Police Body Cameras: Mending Fences and How Pittsburgh is a Leading Example

After the police brutality deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Freddie Gray, amongst others, many call for increased accountability through police officer body-worn cameras. The following Note discusses the potential benefits of body camera use, the concerns that body cameras raise, relevant current and pending legislation in Pennsylvania, and whether police body cameras can be used to address race relations in connection with police officer brutality

Emotional and social predictors of the trajectory of mathematical attainment across the transition from primary to secondary education.

This thesis examines the effects associated with the transition from primary to secondary education, focusing on maths attainment throughout childhood and adolescence. Existing research suggests that the transition to secondary education is especially problematic for the development of maths abilities and is associated with declines in maths-related affect. Moreover, the transition is linked to several changes within children’s social, educational, and home environments, affecting their general wellbeing and overall development. Given the importance of maths attainment for a wide range of outcomes in adulthood, this thesis aims to add to the existing literature by identifying predictors of maths attainment trajectories and maths anxiety throughout this transitional period, with the purpose of helping to better inform educational interventions. Following an introduction to the thesis, Chapter 2 is a review of international literature on the academic and psychological impacts associated with the transition to secondary education. This chapter discusses several negative outcomes associated with the transition and identifies risk and protecting factors for a successful transition. Using latent growth models of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), Chapters 3-5 investigate emotional, cognitive, home, parental, and schoolrelated predictors of maths attainment trajectories. The findings suggest internalising symptoms, working memory, parental education qualifications, school support, maths attitudes, parent-child relationships, and school/teacher affect predict maths attainment trajectories. In the final empirical chapter, maths anxiety in early adulthood is predicted from emotional symptoms and maths attainment over the transition using a linear model of the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS). Findings show that heightened emotional symptoms and decreased maths attainment over the transition predict increased maths anxiety in adulthood. This thesis concludes with a discussion of the findings and proposes that transition strategies may benefit from focusing on improving student-teacher relationships, maths attitudes, and parental involvement in school activities across the transition

Social Cognition Parallax Interview Corpus (SCOPIC)

National Foreign Language Resource Cente

SCOPIC Design and Overview

National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Maths attitudes, school affect and teacher characteristics as predictors of maths attainment trajectories in primary and secondary education

Maths attainment is essential for a wide range of outcomes relating to further education, careers, health and the wider economy. Research suggests a significant proportion of adults and adolescents are underachieving in maths within the UK, making this a key area for research. This study investigates the role of children's perceptions of the school climate (children's affect towards school and student–teacher relationships), their attitudes towards maths and teacher characteristics as predictors of maths attainment trajectories, taking the transition from primary to secondary education into consideration. Two growth models were fit using secondary data analysis of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The first model, which looked at predictors of maths attainment in primary education, found significant associations only between positive maths attitudes and increased maths attainment. The second model, which looked at predictors of maths attainment in secondary education, found significant associations between increased maths attainment and positive maths attitudes, decreased school belonging, positive student–teacher relationships and increased teacher fairness. The findings suggest that the secondary education school environment is particularly important for maths attainment

Sound symbolism facilitates long-term retention of the semantic representation of novel verbs in three-year-olds

Previous research has shown that sound symbolism facilitates action label learning when the test trial used to assess learning immediately followed the training trial in which the (novel) verb was taught. The current study investigated whether sound symbolism benefits verb learning in the long term. Forty-nine children were taught either sound-symbolically matching or mismatching pairs made up of a novel verb and an action video. The following day, the children were asked whether a verb can be used for a scene shown in a video. They were tested with four videos for each word they had been taught. The four videos differed as to whether they contained the same or different actions and actors as in the training video: (1) same-action, same-actor; (2) same-action, different-actor; (3) different-action, same-actor; and (4) different-action, different-actor. The results showed that sound symbolism significantly improved the childrens’ ability to encode the semantic representation of the novel verb and correctly generalise it to a new event the following day. A control experiment ruled out the possibility that children were generalising to the “same-action, different-actor” video because they did not recognize the actor change due to the memory decay. Nineteen children were presented with the stimulus videos that had also been shown to children in the sound symbolic match condition in Experiment 1, but this time the videos were not labeled. In the test session the following day, the experimenter tested the children’s recognition memory for the videos. The results indicated that the children could detect the actor change from the original training video a day later. The results of the main experiment and the control experiment support the idea that a motivated (iconic) link between form and meaning facilitates the symbolic development in children. The current study, along with recent related studies, provided further evidence for an iconic advantage in symbol development in the domain of verb learning. A motivated form-meaning relationship can help children learn new words and store them long term in the mental lexicon

