Individual Differences in Children’s Paths to Arithmetical Development

Cross-sectional and longitudinal data consistently indicate that mathematical difficulties are more prevalent in older than in younger children (e.g. Department of Education, 2011). Children’s trajectories can take a variety of shapes such as linear, flat, curvilinear, and uneven, and shape has been found to vary within children and across tasks (J Jordan, Mulhern, and Wylie, 2009). There has been an increase in the use of statistical methods which are specifically designed to study development, and this has greatly improved our understanding of children’s mathematical development. However, the effects of many cognitive and social variables (e.g. working memory and verbal ability) on mathematical development are unclear. It is likely that greater consistency between studies will be achieved by adopting a componential approach to study mathematics, rather than treating mathematics as a unitary concept.</p

The Enactment of Lesson Study by Science Teachers in England

This study explored the enactment of Japanese Lesson Study (JLS), an increasingly common form of collaborative-research orientated professional development (PD). Research on PD in general and JLS specifically, suggests that these forms of PD are not often exhibited in school settings. To better understand the contextual factors shaping the enactment of such PD, the study took a situated, social learning perspective to examine Lesson Study (LS) within the context of recent reforms in PD policy in England. The aim of this research was to gather the perspectives of science teachers explicitly seeking to do LS for their PD and to identify multiple interacting factors that appear to influence LS enactment. To contextualise LS, a clear distinction was made between PD, seen as an isolated event to professional learning, seen as the broader, often more informal means by which teachers enhance their knowledge, skills and practices. The study used Opfer and Pedder’s (2011) model of professional learning and Wenger's (2000) notion of communities of practice to understand and to conceptualise teacher learning in LS. Using a multiple case study methodology and design, the perspectives of 11 science teachers, in three secondary schools, were analysed using data from semi-structured interviews, field notes and artefacts, gathered in the early stages of LS. Analysis shows that variations in LS enactment were shaped by three underlying mechanisms: i) degrees of alignment or dissonance with the teachers' and school professional learning orientations, ii) reification of the teachers’ and school professional learning orientations and iii) brokering and boundary crossing enacted by science teachers in the role of LS facilitators and participants. Study findings suggest that school leaders and PD leaders need to take account of teachers’ and school professional learning orientations within the affordances and constraints of their local contexts

Staff training in autism: The one-eyed wo/man….

Having well-trained staff is key to ensuring good quality autism services, especially since people affected with autism generally tend to have higher support needs than other populations in terms of daily living, as well as their mental and physical health. Poorly-trained staff can have detrimental effects on service provision and staff morale and can lead to staff burn-out, as well as increased service user anxiety and stress. This paper reports on a survey with health, social care, and education staff who work within the statutory autism services sector in the UK that explored their knowledge and training with regards to autism. Interview data obtained from staff and service users offer qualitative illustrations of survey findings. Overall, the findings expose an acute lack of autism-specific training that has detrimental impacts. At best, this training was based on brief and very basic awareness raising rather than on in-depth understanding of issues related to autism or skills for evidence-based practice. Service users were concerned with the effects that the lack of staff training had on the services they received. The paper concludes with a discussion of policy routes to achieving quality staff training based on international best practice. The focus is on improving the quality of life and mental health for services users and staff, as well as making potentially significant cost-savings for governments

Longitudinal social network analysis of peer, family and school contextual influences on adolescent drinking frequency

Purpose: The aim of the study was to identify the mechanisms relating to parental control, adolescent secrecy, and school context that shape patterns of adolescent drinking frequency and appraise the implications for systems-level intervention. Methods: The Belfast Youth Development Study collected information on friendship networks in schools, alcohol use, and Stattin and Kerr's parental monitoring subscales across 5 years of postprimary school education in annual waves from age 11–15 years. Stochastic Actor-Oriented Models were fitted to 22 schools (N = 3,220) to assess friendship formation and peer influence processes related to drinking frequency and their variation by parental control or child secrecy. Meta-regressions and summary statistic ego-alter selection tables assessed how network and behavior co-evolution varied according to school gender and the proportion of weekly or more frequent drinkers in each school. Results: Adolescents tended to mimic their peers' drinking levels, and frequent drinkers befriended those who drank similarly to them. Those with high parental control were less likely to befriend low-control peers, whereas low-control pupils were more likely to befriend each other. Adolescents with low-control parents nominated fewer friends in schools with higher proportions of drinking frequently. There was a tendency toward befriending highly secretive peers in boys schools only. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the optimal strategy for selecting seed nodes in a diffusion of innovations network intervention may vary according to school context, and that targeting family interventions around parent characteristics may modify the wider school network, potentially augmenting network intervention processes

A Non-Stop S-Antigen Gene Mutation Is Associated With Late Onset Hereditary Retinal Degeneration in Dogs

Purpose: To identify the causative mutation of canine progressive retinal atrophy (PRA) segregating as an adult onset autosomal recessive disorder in the Basenji breed of dog. Methods: Basenji dogs were ascertained for the PRA phenotype by clinical ophthalmoscopic examination. Blood samples from six affected cases and three nonaffected controls were collected, and DNA extraction was used for a genome-wide association study using the canine HD Illumina single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array and PLINK. Positional candidate genes identified within the peak association signal region were evaluated. Results: The highest -Log10(P) value of 4.65 was obtained for 12 single nucleotide polymorphisms on three chromosomes. Homozygosity and linkage disequilibrium analyses favored one chromosome, CFA25, and screening of the S-antigen (SAG) gene identified a non-stop mutation (c.1216T\u3eC), which would result in the addition of 25 amino acids (p.*405Rext*25). Conclusions: Identification of this non-stop SAG mutation in dogs affected with retinal degeneration establishes this canine disease as orthologous to Oguchi disease and SAG-associated retinitis pigmentosa in humans, and offers opportunities for genetic therapeutic intervention

In N Out — Reaching OUT to the community from withIN our student body

As a way to enhance their educational experience and promote global citizenship, students in higher education are often expected to participate in activities beyond the walls of their universities. These activities may include study abroad, internships, service learning projects, and much more. While these activities can take place far from the university setting, they also often occur in the university’s local community, where our students work or volunteer at local businesses, nonprofit organizations, and service agencies. These students bring their real world projects to their course work, where libraries and librarians engage with them to find real world solutions using library resources. What role do academic libraries play in supporting students as they engage in these activities? Can academic libraries play a role in supporting local communities beyond the help they provide for students engaged in community projects? If so, how can academic libraries plan for and respond to local business and community needs? Issues associated with the increasingly blurred lines between school and work and how libraries can navigate these boundaries will be addressed. This preconference will focus on what academic librarians are already doing for local communities, both directly and indirectly, and how to replicate at their own institutions. Participants will engage with case studies to plan a research strategy, suggest recommended sources and address access issues specific to community projects. Interactive polling will capture participant suggestions to augment a community engagement packet. Participants will leave with innovative community outreach programs that can be replicated on their campuses. Workshop participants will be able to: Identify opportunities for librarians to provide direct and indirect support to local communities; Compare and contrast the different economic resources that support local communities; and Demonstrate the usefulness of resources such as census data, geographic information systems (GIS), and subscription-based databases to local communities