Overview
The CISLL show and share event took place virtually and had over 30 attendees. Three dynamic speakers discussed their research as it relates to language and literacy. It was a fun and educational event which even included a raffle for a CISLL prize! Keep reading to find out more on each individual presentation.
Why those in the medical and allied health professions should read graphic novels
The first speaker, Dr. Knudson-Vilaseca PhD, is a speech language pathologist (SLP) student who presented about the utility of graphic novels in medical and allied health professions. Dr. Knudson-Vilaseca has a unique educational background which led her to find her passion at the intersection of health and humanities. Dr. Knudson-Vilaseca has a PhD in Spanish literature and Portuguese and after personal experiences with speech therapy, she decided to return to school to become an SLP. With her roots in the humanities, she researched ways to combine her interest areas and found resources to help individuals learn what it is like to live with a disease or disorder through fiction, movies, and more specifically, graphic novels.
In Dr. Knudson-Vilaseca’s show and share, she discussed the concept of narrative medicine, a term coined by Rita Charon, a pioneer in the medical humanities who paved the way for graphic medicine (Charon, 2001). Narrative medicine is described as a “fundamental tool to acquire, comprehend and integrate the different points of view of all the participants having a role in the illness experience” (Fioretti et al., 2016, p. 8). It shifts the focus away from the medical provider and places the emphasis on the story of the patient. Narrative medicine can give health care providers a deeper understanding of what the patient is experiencing, and while there is still much more research to be done, existing studies suggest that narrative medicine, particularly with art or visual images, can enhance diagnostic skills (Dolev et al., 2001; Naghshineh et al., 2008).
Dr. Knudson-Vilaseca’s talk specifically focused on the use of graphic novels. She explained that graphic novels have the advantages of incorporating both visual and narrative elements and have less time investment than a movie or novel. Additionally, graphic novels can be used in a variety of ways from helping students learn more about the patient’s perspective, to being used as a therapy tool. Dr. Knudson-Vilaseca referenced the website graphicmedicine.org, as a database of graphic novels she uses to find content written on a variety of topics. Some specific graphic novels mentioned in her talk included Aliceheimers and Tangles, graphic novels on dementia. Maria and Me, a graphic novel about a father and daughter with autism, and Us Two Together, a graphic novel about primary progressive aphasia. Dr. Knudson-Vilaseca ’s show and share was an eye-opening moment for attendees to learn about the important and growing field of narrative medicine and medical humanities.
Stakeholders’ Language Management and Ideologies
The second speaker at the show and share event was Dr. Mariana Alvayero Ricklefs PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at NIU. Dr. Alavayero Ricklefs presented her research “Politics at its finest”: language management and ideologies affecting the education of minoritized students”, published in the journal SN Social Sciences in 2022. Dr. Alavayero Ricklefs began by discussing the sociolinguistic model of language policy and the three main components in language policy analysis which include: practices, management, and ideologies. Dr. Alavayero Ricklefs focused specifically on language management and language ideologies of administrators and teachers in her study. Language management involves the use of policies, procedures, behaviors, and decisions to influence the use of language (Nekvapil & Sherman, 2015). Language ideology is the concept that our language is shaped by the society we live in and the people we surround ourselves by (Woolard, & Schieffelin, 1994). Language management and language ideologies can impact our interactions with others whether we are aware of it or not.
In the qualitative study, a group of Latinx emergent bilingual children were followed as they were moved between two K-5 public schools in the same school district. Both schools were predominately white, middle class, and the Latinx emergent bilingual children were bused into the schools. The stakeholders of the study were identified as female, white, and included teachers and superintendents. The language management and ideologies of the stakeholders were explored. Interviews, district reports, school board documents, and news articles were analyzed over a ten-year period (Alavayero Ricklefs, 2022).
Dr. Alavayero Ricklefs explained that during the study, the Latinx emergent bilingual students were removed from one school and sent to another school due to ‘overcrowding’. Dr. Alavayero Ricklefs found that two years later, at the new school, the teachers weren’t adequately trained to teach the Latinx emergent bilingual students. Furthermore, there were power struggles among the teachers, and the students were always excluded and perceived as “immigrants” who did not belong. The study ultimately found that there was a lot of injustice in place due to the stakeholders’ language management and language ideologies. Based on the findings of the study, Dr. Alavayero Ricklefs discussed recommendations for improving the problem. Dr. Alavayero Ricklefs shared that “ideologies are pervasive” and that advocacy is critical to help expose language ideologies. Additionally, minoritized parents and children need to be placed at the center of research and that there needs to be more teacher advocates to help support and educate other teachers in best practices for emergent bilingual students and education. Dr. Alavayero Ricklefs passion was evident in her show and share and the audience greatly enjoyed her talk.
