Enriching Teaching and Learning in a Teacher Education Course through a Field Experience Choice Assignment in Service-Learning

With a purpose of enriching teaching and learning in her classroom, an early childhood education professor implements a service learning option into an introductory curriculum course with 25 students (preservice teachers) enrolled. The study, using both qualitative and quantitative means, measures the attainment of course objectives in students; and compares their ratings statements and coded narrative reflections. Results indicate that the eight students engaged in service learning in their field experience did as well as the 17 students not engaged in service learning on their pre- and post-test analysis, and in their final grades. The student reflections revealed that students participating in service-learning experienced richer learning experiences than those participating in the traditional assignment. Additionally, the service-learning participants indicate a greater sense of civic responsibility, and ability to lead their P-5 students to a greater awareness of their civic responsibility. Recommendations include implementing service-learning with all preservice teachers enrolled in this course, developing appropriate strategies for assessment of effects of service-learning, and conducting further studies on servicelearning in teacher education programs

The ratio of e±pe^{\pm}p scattering cross sections predicted from the global fit of elastic epep data

We present predictions for the value of the cross section ratio $\sigma(e^+p \to e^+p)/\sigma(e^-p \to e^-p)$, determined from our fit of the elastic $ep$ cross section and polarization data. In this fit we took into account the phenomenological two-photon exchange dispersive correction. The cross section ratios which are expected to be measured by the VEPP-3 experiment are computed. The kinematical region which will be covered by the E04-116 JLab experiment is also considered. It is shown that for both experiments the predicted cross section ratios deviate from unity within more than $3\sigma$.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Academic Support Staff as Servant Leaders and the Relationship to Student Satisfaction

This study examined servant leadership practiced by academic support staff of academic departments within four-year, post-secondary institutions. These support staff include employees within academic departments such as secretaries, administrative assistants, and coordinators that do not have managerial responsibilities and are not instructional faculty. The target population for this study was all full-time and part-time students, both undergraduate and graduate, eighteen years of age or older, and enrolled at post-secondary four-year higher education institutions in Mississippi. Results based on the data collected suggested a majority of academic support staff rated at four of the seven institutions exhibited the characteristics of servant leaders. When grouped by enrollment, (a) small institutions, (b) medium institutions, and (b) large institutions, the majority of academic support staff rated at the small institutions were considered servant leaders while a majority of those at larger institutions were not. Not only did the results suggest a statistically significant relationship with institution size, but student ethnicity also indicated a relationship with servant leadership. This study also evaluated the relationship between the level of servant leadership practiced by academic support staff and the student’s satisfaction with their connection to the campus. Results indicated that as the servant leadership score of academic support staff increased so did the student’s satisfaction score. Institution size and student ethnicity were again unique predictors of student satisfaction

Service-Learning with Young Students: Validating the Introduction of Service-Learning In Pre-Service Teacher Education

Founded on experience as a practitioner and teacher action-researcher in an elementary school setting, the author shares this study as a validation for introducing the methodology of service-learning in teacher preparation programs. Multiple methods were used in this action research to analyze the effects of participating in a service-learning experience on the self-effi cacy for self-regulated learning of a class of third-grade music students as they participated in an intergenerational project—sharing music and writing with residents in a local nursing home. The quantitative data included the results from the Children’s Self-Effi cacy Scale (Bandura, 2006) and progress rating scales administered by the teacher-researcher. These data were analyzed using independent samples t-tests and regression analyses. The qualitative data included observation and fi eld notes, students’ refl ective journals, student and teacher interviews, classroom artifacts, and informal discussions with the homeroom teacher. Emergent coding of these qualitative data revealed recurring themes, and the results supported the fi ndings of the quantitative analyses. The analyses revealed that the students who participated in the service-learning experience improved their self-effi cacy ratings for self-regulated learning signifi cantly more than the students who did not participate in the project. These fi ndings provide support for teacher education programs to introduce their pre-service teachers to service-learning in order that they will be prepared to implement meaningful experiences in their future classrooms

On the physics behind the form factor ratio μpGEp(Q2)/GMp(Q2)\mu_p G_E^p (Q^2) / G_M^p (Q^2)

We point out that there exist two natural definitions of the nucleon magnetization densities : the density $\rho_M^K (r)$ introduced in Kelly's phenomenological analysis and theoretically more standard one $\rho_M (r)$. We can derive an explicit analytical relation between them, although Kelly's density is more useful to disentangle the physical origin of the different $Q^2$ dependence of the Sachs electric and magnetic form factors of the nucleon. We evaluate both of $\rho_M (r)$ and $\rho_M^K (r)$ as well as the charge density $\rho_{ch}(r)$ of the proton within the framework of the chiral quark soliton model, to find a noticeable qualitative difference between $\rho_{ch}(r)$ and $\rho_M^K (r)$, which is just consistent with Kelly's result obtained from the empirical information on the Sachs electric and magnetic form factors of the proton.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures. version to appear in J. Phys. G.: Nucl. Part. Phy

Preservice Teachers’ Impact on Student Learning

The purpose of this study was to systematically investigate preservice teachers’ impact on P-5 student learning. This quantitative study included 1,640 P-5 students taught by 68 preservice teachers in three practicum tiers who responded to our request and submitted P-5 students’ pre- and post- assessment results. A t test was used to examine differences in the normalized gain scores and a set of regression tests to investigate the differences in the student learning outcomes among variables. The results indicate significant difference in P-5 student learning outcomes after the unit instruction by preservice teachers and no difference among variables, which suggests that P-5 students perform equally well taught by pre-service teachers in all tiers. Discussions were included

A description of the ratio between electric and magnetic proton form factors by using space-like, time-like data and dispersion relations

We use the available information on the ratio between the electric and magnetic proton form factors coming from recently published space-like data and from the few available time-like data. We apply a dispersive procedure on these data to evaluate the behaviour of this ratio, as a complex function, for all values of q^2.Comment: 12 pages, 7 Encapsulated Postscript figures, uses epsfig, rotating, exscale, amsmath, cite, latexsym, graphics, color packages, added reference

Monte Carlo Approaches to Parameterized Poker Squares

The paper summarized a variety of Monte Carlo approaches employed in the top three performing entries to the Parameterized Poker Squares NSG Challenge competition. In all cases AI players benefited from real-time machine learning and various Monte Carlo game-tree search techniques