Ageism in American society: Are aging women of color assertive enough?

The study focus was ageism and assertiveness in aging women of color. The study examined a relationship between ageism occurring with these women and their response to it, if any. There were 41 participants in this study. They were all women of color 60-years of age and older. The participants were members of a church located in Los Angeles County

A case study of boys’ ‘underachievement’ within the English school system

This thesis focuses on the ways in which ‘underachievement’ is constituted for boys identified as ‘underachieving’ at Stone Acre, a non-selective school in a selective Local Authority in England. It explores how performance pressures, the school processes of the curriculum, selective grouping practices and teachers’ understandings of gender all shape boys’ experiences of learning. It argues that these layers also interconnect with school type and ethos. In seeking to bring these less visible readings of the policy frameworks and school level processes by which gendered learning outcomes occur, to the surface, this study contributes to the debate around boys’ ‘underachievement’ in the English school system. The research was conducted as a case study and adopted elements of an ethnographic approach. It is grounded in the work of Connell (2012, p.1677) who understands masculinities as being continuously produced in interaction with social structures and the body as encountering ‘gender regimes’. Data were gathered through a five-stage process that involved paired interviews with six boys in Year 10 (age 15) and identified at the start of the research as ‘underachieving’ against the key performance benchmark: attainment at GCSE level. Additional data were collected from other sources including observations of the boys during lessons and individual interviews with eleven teachers. A key conclusion of the study was that boys identified as ‘underachieving’ against key performance indicators are not learning in a gender-neutral space. Some teachers were found to have essentialist understandings of masculinities that were powerful in shaping the spaces in which the boys learned. Accountability pressures were identified as having contributed to the creation of a regulatory system that shaped the practices of teachers in both positive and negative ways. Stone Acre’s school ethos and school-based approaches to teaching and learning were also found to have mitigated the boys from some of these pressures. Looking beyond the boys towards the system within which boys identified as ‘underachieving’ experience their learning, this thesis demonstrates the complex, shifting and contextualised nature of the factors involved and the need for more structural readings of these

Implementation of Computer-Mediated Communication

This paper reports on the use of Multiply.com, a social network service (SNS) on the Internet, as acomputer-mediated communication (CMC) tool for pedagogical purposes in ‘English as a Foreign Language’(EFL) classes. The general outcomes reported by the educators were positive. Some of the benefits observed were improvements in participation, motivation, student autonomy and authentic student-to-student communication. The registration process, individual utilization of the site and the teachers perceived out comes and observations of classes at a private Japanese university are described. It was found that the use of CMC was beneficial for teachers and students and adaptable for different teaching styles and environments. It is suggested that CMC could be easily incorporated into a variety of teaching contexts

Poverty rate prediction using multi-modal survey and earth observation data

This work presents an approach for combining household demographic and living standards survey questions with features derived from satellite imagery to predict the poverty rate of a region. Our approach utilizes visual features obtained from a single-step featurization method applied to freely available 10m/px Sentinel-2 surface reflectance satellite imagery. These visual features are combined with ten survey questions in a proxy means test (PMT) to estimate whether a household is below the poverty line. We show that the inclusion of visual features reduces the mean error in poverty rate estimates from 4.09% to 3.88% over a nationally representative out-of-sample test set. In addition to including satellite imagery features in proxy means tests, we propose an approach for selecting a subset of survey questions that are complementary to the visual features extracted from satellite imagery. Specifically, we design a survey variable selection approach guided by the full survey and image features and use the approach to determine the most relevant set of small survey questions to include in a PMT. We validate the choice of small survey questions in a downstream task of predicting the poverty rate using the small set of questions. This approach results in the best performance -- errors in poverty rate decrease from 4.09% to 3.71%. We show that extracted visual features encode geographic and urbanization differences between regions.Comment: In 2023 ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS 23) Short Papers Trac

Does patient self-management education of primary care professionals improve patient outcomes : a systematic review

