354 research outputs found
An exploratory study of early childhood coachesâ practices and professional learning needs
Coaching is increasingly being used as a mechanism to improve the quality of early childhood education. Yet, for coaching outside of researcher-controlled interventions, limited information details coachesâ reports of their practicesâ professional learning needs. We addressed this gap via an exploratory study utilizing online questionnaires of 91 coaches working with educators in a Midwestern US state across 12 coaching initiatives. Most participants had less than 5 years of experience working as an early childhood coach. Almost a third coached for multiple initiatives. Coaching occurred via multiple formats and often addressed behavior management and social emotional development regardless of the coaching initiative. Coaches identified challenges regarding scheduling and working with difficult learners and reported that peer support and being coached themselves were the most beneficial learning experiences. Findings suggest that the perspective of the coach is important in informing training and professional learning for both coaches and educators
What Is the Landscape of Early Childhood Coaching in Nebraska?
Background on Early Childhood Coaching in Nebraska
Coaches have become an integral component of supporting teachers and adults working with young children and families nationally (Schachter, 2015). In the state of Nebraska, early childhood (EC) coaching has increasingly become important for this type of work (Jayaraman, Knoche, Marvin, & Bainter, 2014). Indeed, multiple initiatives within the state utilize coaches as a mechanism for supporting change in adult learners that leads to positive outcomes for young children and families. In general, coaching is a unique form of professional development that is relationship-based, whereby coaches work one-on-one or in small groups with adult learners to improve knowledge, skills, and dispositions (Aikens & Akers, 2011). Coaching can take place in adultsâ immediate context and tends to be ongoing rather than a single, one-time training (Joyce & Showers, 1980; Rush & Shelden, 2005). As such, coaching has the potential to provide high-quality learning experiences for adults to support high-quality experiences in EC. Based on this growing use of coaching across the state, key stakeholders have collaborated to develop mechanisms that support coach training and development. Since this collaborative work began in 2009â10, a semiannual coach training was developed to provide foundational coaching skills and competencies relevant for all coaching initiatives, such as developing relationships and facilitating coaching conversations. The collaborative group also came to understand that coaches needed ongoing support and initiated the offering of regular âboosterâ sessions to support coachesâ professional development once they are in the field and actively serving coachees. In efforts to better understand who was coaching and perceptions of the training coaches received, stakeholders conducted an initial survey in 2014 (Jayaraman et al. 2014). Results of this survey (n = 35) revealed that coaches liked the work of coaching and, in particular, coaches commented that they enjoyed building relationships with coachees and observing positive changes. Although these coaches were generally positive about the training they received, myriad challenges were also reported, particularly with regards to the coaching process and their own training and professional development needs.
Present Study
Since the 2014 study, coaching in various EC initiatives has grown across the state. In 2018, the Nebraska Early Childhood Coach Collaboration team was interested in reassessing the process of coaching in Nebraska. This included understanding who is doing the work of coaching, what constitutes the coaching process, how coaches perceive their work, and how coaches were prepared to do their work. Thus, a new survey was created to understand more about coaching in the state of Nebraska. It contained a variety of questions consisting of both fixed-choice and open-response comments. Data collection was led by Dr. Schachter from the University of NebraskaâLincoln and was reviewed by the Institutional Review Board. Participants were invited by email to complete an online survey that took approximately 20 minutes to complete. The survey was emailed to key stakeholders in the Spring of 2018 with requests that the survey be forwarded to anyone doing the work of EC coaching in Nebraska. In total, 101 individuals completed the survey. Importantly, all participants self-identified as a âcoach.â Participants were able to enter into a raffle to win one of five iPad minis. Survey responses were analyzed descriptively. Next, we present our findings regarding who are the coaches, what is the content of coaching, how coaches perceive their work, how coaches know that coaching is working, and how coaches were prepared. We conclude with recommendations for advancing the work of coaching in the state of Nebraska
Casimir's energy of a conducting sphere and of a dilute dielectric ball
In this paper we sum over the spherical modes appearing in the expression for
the Casimir energy of a conducting sphere and of a dielectric ball (assuming
the same speed of light inside and outside), before doing the frequency
integration. We derive closed integral expressions that allow the calculations
to be done to all orders, without the use of regularization procedures. The
technique of mode summation using a contour integral is critically examined.Comment: references added; typos fixe
Casimir Energy for Spherical boundaries
Calculations of the Casimir energy for spherical geometries which are based
on integrations of the stress tensor are critically examined. It is shown that
despite their apparent agreement with numerical results obtained from mode
summation methods, they contain a number of serious errors. Specifically, these
include (1) an improper application of the stress tensor to spherical
boundaries, (2) the neglect of pole terms in contour integrations, and (3) the
imposition of inappropriate boundary conditions upon the relevant propagators.
