The Relevance of Executive Functions in Academic Production in Middle School

The present study investigated the role that executive function plays on academic production in middle school from a prototype perspective. It was hypothesized that middle school teachers\u27 prototypical ratings of the executive function capacities of middle school students who are academically successful would differ significantly from these same middle school teachers\u27 prototypical ratings of the executive function capacities of middle school students who are academically unsuccessful. The study used archival data consisting of items from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), a questionnaire that was completed by middle school teachers during a professional in-service workshop at four large urban middle schools. The concept of academic competence was viewed as a category, structured by the similarities of successful middle school students to one another in discrete behavioral manifestations of executive functions and organized around a prototype that represents the central tendency of all the exemplars in the category of successful students, as operationally defined by the BRIEF items. A second prototype was structured in a similar manner for the unsuccessful student category. To examine differences between these two prototypical categories, t tests were conducted using T scores from the eight BRIEF domains. It was postulated that there would be a significant difference between the successful learner prototype and the unsuccessful learner prototype. It was expected that the successful student prototype would possess fewer executive function impairments than the unsuccessful student prototype. Statistically significant findings were obtained, suggesting that teachers\u27 perceptions of prototypical successful students differed from these same teachers\u27 perceptions of prototypical unsuccessful students in their behavioral manifestations of executive function capacities in all eight domains of the BRIEF. Teachers\u27 ratings most consistently produced the expected pattern of T score results for the Inhibit, Initiate, Plan/Organize, Monitor, and Working Memory scales. Teachers were least likely to see large differences between successful and unsuccessful students in behaviors that reflected the executive function capacities of Shift, Emotional Control, and Organization of Materials. The results of the study supported the hypothesis that successful students exhibit very few executive function difficulties, while unsuccessful students exhibit executive function difficulties in the clinically significant range. The present study investigated the role that executive function plays on academic production in middle school from a prototype perspective. It was hypothesized that middle school teachers\u27 prototypical ratings of the executive function capacities of middle school students who are academically successful would differ significantly from these same middle school teachers\u27 prototypical ratings of the executive function capacities of middle school students who are academically unsuccessful. The study used archival data consisting of items from the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), a questionnaire that was completed by middle school teachers during a professional in-service workshop at four large urban middle schools. The concept of academic competence was viewed as a category, structured by the similarities of successful middle school students to one another in discrete behavioral manifestations of executive functions and organized around a prototype that represents the central tendency of all the exemplars in the category of successful students, as operationally defined by the BRIEF items. A second prototype was structured in a similar manner for the unsuccessful student category. To examine differences between these two prototypical categories, t tests were conducted using T scores from the eight BRIEF domains. It was postulated that there would be a significant difference between the successful learner prototype and the unsuccessful learner prototype. It was expected that the successful student prototype would possess fewer executive function impairments than the unsuccessful student prototype. Statistically significant findings were obtained, suggesting that teachers\u27 perceptions of prototypical successful students differed from these same teachers\u27 perceptions of prototypical unsuccessful students in their behavioral manifestations of executive function capacities in all eight domains of the BRIEF. Teachers\u27 ratings most consistently produced the expected pattern of T score results for the Inhibit, Initiate, Plan/Organize, Monitor, and Working Memory scales. Teachers were least likely to see large differences between successful and unsuccessful students in behaviors that reflected the executive function capacities of Shift, Emotional Control, and Organization of Materials. The results of the study supported the hypothesis that successful students exhibit very few executive function difficulties, while unsuccessful students exhibit executive function difficulties in the clinically significant range

Work Conditions and Tasks of School Counsellor

The main aim of the research was to become acquainted with the conditions of work and the tasks of the school counsellor resulting from the psychological and pedagogical help performed at educational facilities. The following two methods were used to obtain the research material: the diagnostic survey and assessment. The results of quantitative analyses were classified into the following areas: the conditions of work, the school counsellor’s duties, the forms of pedagogical help in their work with the students, parents and teachers, the factors that influence the school counsellor’s model of work and individual features important in the profession of school counsellor. The mentioned analyses indicate that the contemporary counsellor is mainly a woman (the profession is feminised), with higher education, systematically improving and supplementing their knowledge so as to perform the tasks set by the pedagogical supervision and family, school and local environment. Thanks to adequate professional preparation and application of a wide range of forms of help for the students, teacher and parents, the school counsellor constitutes a significant link of psychological and pedagogical help performed at the educational facilities

