Service as e-ducare

The word “education” originated from the Latin word e-ducare, meaning “To bring out from within”. This ancient educational philosophy of “bringing out from within” carries through to modern times. One way modern colleges and universities apply this philosophy is by offering and implementing service opportunities, encouraging students to bring out their underlying skills to help others. Projects created by students’ own initiatives or with student involvement are more likely to be successful, because the service will bring out students’ underlying talents

Teacher Trainees’ Reasoning about Teaching Mathematics to English Learners in an Era of Core Content State Standards

Research has indicated over the years that English learners (ELs) are not supported to achieve their goals in learning academic content and acquiring English. Despite a growing body of research on the essential teacher knowledge-base for teaching ELs and effective linguistically-responsive teacher education, there is still a dearth of research on candidate content teachers’ reasoning and instructional decision-making especially regarding teaching mathematics to ELs. This paper explored how a group of ten future mathematics teachers reasoned about a handful of scenarios illustrative of teaching mathematics to ELs. Qualitative analyses of the candidates’ discourse revealed that pre-service mathematics teachers’ perceptions of ELs fell on a continuum ranging from viewing ELs as one homogeneous group of learners to viewing them as heterogeneous in their proficiency levels, cultures, and academic needs. The second pattern was related to candidates’ views as to what effective EL-teaching meant to them. In that, their views about effective EL-teaching also fell on a continuum ranging from the belief in removing all the linguistic demands from the particular mathematics content to convictions about recognizing and incorporating the linguistic demands of the content

Clinical relevance of soluble c-erbB-2 for patients with metastatic breast cancer predicting the response to second-line hormone or chemotherapy

Concentrations of soluble c-erbB-2 were determined in the sera of 64 patients with distant metastasis from advanced breast cancer receiving second-line hormone or chemotherapy in comparison to 35 breast cancer patients without detectable recurrent disease and 17 healthy blood donors. The sera of non-metastatic breast cancer patients contained s-erbB-2 concentrations similar to those of healthy blood donors. Patients with distant metastasis from advanced breast cancer had significantly higher values of s-erbB-2 in comparison to patients with non-disseminated disease (mean: 59.6 vs. 11.6 U/ml; p = 0.022). A significant correlation was observed between s-erbB-2 serum levels and serum LDH concentrations (p < 0.001), levels of alkaline phosphatase (p < 0.001), and the presence of hepatic metastasis (p = 0.001). Time to tumor progression was significantly shorter in patients with s-erbB-2 levels above 40 U/ml (mean: 23.4 vs. 56.7 months; p = 0.002). Furthermore, breast cancer patients with hepatic metastasis and those with elevated s-erbB-2 serum levels above 40 U/ml had limited response to hormone or chemotherapy. Non-responders had significantly higher s-erbB-2 levels (mean: 270.3, range: 42-500 U/ml;) compared with the responder group (mean: 23.1, range: 0-149 U/ml; p < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis indicated that elevated s-erbB-2 serum levels above 40 U/ml independently predicted an unfavorable response to second-line hormone or chemotherapy in patients with advanced metastatic breast cancer. Copyright (C) 2002 S. KargerAG, Basel

Design of a hand-held user interface for the active joint brace

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, June 2005."May 2005." Vita.Includes bibliographical references (p. 23).The continued development of the Active Joint Brace, a powered orthosis, required that a suitable user interface be designed to control the brace. Since the brace is an electronically-controlled mechanical, medical device, it was important that the user interface (UI) provide both a proper interface to the software that controls the brace, and be in conformance with human factors data. The constraints provided by the existing electronics and software of the brace, combined with suitable ergonomic data, were used to inform the design of a hand-held user interface device, pictured below. The UI features one-handed operation, utilizing an LCD character display and speaker for output devices and a navigation switch for an input device. In preparation for the new UI, the existing menu system was also reorganized for ease-of-use. In preliminary user testing within the development team, the UI has been judged as satisfactory, with only a few minor changes needed to the enclosure.by Christopher P. Possinger.S.B

Vaterschaft

In der Familiensoziologie wird davon ausgegangen, dass sich Vaterschaft dann konstituiert, wenn Männer dauerhaft und generationsübergreifend Sorgearbeit für Kinder leisten. Begrifflich kann unterschieden werden zwischen den Einstellungen zur Institution Vaterschaft (fatherhood) und der sozialen Praxis von Vätern im Familienalltag (fathering). Beide Dimensionen von Vaterschaft unterliegen einem gesellschaftlichen Wandel, der sich im Kontext von Veränderungen der Geschlechterverhältnisse vollzieht

Von Fürsorge zu Care : Die Organisation familialer Sorgearbeit in Deutschland

Mit dem Konzept der Care führte der 7. Familienbericht der Bundesregierung im Jahre 2006 einen Begriff ein, der in der deutschen Diskussion um die Zukunft der Familie bis dahin wenig gebräuchlich war. Alle Menschen seien, so heißt es, „in bestimmten Lebensphasen und Lebenssituationen mehr oder weniger existentiell darauf angewiesen […], dass sich andere um sie verlässlich und verbindlich kümmern“. Care sei somit gesellschaftlich notwendige Arbeit, ohne die „auch moderne westliche Gesellschaften nicht überlebensfähig wären“. Der Bericht der Kommission stellt Fürsorgearbeit deshalb in seinen Fokus und fordert die Politik dazu auf, nachhaltige Rahmenbedingungen zu schaffen, die es Menschen in Deutschland ermöglichen, Care für Kinder und pflegebedürftige Angehörige auch in Zukunft leisten zu können. Was ist nun aber genau mit „Care“ – in Abgrenzung zu „Fürsorge“ – gemeint? Welchen Mehrwert bietet das Konzept der „Care-Regime“ in der Diskussion um den strukturellen Wandel von Familien? Und wie kann ein gesellschaftliches Sorge-Defizit nachhaltig vermieden werden? Diese Fragen bleiben bislang weitgehend unbeantwortet, denn eine grundlegende und interdisziplinäre Bestandsaufnahme des Care-Konzepts findet sich speziell in der deutschsprachigen Sozialforschung nicht. Der folgende Beitrag soll deshalb versuchen, diese Lücke zu schließen

Das Familienleben als krisenanfällige Resonanzachse

Mit der Bezugnahme auf Rosa untersucht die Autorin den Resonanzbegriff aus einer familiensoziologischen Perspektive. In diesem Rahmen reflektiert sie populäre Resonanzversprechen, die von einem Leben mit Kindern in der Gegenwartsgesellschaft ausgehen und analysiert zentrale Herausforderungen, vor denen Familien als krisenanfällige Resonanzachse aktuell stehen. (DIPF/Orig.

Pre-service Teachers’ Humanistic vs. Custodial Beliefs: Before and After the Student Teaching Experience

The student teaching experience is cited as one of the most critical facets of teachers’ professional development. However, teachers’ beliefs about pedagogical practices and disciplinary procedures, as well as their perceptions of students, also influence the approaches they use in the classroom. This study uses a humanistic and custodial orientation theoretical framework to compare the beliefs of pre-service teachers immediately after having completed their core didactic coursework – but prior to the student teaching experience – with their beliefs immediately after the student teaching experience. Findings from this study reveal that upon completion of their didactic coursework, pre-service-teachers’ espouse humanistic beliefs, in contrast to a custodial orientation. Furthermore, although the use of external rewards to shape student behavior as well as other specific management and pedagogical practices were more highly prioritized after immersion in the field, student teaching did not appear to alter pre-service teachers’ core beliefs