Examining Teacher Perceptions of Primary Grade Level Collaboration on Professional Development and Growth

Teacher collaboration has been embedded in teachers’ schedules across the country as many school leaders believe it improves student achievement. It is mandated within the school system wherein this study was conducted. However, the major emphasis is on student achievement with little to no emphasis on soft skills, which are desperately needed. Teachers need to be trained in fostering learning and on how to be empathetic, supportive, and culturally sensitive. Notwithstanding, if they do not believe collaboration is beneficial to them in the classroom and to their professional development and growth, it would not be an effective tool for student achievement. Students receive their foundational education at the primary grade level, the area of focus of this study. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine teachers’ attitudes, experiences, and beliefs regarding the impact of primary grade level collaboration on professional development to strengthen instructional practice leading to higher student achievement. Phenomenological qualitative design was the methodology used. Instruments included Microsoft Forms, an interview and focus group protocol, and a survey. (See Appendices F, G, and H for survey and protocols). Data were collected from consent forms, surveys, interviews, and focus group sessions from nine primary teachers and analyzed using thematic analysis with the assistance of NVIVO software. (See Appendices A, B, C for consent forms). Seven themes emerged related to grade-level, group, and professional development collaborative sessions; planning; peer culture; teacher performance; and instructional practices. The participants agreed that student achievement was linked to professional growth and development; however, it did not emerge as a theme. It was concluded that the teachers believed grade-level collaboration is beneficial in the v teaching and learning process and professional development. Recommendations for further study included examining perceptions of other grade-level teachers on the topic

Spider (Arachnida: Araneae) distribution across the timberline in the Swiss Central Alps (Alp Flix, Grisons) and three morphologically remarkable species

We collected 6251 adult epigeic spiders from the dwarf-shrub heath to subalpine coniferous forest on Alp Flix (CH, canton Grisons, 1950 m) between May 2005 and May 2006 using pitfall traps. Total species richness and activity density of all species decreased from the open land to the forest, although this pattern varied according to family. The distribution of the 102 species found indicates that the small area around a single tree at the timberline provides habitats for both open land and forest spider species as well as some possible timberline specialists. Five species were new to the canton Grisons: Centromerita bicolor, Centromerita concinna, Hilaira excisa, Meioneta alpica and Tallusia experta. Three species showed remarkable morphological characteristics and were analysed in more detail. We found males of Pelecopsis radicicola without the characteristic longitudinal depression on the raised carapace. It is shown that the males of Meioneta alpica have a considerably variable lamella characteristica, which is nevertheless distinct from the sister species Meioneta ressli. Because we found intermediate forms of the head region described for Metopobactrus prominulus and M. schenkeli, respectively, M. schenkeli is considered a syn. nov. of M. prominulus. This study shows that the known distribution and taxonomic status of various spider taxa in the Central Alps are still incomplete and further work on arthropods in remote areas should be strongly encouraged

Local modularity measure for network clusterizations

Many complex networks have an underlying modular structure, i.e., structural subunits (communities or clusters) characterized by highly interconnected nodes. The modularity $Q$ has been introduced as a measure to assess the quality of clusterizations. $Q$ has a global view, while in many real-world networks clusters are linked mainly \emph{locally} among each other (\emph{local cluster-connectivity}). Here, we introduce a new measure, localized modularity $LQ$, which reflects local cluster structure. Optimization of $Q$ and $LQ$ on the clusterization of two biological networks shows that the localized modularity identifies more cohesive clusters, yielding a complementary view of higher granularity.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, RevTex4; Changed conten