The Inclusion House: Lessons Learned During the First Year

The Inclusion House is a unique dorm where nondisabled students training to be leaders in the faith community, live side-by-side with same-aged individuals with intellectual disabilities. After one year, a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted with the nondisabled roommates. Findings showed overall positive feelings involving watching roommates with a disability become more independent, learning to balance roles as a friend vs. helper, and knowledge gleaned about working with these types of individuals as well as their families. These recommendations are essential for improving living conditions at the Inclusion House and the implications of educating future church leaders on how to include people with disabilities and their families in faith communities

Essential Skills for Success: Feedback from Beginning Teachers of Students with Emotional / Behavioral Disorders

This exploratory, case study used qualitative measures to investigate the perceptions of recent college graduates who were teaching students with emotional impairments / behavioral disorders on their preparedness to teach in the field. Structured open-ended interviews were conducted to explore how well their teacher education programs prepared them to work with this population and to meet the mandate of preparing students for entry in a global society. Findings garnered positive comments regarding global competencies and suggestions for improvements in teacher preparation. Effective communication and collaboration with school personnel and parents, organizing paperwork and data collection, decision making, and more relevant field placements were areas considered to be in need of increased focus

Living at the Friendship House: Findings from the Transition Planning Inventory

A residential initiative, named the Friendship House, was created through advocates focused on helping people with intellectual disabilities live independently in affordable and safe housing on a university campus. The Friendship House is a small residence hall where individuals with intellectual disabilities live side-by-side with similarly aged and same gendered university students. Qualitative finding as in resident reports and observational data provides support that the Friendship House experience has been successful. However, to better equip these residents with intellectual disabilities, it is important to assess the program in terms of post school transition acquisition skills. This study focuses on whether the residents with intellectual disabilities are mastering the skills necessary to live successful lives after high school. Hence, the purpose of this quantitative study is to determine the effect of living in the Friendship House on the acquired transition skills (as measured by the nine Transition Planning Inventory skill sets) on individuals with intellectual disabilities

Living at the Friendship House: Findings from the Transition Planning Inventory

A residential initiative, named the Friendship House, was created through advocates focused on helping people with intellectual disabilities live independently in affordable and safe housing on a university campus. The Friendship House is a small residence hall where individuals with intellectual disabilities live side-by-side with similarly aged and same gendered university students. Qualitative finding as in resident reports and observational data provides support that the Friendship House experience has been successful. However, to better equip these residents with intellectual disabilities, it is important to assess the program in terms of post school transition acquisition skills. This study focuses on whether the residents with intellectual disabilities are mastering the skills necessary to live successful lives after high school. Hence, the purpose of this quantitative study is to determine the effect of living in the Friendship House on the acquired transition skills (as measured by the nine Transition Planning Inventory skill sets) on individuals with intellectual disabilities

The Anatomical Society core embryology syllabus for undergraduate medicine

A modified Delphi methodology was used to develop a consensus regarding a series of learning outcome statements to act as the foundation of an undergraduate medical core embryology syllabus. A Delphi panel was formed by recruiting stakeholders with experience in leading undergraduate teaching of medical students. The panel (n = 18), including anatomists, embryologists and practising clinicians, were nominated by members of Council and/or the Education Committee of the Anatomical Society. Following development of an a priori set of learning outcome statements (n = 62) by the authors, panel members were asked in the first of a two‐stage process to ‘accept’, ‘reject’ or ‘modify’ each learning outcome, to propose additional outcomes if desired. In the second stage, the panel was asked to either accept or reject 16 statements which had either been modified, or had failed to reach consensus, during the first Delphi round. Overall, 61 of 62 learning outcome statements, each linked to examples of clinical conditions to provide context, achieved an 80% level of agreement following the modified Delphi process and were therefore deemed accepted for inclusion within the syllabus. The proposed syllabus allows for flexibility within individual curricula, while still prioritising and focusing on the core level of knowledge of embryological processes by presenting the essential elements to all newly qualified doctors, regardless of their subsequent chosen specialty

