Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Efforts to Foster Classroom Democracies. A Response to Creating a Democratic Mathematics Classroom

How can middle school mathematics teachers navigate their roles as authorities in managing classroom democracies while providing their students with opportunities to exercise their rights? The concept of complementarity (Vithal, 1999) acknowledges that a teacher’s authority is not always in conflict with students’ rights or agency, but instead a teacher’s authority can be exercised judiciously to invite students to enact their rights. In this response to “Creating Democratic Mathematics Classrooms,” we take up the authors’ invitation to reflect on how we consider the role of responsibilities in classrooms that promote Torres’s Rights of the Learner. We share ways that two middle school teachers work to foster their classroom democracies and explore tensions between the teacher’s authority and students’ rights during these practices: (a) engaging students in a democratic practice of writing a class set of rights and responsibilities, (b) constructing cold calling as a more democratic practice if students have choices for how to respond, (c) offering students an experience of a safe space to challenge their teacher’s authority in the context of group work, (f) transferring responsibility for learning onto students, and (e) inviting students to reflect on their rights to support students with learning to claim their rights

Relationships between perceived teacher and peer support on motivation and achievement in high school mathematics

One hundred fourteen US students were surveyed to test a model of the relationships among motivational variables resulting from students’ first experiences as they transitioned from middle school to high school, and math achievement. Key malleable factors impacting motivation and achievement included perceived supportiveness of respondents’ teacher and peers. Longitudinal Path Analysis revealed that teacher support can impact students’ beliefs about the supportiveness of their peers, but that these social factors are mediated through students developing personal interest in mathematics to ultimately impact achievement

Port-City Transition: Past and Emerging Socio-Spatial Imaginaries and Uses in Rotterdam's Makers District

This article explores old and emerging socio-spatial imaginaries and uses of Rotterdam's Makers District. The district comprises two urban harbors - Merwe Vierhavens and Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij - historically in use as bustling trade, storage, and ship yarding nodes of the city’s port activities. At the turn of the millennium, technological advancements made it possible to move many port-related activities out of the area and farther out of the city, gradually hollowing out these harbors’ port-related economic foundations and opening opportunities for new uses and imaginaries. This article traces the transition by detailing how the boundary between the city and the port has become more porous in this district. It does so by offering original empirical evidence on the flows of users in and out of the area in recent years, based on location quotients, while also applying a content analysis of the profiles of companies and institutions currently inhabiting and working in these transformed port-city spaces. On the one hand, the results show how the ongoing port-city transition in Rotterdam's Makers District combines carefully curated interventions and infrastructure plans seeking to progressively adapt the area to new purposes, while maintaining some of its former functions. On the other hand, they highlight the pioneering role of more bottom-up initiatives and innovative urban concepts, springing from the creative industries and maker movement. The article offers insights into the emerging uses and imaginaries attached to the district, while also showing the resilience and adaptation of port legacies

Prospective elementary teachers’ motivation to participate in wholeclass discussions during mathematics content courses for teachers

Abstract Prospective elementary teachers' (N=148) motivation to participate in wholeclass discussions during mathematics content courses for teachers, as expressed in their own words on an open-ended questionnaire, were studied. Results indicated that prospective teachers were motivated by positive utility values for participating (to achieve a short-term goal of learning mathematics or a long-term goal of becoming a teacher), to demonstrate competence (to achieve performance-approach goals), or to help others (to achieve social goals). Negative utility values for participating were expressed by those who preferred to learn through actively listening. Five motivational profiles, as composed of interactions among motivational values, beliefs, goals and self-reported participation practices, were prevalent in this sample. Self-reported variations among participants' utility values and participation practices suggested that prospective teachers engaged differentially in opportunities to learn to communicate mathematically. Results provide pedagogical learner knowledge for mathematics teacher educators

Web log analysis panel

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61334/1/1450440124_ftp.pd

The effect of a high-fat diet on brain plasticity, inflammation and cognition in female ApoE4-knockin and ApoE-knockout mice

Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4), one of three common isoforms of ApoE, is a major risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD). ApoE-deficient mice, as well as mice expressing human ApoE4, display impaired learning and memory functions and signs of neurodegeneration. Moreover, ApoE protects against high-fat (HF) diet induced neurodegeneration by its role in the maintenance of the integrity of the blood-brain barrier. The influence of a HF diet on the progression of AD-like cognitive and neuropathological changes was assessed in wild-type (WT), human ApoE4 and ApoE-knockout (ApoE-/-) mice to evaluate the modulatory role of ApoE in this process. From 12 months of age, female WT, ApoE4, and ApoE-/- mice were fed either a standard or a HF diet (19% butter, 0.5% cholate, 1.25% cholesterol) throughout life. At 15 months of age mice performed the Morris water maze, evaluating spatial learning and memory. ApoE-/- showed increased spatial learning compared to WT mice (p = 0.009). HF diet improved spatial learning in WT mice (p = 0.045), but did not affect ApoE4 and ApoE-/- mice. Immunohistochemical analyses of the hippocampus demonstrated increased neuroinflammation (CD68) in the cornu ammonis 1 (CA1) region in ApoE4 (p = 0.001) and in ApoE-/- (p = 0.032) mice on standard diet. HF diet tended to increase CD68 in the CA1 in WT mice (p = 0.052), while it decreased in ApoE4 (p = 0.009), but ApoE-/- remained unaffected. A trend towards increased neurogenesis (DCX) was found in both ApoE4 (p = 0.052) and ApoE-/- mice (p = 0.068). In conclusion, these data suggest that HF intake induces different effects in WT mice compared to ApoE4 and ApoE-/- with respect to markers for cognition and neurodegeneration. We propose that HF intake inhibits the compensatory mechanisms of neuroinflammation and neurogenesis in aged female ApoE4 and ApoE-/- mice

On the Books: Jim Crow and Algorithms of Resistance White Paper

This white paper describes the methods and workflows used to create two corpora: one comprised of all North Carolina session laws from 1866/67-1967, and the other comprised of Jim Crow laws from that period identified by scholars and machine learning. The text analysis methods used to identify the Jim Crow laws are also explained

Use of an interactive obesity treatment approach in individuals with severe mental illness: Feasibility, acceptability, and proposed engagement criteria

BACKGROUND: Digital and mobile health interventions are increasingly being used to support healthy lifestyle change, including in certain high-risk populations such as those with severe mental illnesses (SMIs). Life expectancy in this population lags 15 years behind counterparts in the general population, primarily due to obesity-related health conditions. OBJECTIVE: We tested the feasibility and usability of a 12-week interactive obesity treatment approach (iOTA) to adults with chronic SMIs (depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorder) receiving treatment in community settings. The iOTA incorporates short message service (SMS) text messages to supplement monthly in-person health coaching. METHODS: Factors hypothesized to be associated with weight change were illness severity and treatment engagement. Severe psychiatric symptoms were defined as baseline Clinical Global Impression severity score of \u3e5. Criterion engagement was defined as a text messaging response rate \u3e80% during the first 4 weeks of treatment. Disordered eating, assessed with the Loss of Control Over Eating Scores, was also evaluated. Participants provided qualitative data, further informing assessment of intervention feasibility, usability, and acceptability. RESULTS: A total of 26 participants were enrolled. The mean age was 48.5 (SD 15.67) years; 40% (10/26) were Black and 60% (15/26) female. Participants with lower symptom severity and adequate engagement demonstrated significantly decreased weight (F CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the feasibility of delivering an adapted iOTA to SMI patients receiving care in community settings and suggest testable criteria for defining sufficient treatment engagement and psychiatric symptom severity, two factors known to impact weight loss outcomes. These important findings suggest specific adaptations may be needed for optimal treatment outcomes in individuals with SMI

Internet usage transaction log studies: The next generation

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49321/1/1450420146_ftp.pd

Attitudes, Beliefs, Motivation and Identity in Mathematics Education: An Overview of the Field and Future Directions

Mathematics Education; Educational Psycholog