, self-efficacy and motivation. One implication of these findings is that pre-service teacher-training needs to include a focus on teachers' attitudes and behaviors in inclusive classrooms.
Abstract Teachers always try to give their best to educate all students that have been entrusted to them! Knowing that everybody has the right to learn and be well educated, the Ministry of ...Education, Science, and Technology after the war took considerable actions in an effort to promote inclusive education in the Kosovo education system (Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology, 2007). However, teachers are facing different challenges while trying to teach students with mild or moderate specific learning difficulties together with those who don’t have learning difficulties. Understanding specific learning difficulties may not be hard but handling it is a great challenge. So what are specific learning difficulties? This research studies specific areas of inclusive education based on the difficulties students have while learning English Language, how to deal with these difficulties, how can inclusive practices within the school help, what practical teaching approaches can be used, what teaching methods are used or can be used in the inclusive classes in order to come to a conclusion of what can be done more about inclusiveness and understand the importance of inclusive education not only in the centers where the work is done but throughout Kosovo. Remember: Students with specific learning difficulties are just like you and me, they just have a different learning style!
•Higher levels of TSE related to more positive and encouraging feedback.•Higher levels of TSE related to positive attributions towards low effort students.•Teachers with higher levels of TSE may ...engage in an intrapersonal causal search.•Teachers with higher TSE levels may consider their part in student underachievement.
This study of 122 British secondary teachers investigated the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and teachers’ causal beliefs towards students with and without specific learning difficulties. Results found that teachers reporting higher levels of teacher self-efficacy provided more positive feedback to all students, regardless of students’ ability levels, effort expenditure, or the presence of specific learning difficulties. Additionally, teachers reporting higher levels of teacher self-efficacy felt less frustration, more sympathy, and held lower expectations of future failure towards students who expended low effort. The findings suggest that teachers with higher levels of teacher self-efficacy may undertake a teacher-intrapersonal causal search to explain student underachievement, in comparison to teachers with lower levels of teacher self-efficacy who may undertake an interpersonal causal search.
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