Mindful Matters; The Efficacy of an Eight-Week Mindfulness Intervention on Boarding School Teacher Burnout

Teacher burnout is a serious issue. Studies show that burnout decreases teacher instruction efficacy, increases absenteeism, interferes with student/teacher relationships, and causes attrition, which costs the system millions of dollars each year (Suh, 2015). While there is ample research on traditional teachers and burnout, boarding school teachers are a largely understudied population. These teachers educate students in residential school settings, housing students on evenings and weekends throughout the school year. Many boarding school teachers must work additional hours stretching into evenings and weekends and fulfill multiple roles beyond a classroom teacher. Therefore, most of these teachers work well beyond a typical 40-hour workweek. These extra hours are considered Extra Role Time (ERT), and teachers who invest more in ERT are more likely to experience burnout (Brown & Roloff, 2011). Mindfulness interventions are associated with reductions of burnout symptoms (Brown et al., 2007; Jennings et al., 2013; Jennings et al., 2017). Many schools are piloting programs to introduce these practices to teachers. Mindfulness-based interventions for teachers provide teachers with skills to cope with stressful situations, improving teachers’ overall well-being for a more effective learning environment. This study will employ an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to assess the efficacy of an eight-week strengths-based mindfulness intervention on boarding school teacher burnout. Additionally, the study will explore how boarding teachers employ mindfulness techniques when dealing with stressful situations. Finally, the researcher will analyze the impact a strengths-based approach to group discussions in a mindfulness intervention impacts participant wellbeing

Beyond the Pavement and Setting Fire to the Sky With Critical Introduction: Exploring the Dark: Gothic Short Stories

This thesis explores the genre of gothic literature by outlining the themes and common techniques that writers use. It discusses prominent writers in the genre, as well as critiques their techniques and compares them to my own. Two fiction pieces are accompanied with the critical introduction that fit the gothic literature genre

Deciphering The Consequences Of Yolk Testosterone Metabolism In Birds

Maternal steroids transferred to eggs can elicit permanent effects on various aspects of offspring phenotype. Although, testosterone was thought to be a key mediator of maternal effects in birds, we now know that vertebrate embryos actively regulate their exposure to maternal testosterone through steroid metabolism, suggesting testosterone metabolites may elicit the observed phenotypic effects. To address the role steroid metabolism plays in mediating yolk testosterone effects, we used European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) eggs to characterize the timing of testosterone metabolism and determine whether etiocholanolone, a prominent testosterone metabolite in avian embryos, is capable of influencing early embryonic development. Tritiated testosterone (3H-T) was injected into freshly laid eggs to characterize the movement and metabolism during early development. Varying levels of etiocholanolone were also injected into starling eggs and incubated for either three or five days to test whether etiocholanolone influences the early growth of embryonic tissues. Interestingly, the conversion of testosterone to etiocholanolone is initiated within the first 12 hours of embryonic development, but the increase in etiocholanolone is transient; etiocholanolone is also subject to metabolism, suggesting embryos are exposed to elevated levels of etiocholanolone for a short period of time in early development. We found exogenous etiocholanolone manipulation had no significant effect on the growth rate of the embryos or extra-embryonic membranes early in development. These findings suggest the conversion of yolk testosterone to etiocholanolone may be an inactivation pathway that buffers the embryo from the effects of maternal steroids and the observed effects of yolk testosterone may be modulated by the fraction of testosterone that escapes metabolism

Blend it Like Beckett: Samuel Beckett and Experimental Contemporary Creative Writing

Samuel Beckett penned novels, short stories, poetry, stage plays, radio plays, and scripts—and he did each in a way that blended genre, challenged the norms of creative writing, and surprised audiences around the globe. His experimental approach to creative writing included the use of absurdism, genre-hybridization, and ergodicism, which led to Beckett fundamentally changing the approach to creative writing. His aesthetics have trickled down through the years and can be seen in contemporary works, including Aimee Bender’s short story collection The Girl in the Flammable Skirt and Mark Z. Danielewski’s novel House of Leaves[1]. By examining these works in comparison to Beckett, this project hopes to illuminate the effects of Beckett’s experimentation in form and genre on contemporary creative writing. [1] The word ‘house’ appears in blue to honor Danielewski’s decision to have the word printed in that color each time it appears in his novel

