Teachers’ Accounts of Developing Mathematical Resilience in the Classroom

This paper reports on a professional development programme in mathematical resilience, and the experiences of the teachers taking part. The programme introduced the teachers to the construct of mathematical resilience, and explained how it was relevant and valuable to the teaching and learning of mathematics. The participating teachers were encouraged to apply the principles of mathematical resilience, and to reflect on their actions through conducting a small-scale action research project in their own school environment. What follows in this paper are examples of how mathematical resilience was deployed in these schools, alongside some examples of the changes reported by the teachers in their own practice and that of their students

Continuous Improvement in Education

In recent years, 'continuous improvement' has become a popular catchphrase in the field of education. However, while continuous improvement has become commonplace and well-documented in other industries, such as healthcare and manufacturing, little is known about how this work has manifested itself in education.This white paper attempts to map the landscape of this terrain by identifying and describing organizations engaged in continuous improvement, and by highlighting commonalities and differences among them. The findings classify three types of organizations engaged in continuous improvement: those focused on instructional improvement at the classroom level; those concentrating on system-wide improvement; and those addressing collective impact. Each type is described in turn and illustrated by an organizational case study. Through the analysis, six common themes that characterize all three types of organizations (e.g., leadership and strategy, communication and engagement, organizational infrastructure, methodology, data collection and analysis, and building capacity) are enumerated. This white paper makes four concluding observations. First, the three case studies provide evidence of organizations conducting continuous improvement work in the field of education, albeit at different levels and in different ways. Second, entry points to continuous improvement work are not mutually exclusive, but are nested and, hence, mutually informative and comparative. Third, continuous improvement is not synonymous with improving all organizational processes simultaneously; rather, research and learning cycles are iterative and gradual in nature. Fourth, despite being both iterative and gradual, it is imperative that improvement work is planned and undertaken in a rigorous, thoughtful, and transparent fashion

Rescuing Your Attacker: State of Montana ex rel. Kuntz v. Montana Thirteenth Judicial District Court

State of Montana ex rel. Kuntz v. Montana Thirteenth Judicial District Cour

Visual Art Curriculum Framework For Small Group High School Instruction: An Art Teacher\u27s Reflections

For this thesis, I developed a curriculum for high school art students using centers for small group instruction that helped them develop skills and knowledge in creating art. The type of small group instruction that I implemented is centered based and includes a teacher facilitated component, an interactive activity, and a project done in a small group at their desks. The groups were broken down in levels of ability, skill, and the extra time needed for students to complete their work. By developing this type of curriculum for the Visual Art 1 course, the goal of small group instruction in the art classroom is to support student understanding of the artistic process through successful experiences

The Research Lifecycle at UCF: A library-led institutional collaboration to develop a mental model of research support and services

Presented at the Florida Association of College & Research Libraries Fall Program, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, October 2012

The Research Lifecycle: A library-led institutional collaboration to develop a mental model of research support and services

Presented at the Association of College & Research Libraries conference, Indianapolis, IN, April 2013. This poster was originally presented at the Florida Association of College & Research Libraries in October, 2012. This version includes updated content

Lowell Alexander Francis: Educator, Coach, and Administrator

Transcript of an interview with Lowell Alexander Francis.https://scholars.fhsu.edu/ors/1235/thumbnail.jp

Educators Voices from Integrated Writing and Problem Solving Common Core Workshop

This article provides an opportunity to discuss and examine information gathered during a focus group of K-12 educators involved in an integrated writing and problem solving workshop. Findings demonstrate that some educators are frustrated by the culture of testing versus the culture of learning that exist as a result of the Common Core Standards implementation. Educators are eager to learn and implement new ways of learning in order to promote deeper learning and critical thinking skills. Strategies and recommendations for providing support and resources for educators to meet the expectations to prepare students to be college and career ready are discussed

Patient variability in the blood-stage dynamics of Plasmodium falciparum captured by clustering historical data

BACKGROUND: Mathematical models provide an understanding of the dynamics of a Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage infection (within-host models), and can predict the impact of control strategies that affect the blood-stage of malaria. However, the dynamics of P. falciparum blood-stage infections are highly variable between individuals. Within-host models use different techniques to capture this inter-individual variation. This struggle may be unnecessary because patients can be clustered according to similar key within-host dynamics. This study aimed to identify clusters of patients with similar parasitaemia profiles so that future mathematical models can include an improved understanding of within-host variation. METHODS: Patients' parasitaemia data were analyzed to identify (i) clusters of patients (from 35 patients) that have a similar overall parasitaemia profile and (ii) clusters of patients (from 100 patients) that have a similar first wave of parasitaemia. For each cluster analysis, patients were clustered based on key features which previous models used to summarize parasitaemia dynamics. The clustering analyses were performed using a finite mixture model. The centroid values of the clusters were used to parameterize two established within-host models to generate parasitaemia profiles. These profiles (that used the novel centroid parameterization) were compared with profiles that used individual-specific parameterization (as in the original models), as well as profiles that ignored individual variation (using overall means for parameterization). RESULTS: To capture the variation of within-host dynamics, when studying the overall parasitaemia profile, two clusters efficiently grouped patients based on their infection length and the height of the first parasitaemia peak. When studying the first wave of parasitaemia, five clusters efficiently grouped patients based on the height of the peak and the speed of the clearance following the peak of parasitaemia. The clusters were based on features that summarize the strength of patient innate and adaptive immune responses. Parameterizing previous within host-models based on cluster centroid values accurately predict individual patient parasitaemia profiles. CONCLUSION: This study confirms that patients have personalized immune responses, which explains the variation of parasitaemia dynamics. Clustering can guide the optimal inclusion of within-host variation in future studies, and inform the design and parameterization of population-based models