Nebraska Educator Perceptions on the Quality of Instructional Feedback in a Secondary Science Classroom

The practice of providing feedback to teachers through the process of teacher evaluation is designed to improve the quality of instruction at the classroom level. However, there is a dearth of literature concerning how instructional leaders can best support teachers, and what types of feedback are beneficial to improvement. Secondary science education presents a unique challenge to instructional leaders as it is rare to have content experts represented at the administrator level. Few supports exist for administrators who are not science content experts, consequently lending little assistance to the science specialists in the classroom, aside from available outside workshops and resources. This absence of content support for both administrators and science teachers contradicts the idea of Stein and Nelson’s nested learning community (2003) in which content is located at the center of all teaching and learning interactions. The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of both secondary science teachers and their administrators to explore the current state of feedback in a secondary science classroom, and what that feedback needs to look like to support the professional growth of highly specialized educators. The concurrent mixed methods study surveyed 26 science teachers and 12 administrators from four high schools across the state of Nebraska to gather perception data. Both qualitative and quantitative data from resulting survey completions showed that secondary science teachers value feedback from their evaluating administrators for purposes of professional growth in the classroom. This feedback should include both content-neutral and content-specific components of teaching, as some science teachers felt a greater need for pedagogy-related suggestions while others wanted more directive feedback on strategies connected to their specific activities and how students are grasping the science learning. Over half of the science teacher participants recognized a need for both types of feedback for growth. Secondary administrators both viewed themselves and were deemed capable of providing content-neutral feedback, but were found (by science teachers and themselves) to be lacking in ability to provide content-specific feedback in a secondary science classroom. These results call for additional supports for administrators with regard to the provision of specialized content feedback. In light of the Nebraska College and Career Ready Standards for Science coming in the spring of 2018, the timing is right for providing more science-specific supports to both secondary science teachers and their evaluating administrators

How Parodic Tourism Explains the Rhetorical Force of A Trailer for Every Academy Award-Winning Movie Ever Made

As social media and content-sharing sites become an increasingly familiar part of daily life, the need to understand the effects of such mediums is also increasing. This essay explores the means by which A Trailer for Every Academy Award-Winning Movie Ever Made dissects its cultural landscape though use of parody and metatext. Following Ott and Bonnstetter’s theory of parodic tourism, the author explains how the complex format of this YouTube video presents the audience with certain tools to construct or reconstruct their own cultural landscape. In addition, it will be demonstrated how these tools are being used increasingly in the YouTube culture, and explain the significance of this video to its parody genre, and subsequently, its viewers. This research contributes to the ongoing investigation in the field of visual parody and its impact on society

Raquel Cepeda\u27s Digital and Literary Publics: Twitter and Bird of Paradise

This study charts language use in two public spheres: literary and digital. Cepeda’s 2015 memoir Bird of Paradise, much like fellow Dominican American author Junot Díaz’s works, utilizes untranslated code switching and requires both linguistic and cultural translations on the part of the reader. Cepeda’s digital public, analyzed via her active Twitter account with over 11,000 followers, employs language in different ways to reach a wider, transnational audience. This essay considers how both Cepeda’s literary and digital spheres connect her to a diverse readership and can be considered examples of (digital) activism

Community Engagement Beyond the Buzzwords: Student Internalizations of the Land-Grant Mission

The mission statements of land-grant institutions consistently describe their students as “engaged.” Beginning with an analysis of the mission statements of Midwestern land-grant institutions, this study discusses the results of a pre- and post-test of a subculture of undergraduate students enrolled in a course with a required community engagement component. The study assesses the dissonance or alignment of the ways mission statements describe students and the ways students describe themselves

Creative writing: An elective course for high school students

This thesis project outlines a course in creative writing designed for students in grades 9-12. The course is an elective and is expected to be taken in addition to general English classes taken as a graduation requirement. The course is designed as a genre study on an immersion principle, which requires that students focus their attention on the characteristics that make up various genres through both reading and writing in those genres. Students are introduced to the overall workshop format of the class and to the procedure of conferencing on and revising drafts through the basic study of the genres of fiction and poetry. They then move on to genres that are less frequently taught in the English curriculum: graphic literature, drama, and multigenre presentations. Throughout the course, students are required to keep reflective journals that document their awareness ofthe process of writing, revising, and editing. They will be responsible for producing final drafts in genre study, one working portfolio, one showcase portfolio, and at least one submission to the class publication to be distributed to the community through the sale of monthly issues and subscriptions. This elective course is founded in the research of current classes and methods of teaching immersion, workshops, and writing in secondary education. It offers students the opportunity to explore unfamiliar genres through reading and writing, and it provides them with a creative forum in which they can be published in an authentic achievement

Review of Daring to write: Contemporary narratives by Dominican women

Numerous anthologies of Caribbean writers—and, more specifically, anthologies of Caribbean women writers—have been published in the last 20 years. Border Crossings: A Trilingual Anthology of Caribbean Women Writers (2011) and Stories from Blue Latitudes: Caribbean Women Writers at Home and Abroad (2005) represent two similarly curated anthologies that complement earlier volumes compiling the works of Caribbean and women writers. With the recent publication of Daring to Write, editor Erika M. Martínez focuses readers’ attention on a specific, often neglected, subset of Caribbean women writers: Dominicans. Martínez intentionally places little-known works of newcomers alongside fiction and nonfiction written by established Dominican writers such as Nelly Rosario, author of Song of the Water Saints; renowned Dominican poet Rhina Espaillat; Ángela Hernández; and Jeanette Miller. Hernández and Miller, among others, write in Spanish, and the translations of their stories by Achy Obejas succeed in bringing their work to new audiences. The anthology unites in a single volume the voices of Dominican women writing both on and off the island and reflects the myriad diasporic communities in which Dominican women reside, whether temporarily or permanently

