The Power of Reflection: Understanding The Impacts Made Upon Employees Who Have Managers Who Reflect On Their Professional Development

No matter the level, managers who reflect on their professional development will impact their careers in various ways. But what impact can this same reflection have on those individuals who are led by those managers? It is widely known in the literature that professional development reflections can have positive effects on one’s career. With that knowledge, it is intended to drill down into this concept to help identify how a manager’s professional development reflection can have the same impact on their employees. The impact of managers’ professional development reflection on their employee’s increased interest in career development, improved job performance, and improved job satisfaction will be explored through this study. The following hypotheses will be assessed, H1: The more managers consistently share their professional development reflections with their employees, the more interest in career development will increase. H2: The more a manager consistently shares their professional development reflections with their employees, the more employee job performance will increase. H3: The more a manager consistently shares their professional development reflections with their employees, the more employee job satisfaction will increase. The basic research question in this study is, how does managers\u27 shared professional development reflection impact their employee’s increased interest in career development, improved job performance, and improved job satisfaction? The research question is framed by the theoretical frameworks of the connectivism learning theory and the reflective learning theory by combining aspects of each into this study. This study will also be quantitatively analyzed to better understand the impacts of professional development reflection of a manager on their employees. The findings of this study and its conclusion suggest a statistically significant impact when a manager shares their professional development reflection with their employees. It was indicated that there is a positive impact on the increased interest in professional development, improved job performance, and improved job satisfaction for the employees. Knowing this information and implementing the findings into a daily routine for management and employees can have a significantly positive impact on their daily lives. Managers now have a unique opportunity to give their employees a more meaningful and thought-provoking career in the US energy industry

Arts- Integrated Social Studies Lessons: A Self Study

Research on arts-integrated social studies lessons for elementary students is not prevalent in the literature, and even less common are teacher research studies of arts-integrated social studies lessons for gifted students (Wilson, 2018). This teacher research study (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1998, 1999a) investigated arts-integrated social studies lessons with a group of fifth-grade gifted students through self-study. Nine gifted students engaged in six social studies lessons on the civil rights era (1950s to 1960s). The questions that guided the self-study were (a) when studying the design and implementation of critical arts integration in social studies lessons, what does a teacher self-study reveal about the nature and challenges of integration for the teacher and the children?; (b) what routines, multimodalities, and discourses are used by the teacher researcher to facilitate the engagement of students in critical arts-integrated social studies lessons?; (c) what teacher knowledge, experiences, and judgements are drawn upon to navigate, explore, and extend children’s critical conversations, artistic expressions, and understandings during the lessons?; and (d) what does the self-study of critical arts-integrated lessons reveal about teacher- researcher learning? The theoretical frameworks included Dewey’s (1933) theory of reflective thinking, social constructivism (Dewey, 1938; Vygotsky, 1978), and multi-modal theory (Jewitt & Kress, 2003/2008). By employing Dewey’s theory of reflective thinking and 30 years of teacher-researcher insights, observations from this self-study were compiled from teacher reflective journals on the lessons; conversations with children on their thinking, doing, and learning; and the children’s artistic artifacts. The study revealed teacher vulnerability through self-study and children’s critical thinking capacities in their conversations and artistic expressions. The Civil Rights lessons and artwork demonstrated how children exhibit their capacities to address difficult topics and what teachers can do through self-study to use arts-integrated social studies lessons to create rich learning opportunities for themselves and their learners

Risk and Protective Factors in the Caregiving Context for Violence Exposure Outside of the Home, HIV Risk, and HIV Infection Among Youth Ages 13 to 24 in Lesotho

