Factors that Determine Preschool Teacher Self-Efficacy in an Urban School District

The aim of the present study is to determine what teacher variables are predictive of preschool teacher self-efficacy in an urban school district. A total of 83 preschool teachers participated in the study. Teacher variables, such as years of teaching experience, job satisfaction, location of employment, age, and self-efficacy were included in a series of ANOVA analyses. Linear regression modeling reported years of teaching experience outside the birth-2nd grade setting (β= -.232, t(1,79) = -2.124, p\u3c .05) and job satisfaction (β = .294, t(2,78) = 2.793, p\u3c .01) were statistically significant predictors of preschool teacher self-efficacy. This study found that teachers with a greater amount of teaching experience outside of the birth-2nd setting feel less efficacious about themselves and their abilities to positively influence student achievement and outcomes in the preschool classroom. Further policy implications, such as hiring practices are discussed

Social Media and Body Pressure

In this paper, I discuss the negative impact that social media’s promotion of unrealistic body standards has on women and young girls. I give examples through peer-reviewed data on how social media’s idealistic body promotion has a negative effect on young girls and women. These effects include eating disorders and body dissatisfaction. I first explain how body dissatisfaction is an impact of women seeing idealistic bodies on social media, that they cannot relate to. I go into detail as to how this leads to comparing themselves to the bodies they see on their social media feed, and being disappointed that they do not look the same. I then discuss the root of body dissatisfaction, which is low self-esteem. After this, I reveal that eating disorders are another negative impact from viewing idealized bodies on social media. I explain how women see “Fitspo social media pages” and follow the methods they promote in order to achieve a “perfect body”. Many of these methods are unhealthy and restrictive which leads to these women to have an unhealthy relationship with food and exercise, spiraling into an eating disorder. I then give my own possible solutions to these issues, which includes having social media enforce better security on age limits required to access these apps so that young girls cannot be exposed to such toxicity at a young age where they are easily influenced. As well as, having more body inclusive influencers on social media to promote body positivity towards young and adult women, and normalizing therapy for women

Preschool Teacher Self-Efficacy in an Urban School District

The purpose of this research was to assess the relationships between preschool teacher self-efficacy, as measured by the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) of years of early childhood teaching experience, and teacher outcomes as measured by the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Also considered was whether or not self-efficacy differed as a function of program setting. Early prekindergarten program (EPK) and universal prekindergarten program (UPK) (n = 89) lead teachers completed the TSES, representing a cross-section of all 3 and 4-year-old preschool lead teachers in a mid-sized urban district. Teachers completed the TSES via SurveyMonkey. CLASS observations were conducted as part of a larger ongoing evaluation. Teacher self-efficacy was not significantly correlated with years of early childhood teaching experience. However, overall, teacher self-efficacy was negatively correlated with years of teaching experience outside of the birth to second grade setting (r = –23, p \u3c .05) and positively correlated with the classroom organization domain (r = .21, p \u3c.05) and overall CLASS scores (r = .22, p \u3c .05). School district preschool teachers reported a significantly higher overall teacher self-efficacy compared to community-based organization (CBO) preschool teachers. This study adds to the current body of empirical literature focused on teacher self-efficacy and early childhood education by solely focusing on EPK/UPK teacher self-efficacy. Future studies should explore the potential relationship between job satisfaction and self-efficacy in both lead and assistant preschool teachers to inform interventions designed to increase job satisfaction and teacher self-efficacy

Long-Term Antecedents and Outcomes of Perceived Control

Perceived control plays an important role in shaping development throughout adulthood and old age. Using data from the adult lifespan sample of the national German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP; N > 10,000, covering 25 years of measurement), we explored long-term antecedents, correlates, and outcomes of perceived control and examined if associations differ with age. Targeting correlates and antecedents of control, findings indicated that higher concurrent levels of social participation, life satisfaction, and self-rated health as well as more positive changes in social participation over the preceding 11 years were each predictive of between-person differences in perceived control. Targeting health outcomes of control, survival analyses revealed that perceived control predicted 14-year hazard rates for disability (n = 996 became disabled) and mortality (n = 1,382 died). The effect for mortality, but not for disability, was independent of socio-demographic and psychosocial factors. Overall, we found very limited support for age-differential associations. Our results provide further impetus to thoroughly examine processes involved in antecedent-consequent relations among perceived control, facets of social life, well-being, and health.Control, lifespan development, disability, mortality, psychosocial

