Language Proficiency and Academic Success of Bilingual Hispanic Nursing Students

The United States (U.S.) experienced recent growth in its minority population. This requires an increase of culturally diverse healthcare providers. English as a second language (ESL) students face challenges such as overcoming their inability to write, comprehend, and communicate in a language different from their native tongue. The study explored the role of language proficiency on academic success among bilingual nursing students on the U.S. and Mexico border. Cummins Language Proficiency Model guided the study, which aimed to answer whether the dimensions of language proficiency or language acculturation predicted self - assessed language proficiency and academic success. The relationship between self - assessed language proficiency and academic success were also explored. The participants were recruited virtually from nursing schools along the U.S. and Mexico border and completed the Language Experience and Proficiency Questionnaire (LEAP - Q) and the English Language Acculturation Scale (ELAS). Two-open-ended questions were provided for the qualitative inquiry. Parametric statistical analyses were used to answer the quantitative questions and qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Language proficiency dimensions predicted a single measure of self - assessed English proficiency ( p \u3c .001). No correlation was found between language proficiency and academic success. Qualitative data revealed themes such as support, communication, and academic resources for beneficial learning situations. Finances, time management, language barriers, and self - perception were identified as barriers to academic success. Language proficiency did not predict academic success, but students who utilized both languages were academically successful. Border nursing students felt that bilingualism was a positive characteristic for nursing professionals

Each and Everyday, Love us Free: Critical Pedagogy as a Living-Loving Praxis

According to Giroux (2011) we can, through critical pedagogy, engage the world as “an object of critical analysis” and as a place of “hopeful transformation” (p. 14). Giroux’s (2011) approach requires building and maintaining spaces where “the complexity of knowledge, culture, values and social issues can be explored in open and critical dialogue” (p. 124). Through these spaces, he argues, we are able to work to understand and disrupt oppressive power dynamics kept in place by systems of domination and control and move toward struggling for a more socially just world (Giroux, 2011, p. 7).bell hooks’ (2010) understanding that “love matters and that it brings strength and power (pp. 166-167) can contribute to our understanding of these spaces. hooks (2000) contends that “great social movements for freedom and justice” promote “a love ethic”, one in which we “utilize all the dimensions of love-care, commitment, trust, responsibility, respect, and knowledge-in our everyday lives” (p. 94).Ascribing to the critical pedagogical view that education should be a “critical practice” (Freire, 2001, p. 30) in which those involved “make ourselves different tomorrow from what we are today” (Shapiro, 2012, p. 50), “transform the world we live in” (hooks, 2010, p. 188) and employ an understanding of the power and ethic of love as integral to “working for a collective good” (hooks, 2000, p. 214), I argue that we should engage critical pedagogy as living-loving praxis in all the places of lives, including the personal and romantic.

Participatory modelling for holistic understanding of catchment health and human health in Andean rural microcatchments :the case of Calabazas

PhD ThesisIn rural catchments of developing countries, land use change, inadequate access to education, health care, water and sanitation, and lack of institutional support are common problems which affect poor people. Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) which advocates for the coordinated management of water, land and related resources, and EcoHealth which holds that human health and wellbeing are outcomes of effective ecosystem management, promote catchments as tangible contexts to fulfil overlapping objectives across fields. This research links IWRM and EcoHealth using System Dynamics (SD) as a tool to increase the level of shared understanding of the socioeconomic and environmental factors influencing environmental health and human health and wellbeing in an Andean rural microcatchment in Colombia. Stakeholders´ knowledge was elicited through semi-structured interviews and documents. A Causal Loop Diagram was prepared to organize this knowledge and to identify the model structure. Information on socioeconomic and environmental variables was collected through three surveys: i) household; ii) stream water, and iii) drinking water. The household survey captured relevant social determinants of health. The stream water survey investigated stream health in relation to point and non-point pollution sources. The drinking water survey identified risks to water quality. Using SD principles and the Stella software, a series of focus groups enabled stakeholders to develop a semi-quantitative model. The resultant model comprised six interrelated sectors: population, economic, land use, stream health, human health, and management. The modelling process increased stakeholders´ understanding of their system, and helped them to identify interactions of distal and proximal factors to produce outcomes on catchment and human health. The model was a strategy for integration and a communication tool. The process allowed the incorporation of knowledge, concerns and perceptions from the different actors, disciplines, institutions and sectors involved. The process facilitated identification of limitations and benefits of existing policies and the need for policies to address neglected problems. The research contributed to methodology development in the field of IWRM – EcoHealth, testing System Dynamics Modelling as a strategy to elucidate complex social, economic and environmental linkages at the catchment scale that could be applicable to similar rural mountainous contexts.COLCIENCIAS: IFS

