Teachers' Conceptions of Mathematical Modeling

The release of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics in 2010 resulted in a new focus on mathematical modeling in United States curricula. Mathematical modeling represents a way of doing and understanding mathematics new to most teachers. The purpose of this study was to determine the conceptions and misconceptions held by teachers about mathematical models and modeling in order to aid in the development of teacher education and professional development programs. The study used a mixed methods approach. Quantitative data were collected through an online survey of a large sample of practicing and prospective secondary teachers of mathematics in the United States. The purpose of this was to gain an understanding of the conceptions held by the general population of United States secondary mathematics teachers. In particular, basic concepts of mathematical models, mathematical modeling, and mathematical modeling in education were analyzed. Qualitative data were obtained from case studies of a small group of mathematics teachers who had enrolled in professional development which had mathematical models or modeling as a focus. The purpose of these case studies was to give an illustrative view of teachers regarding modeling, as well as to gain some understanding of how participating in professional development affects teachers' conceptions. The data showed that US secondary mathematics teachers hold several misconceptions about models and modeling, particularly regarding aspects of the mathematical modeling process. Specifically, the majority of teachers do not understand that the mathematical modeling process always requires making choices and assumptions, and that mathematical modeling situations must come from real-world scenarios. A large minority of teachers have misconceptions about various other characteristics of mathematical models and the mathematical modeling process

Assessment framework for prescribing: lower limb skin tears.

Prescribing by a variety of professionals continues its progression in response to the growing demands for health care. Prescribing by nurses was initiated in the 1990s and supported by the National Prescribing Centre's 'prescribing pyramid' or seven steps or principles for good prescribing (NPC, 1999). This article explores a new prescribing consultation model (RAPID-CASE), which is composed of elements from the prescribing pyramid and the Competency Framework for all prescribers (Royal Pharmaceutical Society [RPS], 2021). The RAPID-CASE consultation model is applied to a clinical scenario to illustrate how it can guide a systematic approach to decision-making, using the example of a lower limb skin tear injury

Principles and practice of nurse prescribing.

Feel prepared to take on nurse prescribing with this short and accessible text. Whether you are pre-registration or undertaking a prescribing course, this book is your perfect introduction to the world of nurse prescribing. Covering the legal, professional and pharmacological considerations as well as core skills such as assessment and teamworking, this accessible text explores all aspects of non-medical prescribing in clear, straightforward terms

Professional, legal and ethical dimensions of prescribing: part 1: professional.

Prescribing by nurses and midwives continues to expand and has consistently been evaluated as safe and effective. This article is part one of two exploring the core professional, legal and ethical dimensions of prescribing. Reference is made to a contemporary prescribing model, RAPID-CASE, devised by the authors to demonstrate the application of key prescribing practice principles. The importance of a structured approach is demonstrated with reference to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society competency framework for all prescribers, applicable legislation and underpinning ethical principles. This first article identifies the main professional dimensions of prescribing practice, while the second article focuses on the legal and ethical aspects

Professional, legal and ethical dimensions of prescribing: part 2: legal and ethical.

This is the second of two articles exploring the core professional, legal and ethical dimensions of prescribing. Part one presented a contemporary prescribing model, RAPID-CASE, devised by the authors to demonstrate the application of key professional principles to prescribing practice. This second article examines pertinent legislation and underpinning ethical principles that guide decision-making in prescribing

Psychometric Evaluation of an Instrument to Measure Prospective Pregnancy Preferences: The Desire to Avoid Pregnancy Scale.

BACKGROUND:Existing approaches to measuring women's pregnancy intentions suffer important limitations, including retrospective assessment, overly simple categories, and a presumption that all women plan pregnancies. No psychometrically valid scales exist to prospectively measure the ranges of women's pregnancy preferences. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Using a rigorous construct modeling approach, we developed a scale to measure desire to avoid pregnancy. We developed 60 draft items from existing research, assessed comprehension through 25 cognitive interviews, and administered items in surveys with 594 nonpregnant women in 7 primary and reproductive health care facilities in Arizona, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Texas in 2016-2017. We used item response theory to reduce the item set and assess the scale's reliability, internal structure validity, and external validity. Items were included based on fit to a random effects multinomial logistic regression model (partial credit item response model), correspondence of item difficulty with participants' pregnancy preference levels, and consistency of each item's response options with overall scale scores. RESULTS:The 14 final items covered 3 conceptual domains: cognitive preferences, affective feelings, and practical consequences. Items fit the unidimensional model, with a separation reliability of 0.90 (Cronbach α: 0.95). The scale met established criteria for internal validity, including correspondence between each item's response categories and overall scale scores. We found no important differential item functioning by participant characteristics. CONCLUSIONS:A robust measure is available to prospectively measure desire to avoid pregnancy. The measure can aid in identifying women who could benefit from contraceptive care and research on less desired pregnancy

Risk of violence from the man involved in the pregnancy after receiving or being denied an abortion.

BackgroundIntimate partner violence is common among women having abortions, with between 6% and 22% reporting recent violence from an intimate partner. Concern about violence is a reason some pregnant women decide to terminate their pregnancies. Whether risk of violence decreases after having an abortion, remains unknown.MethodsData are from the Turnaway Study, a prospective cohort study of women seeking abortions at 30 facilities across the U.S. Participants included women who: presented just prior to a facility's gestational age limit and received abortions (Near Limit Abortion Group, n = 452), presented just beyond the gestational limit and were denied abortions (Turnaways, n = 231), and received first trimester abortions (First Trimester Abortion Group, n = 273). Mixed effects logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between receiving versus being denied abortion and subsequent violence from the man involved in the pregnancy over 2.5 years.ResultsPhysical violence decreased for Near Limits (adjusted odds ratios (aOR), 0.93 per month; 95% Confidence Interval (CI) 0.90, 0.96), but not Turnaways who gave birth (P < .05 versus Near Limits). The decrease for First Trimesters was similar to Near Limits (P = .324). Psychological violence decreased for all groups (aOR, 0.97; CI 0.94, 1.00), with no differential change across groups.ConclusionsPolicies restricting abortion provision may result in more women being unable to terminate unwanted pregnancies, potentially keeping them in contact with violent partners, and putting women and their children at risk

Transportation for Seniors in a Rural Community: Can the Nursing Home Play a Role?

