Fostering Students\u27 Identification with Mathematics and Science

Book Summary: Interest in Mathematics and Science Learning is the first volume to assemble findings on the role of interest in mathematics and science learning. As the contributors illuminate across the volume’s 22 chapters, interest provides a critical bridge between cognition and affect in learning and development. This volume will be useful to educators, researchers, and policy makers, especially those whose focus is mathematics, science, and technology education. Chapter Summary: The primary purpose of this chapter is to explore the process whereby students transition from a short-term, situational interest in mathematics or science to a more enduring individual interest in which they incorporate performance in mathematics or science into their self-definitions (e.g. I am a scientist ). We do so by examining the research related to domain identification, which is the extent to which students define themselves through a role or performance in a domain, such as mathematics or science. Understanding the process of domain identification is important because it can contribute to an understanding of how individual interest develops over time. The means through which students become highly domain identified involves many factors that are internal (e.g. goals and beliefs) and external (e.g. family environment and educational experiences) to them. Students who are more identified with an academic domain tend to demonstrate increased motivation, effort, perseverance (when faced with failure), and achievement. Importantly, students with lower domain identification tend to demonstrate less motivation, lower effort, and fewer desirable outcomes. Student outcomes in a domain can reciprocally influence domain identification by reinforcing or altering it. This feedback loop can help explain incremental changes in motivation, self-concept, individual interest, and, ultimately, important outcomes such as achievement, choice of college major, and career path. This dynamic model presents possible mechanisms for influencing student outcomes. Furthermore, assessing students\u27 domain identification can allow practitioners to intervene to prevent undesirable outcomes. Finally, we present research on how mathematics and science instructors could use the principles of the MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation to enhance students\u27 domain identification, by (a) empowering students, (b) demonstrating the usefulness of the domain, (c) supporting students\u27 success, (d) triggering students\u27 interests, and (e) fostering a sense of caring and belonging. We conclude that by using the MUSIC model, instructors can intentionally design educational experiences to help students progress from a situational interest to one that is more enduring and integrated into their identities

An online narrative archive of service user experiences to support the education of undergraduate physiotherapy and social work students in North East England: An evaluation study.

Background: Patient narratives are a viable process for patients to contribute to the education of future health professionals and social workers. Narratives can facilitate a deeper understanding of the self and others through self-reflection and encourage transformative learning among students. Increasingly, accounts of health and care are available online but their use in health and social work education requires evaluation. This study explored the experiences of stakeholders who contributed to, developed and used an online narrative archive, which was developed in collaboration with five universities and healthcare providers in the North East of England (CETL4HealthNE). Methods: Realistic evaluation principles were used to underpin data collection, which consisted of semi-structured interviews, a focus group and observations of educators using narrative resources in teaching sessions with different professional groups in two universities. Participants included educators, storytellers, narrative interviewers, students and a transcriber. Data were analysed thematically by two researchers and verified by a third researcher. Findings: Stakeholders reported that listening to patient narratives was challenging. The process of contributing the story was a positive cathartic experience for patients, and the powerful storyteller voice often evoked empathy. Students commented on the ability of the online audio-visual narratives to enable them to see the patient holistically, and educators reported that narratives provided a means to introduce sensitive topics. Conclusions: The use of a locally generated online narrative archive is beneficial for storytellers, students and educators, providing an opportunity to influence healthcare professional training. Care needs to be taken when exposing individuals to potentially sensitive narratives

Non-Emergency Utilization of EMS: Contributing Factors and Strategies to Promote Effective Care with Appropriate Resources

Non-emergency use of EMS resources can impose a substantial burden on emergency response systems and the communities they serve by reducing the response capacity for time-sensitive and life-threatening situations and through the subsequent diversion of funding that could be used to more effectively address health disparities. National EMS response data suggest that a large proportion of EMS patient encounters are for non-emergent reasons. Despite being a nation-wide issue, inadequate research has been conducted to understand why non-emergency and frequent use occurs and what strategies may be effective in mitigating avoidable use. Community paramedicine (CP), an emerging specialty in EMS that focuses on linking underserved populations with available resources to close gaps in care, may hold the key to reducing inappropriate use while simultaneously improving community health. The purpose of this comprehensive review is to examine existing emergency response date, research, and reports from an array of sources to provide insight into effective strategies for reducing non-emergency use while promoting health with appropriate resources