Background: Patient self-management support is recognised as a key component of chronic care. Education and training for health professionals has been shown in the literature to be associated with better uptake, implementation and effectiveness of self-management programs, however, there is no clear evidence regarding whether this training results in improved health outcomes for patients with chronic conditions. Methods: A systematic review was undertaken using the PRISMA guidelines using the Cochrane Library, PubMEd, ERIC, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Web searches, Hand searches and Bibliographies. Articles published from inception to September 1st, 2013 were included. Systematic reviews, Meta-analysis, Randomized controlled trials (RCTs), Controlled clinical trials, Interrupted time series and Controlled before and after studies, which reported on primary care health professionals' continuing education or evidence-based medicine/education on patient self-management for any chronic condition, were included. A minimum of two reviewers participated independently at each stage of review. Results: From 7533 abstracts found, only two papers provided evidence on the effectiveness of self-management education for primary healthcare professionals in terms of measured outcomes in patients. These two articles show improvement in patient outcomes for chronic back pain and diabetes based on RCTs. The educational interventions with health professionals spanned a range of techniques and modalities but both RCTs included a motivational interviewing component. Conclusions: Before and up to 2 years after the incorporation of patient empowerment for self-management into the WONCA Europe definition of general practice, there was a scarcity of high quality evidence showing improved outcomes for patients as a result of educating health professionals in patient self-management of chronic conditions.Peer reviewe

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 1, Edition 2

Contents: Developing Subject Knowledge for Secondary English teaching during a pandemic by Fiona Darby Are teachers trained to deliver the kind of education needed for the twentyfirst century? by Joanne Hill and Simon Spencer Reflections on preparing university staff for a non-judgemental, inquirybased model of peer observation: opportunities and challenges by Ilana Pressick, Kath MinettWaller, Joanne Thomas and Matt O’Leary How prepared are primary pre-service teachers in delivering physical education as they approach their NQT Year? by Grant Huddleston Evaluation of a Social Constructivist approach to education: How questioning, scaffolding and modelling can be used to address said misconception by Siobhan Taylor Current Enquiry and Practice Classroom Behaviour: The relationship between self-efficacy and its impact on newly qualified teachers by Izaaz Varachhia Tune-Up Tuesday: Re-valuing the role of arts in education by Dr. Chris Bolton and Adele Waites The Problems with PEE-ing by Nina Matthews ‘Bringing Construction into the Classroom’ – A trainee teacher’s experience of developing the Construction and Built Environment programme at Halesowen College by Alexandra Roche The Importance of Physical Education within the National Curriculum by Oliver Quinton Individual Enquiry and Scholarship Tackling the issue of Race on pupil’s attainment and wellbeing by Faizah Mehmood A critical analysis of the aims of the English Baccalaureate, and its implications for professional practice and student learning: a conference paper by David Weber Being a Gay Male PE teacher: a biographical insight by Andrew Prestidge How much do you really know about eating disorders? by Carolina Mountford Too blessed to be stressed: What are the implications of work related stress on teacher retention? by Elise Jones Be Wary Of Hattie’s Use Of Meta-Analyses And Effect Sizes by Nikki Booth UK Education and the Covid-19 Pandemic 2020-21 by Megan Daly From mathematician to all-rounder - an autoethnographic account of training to teach and evolving identities by Beth Garret

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 1, Edition 3

Contents: Eight reasons why contributing to the journal is worthwhile by Grant Huddleston My approach to the pastoral life of the school: a biographical journey towards becoming an effective pastoral lead by Nicky McManus Variation between Policy and Practice? A Critical Examination of Variation Theory in Primary Mathematics Policy and Practice by Declan Forde To what extent does children’s literature, written to address sensitive topics, support the emotional well-being of children during personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education in UK primary schools? Part One by Katie Goodacre To what extent does children’s literature, written to address sensitive topics, support the emotional well-being of children during personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education in UK primary schools? Part Two by Katie Goodacre What can you say without even saying it? By Emily Marsden Current Enquiry and Practice English as an Additional Language: My Journey of Training to Teach by Airina Trincheri Gordon Commonly heard abbreviations in English schools: A help sheet for new teachers and teachers with EAL by Grant Huddleston Teaching and Assessing Early Acquisition by Rebecca Harrison-Brandon Should we app-prove digital parental communication? By Emily Marsden Differing approaches to the education of five to seven year olds: A comparison of England and Estonia by Laura Williams Individual Enquiry and Scholarship The Introduction of School Resource Management: How the government is changing the way schools set their budgets by Ian Dawes Overcoming colour blindness in the classroom- an inquiry into race and ethnicity in practice by Nancy Ling Where are tomorrow’s female scientists? By Harriet Field Involving everyday machines in computing education by Alex Ghimic

