Evaluating online information: Attitudes and practices of secondary English Language Arts teachers

As an increasing number of teens are engaging in digital environments, they are becoming open to online misinformation often designed to further a variety of agendas. Online misinformation, or “fake news” as it is often referred to in popular culture, permeates all Web 2.0 technologies. Since English Language Arts curriculums often focus on topics related to critical media literacy, English Language Arts teachers have a unique opportunity to integrate strategies to evaluate online information. This survey design study explored the attitudes and practices of secondary English Language Arts teachers regarding teaching students strategies to detect online misinformation. Teachers working within one mid-Atlantic suburban county completed a web-based survey consisting of questions about their demographics as well as the importance for students to learn, teachers to teach, and frequency of integrating strategies to evaluate online information. Results indicated overwhelming support for integrating critical media literacy into English Language Arts classrooms

Teachers’ perceptions of media literacy competence during an online professional development

Although scholars and practitioners have suggested teachers integrate media literacy into content instruction to equip students with the skills needed to participate online, media literacy may be a new or underutilized concept for teachers. As teachers must acquire the necessary skills to educate students about media literacy, online professional development is an efficient method for teacher learning focusing on concepts often overlooked by school divisions such as media literacy. This case study examined the change in six high school teachers’ perceptions of their competence related to the instructional integration of media literacy while participating in an online professional development course. Findings indicated a perceived increase with the following: media literacy connections to content curriculum, media literacy language, use of the open web, and media evaluation. Recommendations include specific refinements to the online professional development course, implementing differentiated media literacy learning experiences, technology coaching, and leveraging media literacy for social justice

W poszukiwaniu skutecznej diagnozy penitencjarnej

The article deals with the issue of penitentiary diagnosis as a key element for the design and conduct of effective penitentiary interactions. Starting from the postulated state in the methodology of rehabilitation pedagogy and penitentiary resocialisation through current practical solutions, it tries to indicate the possibilities and deficiencies of the penitentiary diagnosis model and propose a direction of further exploration. The article consists of five parts. The first discusses the place of diagnosis in resocialisation interactions. The next one presents the subject of penitentiary diagnosis from the perspective of current legal provisions, with particular emphasis on elements favouring the individualisation of the execution of imprisonment. The third part focuses on the aspect of forecasting as one of the tasks of penitentiary staff to look at the possibilities offered by penitentiary diagnosis and criminological forecasting in the next one. The summary presents conclusions of the considerations, which have been supplemented with proposals aimed at improving the process of penitentiary diagnosis.W artykule zostało podjęte zagadnienie diagnozy penitencjarnej jako elementu kluczowego dla projektowania i prowadzenia skutecznych oddziaływań penitencjarnych. Wychodząc od stanu postulowanego w metodyce pedagogiki resocjalizacyjnej i resocjalizacji penitencjarnej, poprzez aktualne rozwiązania praktyczne starano się wskazać możliwości i niedostatki modelu diagnozy penitencjarnej oraz zaproponować kierunek dalszych eksploracji. Opracowanie składa się z pięciu części. W pierwszej omówiono miejsce diagnozy w oddziaływaniach resocjalizacyjnych. W kolejnej podjęto temat diagnozy penitencjarnej z perspektywy aktualnych przepisów prawnych, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem elementów sprzyjających indywidualizacji wykonywania kary pozbawienia wolności. W części trzeciej skoncentrowano się na aspekcie prognozowania jako jednym z zadań personelu penitencjarnego, aby następnie przyjrzeć się możliwościom, jakie stwarzają diagnoza penitencjarna i prognozowanie kryminologiczne. W podsumowaniu przedstawiono wnioski z rozważań, które zostały uzupełnione o propozycje mające na celu usprawnienie procesu diagnozowania penitencjarnego

Kindergarten Teachers’ and Parents’ Opinions Toward Preschool Program Curricula and the Methods of Teaching

