Think outside the book: Transformative justice using children’s literature in educational settings

Using Alexis Jemal’s conceptualization of transformative potential, founded on Paulo Freire’s idea of Critical Consciousness, a guiding transformative justice approach and accompanying questionnaire are provided here that can be adapted into any existing early childhood or elementary curriculum for children. The approach provides teachers with a methodology to search for new books and resources and use existing ones to foster their own and their students’ critical social consciousness. The transformative justice approach has two objectives: one, to enable teachers to help understand, guide, and mediate differences in the context of equity and social justice; and two, to equip children with social awareness and critical consciousness to identify stereotypes and biases, and to build solidarities between and among themselves. The transformative justice approach does not actively avoid books or resources with stereotypes or biases, but seeks to build skill sets in children and teachers to recognize and counter biases and stereotypes using texts as learning tools. It synthesizes and builds on anti-bias and culturally-sensitive pedagogies to intentionally center structural and systemic inequities, as well as fosters social awareness and critical thinking in both teachers and students by reimagining the classroom as a collaborative learning space

Coordination of Mathematics and Physical Resources by Physics Graduate Students

We investigate the dynamics of how graduate students coordinate their mathematics and physics knowledge within the context of solving a homework problem for a plasma physics survey course. Students were asked to obtain the complex dielectric function for a plasma with a specified distribution function and find the roots of that expression. While all the 16 participating students obtained the dielectric function correctly in one of two equivalent expressions, roughly half of them (7 of 16) failed to compute the roots correctly. All seven took the same initial step that led them to the incorrect answer. We note a perfect correlation between the specific expression of dielectric function obtained and the student's success in solving for the roots. We analyze student responses in terms of a resources framework and suggest routes for future research.Comment: 4 page

The Dynamics of Students' Behaviors and Reasoning during Collaborative Physics Tutorial Sessions

We investigate the dynamics of student behaviors (posture, gesture, vocal register, visual focus) and the substance of their reasoning during collaborative work on inquiry-based physics tutorials. Scherr has characterized student activity during tutorials as observable clusters of behaviors separated by sharp transitions, and has argued that these behavioral modes reflect students' epistemological framing of what they are doing, i.e., their sense of what is taking place with respect to knowledge. We analyze students' verbal reasoning during several tutorial sessions using the framework of Russ, and find a strong correlation between certain behavioral modes and the scientific quality of students' explanations. We suggest that this is due to a dynamic coupling of how students behave, how they frame an activity, and how they reason during that activity. This analysis supports the earlier claims of a dynamic between behavior and epistemology. We discuss implications for research and instruction.Comment: 4 pages, PERC 200

The epidemiology of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in rural East Africa: A population-based study.

BackgroundChronic kidney disease (CKD) may be common among individuals living in sub-Saharan Africa due to the confluence of CKD risk factors and genetic predisposition.MethodsWe ascertained the prevalence of CKD and its risk factors among a sample of 3,686 participants of a population-based HIV trial in rural Uganda and Kenya. Prevalent CKD was defined as a serum creatinine-based estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73m2 or proteinuria (urine dipstick ≥1+). We used inverse-weighting to estimate the population prevalence of CKD, and multivariable log-link Poisson models to assess the associations of potential risk factors with CKD.ResultsThe estimated CKD prevalence was 6.8% (95% CI 5.7-8.1%) overall and varied by region, being 12.5% (10.1-15.4%) in eastern Uganda, 3.9% (2.2-6.8%) in southwestern Uganda and 3.7% (2.7-5.1%) in western Kenya. Risk factors associated with greater CKD prevalence included age ≥60 years (adjusted prevalence ratio [aPR] 3.5 [95% CI 1.9-6.5] compared with age 18-29 years), HIV infection (aPR 1.6 [1.1-2.2]), and residence in eastern Uganda (aPR 3.9 [2.6-5.9]). However, two-thirds of individuals with CKD did not have HIV, diabetes, or hypertension as risk factors. Furthermore, we noted many individuals who did not have proteinuria had dipstick positive leukocyturia or hematuria.ConclusionThe prevalence of CKD is appreciable in rural East Africa and there are considerable regional differences. Conventional risk factors appear to only explain a minority of cases, and leukocyturia and hematuria were common, highlighting the need for further research into understanding the nature of CKD in sub-Saharan Africa

Meso-scale modelling of the size effect on the fracture process zone of concrete

The size effect on the fracture process zone in notched and unnotched three point bending tests of concrete beams is analysed by a meso-scale approach. Concrete is modelled at the meso-scale as stiff aggregates embedded in a soft matrix separated by weak interfaces. The mechanical response of the three phases is modelled by a discrete lattice approach. The model parameters were chosen so that the global model response in the form of load-crack mouth opening displacement curves were in agreement with experimental results reported in the literature. The fracture process zone of concrete is determined numerically by evaluating the average of spatial distribution of dissipated energy densities of random meso-scale analyses. The influence of size and boundary conditions on the fracture process zone in concrete is investigated by comparing the results for beams of different sizes and boundary conditions

The interaction between stress and chronic pain through the lens of threat learning

Stress and pain are interleaved at multiple levels - interacting and influencing each other. Both are modulated by psychosocial factors including fears, beliefs, and goals, and are served by overlapping neural substrates. One major contributing factor in the development and maintenance of chronic pain is threat learning, with pain as an emotionally-salient threat – or stressor. Here, we argue that threat learning is a central mechanism and contributor, mediating the relationship between stress and chronic pain. We review the state of the art on (mal)adaptive learning in chronic pain, and on effects of stress and particularly cortisol on learning. We then provide a theoretical integration of how stress may affect chronic pain through its effect on threat learning. Prolonged stress, as may be experienced by patients with chronic pain, and its resulting changes in key brain networks modulating stress responses and threat learning, may further exacerbate these impairing effects on threat learning. We provide testable hypotheses and suggestions for how this integration may guide future research and clinical approaches in chronic pain