Foundations to Algebraic Mastery

Realizing that Algebra 1 is a gatekeeper to not only higher mathematics, but STEM careers in general (Blanchard & Muller, 2015; Stoelinga & Lynn, 2013), it is imperative that our students master the content matter. To this end, four essential components to ensuring success for Algebra 1 students have been identified: (a) basic skill development, (b) computational ease, (c) step-by-step scaffolding, and (d) the extensive use of the Explain-Practice-Assess (EPA) Strategy (Holmes, Spence, Finn, & Ingram, 2017). In this article, each of these four components is described in detail with accompanying examples. These examples model evidenced-based practices and provide a very useful guide for algebra teachers in their own classrooms

Conquering Worrisome Word Problems – Algebra Success

High school students can struggle with word problems in upper level math classes. Causes for this struggle could include lower reading comprehension, limited mathematic vocabulary, and difficulty changing words to algebraic expressions. This article proposes three techniques to help teachers instruct these struggling students that include (a) organization by difficulty of comprehension and computation (b) scaffolding and (c) utilizing the Explain, Practice and Assess (EPA) strategy

Factors that Influence the Sociological Construct of Adulthood in Adults with Moderate Intellectual Disabilities (ID): An ID Case Study

The most common criteria used to evaluate successful transition into adulthood for young adults have included obtaining employment and establishing autonomous non-relative social support networks (correlate to community involvement). Hence, employment and community involvement are critical in the transition to adulthood for all young adults, including those with intellectual disabilities (ID). However, with respect to those with ID, the construct of Adulthood is multi-faceted and murky. Hence, this exploratory study seeks to determine factors (measured by the Transition Planning Inventory-2) that impact the sociological construct of Adulthood in young adults with ID and to model pictorially the relationship between them. Results indicate for adults with ID, vocational purpose, community involvement, and wellness explain 47% of the variance in the sociological construct of Adulthood. Factor analysis reveals that vocational purpose is characterized by employment and self determination; community involvement by leisure activity, community participation, and interpersonal relationships; and wellness by health and daily living

Letter to editor: A new core gross anatomy syllabus for medicine

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Development of a High Throughput (HT) Raman Spectroscopy Method for Rapid Screening of Liquid Blood Plasma From Prostate Cancer Patients

Extensive research has been undertaken on the examination of tissue biopsies using vibrational spectroscopic techniques. However, fewer studies have focused on less invasive and commonly acquired blood samples. Recent studies have shown the ability of Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to discriminate between non-cancer controls and cancer cases using blood serum or plasma. Even though many studies have proposed Raman spectroscopy as a potential diagnostic tool in various cancers, the Raman spectroscopic technique has not been introduced as a routine clinical technology. This is due to multiple drawbacks with the application of the technique, including sample preparation, the requirement for expensive substrates and long acquisition times. The current study aims to overcome these limitations and focuses on the translation of Raman spectroscopy into a high throughput clinical diagnostic tool for prostate cancer. In this study, the effect of different instrumental and sample preparation parameters were investigated, with the aim of identifying a combination that would reduce the overall acquisition time for spectra from peripheral blood plasma, reduce the complexity of sample preparation and retain the classification accuracy from Raman spectroscopic diagnostics. A high throughput (HT) system was developed and Raman spectroscopic measurements were performed on plasma samples from 10 prostate cancer patients and 10 healthy volunteers. The spectra were pre-processed and classified by principal component analysis – linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) in the R environment. Statistically significant differences were observed between Raman spectra of prostate cancer patients and non-cancer controls. The (HT) classification resulted in a sensitivity and specificity of 96.5% and 95% respectively. Overall, this study has overcome some of the limitations associated with clinical translation of Raman spectroscopy. The HT-Raman spectroscopy method developed in this study can be used for rapid and accurate diagnosis of prostate cancer using liquid plasma samples