Parental Attachment Style: Links with Parent and Adolescent Perceptions of Parenting and Observed Secure Base Behaviors

The first goal of the present study was to examine how mothers' and fathers' self-reported attachment styles relate to how they perceive themselves as parents and to their ability to serve as secure base for their adolescent children. The second goal was to examine how parents' attachment styles relate to adolescents' perceptions of their parents and to observed adolescent secure base use with each parent. Path analyses revealed that greater parental insecurity predicted parents' negative perceptions of themselves as parents. Further, maternal avoidance and paternal anxiety were significantly indirectly related to observed secure base provision through parents' perceptions of hostility toward their adolescent. In addition, parental attachment styles significantly predicted adolescents' perceptions of mothers, but not fathers. Further, maternal avoidance was significantly indirectly related to adolescent secure base use through adolescent perceptions of their mothers. These results advance the growing body of literature demonstrating an important link between parents' self-reported attachment styles and various facets of parenting

Morphological convergence and character displacement in two species of polymorphic salamanders (genus Plethodon) in eastern Tennessee

In situations involving the co-occurrence ecologically similar species, one of two different evolutionary responses is often expected. If sympatry results in competition over a shared resource, character displacement would be a favored outcome, while morphological convergence is an alternative outcome if the species have similar responses to the shared environment. In this study, I examine cranial morphology and dorsal coloration of two ecologically similar salamander species (Plethodon serratus, the Southern Red-backed Salamander, and P. ventralis, the Southern Zig-zag Salamander) to evaluate the alternative hypotheses of character displacement or convergence. Results from linear morphometrics analyses showed no significant shifts in morphology of either species suggestive of either character displacement or convergence in any of the measured traits. However, geometric morphometric analyses showed significant morphological convergence of the two species in sympatry. In contrast, the presence or absence of a dorsal stripe showed evidence of character displacement, corroborating an earlier claim made by Highton. These results are unexpected in that features associated with feeding (cranial morphology) are expected to often exhibit character displacement if dietary resource partitioning is an important mechanism of coexistence, whereas coloration might be expected to show local convergence if its primary function is camouflage or aposematism. Convergence might reflect the overwhelming influence of developmental responses to shared environments or convergent adaptation to local prey communities. Displacement with respect to color polymorphism might be consistent with frequency-dependent selection maintaining alternative ways of being cryptic

THE NATIONS CHILDREN: Teaching Self-Advocacy: An Exploration of Three Female Foster Youth\u27s Perceptions regarding their Preparation to Act as Self-Advocates

Emancipated foster youth must have real world opportunities to learn to become participating citizens through self-advocacy to create educational justice. Emancipation for foster youth occurs between the ages of 18–22 and it is a state\u27s responsibility to provide continuous support through direct instruction in self-advocacy. The aim of states and social service agencies should be to change our present practice of support for emancipated foster youth and infuse direct instruction of self-advocacy skills teaching youth, in school settings, to advocate their needs and prepare them for transition to adulthood. The Nations Children explores self-advocacy as an educational justice issue for emancipated foster youth allowing youth to rise beyond marginalization and begin to direct their own lives. This research uses case study methodology to focus on three emancipated foster youth and their perceptions regarding their preparation to act as self-advocates. The study demonstrates how successful emancipation and transition to adulthood are closely tied to self-advocacy as foster youth learn processes of inquiry through reflection and dialogue. Similarly, the study demonstrates the need to teach self-advocacy in schools as a means to shift power from the system to the individual, allowing foster youth to choose how they live and are supported in ways that facilitate their preferences

Requiem

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