The relationship between cooperative small group composition and the learning of a mathematical concept in the primary school years: A pilot study

In recent years small group cooperative learning has been given increasing attention by researchers. This interest has been a result of n growing awareness of the benefits that small group cooperative learning can bring to the learning process. These benefits include gains in areas of academic achievement, self-confidence as a learner, cross-cultural/cross-racial relationships, social acceptance of mainstreamed students, and improved attitudes towards school and learning. A particular focus of North American researchers has been small group cooperative learning in mathematics. Little work had been done in this area in Western Australian schools and with the changed emphasis in the Western Australian primary school mathematics syllabus away from rote learning and pen and paper calculations toward discovery learning a local study seemed appropriate, This pilot study proposed to investigate the relationship between the composition of cooperative small groups, heterogeneous or homogeneous, and the learning of a mathematical concept in the primary school years. The literature in this area was surveyed with emphasis on the rationale for small group cooperative learning, different kinds of small group cooperative learning focusing on the Groups of Four model, heterogeneous and homogeneous group composition, and group composition in mathematics related to expected achievement and social outcomes. The conceptual framework for this pilot study emerged from both the literature in this area and the direction being taken by a team of W.A.C.A.E. researchers who are investigating small group cooperative learning techniques

Building Equalizing Schools Within Inclusive Communities: Strategies That Redirect the School to Prison Pipeline in the Classroom and Beyond

Exclusionary school discipline, also known as "zero tolerance," was chosen as the subject of this report for three reasons: it offers a window into inequalities in education, criminal justice, and broader social life; social scientists have come to a consensus about its harms and provided clear alternatives; and it illustrates the need for comprehensive knowledge and holistic solutions for complex problems

Post-Secondary Education for People in Prison

This brief discusses opportunities for philanthropic investment in postsecondary prison education programs

Informal Workers and Collective Action: A Global Perspective

[Excerpt] Around the world, in countries as far flung as Cambodia and Brazil and in industries as diverse as transportation and hospitality, workers in informal employment, who labor every day with no legal or social protection, are organizing and negotiating for better conditions. Some of them are self-employed; others work for wages in either formal or informal enterprises. Some used to have jobs in the formal sector with a union contract; others have always worked informally. To achieve their goals they are mounting collective action campaigns that draw on the repertoire of past generations of workers, but they often recombine them or innovate to fit their unique contexts. Informal workers, their organizations and their campaigns, represent the leading edge of the most significant change in the global labor movement in more than a century. This book tells the story of nine such campaigns

Civic Engagement and People with Disabilities: A Way Forward Through Cross-Movement Building

This report presents a national overview of the barriers to civic engagement that disabled people experience. Drawing on our findings from surveys, a Twitter chat, and interviews, we offer recommendations for the philanthropic sector and for civic engagement organizations aspiring to create a more inclusive and responsive democracy to build civic power among people with disabilities. Civic power in this report is conceptualized as opportunities for people with disabilities to amplify, mobilize, and elevate their voices and infuence within democracy.This report centers the expertise, insights and lived experiences of people with disabilities, including leaders from various disability communities. Our findings reaffirm that no disability rights issue exists outside the sphere of civic engagement and no meaningful civic engagement strategy can emerge without attention to disability rights. Supported by the Ford Foundation's Civic Engagement and Government (CEG) program, this report is a collaboration between the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy and the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy, both based at Brandeis University's Heller School for Social Policy. The disability rights mantra "nothing about us, without us" informs the questions, methods and content in this report. We hope the findings and recommendations will inspire new thinking and action within philanthropy and civic engagement spaces, and spark courageous conversations and inform practices within the vital organizations working to strengthen democracy in the United States.

From Little Rock to Seattle and Louisville: Is All Deliberate Speed Stuck in Reverse?

More than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education, in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, the Supreme Court issued a much anticipated, sharply divided opinion concerning the conscious use of a student’s race in plans to desegregate now de facto segregated public schools. The Court found unconstitutional the race-inclusive methods used by the Seattle and Louisville public school officials who were attempting to create racially integrated schools. In order to understand the full impact of the Supreme Court’s recent decisions regarding school desegregation, an analysis of the Seattle and Louisville plans and the Court’s reasoning are necessary. This note will (1) consider the desegregation plans in the school districts in Seattle and Louisville and (2) analyze the Supreme Court’s reasoning. The note will also attempt to explain finding a solution by building new alliances after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Parents Involved

NEPC Review: Our Immense Achievement Gap: Embracing Proven Remedies While Avoiding a Race-Based Recipe for Disaster