Systematic differences in teacher perceptions of student social-emotional competencies
The third speaker was Dr. Kara Styck, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Northern Illinois University. Dr. Styck presented on her research about the use of direct behavior rating scales (with focus on disruptive behavior) and how teacher’s perceptions and rating effects can impact scoring. Direct behavior rating scales are commonly used to assess students in the classroom environment and scales can evaluate engagement, compliance, or disruptive behavior (Harrison et al., 2014). At the beginning of the talk, Dr. Styck showed the audience a video of “disruptive Dan”, a young boy who appears to have difficulty controlling his behavior in class. During the 2–3-minute clip, Dan is seen moving around, kicking his feet in his chair, getting up to talk to another classmate, hitting his head with his binder, and displaying some general disruption. The teacher in the video redirects Dan back to his chair to sit quietly, but ultimately Dan repeats the behavior throughout the clip.
After watching the video, Dr. Styck then had the audience rate Dan’s observed behaviors on the direct behavior rating scale (Volpe & Briesch, 2012). Behaviors that are considered disruptive on this scale include a student “calls out,” “noisy”, “clowns around,” “talks to classmates when inappropriate,” and “out of seat/area” (Volpe & Briesch, 2012, p. 249). After rating Dan on the single item scale, the audience then shared and explained the reasoning behind their evaluation score. The exercise revealed that audience members rated Dan’s behavior differently, even though everyone in the audience watched the same video clip of Dan’s behavior and used the same direct behavior rating scale.
Dr. Styck proposed some ideas for why the differences occurred. She explained that some audience members may have focused more on the frequency of Dan’s disruption, while other audience members may have concentrated on how severely Dan’s peers were impacted by his behavior. Dr. Styck identified that rater effects are a big consideration with behavior rating scales and that the schema of the rater is important to how students are scored. Dr. Styck explained that the most common rater effects that are seen on behavior rating scales include generosity error, halo/horns effects, and restriction of range effects. Generosity error occurs when a teacher is too generous in their rating of a student, causing scores to be inflated. The halo/horns effect occurs when one specific characteristic of an individual positively or negatively influences other ratings of behavior or performance. Restriction of range effects occurs when the sample is limited, restricting the possible range of scores. Dr. Styck continued emphasizing that the research in this area is important as socio-emotional behavioral ratings are the most common assessment instrument performed in the classroom and the rating is typically performed by the teacher.
The talk was concluded with Dr. Styck discussing the top five lessons learned from her research. She commented that the way raters use a scale is variable across raters and that raters significantly differ in their severity / leniency. Furthermore, raters’ levels of severity/leniency in scoring were not stable over time and were not stable across domains that were rated. Finally, training to help reduce rater effects may be one way to diminish the extreme differences in raters’ severity / leniency. Dr. Styck did a great job engaging the audience and displaying the impact of rater effects on behavioral rating scales in her show and share talk.
About the author: Lindsey Kojich is a doctoral student in Health Sciences and a CISLL affiliate.
References
Alvayero Ricklefs, M. (2022). “politics at its finest”: Language Management and Ideologies Affecting the Education of Minoritized Students. SN Social Sciences, 2(5). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43545-022-00359-y
Charon, R. (2001). Narrative medicine. JAMA, 286(15), 1897. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.286.15.1897
Dolev, J. C. (2001). Use of fine art to enhance visual diagnostic skills. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 286(9), 1020–1021. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.286.9.1020
Fioretti, C., Mazzocco, K., Riva, S., Oliveri, S., Masiero, M., & Pravettoni, G. (2016). Research studies on patients' illness experience using the Narrative Medicine Approach: A systematic review. BMJ Open, 6(7). https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-011220
Harrison, S. E., Riley-Tillman, T. C., & Chafouleas, S. M. (2014). Direct behavior rating. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 29(1), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1177/0829573513515424
Naghshineh, S., Hafler, J. P., Miller, A. R., Blanco, M. A., Lipsitz, S. R., Dubroff, R. P., Khoshbin, S., & Katz, J. T. (2008). Formal art observation training improves medical students’ visual diagnostic skills. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 23(7), 991–997. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-008-0667-0
Nekvapil, J., & Sherman, T. (2015). An introduction: Language management theory in language policy and planning. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2015(232), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2014-0039
Volpe, R. J., & Briesch, A. M. (2012). Generalizability and dependability of single-item and multiple-item direct behavior rating scales for engagement and disruptive behavior. School Psychology Review, 41(3), 246–261. https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2012.12087506
Woolard, K. A., & Schieffelin, B. B. (1994). Language ideology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 23(1), 55–82. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.23.100194.000415