A review of bioplastics and their adoption in the circular economy

The European Union is working towards the 2050 net-zero emissions goal and tackling the ever-growing environmental and sustainability crisis by implementing the European Green Deal. The shift towards a more sustainable society is intertwined with the production, use, and disposal of plastic in the European economy. Emissions generated by plastic production, plastic waste, littering and leakage in nature, insufficient recycling, are some of the issues addressed by the European Commission. Adoption of bioplastics–plastics that are biodegradable, bio-based, or both–is under assessment as one way to decouple society from the use of fossil resources, and to mitigate specific environmental risks related to plastic waste. In this work, we aim at reviewing the field of bioplastics, including standards and life cycle assessment studies, and discuss some of the challenges that can be currently identified with the adoption of these materials

Sustainable Materials Containing Biochar Particles: A Review

The conversion of polymer waste, food waste, and biomasses through thermochemical decomposition to fuels, syngas, and solid phase, named char/biochar particles, gives a second life to these waste materials, and this process has been widely investigated in the last two decades. The main thermochemical decomposition processes that have been explored are slow, fast, and flash pyrolysis, torrefaction, gasification, and hydrothermal liquefaction, which produce char/biochar particles that differ in their chemical and physical properties, i.e., their carbon-content, CHNOS compositions, porosity, and adsorption ability. Currently, the main proposed applications of the char/biochar particles are in the agricultural sector as fertilizers for soil retirement and water treatment, as well as use as high adsorption particles. Therefore, according to recently published papers, char/biochar particles could be successfully considered for the formulation of sustainable polymer and biopolymer-based composites. Additionally, in the last decade, these particles have also been proposed as suitable fillers for asphalts. Based on these findings, the current review gives a critical overview that highlights the advantages in using these novel particles as suitable additives and fillers, and at the same time, it shows some drawbacks in their use. Adding char/biochar particles in polymers and biopolymers significantly increases their elastic modulus, tensile strength, and flame and oxygen resistance, although composite ductility is significantly penalized. Unfortunately, due to the dark color of the char/biochar particles, all composites show brown-black coloration, and this issue limits the applications

Anonimo Padovano, L'Entrée d'Espagne. Traduzione integrale e note a cura di Paolo Gresti e Marco Infurna

Prima traduzione integrale con ampio commento e revisione del testo critico dell'edizione Thomas dell'Entrée d'Espagne (1913), poema epico in franco-italiano di 15800 versi. Di Paolo Gresti la traduzione e il commento dei vv. 1-8839; di Marco Infurna la traduzione e il commento dei vv. 8840-1580

Slow pyrolysis as a method for biochar production from carob waste: Process investigation and products’ characterization

The zero-waste city challenge of the modern society is inevitably addressed to the development of model’s waste-to-energy. In this work, carob waste, largely used in the agro-industrial sector for sugar extraction or locust beangum (LBG) production, is considered as feedstock for the slow pyrolysis process. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in 2012, the world production of carobs was ca. 160,000 tons, mainly concentrated in the Mediterranean area (Spain, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, and Greece). To evaluate the biomass composition, at first, the carob waste was subjected to thermo-gravimetric analysis. The high content of fixed carbon suggests that carobs are a plausible candidate for pyrolysis conversion to biochar particles. The thermal degradation of the carob waste proceeds by four different steps related to the water and volatile substances’ removal, degradation of hemicellulose, lignin and cellulose degradation, and lignin decomposition. Considering this, the slow pyrolysis was carried out at three different temperatures, specifically, at 280, 340, and 400◦C, and the obtained products were characterized. Varying the processing temperature, the proportion of individual products’ changes with a reduction in the solid phase and an increase in liquid and gas phases, with an increase in the pyrolysis temperature. The obtained results suggest that carob waste can be considered a suitable feedstock for biochar production, rather than for fuels’ recovery