This study was conducted in order to investigate and to compare the opinions of kindergarten teachers and parents of kindergarten children toward preschool program curricula and the methods of teaching preschool. The subjects consisted of sixteen teachers and twenty parents. These participants were asked to complete a survey. The survey given to the teachers asked them their views concerning different aspects involving preschool programs. The parent survey asked the parents questions concerning the same matter. Fifty percent of the teachers and parents were later interviewed to gather further information on their opinions toward preschools. Different interview questions were presented to each subject depending on the information given in the survey. Survey and interview information was compiled and summarized in tables showing the opinions within each group of subjects. The opinions varied greatly toward preschool program curricula and the methods of teaching preschool

Evaluating the fitness cost of protein expression in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Protein metabolism is one of the most costly processes in the cell and is therefore expected to be under the effective control of natural selection. We stimulated yeast strains to overexpress each single gene product to approximately 1% of the total protein content. Consistent with previous reports, we found that excessive expression of proteins containing disordered or membrane-protruding regions resulted in an especially high fitness cost. We estimated these costs to be nearly twice as high as for other proteins. There was a ten-fold difference in cost if, instead of entire proteins, only the disordered or membrane-embedded regions were compared with other segments. Although the cost of processing bulk protein was measurable, it could not be explained by several tested protein features, including those linked to translational efficiency or intensity of physical interactions after maturation. It most likely included a number of individually indiscernible effects arising during protein synthesis, maturation, maintenance, (mal)functioning, and disposal. When scaled to the levels normally achieved by proteins in the cell, the fitness cost of dealing with one amino acid in a standard protein appears to be generally very low. Many single amino acid additions or deletions are likely to be neutral even if the effective population size is as large as that of the budding yeast. This should also apply to substitutions. Selection is much more likely to operate if point mutations affect protein structure by, for example, extending or creating stretches that tend to unfold or interact improperly with membranes

Molecular chaperones and selection against mutations

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Molecular chaperones help to restore the native states of proteins after their destabilization by external stress. It has been proposed that another function of chaperones is to maintain the activity of proteins destabilized by mutation, weakening the selection against suboptimal protein variants. This would allow for the accumulation of genetic variation which could then be exposed during environmental perturbation and facilitate rapid adaptation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We focus on studies describing interactions of chaperones with mutated polypeptides. There are some examples that chaperones can alleviate the deleterious effects of mutations through increased assistance of destabilized proteins. These experiments are restricted to bacteria and typically involve overexpression of chaperones. In eukaryotes, it was found that the malfunctioning of chaperones aggravated phenotypic aberrations associated with mutations. This effect could not be linked to chaperone-mediated stabilization of mutated proteins. More likely, the insufficient activity of chaperones inflicted a deregulation of multiple cellular systems, including those responsible for signaling and therefore important in development. As to why the assistance of mutated proteins by chaperones seems difficult to demonstrate, we note that chaperone-assisted folding can often co-exist with chaperone-assisted degradation. There is growing evidence that some chaperones, including those dependent on Hsp90, can detect potentially functional but excessively unstable proteins and direct them towards degradation instead of folding. This implies that at least some mutations are exposed rather than masked by the activity of molecular chaperones.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is at present impossible to determine whether molecular chaperones are mostly helpers or examiners of mutated proteins because experiments showing either of these roles are very few. Depending on whether assistance or disposal prevails, molecular chaperones could speed up or slow down evolution of protein sequences. Similar uncertainties arise when the concept of chaperones (mostly Hsp90) as general regulators of evolvability is considered. If the two roles of chaperones are antagonistic, then any (even small) modification of the chaperone activities to save mutated polypeptides could lead to increased misfolding and aggregation of other proteins. This would be a permanent burden, different from the stochastic cost arising from indiscriminate buffering of random mutations of which many are maladaptive.</p> <p>Reviewers</p> <p>This article was reviewed by A. S. Kondrashov, J. Höhfeld (nominated by A. Eyre-Walker) and D. A. Drummond (nominated by C. Adami). For the full reviews, please go to the Reviewers' comments section.</p

Empathy among the members of isolated culture

This article presents a look at the resocialization, as a cultural offer, which were presented for imprisoned persons. Perceiving the phenomenon of the prison subculture, as a threat to the future readaptation, a program with using elements of drama was suggested and presented whether and what scope he can contribute to the increase in the level of empathy in