Insights Into the Beliefs and Practices of Preservice Elementary Mathematics Teacher Educators: A Naturalistic Inquiry

The purpose of this naturalistic inquiry was to explore and analyze aspects of the reported beliefs and practices of a group of preservice elementary mathematics teacher educators. Until now, researchers have had little understanding of beliefs and practices of teachers in elementary mathematics methods classrooms, despite the fact that teacher educators’ beliefs and practices have profound effects on what happens in thousands of classrooms every day. The qualitative research in this study offered insights with the potential to inform higher educational practice in regard to the preparation of elementary mathematics teachers and mathematics teacher educators. Participants were six professors and instructors of elementary math methods courses at six different colleges and universities. A series of 18 in-depth interviews, three with each participant, allowed context, nuance, and detail to be closely examined. Typological analysis led to the emergence of six themes. They dealt with consistency, challenge, content, methods, resources, and reasons. Details related to those themes helped to illuminate what the working experience of a preservice elementary mathematics teacher is like. Study conclusions indicated (a) general consistency, with some exceptions, between reported beliefs and reported practices; (b) some common challenges faced by most participants, particularly in regard to limited elementary classroom experience, and perceived time constraints; (c) wide variation in content and methods despite agreement on teaching philosophy; (d) perceived student needs as the main reported basis of participant teaching decisions, and; (e) some indication of the extent of influence of curricular and pedagogical reform as elementary mathematics teacher educators sought to enact generally constructivist inspired teaching visions. Recommendations for educators, researchers and policy makers stemming from these conclusions have potential benefits for elementary mathematics teacher preparation

Delay discounting in light-social and heavy-social drinkers

To examine the relation between alcohol consumption and delay discounting of monetary rewards and alcohol rewards, I gave 164 college students an online screener designed to measure the quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption, and hazardous drinking. I identified 20 light-social drinkers and one heavy-social drinker. I then compared how the heavy-social drinker and the light-social drinker discounted delayed monetary rewards and delayed alcohol rewards. The light-social drinking group and the heavy-social drinker both discounted alcohol rewards more impulsively than monetary rewards; the heavy-social drinker discounted more impulsively than the light-social drinking group on both tasks. I also found that the hyperbola-like function provided a relatively decent fit to much of the data. Together, these findings suggest that a delay-discounting task, along with analysis based on the hyperbola-like function, may be sensitive enough to detect qualitative differences in light-social and heavy-social college drinkers

The Transformation Of Teacher Education Using Three-Dimensional Science Instruction

The impact of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) on K-12 science education has gained significant momentum over the last several years. Evidence of the NGSS can be seen in revised state science content standards and amended teacher preparation standards. Due to this growing impetus, a holistic redesign of teacher preparation to systemically implement three-dimensional science teaching and learning needs to be prioritized. Based on this premise, this study investigated the change in pre-service teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in teaching science using three-dimensional instruction upon completion of an NGSS-designed intervention incorporated into an introductory science methods course. Designed as a “working shop” where participants became three-dimensional learners themselves, the intervention incorporated three-dimensional science instructional pedagogies and materials accessed from established open-sourced resources found online. Results support the use of this innovative approach as a “best practice” for preparing teachers in becoming professionally competent to implement three-dimensional science instruction in their future classrooms

Roles of 5HT1A receptor in CNS neurogenesis and ADAM21 in spinal cord injury.

These studies set out to identify strategies to rescue and repair the adult nervous system. First, we investigated the role of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) in 5HT1A receptor-induced neurogenesis in the rodent brain. Systemic treatment with an agonist, 8-OH-DPAT, increased neurogenesis only in rats and not mice, and only in one of the two neurogenic regions. This increase was not mediated by CNTF. These data suggest that translation of 5HT1A-based studies to human cell replacement therapies should be reconsidered. Secondly, the role of the plasticity-associated metalloprotease ADAM21 after spinal cord injury was investigated by comparing ADAM21-deficient mice to their wildtype littermates. No differences in behavioral or histology were found. However, a comprehensive metalloproteinase gene array revealed that ADAM21 regulates a cluster of inflammatory genes following injury. This leaves a potential for discovery of specific pharmaceutical ADAM21 inhibitors to reduce detrimental inflammatory processes following spinal cord injury

Supporting public availability and accessibility with Elvin: experiences and reflections.

We provide a retrospective account of how a generic event notification service called Elvin and a suite of simple client applications: CoffeeBiff, Tickertape and Tickerchat, came to be used within our organisation to support awareness and interaction. After overviewing Elvin and its clients, we outline various experiences from data collated across two studies where Elvin and its clients have been used to augment the workaday world to support interaction, to make digital actions visible, to make physical actions available beyond the location of action, and to support content and socially based information filtering. We suggest there are both functional and technical reasons for why Elvin works for enabling awareness and interaction. Functionally, it provides a way to produce, gather and redistribute information from everyday activities (via Elvin) and to give that information a perceptible form (via the various clients) that can be publicly available and accessible as a resource for awareness. The integration of lightweight chat facilities with these information sources enables awareness to easily flow into interaction, starting to re-connect bodies to actions, and starting to approximate the easy flow of interaction that happens when we are co-located. Technically, the conceptual simplicity of the Elvin notification, the wide availability of its APIs, and the generic functionality of its clients, especially Tickertape, have made the use of the service appealing to developers and users for a wide range of uses

Using LEGO Robots to Support Understanding of Absolute Value in a Mathematics Classroom

This presentation will allow participants to become middle school mathematics students as they apply their understanding of absolute value through the use of LEGO robots. A classroom lesson will be conducted (with the participants playing the role of the student) to show how LEGO robots can be an engaging tool to create collaboration among students as well as support the understanding of concepts. Participants will work in groups of 2-3 to operate a robot along a number line and record data on a task sheet as the robot moves forward or backward in random increments. This presentation will culminate with a discussion regarding participants’ reactions to the activity and its implication for classroom use

Using LEGO robots to support understanding of absolute value in a mathematics classroom

Presentation co-presented by Georgia Southern faculty member Shelli L. Casler-Failing with students Ann Mitchem and Jillian Arnold at Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning Conference, Savannah, GA. This presentation will allow participants to become middle school mathematics students as they apply their understanding of absolute value through the use of LEGO robots. A classroom lesson will be conducted (with the participants playing the role of the student) to show how LEGO robots can be an engaging tool to create collaboration among students as well as support the understanding of concepts. Participants will work in groups of 2-3 to operate a robot along a number line and record data on a task sheet as the robot moves forward or backward in random increments. This presentation will culminate with a discussion regarding participants’ reactions to the activity and its implication for classroom use

Marketing Education Teacher Perceptions Regarding Program Name Change in Oklahoma

Occupational and Adult Educatio