Growing Pebbles and Conceptual Prisms - Understanding The Source of Student Misconceptions About Rock Formation

Provides pedagogical insight concerning learners' pre-conceptions and misconceptions about the rock cycle The resource being annotated is: http://www.dlese.org/dds/catalog_NASA-Edmall-535.htm

Trauma-informed school programming: Applications for Mental Health professionals and Educator partnerships

An alarming number of children experience significant trauma or chronic stress throughout childhood, manifesting in cognitive, social, physical, and emotional impairment. These challenges are expressed in the P-12 academic setting through difficulties with behavioral and emotional self-regulation, academic functioning, and physical ailments and illness. Advances in trauma-informed care, as applied to the school environment, have inspired new hope for educators who observe first-hand the learning challenges facing traumatized children. This article defines the nature of the problem along with a guiding framework to assist educators and mental health professionals in transforming to a trauma-informed school culture

Growing Pebbles and Conceptual Prisms: Understanding the Source of Student Misconceptions About Rock Formation

This study investigates misconceptions held by students about how rocks form. It involved analyzing narrative essays on rock formation written by pre-service elementary school teachers, most of whom had completed a college-level course in earth science. These misconceptions arise from deeply held but largely unexamined beliefs (conceptual prisms) that result from the interaction of the student's world view and personal experiences. The study addressed three basic research questions: how do students describe the process of rock formation in narrative essays?, are there common patterns in students' naive conceptions about geology?, and can these patterns be explained by a few underlying beliefs that shape student ideas? Educational levels: Graduate or professional

Positive Behavior Support and Student Response to the Behavior Education Program

School-wide positive behavior supports (SWPBS) is an evidence-based systematic approach that views problem behaviors in a positive, preventative manner. Once a school-wide discipline system is in place, an intermediate-level intervention can be implemented to support the 5% to 15% of students who are at-risk of engaging in more severe behavior. Students who do not respond to universal behavioral approaches and need extra support can benefit from a targeted group intervention like the Behavior Education Program (BEP), which is based on a daily check-in check-out system providing students with immediate feedback on their behavior. This research study described the effectiveness of the Behavior Education Program on student problem behavior with seven elementary-aged school students. The findings confirmed that the BEP resulted in an improvement in behavior, and a reduction in the number of office discipline referrals for the majority of students who received the intervention. Limitations of the study were presented, as well as implications for school social work practice

How is Trauma-Informed Education Implemented within Classrooms? A Synthesis of Trauma-Informed Education Programs

The purpose of this study was to synthesise the content of trauma-informed education programs with a focus on classroom strategies. Programs (N = 20) were identified that focused on primary and secondary schools and were suitable for application in the classroom by teachers. Program materials available in the public domain were collated and the qualitative research method of reflexive thematic analysis was used to explore commonalities and themes in classroom strategies across different approaches. Classroom strategies were aimed at meeting students’ somatic (i.e., ‘bottom-up’) capacities of safety needs, self-regulatory needs, sensory needs, and relational and attachment needs. Classroom strategies also focused on supporting students’ psychological (i.e., ‘top-down’) capacities of social and emotional learning needs, academic and learning needs, voice and empowerment needs, strengths needs, and cultural needs. Recommendations for future research and practice in the paradigm of trauma-informed education include an increased focus on teacher instruction and prioritising how trauma-informed education can be tailored to meet the needs of a diverse range of students

Putting theory oriented evaluation into practice

Evaluations of gaming simulations and business games as teaching devices are typically end-state driven. This emphasis fails to detect how the simulation being evaluated does or does not bring about its desired consequences. This paper advances the use of a logic model approach which possesses a holistic perspective that aims at including all elements associated with the situation created by a game. The use of the logic model approach is illustrated as applied to Simgame, a board game created for secondary school level business education in six European Union countries

Bullies in the Block Area: The Early Childhood Origins of Mean Behavior

Bullying can pose a serious threat to children's immediate and long-term health and well-being, and can have profound impacts on all children involved in bullying behaviors, whether as the one bullying others, the one being bullied, or the one witnessing bullying. At least some of the roots of bullying behaviors, and conversely the roots of positive pro-social skills, can likely be found in adverse and positive experiences during early childhood, yet the research literature on these connections is limited. The early childhood field lacks a coherent, theoretical model that identifies the factors contributing to "mean" or aggressive behavior in young children, and establishes the developmental link between this early behavior and later bullying behavior. This white paper summarizes the literature on seven key hypotheses about the roots of bullying behavior in early childhood experiences