In New Brunswick, a large percentage of the population is made up of older adults living in rural communities. This situation presents a number of challenges, particularly in terms of transportation. This paper describes a pilot project in a small rural community in New Brunswick in which a shuttle bus belonging to a long-term care facility was used to provide transportation for older adults living in the community. Both interviews and standardized quantitative measures of life satisfaction and depressive symptoms were used to measure quality of life with older adults who used the bus (n = 8) and older adults who did not use the bus (n = 17). Interviews with the bus drivers and program coordinators, as well as observations of a bus trip were also carried out. Bus takers were found to have lower scores on many quality-of-life indicators than non-bus takers, and were very satisfied with the bus service. Recommendations for increasing the long-term viability of the initiative are addressed in the Discussion.Au Nouveau Brunswick, une grande proportion de la population se compose d’adultes plus âgés qui vivent dans des collectivités rurales. Une telle situation pose un certain nombre de défis, notamment quant au transport. Le présent article expose un projet pilote d’une petite collectivité rurale du Nouveau Brunswick dans laquelle un bus-navette appartenant à un établissement de soins de longue durée a été utilisé pour transporter les adultes plus âgés qui vivent dans la collectivité. À la fois les entretiens, les mesures quantitatives normalisées de satisfaction à l’égard de la vie et les symptômes dépressifs ont été utilisés afin de mesurer la qualité de la vie des adultes plus âgés qui utilisaient le bus-navette (n = 8) et de ceux qui ne l’utilisaient pas (n = 17). Des entretiens avec les chauffeurs et les coordonnateurs du programme ont été effectués et des observations ont été recueillies au cours d’un trajet en bus-navette. Les personnes qui adoptaient ce moyen de transport présentaient des résultats plus faibles quant à de nombreux indicateurs de la qualité de vie que les personnes qui ne prenaient pas le bus et elles étaient très satisfaites du service de bus-navette. Des recommandations en vue d’accroître la viabilité à long terme de l’initiative sont abordées dans la discussion

Emotions and decision rightness over five years following an abortion: An examination of decision difficulty and abortion stigma

Available online 13 January 2020, Article 112704Uno de los estudios más grandes sobre las emociones de las mujeres después de un aborto encontró que la mayoría se siente aliviada y no se arrepiente de su elección, incluso si pensaron mucho para tomar la decisión o si se preocuparon por el estigma. Los investigadores descubrieron que a los cinco años de haber tenido un aborto, solo el 6% expresó principalmente emociones negativas. La abrumadora mayoría de las mujeres encuestadas, el 84%, tenían emociones positivas o ninguna con respecto a su decisión de abortar, incluso si no se habían sentido así cuando estaban tomando la decisión de abortar.Poco más de la mitad de las mujeres en esta encuesta dijeron que la decisión de interrumpir el embarazo fue muy difícil y el 27% lo calificó como “algo difícil”. Alrededor del 46% dijo que no fue una decisión difícil en absoluto. Casi el 70% dijo sentir que serían estigmatizadas si las personas supieran que tuvieron un aborto. Las mujeres que dijeron que fue difícil tomar la decisión o se sintieron estigmatizadas por ella tenían más probabilidades de reportar culpa, ira o tristeza inmediatamente después del aborto, pero con el tiempo, estos sentimientos disminuyeron drásticamente, a veces incluso un año después del aborto.La principal emoción que todos los grupos de mujeres en el estudio dijeron que sintieron al final de la encuesta fue el alivio. El alivio era una emoción utilizada para describir cómo se sentían cada vez que se les preguntaba al respecto.www.elsevier.com/locate/socscime

Scale and sense of place among urban dwellers

Place connections are core to being human: Every person lives in, and thus has direct experience of, at least one place and likely of numerous places throughout a lifetime. Sense of place—or the meanings, knowledge, and bonds that arise from the biophysical, social, and political–economic aspects of places—in turn influences people\u27s interactions with those places. Of particular interest to researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, such interactions can impact place-protective, stewardship, or conservation behaviors. However, how sense of place develops and what it represents is shifting in today\u27s rapidly urbanizing, globalizing world. Especially when considering the integrated social–ecological context, questions related to how sense of place forms and is enacted in urban settings and at a range of geographic scales are challenging to study. Our study addresses this dynamic space: We examined how people\u27s place connections intersect with their notions of geographic scale and levels of urbanity. Specifically, we conducted a 1201-person randomized telephone survey in the San Francisco Bay Area ecoregion of California, USA, to explore how sense of place varies by (1) the scale of what people consider to be their place, and (2) the urbanity of where people live. In comparison with respondents who perceived their place as the larger-scale ecoregion, we found that respondents who perceived their place as primarily focused on the urban area rated their connection to the biophysical aspects of place (the plants, animals, and landscape-related elements) lower. Similarly, overall, respondents who lived in urban areas rated their connections to the biophysical aspects of place lower than did respondents who lived in non-urban areas. Our findings suggest the importance of encouraging conceptualizations of place at broader geographic scales and, particularly, of supporting notions of urban spaces that stretch beyond urban boundaries. We also call for supporting increased engagement with urban nature, especially among residents of urban areas