A calculation which is based on the stress tensor and which avoids such
problems is shown to be possible. It is, however, equivalent to the mode
summation method and does not therefore constitute an independent calculation
of the Casimir energy.Comment: Revtex, 7 pages, Appendix added providing details of failure of
stress tensor metho
Learning through social spaces: migrant women and lifelong learning in post-colonial London
This article shows how migrant women engage in learning through social spaces. It argues that such spaces are little recognised, and that there are multiple ways in which migrant women construct and negotiate their informal learning through socialising with other women in different informal modes. Additionally, the article shows how learning is shaped by the socio-political, geographical and multicultural context of living in London, outlining ways in which gendered and racialised identities shape, construct and constrain participation in lifelong learning. The article shows that one way in which migrant women resist (post)colonial constructions of difference is by engaging in informal and non-formal lifelong learning, arguing that the benefits are (at least) two-fold. The women develop skills (including language skills) but also use their informal learning to develop what is referred to in this article as 'relational capital'. The article concludes that informal lifelong learning developed through social spaces can enhance a sense of belonging for migrant women
The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey V: HCO+ and N2H+ Spectroscopy of 1.1 mm Dust Continuum Sources
We present the results of observations of 1882 sources in the Bolocam
Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) at 1.1 mm with the 10m Heinrich Hertz Telescope
simultaneously in HCO+ J=3-2 and N2H+ J=3-2. We detect 77% of these sources in
HCO^+ and 51% in N2H+ at greater than 3. We find a strong correlation
between the integrated intensity of both dense gas tracers and the 1.1 mm dust
emission of BGPS sources. We determine kinematic distances for 529 sources (440
in the first quadrant breaking the distance ambiguity and 89 in the second
quadrant) We derive the size, mass, and average density for this subset of
clumps. The median size of BGPS clumps is 0.75 pc with a median mass of 330
M (assuming T_{Dust}=20 K). The median HCO+ linewidth is 2.9 km
s indicating that BGPS clumps are dominated by supersonic turbulence or
unresolved kinematic motions. We find no evidence for a size-linewidth
relationship for BGPS clumps. We analyze the effects of the assumed dust
temperature on the derived clump properties with a Monte Carlo simulation and
we find that changing the temperature distribution will change the median
source properties (mass, volume-averaged number density, surface density) by
factors of a few. The observed differential mass distribution has a power-law
slope that is intermediate between that observed for diffuse CO clouds and the
stellar IMF. BGPS clumps represent a wide range of objects (from dense cores to
more diffuse clumps) and are typically characterized by larger sizes and lower
densities than previously published surveys of high-mass star-forming regions.
This collection of objects is a less-biased sample of star-forming regions in
the Milky Way that likely span a wide range of evolutionary states.Comment: 48 pages, 25 figures, Accepted for publicatio
What research impacts do Australian primary health care researchers expect and achieve?
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background
Funding for research is under pressure to be accountable in terms of benefits and translation of research findings into practice and policy. Primary health care research has considerable potential to improve health care in a wide range of settings, but little is known about the extent to which these impacts actually occur. This study examines the impact of individual primary health care research projects on policy and practice from the perspective of Chief Investigators (CIs).
Methods
The project used an online survey adapted from the Buxton and Hanney Payback Framework to collect information about the impacts that CIs expected and achieved from primary health care research projects funded by Australian national competitive grants.
Results and Discussion
Chief Investigators (CIs) provided information about seventeen completed projects. While no CI expected their project to have an impact in every domain of the framework used in the survey, 76% achieved at least half the impacts they expected. Sixteen projects had published and/or presented their work, 10 projects included 11 doctorate awards in their research capacity domain. All CIs expected their research to lead to further research opportunities with 11 achieving this. Ten CIs achieved their expectation of providing information for policy making but only four reported their research had influenced policy making. However 11 CIs achieved their expectation of providing information for organizational decision making and eight reported their research had influenced organizational decision making.
Conclusion
CIs reported that nationally funded primary health care research projects made an impact on knowledge production, staff development and further research, areas within the realm of influence of the research team and within the scope of awareness of the CIs. Some also made an impact on policy and organizational decision-making, and on localized clinical practice and service delivery. CIs reported few broader economic benefits from their research. Routine use of an instrument of this type would facilitate primary health care research funders' determination of the payback for funding of research in this sector
MALT90 Kinematic Distances to Dense Molecular Clumps
Using molecular-line data from the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz Survey (MALT90), we have estimated kinematic distances to 1905 molecular clumps identified in the ATLASGAL 870 ÎŒm continuum survey over the longitude range 295° < l < 350°. The clump velocities were determined using a flux-weighted average of the velocities obtained from Gaussian fits to the HCO+, HNC, and N2H+ (1â0) transitions. The near/far kinematic distance ambiguity was addressed by searching for the presence or absence of absorption or self-absorption features in 21 cm atomic hydrogen spectra from the Southern Galactic Plane Survey. Our algorithm provides an estimation of the reliability of the ambiguity resolution. The Galactic distribution of the clumps indicates positions where the clumps are bunched together, and these locations probably trace the locations of spiral arms. Several clumps fall at the predicted location of the far side of the ScutumâCentaurus arm. Moreover, a number of clumps with positive radial velocities are unambiguously located on the far side of the Milky Way at galactocentric radii beyond the solar circle. The measurement of these kinematic distances, in combination with continuum or molecular-line data, now enables the determination of fundamental parameters such as mass, size, and luminosity for each clump
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