Introduction: HIV continues to be a global health threat despite recent decades of progress. Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in sub-Saharan Africa experience a disproportionately high burden of HIV. Lesotho is the country with the second highest adult prevalence of HIV globally. Further, little is known about the caregiving context in Lesotho and the associations between caregiver factors and non-familial violence, HIV risk, and HIV infection. We aimed to understand the associations between risk and protective factors in the caregiving context simultaneously on non-familial violence and HIV-related outcomes in Lesotho to inform prevention strategy recommendations. Methods: Data are from the 2018 Lesotho Violence Against Children and Youth Survey, a cross-sectional, nationally representative household survey of youth ages 13 to 24 years (nfemale=7,101; nmale=1,467). We used structural equation modeling to explore relationships between positive relationships with parents, caregiver supervision, family violence, non-familial violence, composite HIV risk, and HIV infection, simultaneously, controlling for marital status, sex, orphan status, food insecurity, and age. We constructed one model with the full sample and a second with AGYW only. Results: In the structural model for both samples, having a positive relationship with a mother and father were protective against exposure to non-familial violence, while exposure to familial violence was associated with a higher probability of experiencing non-familial violence, controlling for all of the variables in the model. In both samples, higher levels of caregiver supervision were independently associated with lower scores on the HIV risk composite, whereas exposure to non-familial was independently associated with higher scores on the HIV risk composite. We found a positive adjusted association between higher scores on the HIV risk score and HIV infection for both samples. Conclusions: In both samples, we found that positive parent-child relationships were protective against experiencing non-familial violence, with relationships with fathers emerging as the strongest protective correlate. Caregiver supervision was associated with lower scores on the HIV risk composite in both samples. Exposure to violence was associated with exposure to other forms of violence and higher scores on the HIV risk composite in both samples as well. Caregiver factors should be further explored and tested as targets for HIV and violence prevention and response efforts in Lesotho as they may be protective against multiple adverse childhood outcomes

The Structural Connectome and Cognition in Early to Late Adolescents with Congenital Heart Disease

Congenital heart defects are one of the most prevalent birth defects in the world, with the structural changes to the heart impacting oxygen capacity and brain development. Altered brain development and increased acquired brain injury risk from surgery (e.g., reduced brain volume, white matter injury, hemorrhage) put individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD) at increased risk of poor neurocognitive outcomes. Examining brain networks via graph theory analysis and how they relate to cognitive outcomes allows for an increased understanding of brain-behavior relationships in this at-risk population. To date, research utilizing graph theory in this population has been limited to one CHD diagnosis within a restricted age range. The current study examines how the structural connectome relates to cognitive outcomes in early to late adolescents with mixed CHD diagnoses. Thirty-seven participants with CHD and 38 healthy age-and gender-matched peers underwent neuroimaging and completed cognitive measures (processing speed, intelligence, informant-reported executive functioning). Analyses investigated group differences in global network metrics and relationships among five global network metrics and performance on select cognitive measures. Individuals with single-ventricle CHD, the group with the most severe disease types, showed significantly lower small-worldness compared to double-ventricle CHD and healthy peers with a large effect size (��2=.15). Moderate correlations were observed between network metrics and cognitive measures, but they did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. In conclusion, small-worldness most robustly differed between groups, with single-ventricle CHD showing the lowest small-worldness values. While correlational relationships did not survive multiple comparisons, they provide preliminary evidence to guide future research on brain-behavior relationships in CHD. Larger multi-site studies are required to allow for further investigation of these potentially subtle differences between CHD severity groups

Peer-to-peer solar and social rewards: Evidence from a field experiment

Observability has been demonstrated to influence the adoption of pro-social behavior in a variety of contexts. This study implements a natural field experiment to examine the influence of observability in the context of a novel pro-social behavior: peer-to-peer solar. Peer-to-peer solar offers an opportunity to households who cannot have solar on their homes to access solar energy from their neighbors. However, unlike solar installations, peer-to-peer solar is an invisible form of pro-environmental behavior. We implemented a set of randomized campaigns using Facebook ads in the Massachusetts cities of Cambridge and Somerville, in partnership with a peer-to-peer company, to study social media users\u27 interest in peer-to-peer solar through clicks on the ads. In the campaigns, treated customers were informed that they could share “green reports” online, providing information to others about their greenness. We find that interest in peer-to-peer solar increases by up to 30% when “green reports,” which would make otherwise invisible behavior visible, are mentioned in the ads