Inhibition and attentional control in dietary restraint

Treballs Finals de Grau de Nutrició Humana i Dietètica, Facultat de Farmàcia i Ciències de l'Alimentació, Campus de l'Alimentació de Torribera, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2019-2020. Tutor: Toni Cunillera[eng] Dietary restraint has been the solution for many people to lose weight or simply have it under control to cope with this obesogenic environment that we live in, full of easily approachable palatable-food advertising. However, this behavior of ruling dietary intake by what must be or must not be consumed instead of following the intrinsic signs of appetite is believed to lead to an opposite reaction of failed inhibition as a result of self control loss. Hence, not all dieters succeed in obtaining their goal. Interestingly, years of experimentation have helped to develop different assessment tools, such as experimental measures of the inhibitory pattern and the self-reported measures of dietary restraint that have helped to broaden the knowledge on this field. This way, it has been seen that some of those who are self-reported as restrained eaters vary in controlling their reaction towards food, surprisingly being those who have a more pronounced tendency for refraining from food intake the same who fail in inhibitory control. In the same line, restrained eating has been related to a more pronounced attraction to food known as attentional bias that also explains why some attempt significantly more to food consumption. Finally, based on the accumulating evidence of training inhibitory control, leads to the conclusion that such trait should be the target for treatment in order to encourage the successful and healthier performance of chronic dieters.[spa] La restricción dietética ha sido, para muchas personas, la solución para evitar ganar peso o intentar mantenerlo en este ambiente obesogénico que nos rodea, lleno de publicidad sobre productos alimenticios de alta densidad calórica que son fácilmente accesibles. Sin embargo, se ha visto que esta actitud de limitarse a comer solo lo que se debe cuando se debe, en lugar de hacer caso a las señales fisiológicas reguladoras del apetito, provoca un efecto adverso en la capacidad inhibitoria hacia la comida como resultado de una pérdida de control en algunas personas. En consecuencia, no todos los comedores restrictivos cumplen con su objetivo principal de controlar el peso. Con el paso del tiempo, los expertos han ido desarrollando una serie de herramientas capaces de medir tanto el patrón inhibitorio a través de unos métodos experimentales, como la tendencia restrictiva por medio de unos cuestionarios que han contribuido al conocimiento de este campo. Se ha visto así, que la mayoría de aquellos que se consideran comedores restrictivos son los mismos que presentan un control inhibitorio limitado. También se ha asociado esta población a una mayor atracción por la comida calificada como sesgo atencional lo que a su vez explica la tendencia incrementada de algunos hacia el consumo alimentario. Con todo ello, y dadas las evidencias que apoyan el uso de los métodos que entrenan el control inhibitorio, se podría decir que las intervenciones de tratamiento deberían insistir en él pudiendo así corroborar en una restricción alimentaria exitosa y saludable

Elementary Teachers\u27 Experiences of Student Engagement During Forced Virtual Learning: A Phenomenological Approach

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand and describe Virginia\u27s Shenandoah Valley Elementary School teachers\u27 experiences of student engagement during forced virtual learning. Teachers\u27 experiences were defined by their positive or negative perceptions of virtual learning experiences. Bandura\u27s social learning theory guided this study on the importance of student engagement in the classroom. This qualitative, transcendental phenomenological study included 12 elementary school teachers from the Madre school division. Data were collected through interviews, letter writing, and focus groups. The precoding and coding processes were used for data analysis to identify three final themes. The themes were online classroom management, digital tools for engagement, and collaboration. Each theme supported this study\u27s central and sub-research questions to gain insight into elementary school teachers\u27 experiences of student engagement during forced virtual learning

Die Haftung der Verwaltungsgesellschaft einer fremdverwalteten Investmentaktiengesellschaft

Seit dem Inkrafttreten des Investmentänderungsgesetzes zum 28.12.2007 steht der Investmentbranche als neue Gestaltungsform eines Investmentvehikels die fremdverwaltete Investmentaktiengesellschaft zur Verfügung. Die fremdverwaltete Investmentaktiengesellschaft benennt eine Kapitalanlagegesellschaft als Verwaltungsgesellschaft und überträgt ihr die allgemeine Verwaltungstätigkeit sowie die Anlage und Verwaltung ihrer Mittel. Der folgende Beitrag untersucht die Haftung der Verwaltungsgesellschaft gegenüber den Aktionären der fremdverwalteten Investmentaktiengesellschaft. Im Ergebnis wird ein gesetzliches Schuldverhältnis bejaht, für dessen Verletzung die Verwaltungsgesellschaft von den Aktionären der Investmentaktiengesellschaft gemäß §§ 280 Abs. 1, 249 ff. BGB auf Schadensersatz in Anspruch genommen werden kann

Opening Welcome: Belonging at WCSE 2023

Join us for the opening welcome to WCSE 2023! We plan to begin the community building for the conference, help you navigate the hybrid nature of the conference, update you on any relevant news, and generally get you oriented

Day 2 welcome and updates

Join us for the welcome to the second day of WCSE 2023! We\u27ll make sure those arriving \u27fresh\u27 on this second day of the conference get oriented, and we\u27ll update all participants on any adjustments to the program and news for the day

Investigating an Instructional Model for Integrated STEM in Teacher Education

Active learning experiences that incorporate technology, design, and making combine to form an important and necessary pedagogical approach that supports the 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, digital literacies, and computational thinking as a problem-solving framework. Active learning experiences in teacher preparation serve as a model for future educators to follow, while building the educators\u27 efficacy to conduct future implementations with their own students. In this study, a multidisciplinary Pop-Up Makerspaces activity was conducted as an active hands-on approach to interdisciplinary STEM education. The intersectionality of English language arts with integrated STEM through design and making included: (a) enriching language and integrated STEM literacy, (b) scaffolding and supporting pre- and inservice educators through well-designed active learning as these opportunities help to develop self-efficacy, and (c) exploring new models and frameworks for transdisciplinarity