Do we need a zero pure time preference or the risk of climate catastrophes to justify a 2C global warming target ?

This paper confronts the wide political support for the 2C objective of global increase in temperature, reaffirmed in Copenhagen, with the consistent set of hypotheses on which it relies. It explains why neither an almost zero pure time preference nor concerns about catastrophic damages in case of uncontrolled global warming are prerequisites for policy decisions preserving the possibility of meeting a 2C target. It rests on an optimal stochastic control model balancing the costs and benefits of climate policies resolved sequentially in order to account for the arrival of new information (the RESPONSE model). This model describes the optimal abatement pathways for 2,304 worldviews, combining hypotheses about growth rates, baseline emissions, abatement costs, pure time preference, damages, and climate sensitivity. It shows that 26 percent of the worldviews selecting the 2C target are not characterized by one of the extreme assumptions about pure time preference or climate change damages.Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Climate Change Economics,Science of Climate Change,Global Environment Facility,Environment and Energy Efficiency

Special Educators and Mathematics Phobia: An Initial Qualitative Investigation

Special educators are uniquely challenged to be content experts in all curricular areas, including mathematics, since students in their case loads may require academic instruction in any area. However, special educators with math phobia may be limited in their ability to provide effective instruction to their students with mathematical deficits and/or needs, and may experience additional challenges in their professional and personal lives. This qualitative study sought to better understand the nature of math phobia in two special educators through extensive interviews, journaling, and observations in math experiences, with a number of primary themes identified. Several potential resolutions for the issues emerging from math phobia in special educators are identified and discussed

Use of Writing with Symbols 2000 Software to Facilitate Emergent Literacy Development

This paper outlines the use of the Writing with Symbols 2000 software to facilitate emergent literacy development. The program’s use of pictures incorporated with text has great potential to help young children with and without disabilities acquire fundamental literacy concepts about print, phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary development, and comprehension. The flexibility and features of the software allow early childhood professionals to create a variety of early literacy tools for the classroom, including worksheets, storybooks, and interactive activities

Enhancing Language Learning Opportunities in Family Contexts for Young Learners With or At Risk for Communicative Developmental Delay: An Initial Investigation

Though the early years of life are critical for any child, this period may be especially crucial for young children who are at risk for or presently evidencing developmental delays. Bruder (2001) offered several rationales for the provision of early intervention. First, the earlier that children with such issues are identified and provided services, the greater the likelihood that the child will benefit. Early intervention services can reduce or eliminate developmental delays, moving children out of a risk category (e.g., from “Delayed” to “Typically developing”) (Glascoe, 2005). In addition to these immediate effects, early intervention can have a significant impact on the subsequent developmental status of the child (Barnett & Belfield, 2006). Second, families receive invaluable support from these early intervention services (Sandall, Hemmeter, Smith, & McLean, 2005). Indeed, the very conceptual foundation of the Individualized Family Services Plan (IFSP), the intervention plan developed and implemented for children up to age six who evidence developmental delays (as opposed to the school-age Individualized Education Program) is that it is the family as much as the young child who is need of support and services. Finally, Bruder (2010) concluded that early intervention programs offer economic advantages to schools and communities. As participants in these programs gain skills and enhance their developmental status, educational and post-school programs benefit from the decreased costs of special education and disability services support that would otherwise be required for school-aged children and adults with disabilities. The primacy of the role of the family in first identifying developmental delays and then providing support for interventions is difficult to overstate (Sandall et al., 2005). Families provide this support through collaboration with early intervention professionals by facilitating the early intervention at home, while providing supplemental opportunities for the child to practice emergent skills at home and in the community

Mentors Increasing Special Education Retention

Lack of effective professional mentoring and minimal ongoing support programs have been suggested as two primary contributors to the chronic shortages of special education teachers. Few programs have been designed to address these specific causes. In this article we describe TATERS, a partnership between a university special educator preparation program, a state Department of Education, and district level administrations designed to (a) develop effective mentoring systems, and (b) strengthen training and recruitment of preservice and new special education teachers, especially in rural areas

A review of assistive technology and writing skills for students with physical and educational disabilities

In recent years effective instruction in reading for learners with physicaland educational disabilities has received great attention in the schools.However, instruction in the corollary skill of writing has received considerably less emphasis. This review paper notes that through the use of assistive technology, students with a variety of physical and educationaldisabilities can learn to effectively (a) plan and organize their writing,(b) draft and transcribe their work, and (c) edit and revise their narrativeand expository writing.With teachers increasingly being held accountable for the development ofliteracy skills in all students, including those students with physical and educational disabilities, schools are paying substantial and growing attention to reading. The expressive side of the literacy coin, writing skills, is arguably equally significant and worthy of instructional emphasis. However, there are growing indicators that writing has not received enough attention in the national educational reform debate (National Commission on Writing, 2003, 2006; National Writing Project & Nagin, 2006). Along with reading comprehension, writing skill is a powerful predictor of academic success (Graham & Perin, 2007), and is an effective means of developing higher-order thinking skills (National Writing Project & Nagin, 2006). Writing helps learners make sense of the world (e.g., “Letters from Ground Zero,” cited in National Commission on Writing, 2006). Yet to date the teaching of writing skills to students with disabilities, including physical disabilities, has not received the level of curricular emphasis that teaching reading skills has (Graham & Perin, 2007). For students with physical and educational disabilities, stronger writing skills offer a variety of benefits. These include (a) more successful academic inclusion outcomes, (b) transfer of improved literacy skills to reading, and (c) greater pass rates on high stakes academic testing. As more and more careers require greater levels of literacy skills, students with disabilities who are unable to write effectively may find themselves increasingly minimized in these adult roles. Writing is considered to be an essential “threshold skill” for hiring and promotion (National Commission on Writing, 2003), and is a basic requirement for participation in civic life and the global economy (Graham & Perin, 2007; National Commission on Writing, 2003). This paper reviews the use of a variety of assistive technologies in enhancing writing skills in students with physical and educational disabilities

Panorama de la Prensa murciana de la Ilustración al Liberalismo

La prensa murciana nace a finales del siglo XVIII. Desde esas fechas, y durante el primer tercio del siglo XIX. se convierte en un testimonio de los problemas políticos y culturales de la sociedad murciana. Además, ofrece un enorme interés, ya que se trata de una historia por hacer