Transformational Leadership For Rural School Improvement

This study examined the perceptions of rural principals and faculty members about the principals’ use of transformational leadership practices to lead school improvement efforts. Based on Transformational Leadership Theory and the Professional Standards for Educational Leaders, the study explored how school leaders and faculty view the principals’ leadership as they tackle improving their rural schools. By examining the perceptions of the school leader and their staff members, key attributes that may lead to improvements in rural schools where limited human and fiscal resources are available have been identified. This qualitative study analyzed data collected through interviews with eight leaders and staff and publicly available school improvement plans and other documents to identify themes and patterns. The findings suggest that when principals used transformational leadership practices to convey their vision, the scope of their influence widened. In doing so, the principals built trust, inspired their teacher-leaders, and created a collaboration that allowed both groups to work together to improve schools

Trajectories of Well-being in Children with Gastrointestinal Conditions and Their Parents during the First Three Years of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Gastrointestinal (GI) conditions are common in childhood and adolescence, and these individuals often experience higher rates of mental health concerns, social challenges, and family dysfunction compared to healthy peers. Due to these difficulties, it is important to investigate how these children and their parents are faring during the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be conceptualized as a potentially traumatic event (PTE). During past PTEs (e.g., natural disasters), common trajectories of well-being and related predictors have been found. For children with GI conditions, trajectories of well-being during this time could help identify children who would benefit from further support now and during future PTEs. The current study collected quantitative data from children with irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, and celiac disease and one of their parents over three years (September 2020-December 2022) and qualitative responses from a subtest of those participants to examine the impact of the pandemic on psychosocial outcomes. This study found that children with GI conditions and their parents fell into five trajectory groups: resilience, improving, worsening, chronic, and time 2 variation. Most children and parents were in the resilience trajectory group. A strong parent/child relationship predicted which children belonged to the resilience trajectory, and low isolation predicted which parents belonged to the resilience trajectory. Future research should further examine these findings with larger samples and more rigorous statistical methods. Clinicians should assess for mental health concerns at each visit; many individuals’ well-being fluctuated throughout the pandemic. Leveraging a strong parent/child relationship could help support child resilience responses to PTEs

A Walking Meditation with Queer English teachers of color: Diffracting stuckness, empowerment, resistance, and vulnerability in Nepantla

There are two purposes of this study. The first purpose is to explore what possibilities could emerge when emotions and queerness are co-constituted in teaching and research, especially in interdisciplinary fields (i.e., Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, critical queer studies, affect studies, and research methodologies). The second purpose is to trace queerness and emotions methodologically-theoretically. Two research questions in this study are: What were the possibilities in terms of theory, teaching, and research that queerness and emotions produced through the intra-active conversational process between four queer English teachers of color and Ethan-researcher? and How were queerness and emotions traced methodologically? By whom or what? By drawing from Chicana feminism (Anzaldúa, 2015), new materialism (Barad, 2007), and Vietnamese Buddhism (Thich, 1999), and using diffractive methodology (Barad, 2007), the concepts of an atomic emotion and the spiritual third eye were born to address the research questions. An atomic emotion consists of elements of emotions that emerged from the conversations. The movement and differential becoming and reconfiguring of these elements are always held together, co-existing relationally, intra-acting, and transforming constantly in every second. There is nothing permanent in an atomic emotion. There is nothing permanent in its form. Elements of emotions in an atomic emotion motion, transform, and intra-act impermanently. The concept of atomic emotions is important in this study to deconstruct predetermination, challenge fixity, question colonial knowledge, rethink assumptions and biases toward Others, and redirect readers to look into the inseparable relationship of human, non-human, and more-than-human through discursive practices. This study concludes by offering the pedagogy of response-ability and future directions to construct a queer utopia of emotions with students, teachers, families, and policy makers in interdisciplinary fields across the world