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 1, Edition 1

Welcome to the Birmingham City University (BCU) Education Journal Magazine (EJM). We are excited to be publishing ten fantastic articles from across our education degrees and partnership in this edition. As we are all aware, 2020 has proven to be a very challenging year for everybody, regardless of who they are and what they do. Education in particular has faced its own challenges, remaining open throughout a national lockdown and for schools to plan for this within a very short time frame. How schools move forwards with current social distancing guidelines has also proven to be challenging; so hopefully this publication can offer some support, ideas and suggestions on how you could reflect and develop your own practice moving forwards. Contents: The Role of the ITT Subject Mentor by Kerry Taylor Facilitating Mentoring in Secondary Physical Education: A Mentor’s Perspective by Mike Stimpson How can trainee teachers manage pupil behaviour and differentiate appropriately to ensure effective progress is made by all pupils? by Kelly Slade Economies of Performance, Ecologies of Practice and Communities of Discovery: A collaborative approach to support Newly Qualified Teachers and their teacher identity by Dr. Chris Bolton Think POSH and use SPACE by Grant Huddleston The Rise of the ‘Tweecher’ by Kelly Davey-Nicklin The Gordian Knot of Teaching: Lockdown by Jessica Murtagh Expanding Low-Ability Students Vocabulary via Vygotsky’s Principles by Jasmin Gill There’s Always an Alternative by Stephen Sharp Academic Ableism in Higher Education by Dr. Shrehan Lynch & Dr. John Mackli

Vaccine strain affects seroconversion after influenza vaccination in COPD patients and healthy older people

Though clinical guidelines recommend influenza vaccination for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients and other high-risk populations, it is unclear whether current vaccination strategies induce optimal antibody responses. This study aimed to identify key variables associated with strain-specific antibody responses in COPD patients and healthy older people. 76 COPD and 72 healthy participants were recruited from two Australian centres and inoculated with influenza vaccine. Serum strain-specific antibody titres were measured pre- and post-inoculation. Seroconversion rate was the primary endpoint. Antibody responses varied between vaccine strains. The highest rates of seroconversion were seen with novel strains (36–55%), with lesser responses to strains included in the vaccine in more than one consecutive year (27–33%). Vaccine responses were similar in COPD patients and healthy participants. Vaccine strain, hypertension and latitude were independent predictors of seroconversion. Our findings reassure that influenza vaccination is equally immunogenic in COPD patients and healthy older people; however, there is room for improvement. There may be a need to personalise the yearly influenza vaccine, including consideration of pre-existing antibody titres, in order to target gaps in individual antibody repertoires and improve protection

Education Journal Magazine: Volume 4, Edition 1

Contents: ECT Practitioner Research – How does flipped learning impact the learning of RE for pupils in Year 8? by Caitlin Delaney How does pre-service teachers’ engagement in their initial teaching education impact their readiness to teach Physical Education? by Joseph Fellows The importance for enhancing students' critical thinking skills in Key Stage via mathematics education and the effective strategies that promote its growth by Ouafa Morabit Heading for leadership: Metaphors from Pakistani and Kashmiri teachers - Imran Mogra Exploring Teachers’ Perspective of The Impact of Class Size on Teachers Workload, Classroom Practices, and Job Satisfaction in Secondary Schools in Islamabad, Pakistan by Samia Shahab Nurturing Diversity: A Critical Analysis of Inclusive Education in Early Childhood by Sonali Malhotra “Scientists can be women” – A case study on perceptions of gender in science at a rural primary school in England by Megan Button, Sarah Cave, Helen Tiplady How prepared are Primary Pre-Service Teachers when teaching Physical Education? What impact do their prior experiences of PE have on their preparedness to teach the subject? – Part Two by Simon Chapman Ramadan Guidance for Schools and Educational Settings: Physical Education and Physical Activity – Course advertisement by Irfan Khawaj