The Power of Journaling: A Dynamic Tool for Evaluating Student Teacher Adjustment in Cross-Cultural Contexts

Journaling is an acceptable pedagogical and assessment tool used to help leverage a university student teacher’s emotional and spiritual growth in a 10 week cross-cultural student teaching experience. The process requires students to document their life and learning experiences. Questions are designed for student response. Student teachers are encouraged to draw personal connections between their lives and new experiences. This article will show how journaling helped four student teachers process what Kelly and Meyers (1995) identify as the four components of cross-cultural adaptability: (1) emotional resilience, (2) flexibility/openness, (3) perceptual acuity and (4) personal autonomy. Excerpts from the personal journals of students are included for each of these four components. The journals are used to assess student preparation for cross-cultural living, weekly physical, emotional and spiritual health, the learning environment, and the learning process

The Integration of Faith, Learning and Life

This paper will deal with the concept of Biblical integration. Biblical integration can be compared to painting a beautiful picture that uses exquisite colors of various oils. Individually, each color is attractive and alive, but integrated into a whole by the hand of the master artist, the colors cry out with the beauty of a coherent, unified image. So it is, that integrating the colors of faith, learning and life under the Master’s hand has the potential for creating a stimulating and attractive picture that reflects the splendor of the great Master Artist. According to I Corinthians 10:31, it is, after all, the primary purpose of man’s existence in the universe to glorify God. The purpose of this paper is to show how He can be magnified through the integration of faith, learning and life. There are three specific goals of this paper. The first goal sets forth a Christian world view that covers four major areas: God, creation, man and epistemology. The second goal is to apply the concept of the integration of faith, learning and life to the discipline of education. The last section will reflect on how integration is demonstrated specifically in the Early Childhood Education Science Methods II course of study

The Historical Development of Private Education in Canada

The Canadian educational system has been influenced by geography, population, and natural resources. In some provinces, denominational schools exist within the public school system. Although committed to a multiethnic society, private education also exists within the larger system, with religious or Christian schools considered a subset of private education. The early French and British immigrants to Canada shaped the educational system and their influence is still evident in the contemporary educational milieu, including the dual-language system and the adoption of a multicultural model. The Roman Catholic and Church of England influences were particularly strong since, unlike education in America, religion was integrated into public education. Canadian educational history passed through several stages with both public and provincially funded education under the direction of provincial governments. These included church-controlled education (1700s to mid 1800s); a more centralized authority, universal free education, and taxation at the local level (mid 1800s); the creation of provincial departments of education, a more consistent curriculum, better trained teachers, continued local taxation together with provincial grants (late 1800s to 1900); and from 1900 to the present day, the creation of Ministers of Education in each province and provincial governments playing an increasingly significant role in the shaping of policy and administration

Preservice Teachers\u27 Use of Frustration to Enhance Communication

Pre-service teaching, a required component of accredited teacher education programs across the United States, provides the opportunity for pre-service teachers to not only teach in their specific fields, but also to work with specific populations of students, such as English Language Learners (ELLs). Rarely, however, do pre-service teachers from the U.S. have the opportunity to teach ELLs in contexts where languages other than English and cultures other than American are dominant. This presentation reports how pre-service teachers teaching ELLs in just such situations dealt with frustrations common to pre-service teachers and also frustrations due to situational contexts. Through self-reporting, these pre-service teachers describe how they used these frustrations to inform their conceptual knowledge, to make changes in their own English while teaching English to others, and to improve their teaching skills

Affective Responses Of Overseas Student-Teachers

Universities offering teacher education degrees are finding the world to be significantly smaller than did previous generations.  Increasingly, American students are completing their required student teaching in foreign contexts.  The present research study used rigorous qualitative methods in order to appraise the affective experiences from a sample of 13 students who completed their student teaching overseas.  Results showed, affectively, students experienced a bell-shaped curve phenomenon.  Particularly, they underwent stages of excitement when entering the teaching experience, followed by significant dysphoria, and then completed their student teaching with a positive emotional set