Efficacy of decreased nitrite concentrations on Clostridium perfringens outgrowth during an Appendix B cooling cycle for ready-to-eat meats

Increased popularity of natural and organic processed meats can be attributed to the growing consumer demand of preservative-free foods. In order to meet consumer demand, processors have begun using celery juice concentrate in place of sodium nitrite creating no-nitrate-no-nitrite added meat products while maintaining the characteristics unique to conventionally cured processed meats. Natural cures typically have lower ingoing nitrite concentrations which could allow for increased pathogen growth, such as Clostridium perfringens, during cooling as required by USDA, FSIS Appendix B. The objective of this study was to investigate the implications associated with reduced nitrite concentrations and their ability to inhibit C. perfringens outgrowth during a 15 hour cooling cycle. Nitrite treatments of 0 ppm, 50 ppm, and 100 ppm were tested in a broth system inoculated with a three-strain C. perfringens cocktail and treated with a 15 hour stabilization cycle. Samples were collected at 11 pre-determined time/temperature points throughout the cooling cycle in order to evaluate survival of the total C. perfringens population as well as vegetative cells and spores. The lower nitrite concentration of 50 ppm was more effective at preventing C. perfringens outgrowth than 0 ppm, but was not as effective as 100 ppm nitrite. The interaction between nitrite and temperature significantly inhibited (p \u3c0.05) C. perfringens outgrowth in both total population and vegetative cell data. The factors of temperature and nitrite concentration significantly impacted (p \u3c0.05) C. perfringens spores with the interaction between nitrite and temperature having a non-significant (p \u3e0.05) effect on spore outgrowth. Results indicate that decreased nitrite concentrations (50 ppm) have increased potential for total C. perfringens population outgrowth during cooling and may require additional protective measures, such as faster chilling rates

Union Commitment and Participation

What are union commitment and participation? Union commitment refers to the extent to which employees are dedicated to their union (Cooper-Hakim & Viswesvaran, 2005; Gordon, Philpot, Burt, Thompson, & Spiller, 1980). Union participation is active involvement in the union such as attending meetings, serving on committees, holding office, campaigning, voting, assisting with contracts and negotiations, managing union funds, and filing grievances (Anderson, 1979). Many researchers consider union participation as part of union commitment (e.g., Gordon et al., 1980). Others have speculated that union participation is a consequence of union commitment (e.g., Parks, Gallagher, & Fullagar, 1995). Additional ways to conceptualize union participation include: Participation as a single, global concept (e.g., Anderson, 1979). Participation as areas of activities (e.g., administration participation, meeting attendance, and voting) that need to be considered separately (e.g., McShane, 1986; Parks et al., 1995). Participation as militant versus non-militant participation (Monnot, Wagner, & Beehr, 2001). Militant participation is “any action on the part of union members to withhold work activity, such as a strike or slowdown” (Monnot et al., 2011, p. 1127). This type of participation may be harmful to the organization and require people to prioritize the good of the union over the good of the organization. Non-militant participation, however, is “any form of prounion action that does not directly interfere with the operations of the business, such as voting in union elections, reading union literature, or even running for office as an official” (Monnot et al., 2011, p. 1128). These are not damaging actions and allow for employees to be equally committed to the organization and the union. Researchers have used many versions of union commitment and participation scales. For example, Union Loyalty (i.e., commitment) is measured with items such as “I feel a sense of pride being part of this union” and “The record of this union is a good example of what dedicated people can get done” (Gordon et al., 1980). Willingness to Work (i.e., participation) includes items such as “If asked, I would serve on a committee” and “I am willing to put in a great deal of effort beyond that normally expected of a member in order to make the union successful” (Gordon et al., 1980). January 27, 2021 Why are union commitment and participation important? Union commitment and participation are important because they are associated with job attitudes (Monnot et al., 2011). More specifically, union commitment is modestly associated with job satisfaction and moderately associated with organizational commitment; employees who express commitment to the union are more likely to also express job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Overall, union participation is not related to job satisfaction or organizational commitment. Militant union participation, however, is modestly related to organizational commitment; employees who engage in militant union participation are less likely to express commitment to their organization. What contributes to union commitment and participation? Meta-analytic research on union commitment and participation thus far has focused on assessing factors that are merely associated with it, not on what factors cause union commitment or participation. Nonetheless, two factors may contribute to union commitment and participation: pro-union attitudes and instrumentality perceptions. Pro-union attitudes refer to individuals’ perception that unions are good, and instrumentality perceptions refer to individuals’ beliefs that unions do good. That is, pro-union attitudes are general positive attitudes toward the union and unions in general; instrumentality perceptions are the belief in “the union helping to achieve something for the members” (Monnot et al., 2011, p. 1129). Both pro-union attitudes and instrumentality are strongly related to union commitment and moderately related to union participation (both militant and non-militant). Employees who feel generally positive about the union and believe the union is helpful are more likely to express commitment to the union and participate in union activities. QIC-WD Takeaways ► Union commitment is modestly associated with job satisfaction and moderately associated with organizational commitment. ► Overall union participation is not related to job satisfaction or organizational commitment. ► Militant union participation is modestly related to organizational commitment, such that employees who engage in militant union participation have lower organizational commitment. ► Union commitment and participation are higher among those who feel unions are good and useful. ► Research is needed to better understand what causes union commitment. ► Practitioners or researchers that would like to assess union commitment should consider the measure developed by Gordon et al. (1980)