From Writer to Teacher: The Gradual Release of Responsibility in an Early Childhood Education Writing Course for Pre-Service Teachers

Teaching students to become confident, capable writers is imperative in today’s world. Growing attention has been paid to the amount and kinds of writing students are experiencing in schools with an urgent plea for more time and attention given to writing instruction (Nagin, 2003; National Commission on Writing, 2003). Yet, few teachers feel well prepared to teach writing. In this special issue on writing methods courses, we discuss the evolution of our writing methods course for early childhood preservice teachers (PK-5). Specifically, we examine the current pedagogical practices within the course to support preservice teachers’ experiential learning. This piece examines how a gradual release of responsibility model with multiple units of study supports preservice teachers as writers and as future teachers of writers

Predictors of mathematical attainment trajectories across the primary-to-secondary education transition: parental factors and the home environment

A 'maths crisis' has been identified in the UK, with many adults and adolescents underachieving in maths and numeracy. This poor performance is likely to develop from deficits in maths already present in childhood. Potential predictors of maths attainment trajectories throughout childhood and adolescence relate to the home environment and aspects of parenting including parent-child relationships, parental mental health, school involvement, home teaching, parental education and gendered play at home. This study examined the aforementioned factors as predictors of children's maths attainment trajectories (age 7-16) across the challenging transition to secondary education. A secondary longitudinal analysis of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children found support for parental education qualifications, a harmonious parent-child relationship and school involvement at age 11 as substantial predictors of maths attainment trajectories across the transition to secondary education. These findings highlight the importance of parental involvement for maths attainment throughout primary and secondary education

GPs’ Insights into Prostate Cancer Diagnosis and Care in Regional Victoria, Australia

The aim of this research was to ascertain General Practitioners’ (GPs) perceptions and experiences of prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis, treatment, and care in metropolitan Melbourne and in a regional area of Victoria, Australia, associated with poorer PCa outcomes. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with GPs (N= 10) practising in the selected region and in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. GPs thought that most men wanted PSA testing and were willing to undergo rectal examination. Some GPs were troubled by inconsistent screening guidelines from different professional bodies. They identified a need for resources to support them in educating patients about PCa. GPs thought it might be more difficult for young female GPs to care for patients in relation to PCa screening; differences were evident between younger female GPs and older male GPs in the approach they adopted in interviews. Regional GPs often referred patients to services in larger centres because no local specialists were available. GPs also found it hard to explain differences in PCa outcomes in regional and metropolitan areas. Potential age and gender differences in GPs in relation to prostate care warrant further examination. Although GPs were able to offer only limited insights into the poorer outcomes in regional areas, they identified ways in which they could be assisted to provide best-practice care. Multidisciplinary care, resources for patients, and consistent guidelines for the detection and treatment of PCa should contribute to better care in all areas

The King–Devick test for sideline concussion screening in collegiate football

AbstractPurposeSports-related concussion has received increasing attention as a result of neurologic sequelae seen among athletes, highlighting the need for a validated, rapid screening tool. The King–Devick (K–D) test requires vision, eye movements, language function and attention in order to perform and has been proposed as a promising tool for assessment of concussion. We investigated the K–D test as a sideline screening tool in a collegiate cohort to determine the effect of concussion.MethodsAthletes (n=127, mean age 19.6±1.2 years) from the Wheaton College football and men's and women's basketball teams underwent baseline K–D testing at pre-season physicals for the 2012–2013 season. K–D testing was administered immediately on the sidelines for football players with suspected head injury during regular games and changes compared to baseline were determined. Post-season testing was also performed to compare non-concussed athletes’ test performance.ResultsConcussed athletes (n=11) displayed sideline K–D scores that were significantly higher (worse) than baseline (36.5±5.6s vs. 31.3±4.5s, p<0.005, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). Post-season testing demonstrated improvement of scores and was consistent with known learning effects (35.1±5.2s vs. 34.4±5.0s, p<0.05, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). Test-retest reliability was analyzed between baseline and post-season administrations of the K–D test resulting in high levels of test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)=0.95 [95% Confidence Interval 0.85–1.05]).ConclusionsThe data show worsening of K–D test scores following concussion further supporting utility of the K–D test as an objective, reliable and effective sideline visual screening tool to help identify athletes with concussion