Extra-curricular Life of Overseas Student Teachers

Overseas student-teaching is becoming increasingly popular among American college students. Unfortunately, relatively little is known empirically regarding how these students find their experiences—academically or outside of the teaching classroom. Consequently, the present research study used rigorous qualitative methods in order to appraise extra-curricular experiences from a sample of 13 students who completed their student teaching overseas. Results showed students to experience surface relationships with nationals and deeper connections with faculty. While the student teachers reported participating in various excursions alongside nationals, they generally categorized their connections with these people on surface levels, explaining that relationships were hindered by language barrier inhibitions. In contrast, when our participants described their interactions with faculty, they spoke in terms of meaningful connections and bonding experiences

Extra Curricular Life Of Overseas Student-Teachers

Overseas student-teaching is becoming increasingly popular among American college students.  Unfortunately, relatively little is known empirically regarding how these students find their experiences—academically or outside of the teaching classroom.  Consequently, the present research study used rigorous qualitative methods in order to appraise extra-curricular experiences from a sample of 13 students who completed their student teaching overseas.  Results showed students to experience surface relationships with nationals and deeper connections with faculty.  While the student teachers reported participating in various excursions alongside nationals, they generally categorized their connections with these people on surface levels, explaining that relationships were hindered by language barrier inhibitions. In contrast, when our participants described their interactions with faculty, they spoke in terms of meaningful connections and bonding experiences

Affective Responses of Overseas Student Teachers

Universities offering teacher education degrees are finding the world to be significantly smaller than did previous generations. Increasingly, American students are completing their required student teaching in foreign contexts. The present research study used rigorous qualitative methods in order to appraise the affective experiences from a sample of 13 students who completed their student teaching overseas. Results showed, affectively, students experienced a bell-shaped curve phenomenon. Particularly, they underwent stages of excitement when entering the teaching experience, followed by significant dysphoria, and then completed their student teaching with a positive emotional set

Evaluation of an electronic warfarin nomogram for anticoagulation of hemodialysis patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Warfarin nomograms to guide dosing have been shown to improve control of the international normalized ratio (INR) in the general outpatient setting. However, the effectiveness of these nomograms in hemodialysis patients is unknown. We evaluated the effectiveness of anticoagulation using an electronic warfarin nomogram administered by nurses in outpatient hemodialysis patients, compared to physician directed therapy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Hemodialysis patients at any of the six outpatient clinics in Calgary, Alberta, treated with warfarin anticoagulation were included. Two five-month time periods were compared: prior to and post implementation of the nomogram. The primary endpoint was adequacy of anticoagulation (proportion of INR measurements within range ± 0.5 units).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, 67 patients were included in the pre- and 55 in the post-period (with 40 patients in both periods). Using generalized linear mixed models, the adequacy of INR control was similar in both periods for all range INR levels: in detail, range INR 1.5 to 2.5 (pre 93.6% (95% CI: 88.6% - 96.5%); post 95.6% (95% CI: 89.4% - 98.3%); p = 0.95); INR 2.0 to 3.0 (pre 82.2% (95% CI: 77.9% - 85.8%); post 77.4% (95% CI: 72.0% - 82.0%); p = 0.20); and, INR 2.5 to 3.5 (pre 84.3% (95% CI: 59.4% - 95.1%); post 66.8% (95% CI: 39.9% - 86.0%); p = 0.29). The mean number of INR measurements per patient decreased significantly between the pre- (30.5, 95% CI: 27.0 - 34.0) and post- (22.3, 95% CI: 18.4 - 26.1) (p = 0.003) period. There were 3 bleeding events in each of the periods.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>An electronic warfarin anticoagulation nomogram administered by nurses achieved INR control similar to that of physician directed therapy among hemodialysis patients in an outpatient setting, with a significant reduction in frequency of testing. Future controlled trials are required to confirm the efficacy of this nomogram.</p