This report misrepresents and then criticizes recommendations from the Minnesota Department of Education, a think tank and two independent study groups, each of which recently encouraged particular voluntary efforts to reduce concentrated poverty and achieve racial and socioeconomic integration in schools and housing in Minnesota. In building its case against the recommendations of these bodies, this report sets up and attacks two straw men&mdash;&ldquo;busing&rdquo; and &ldquo;lawsuits&rdquo;&mdash;neither of which was recommended by the organizations. The author relies heavily on selected research literature to make the report&rsquo;s arguments but ignores dozens of the most important peer-reviewed research studies that suggest strong relationships between racial, ethnic, and economic diversity and desegregation and academic gains. It also relies heavily on anecdotes about desegregation policies and funding-equalization efforts in several states. While endorsing accountability-based reforms of the sort implemented in Florida, it fails to fully explore what is actually known about the results of such policies. Investigations into the programs in Florida strongly suggest that claims of success about the state&rsquo;s accountability measures and teacher-accreditation practices are often unsubstantiated or exaggerated. In attacking the wrong targets, the report distracts rather than focuses the attention of policymakers seeking to close the achievement gap.</p

An OT-Led Suicide Prevention Program for Middle School-Aged Youth

Suicide is the fastest-growing cause of death for adolescents ages 10-14 (Horowitz et al., 2020). In the United States, the youth suicide rate tripled from 2007 to 2017, making suicide the second leading cause of death for those ages 10-24 (Curtis, 2019). This prevention program, Brighter Days Collective, utilizes occupational therapy (OT) practitioners to support middle school-aged adolescents by applying OT interventions based on theory and evidence-based practices. Brighter Days Collective aims to utilize OT practitioner expertise to support adolescents through educating students about mental health and employing occupations that enhance connection, coping skills, and living a purposeful life. This 7-week program was developed through findings during experiences with multiple partners. Although this program was unable to be implemented due to time constraints, initial content evaluations were given to determine the feasibility and face validity of Brighter Days Collective. Multiple stakeholders reported that the program demonstrated a need and was unique in its content delivery. Stakeholders also strongly agreed that the program addresses relevant aspects of youth mental health and suicide prevention in a manner that is easily delivered as a school-wide intervention. Better Days Collective demonstrates OT’s unique ability to address mental health while considering students’ individual experiences, the school environment, and specific occupational supports and barriers.https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstones-spring2022/1041/thumbnail.jp

Work-family integration in biotechnology : implications for firms and employees

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 271-288).This dissertation addresses the problems and synergies of integrating paid work with other meaningful parts of life, and avoiding pernicious choices between work and family. To do so, I examine the very structure of work organization for professional and technical employees in small and medium-sized companies in a new, knowledge-based sector of the US economy. The research questions are: What dynamics at work, related to time, boundaries, and control of schedules and work process, influence satisfaction at work and home, commitment to the work organization, well-being and gender equity? Under what conditions are supportive "work-family" practices by firms, as experienced in a day-to-day context, associated with positive outcomes at home and work? The dissertation builds on relevant aspects of industrial relations, human resources, and work process research, and scholarship concerning families, gender, and work-family boundaries. Work scholarship is incomplete without a lens that incorporates the holistic lives and concerns of the people doing the work, and family scholarship is incomplete without serious consideration of the work structures that shape family schedules, resources, conflicts, and availability for caregiving. This dissertation uses both qualitative data from 80 interviews to get an in-depth picture of respondents' lives, and a broader quantitative analysis based on an original survey with 463 professional scientists and managers. These were gathered from biopharmaceutical employees in Massachusetts during 1996-99. From the interviews I find that flexibility at work, support at home, and control at work are the key factors that contribute to satisfaction outcomes given similar levels of demands. But these are not distributed evenly by gender, company, or level of job. The survey data show that it is not only the presence of workplace policies on work-family, but the employee's day-to-day experience of whether she is free to use the policies, that contributes to positive outcomes. I introduce a concept o "perceived usability" and use multivariate regression analysis to show it is linked to control of time, pace, and place of work, to organizational commitment and "integrated satisfaction." I find that gender is the strongest stress predictor in this sample. I find that biotechnology offers unusual opportunities for gender equity at work, but a combination of traditional managerial attitudes and inequity at home erects barriers to realizing this potential. In conclusion, I argue that we cannot effectively understand organizational life and work design without considering mutually interactive effects of home and family concerns.by Susan Catherine Eaton.Ph.D

Introduction to the Special Issue on Interdisciplinary Conversations (Part 2): The Impact of Interdisciplinary Conversations on Courses

The two parts in this special issue address interdisciplinary conversations involving mathematics courses in the first 2 years of undergraduate work. The special issue was inspired by work funded by the National Science Foundation under a grant titled “SUMMIT-P.” The special issue includes papers written about projects both from SUMMIT-P and from outside of SUMMIT-P. Part II focuses on what the results of interdisciplinary collaboration look like in the classroom