The Impact of Instructional Coaching on North Texas Elementary Writing Teachers’ Self-Efficacy in Content Knowledge & Instructional Practices

Writing is a complex, multi-faceted skill that students begin to learn early in their elementary school years and utilize throughout the rest of their academic, personal, and professional lives. Despite the importance of developing effective writing skills, elementary teachers today often lack the necessary training and preparation to provide high-quality writing instruction in both preservice education and on-the-job professional development. Teachers therefore may not be confident in their writing content knowledge and instructional practices. At one elementary school in North Texas, students’ writing scores on both district and state assessments show less growth than other subjects. To improve writing instruction quality and ultimately increase student writing achievement, this study explored how four weeks of intentional instructional coaching, coupled with traditional professional development, facilitated higher teacher self-efficacy in both content knowledge (the writing process) and instructional practices (conferencing with students about writing). Responses from an open-ended questionnaire and a focus group were used to identify common themes. This phenomenological qualitative study’s findings substantiate those of previous research on instructional coaching and teacher self-efficacy. The five writing teachers in this study overwhelmingly believed that successful professional development should be job-embedded. In addition, they believed that instructional coaching, used alongside traditional training, is the most beneficial way to increase their confidence in the writing process and conferencing with students about writing. Specific to the writing process, these teachers believed instructional coaching and professional development increased their confidence, increased student growth and enthusiasm, and further developed their belief that teaching writing is recursive. Specific to conferencing with students about writing, these teachers believed instructional coaching and professional development increased the quality of teacher-student interactions, increased their understanding of the effects of students’ “aha” moments, and increased students’ confidence in their writing. It is important to understand that the instructional coaching intervention occurred during a worldwide pandemic; therefore, coaching sessions occurred via live video conferencing. Despite the lack of in-person instructional coaching, the study’s findings overwhelmingly demonstrate that instructional coaching, when used with professional development, increases writing teachers’ self-efficacy in both content knowledge and instructional practices

Detection and quantitation of benzo(a)pyrene-DNA adducts in brain and liver tissues of Beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) from the St. Lawrence and Mackenzie Estuaries

It should be noted that there are few analytical techniques available for the detection and quantitation of chemical adducts in the DNA of living organisms. The reasons for this are: the analytical technique often has to accommodate the unique chemical and/or physical properties of the individual chemical or its metabolite; the percentage of total chemical that becomes most of the parent compound is usually detoxified and excreted; not all adducts that form between the genotoxic agent and DNA are stable or are involved in the development of subsequent deleterious events in the organism; and the amount of DNA available for analysis is often quite limited. 16 refs., 1 tab

Democratic cultural policy : democratic forms and policy consequences

The forms that are adopted to give practical meaning to democracy are assessed to identify what their implications are for the production of public policies in general and cultural policies in particular. A comparison of direct, representative, democratic elitist and deliberative versions of democracy identifies clear differences between them in terms of policy form and democratic practice. Further elaboration of these differences and their consequences are identified as areas for further research