Food and Identity: a Case Study of Roman Soldiers and Native Civilians in Roman Britain

Food is a universal medium through which identity is expressed. In cultures both past and present, food represents a direct way to communicate many aspects of identity such as ethnicity, nationality, status, age, and gender. In archaeology, while the nutritional and economic roles of food have been a topic of study for decades, the relationship between food and identity is a research area largely in its infancy. In my thesis, I explore general aspects of identity in the past, and in particular, I utilize a case study of four archaeological sites (Segontium (Caernarfon), Portchester Castle, Wavendon Gate, and Dragonby) to analyze the way in which food (meat) is employed in the production, articulation, and negotiation of ethnic identity in Roman Britain. In doing so, I contribute to the development of a methodology that archaeologists can apply in the interpretation and examination of identity in the past through the analysis of faunal remains

Developing deeper thinking in Key Stage 2 mathematics. Primary Mathematics

The project’s aims to develop deeper levels of thinking on mathematical processes with a group of year 5 and 6 pupils. This thinking has been facilitated through the structured use of mathematical journals that the pupils have been writing every week. The diary entries have been discussed in taught sessions in order to enable pupils to hone in on what deeper thinking looks like in the context of mathematics. The principles driving the project have been inspired by the recent work on metacognition and self-regulation from the Education Endowment Fund, (EEF, 2018)

729-2 Macrophage-Monocyte Invasion is Associated with Greater Cardiac Hypertrophy in Hypertensive Rats

Cardiac hypertrophy is an adaptive response to increased wall stress in hypertension. Although the mechanisms underlying this adaptive response are not clearly understood, a genetic predisposition appears to playa role. We sought to examine the hypothesis that an inflammatory response occurs in the heart early in the course of development of hypertension. We measured blood pressure, heart weight and cardiac macrophage-monocyte invasion in 6 week old SHR and WKY rats with renal hypertension (1 Kidney-1 Clip, 1K1C) or sham-operated controls (SHAM). Macrocyte-monophage invasion was measured as the extent of immunohistochemical staining with ED1, a cytoplasmic antigen in this cell type. Measurements were made at 7 and 21 days post procedure. Renal hypertensive rats, both SHR and WKY, had higher blood pressures at both time points than SHR sham, which in turn had higher blood pressures that WKY sham rats. Heart weight/body weight ratios were highest in SHR-1 K1 C rats, followed by SHR SHAM and WKY 1K1C, and least in WKY sham rats. ED1 staining was also highest in SHR 1K-lC rats, followed by SHR sham rats, and was considerably lower in WKY rats, 1K-1C or sham. Data atthe 21 day time point are shown below:BP (mmHg)Heart wt/body wt (mg/g)ED1 (counts/HPF)SHR 1K1C2054.320.0SHR SHAM1703.415.0WKY 1K1C2033.712.5WKY SHAM1432.812.5Thus, significant monocyte-macrophage invasion is a hitherto unrecognized feature of cardiac hypertrophy in SHR rats. We speculate that growth factors released by such cells may contribute to hypertensive cardiac hypertrophy

Continuity or change? The post-war teacher education system on the example of Silesia-Dąbrowa Voivodship

The article concerns changes in the field of teacher education, school management and teacher employment in the years 1945–1961. The example of Silesia-Dąbrowa Voivodship collected in Archi-wum Akt Nowych in Warsaw and Archiwum Państwowe in Katowice was conducted to collect the necessary materials. The analysis of archival data and studies from this period led to the following conclusions: the party membership had become the basis for obtaining positions and promotions, socialist ideology had become an important part of the teacher education system, the feminisation of the profession, gradual departure from regional content resulting from the policy of “people’s rule” and the employment of teachers not associated with the Upper Silesian region continued

Cosmic-ray transparency for a medium-latitude observatory

The access of cosmic-ray particles to a medium-latitude observatory is analysed fromresults coming fromthe numerical solution of the charged-particle motion in the geomagnetic field. Evaluations are performed mainly for the Lomnick´yˇSt´ıt neutron monitor location (LS: 2634 m a.s.l., geographic coordinates 49.20◦ N, 20.22◦ E), but some results for the Antarctic Laboratory for Cosmic Rays (LARC: 40 ma.s.l, 62.20◦ S and 301.04◦ E) are also given. Particular attention is paid to the variability of the magnetospheric screening appearing when the external magnetic field is added to the internal one