In situ STM study of homoepitaxial electrodeposition on Au(1 0 0)

Peer reviewedPostprin

Aspectes metodològics i tècnica d'anàlisi de les dades per a l'estudi dels grups i les classes socials a la Regió Metropolitana de Barcelona

En aquest article es presenta el procés metodològic, com també les tècniques d'anàlisi de dades, que s'ha utilitzat en l'anàisi dels grups socials mitjançant la informació d'una gran enquesta sobre hàbits i condicions de vida.L'anàlisi dels grups socials des d'una perspectiva globalitzadora i estructuradora de les condicions de vida, tenint en compte com aquests sorgeixen mitjançant I 'associació i la coherència entre múltiples característiques. Les tècniques d'anàlisi de dades que s'han utilitzat han estat l'anàlisi de correspondències múltiples i l'anàlisi de classificació.In this article we present the methodological process and the techniques of data analysis we have used in the social groups analysis through a great survey of habits and conditions of life. The analysis of social groups is done from an overall and structural perspective of the conditions of life. It is very important to emphasize the point that the social groups come out from the association and coherence between multiple attributes among thern. Multiple Correspondence and Classification Analysis are the techniques of data analysis we have used

UNG Students’ Participation in an After-School Literacy Program with K-5 Latino Students

This work explores effort to engage university students in a community-based literacy after school program in improving the communication skills of first-generation Latino elementary school children. Five pre-education program students en route to the education program collaborated with three teacher educators twice a week in providing small group reading instruction within the students’ mobile home community. Using ethnographic methods including interviews and reflections, we were able to garner perspectives on the nature of supporting students’ literacy skills in the community. Preliminary findings suggest pre-program students engaged in a community literacy program shaped by a community-based model working collaboratively with teacher educators are able to develop a basic understanding of pedagogy and skill sets necessary for supporting K-5 students’ literacy skills

Illustrated Sustainability

Brazil is a strong representative of world production in the textile sector. The fashion industry has economic benefits for the country, however it is responsible for negative impacts on the environment. In the search for sustainable alternatives, concepts and techniques emerge that aim to mitigate the impacts caused by the growing demand, including zero waste disposal. Fashion illustration is an area of ​​fashion that has gained greater visibility, and presents concepts, meanings and symbologies through graphics. This article approaches fashion illustration as a way to disseminate reflections on the zero disposal of textile waste. Thus, it presents illustrations that give new meaning to waste, inserting in its graphic composition textile elements arising from the construction of fashion artifacts. Therefore, the illustrations can be explored through reflective symbologies providing contributions to a cleaner and more sustainable fashion.Brasil es un fuerte representante de la producción mundial en el sector textil. La industria de la moda tiene beneficios económicos para el país, sin embargo es responsable de los impactos negativos sobre el medio ambiente. En la búsqueda de alternativas sostenibles surgen conceptos y técnicas que tienen como objetivo mitigar los impactos provocados por la creciente demanda, incluida la eliminación cero de residuos. La ilustración de moda es un área de la moda que ha ganado mayor visibilidad y presenta conceptos, significados y simbologías a través de la gráfica. Este artículo aborda la ilustración de moda como una forma de difundir reflexiones sobre la eliminación cero de residuos textiles. Así, presenta ilustraciones que dan un nuevo significado al desperdicio, insertando en su composición gráfica elementos textiles derivados de la construcción de artefactos de moda. Por lo tanto, las ilustraciones se pueden explorar a través de simbologías reflectantes que aportan contribuciones a una moda más limpia y sostenible.O Brasil é um forte representante da produção mundial no setor têxtil. A indústria da moda apresenta benefícios econômicos para o país, entretanto é responsável por impactos negativos no meio ambiente. Na busca por alternativas sustentáveis surgem conceitos e técnicas que visam amenizar os impactos causados diante da crescente demanda, entre eles o descarte zero de resíduos. A ilustração de moda é uma área da moda que tem ganhado maior visibilidade, e apresenta conceitos, significados e simbologias por meio gráfico. O presente artigo aborda a ilustração de moda como um caminho para disseminar reflexões acerca do descarte zero de resíduos têxteis. Assim, apresenta ilustrações que ressignificam resíduos, inserindo em sua composição gráfica elementos têxteis advindos da construção de artefatos de moda. Portanto, as ilustrações podem ser exploradas por meio de simbologias reflexivas fornecendo contribuições para uma moda mais limpa e sustentável