Forgotten Voices: Experiences of Five Female Public School Teachers in the Rural South

Schools in the United States are re-segregating at an alarming rate under the guise of education reform and school choice initiatives (McNeal, 2009). In rural communities, charter schools have been found to function as public segregation academies, often replacing or supplementing the private schools established immediately following the Brown v. Board ruling (Chapman, 2018). This interpretive phenomenological study explores the experiences of female public school teachers in rural communities and clarifies how educational segregation, in the form of both private schools and charter schools, in rural communities in the southern United States affect these experiences. The research questions that guide this study are: 1) What are the experiences of female teachers who work in public schools in rural communities? and 2) How does educational segregation within the local community affect the experiences of female public-school teachers in rural districts? Data analysis took place through a hermeneutic circle approach, and the findings are presented in composite narratives. Results indicate that the experiences of female teachers who work in public schools in rural communities differ based upon their self-imposed identities as either insiders or outsiders . Findings are discussed in terms of implications for education leaders, public school teachers, and community members in rural communities

Nicotine, Tobacco, Marijuana Use Typologies among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth and Young Adults in the United States

Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States (US). Overall, tobacco use in the US steadily declined among youth and young adults since the mid- 1970s. During the 2000s, that progress reversed as new products such as e-cigarettes flooded the US market. E-cigarettes are particularly appealing to youth and young adults due – in part – to the availability of product flavors. In addition, the increased legalization of marijuana has been associated with increased co-use of tobacco and cannabis among youth. The unprecedented changes to the nicotine, tobacco, and marijuana (NTM) product landscape in the last decade created the potential for increased and increasingly complex patterns of NTM use as well as negative health consequences among populations known to be at greater risk for NTM use like the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community, youth, and young adults. Using cross-sectional data from seven states between February 2020 and June 2022, this dissertation assessed NTM use among 13-24 year olds. Specifically, the study examined the empirically identified, dominant, and distinct polyuse patterns – or classes – of NTM products that capture individual variability and population heterogeneity among youth and young adults in the US; the effect of LGBT identity and measurement bias on class membership; and the effect of intersectionality of LGBT identity and gender in the context of race/ethnicity and age on class membership. The study found nine distinct classes of NTM polyuse, ranging from regular use categories dominated by e-cigarettes and marijuana products to ever/irregular use of various NTM products. Based on proportions of class membership, LGBT respondents comprised greater proportions of classes characterized by regular NTM use. Analyses also suggested that LGBT identity was a source of differential item functioning (DIF) – measurement noninvariance – for certain latent indicators of NTM polyuse use, particularly marijuana. Differences in NTM use were also observed by gender among LGBT respondents. Membership for female LGBT respondents was higher among classes characterized by more regular marijuana use; although, male LGBT respondents tended to have increased membership in regular NTM use classes. In general, LGBT respondents had greater membership in the regular NTM use classes than non- LGBT respondents. Notable differences in class membership by race/ethnicity and age were also found. For race/ethnicity, the most prominent differences tended to be in the characterization of e-cigarette and marijuana co-use. For age, the 13-17 year old respondents NTM use was primarily in classes with distinct e-cigarette use; the 18-24 year old users had greater membership in classes with current marijuana use. The nature and number of classes along with the impact of LGBT identity, gender, race/ethnicity, and age on class membership provided unique insight into emerging patterns of NTM polyuse that are important for public health action and future regulation of NTM products. The methodological contributions from examining the impact effect of DIF among the LGBT population can be translated to improvements in surveys, measures, and analyses that offer richer understanding of this important population. In addition, this dissertation adds that, as NTM products and regulations diversify, research needs to explicitly address population heterogeneity to develop policy, practices, and interventions that fully protect the public’s health