An Examination of Preschool Teachers’ Beliefs about Early Literacy within the Context of a Transdisciplinary Neuroeducation Learning Framework: An Exploratory Qualitative Case Study

Teacher beliefs have been shown to be an influential factor in student outcomes in all areas of learning. In light of the persistent achievement gap between White students and students of color, it seems important to study and understand the role of teacher beliefs in public education. This exploratory case study contributes to a deeper understanding of how preschool teachers’ beliefs about early literacy are expressed or may evolve within a context of implementing the Neuro-semantic Language Learning Theory, a learning framework integrating neuroscience, Western cognitive psychology, and language acquisition into educational applications. The study design included a sample of three preschool educators and multiple data collection events using a robust variety of elicitation methods, including concept map construction, video-stimulated recall, and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed following Saldaña’s first, second, and third cycle coding methods and employed both deductive and inductive approaches. Findings included broader definitions of early literacy by study participants than are noted in the literature and the belief that meaningful learning requires context within social interactions in addition to skill-based interventions. The most significant finding highlighted the complex and contextualized nature of teacher beliefs, which may be changed through the insertion of cognitive disequilibrium supported by a complex and contextualized system of theoretical translation, professional learning opportunities, ongoing coaching, and believable vicarious experiences. Specific recommendations for professional learning experiences and future research are offered

The effects of road commentary training on novice drivers' visual search behaviour: A preliminary investigation

One of the major challenges facing novice drivers seems to be adequately scanning, detecting, and responding to hazards which present during the course of everyday driving; a process that involves ‘reading the road’ and modifying driver behaviour accordingly. Previous studies have indicated that inexperienced drivers tend to utilise only a small proportion of the visual field when driving, and this limited visual search behaviour may play a significant role in the over-representation of young novice drivers’ involvement in crashes. This deficiency in visual search is especially evidenced through crashes occurring at intersections, or other densely populated road environments. More recently, road commentary has become of interest within a number of driver education initiatives, and several current studies have indicated that road commentary indeed improves drivers’ performance in hazard perception tasks. However, relatively little is known about commentaries influence on the underlying cognitive mechanisms responsible for enhanced situation awareness or hazard awareness, and whether such improvements generalize to a broader range of road scenarios. Using hazard perception and eye-tracking measures, we started to examine how road commentary could influence the way drivers visually accrue and process essential road information. First, our data confirmed that commentary training significantly increased the percentage of hazards identified. But additionally, preliminary eye movement data indicated that road commentary may have influenced visual search behaviour of the participants by ‘prompting’ them to allocate extra visual attention capacity to hazard rich areas, as evidenced by an increase of their fixation clusters across the visual field. This could help increase situation awareness, and convert to safer driving behaviour and reduced risk-taking

Effect of \u3ci\u3eBeauveria Bassiana\u3c/i\u3e on Underground Stages Of the Colorado Potato Beetle, \u3ci\u3eLeptinotarsa Decemlineata\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae)

Tests were conducted to determine the effect of the fungus Beauveria bassiana (B.b.) on underground of the Colorado potato beetle (CPB), Leptinotarsa decemlineata. Two levels of B.h., g/m2 and 75 g/m2 , were suspended in water and sprinkled over the surface of the ground in cages to which CPB were added, either as overwintering adults or as 4th instar larvae of the 15t generation. Efficacy of treatments was determined by counting emerged adults. Neither level of B .b. increased mortality in overwintering adults. The highest level of B.h. caused a significant decline in emergence of adults from the 1st generation 4th instars. The 7.5 g/m2 treatment level did not significantly differ from control treatments

Some interesting passages from the Noble Noose of Methods, the Lotus Garland Synopsis and its Commentary

The Noble Noose of Methods, the Lotus Garland Synopsis (’Phags pa thabs kyi zhags pa pad ma ’phreng gi don bsdus pa, henceforth the Noose of Methods) is a Nyingma Mahāyoga tantra, cited by such scholars as Longchenpa. Versions are preserved in all known editions of the Ancient Tantra Collection (Rnying ma’i rgyud ’bum) and in those Kangyur editions that contain a special Ancient Tantra (Rnying rgyud) section. The Noose of Methods has additionally surfaced in some local Kangyur editions, such as Hemis, Batang, and Orgyen Ling

Autonomous Satellite Command and Control through the World Wide Web: Phase 3

NASA's New Millenium Program (NMP) has identified a variety of revolutionary technologies that will support orders of magnitude improvements in the capabilities of spacecraft missions. This program's Autonomy team has focused on science and engineering automation technologies. In doing so, it has established a clear development roadmap specifying the experiments and demonstrations required to mature these technologies. The primary developmental thrusts of this roadmap are in the areas of remote agents, PI/operator interface, planning/scheduling fault management, and smart execution architectures. Phases 1 and 2 of the ASSET Project (previously known as the WebSat project) have focused on establishing World Wide Web-based commanding and telemetry services as an advanced means of interfacing a spacecraft system with the PI and operators. Current automated capabilities include Web-based command submission, limited contact scheduling, command list generation and transfer to the ground station, spacecraft support for demonstrations experiments, data transfer from the ground station back to the ASSET system, data archiving, and Web-based telemetry distribution. Phase 2 was finished in December 1996. During January-December 1997 work was commenced on Phase 3 of the ASSET Project. Phase 3 is the subject of this report. This phase permitted SSDL and its project partners to expand the ASSET system in a variety of ways. These added capabilities included the advancement of ground station capabilities, the adaptation of spacecraft on-board software, and the expansion of capabilities of the ASSET management algorithms. Specific goals of Phase 3 were: (1) Extend Web-based goal-level commanding for both the payload PI and the spacecraft engineer; (2) Support prioritized handling of multiple PIs as well as associated payload experimenters; (3) Expand the number and types of experiments supported by the ASSET system and its associated spacecraft; (4) Implement more advanced resource management, modeling and fault management capabilities that integrate the space and ground segments of the space system hardware; (5) Implement a beacon monitoring test; (6) Implement an experimental blackboard controller for space system management; (7) Further define typical ground station developments required for Internet-based remote control and for full system automation of the PI-to-spacecraft link. Each of those goals is examined in the next section. Significant sections of this report were also published as a conference paper

Professional Confidence: A Powerful Enabling Mechanism in the Transition to Becoming a Specialist RN: Qualitative Findings from a Mixed Method Study

Although the seminal work of Patricia Benner’s Novice to Expert clearly identifies the five levels of nursing practice, there is a paucity of research on the learning and transitional processes that occur between these levels. The objective of this paper is to explore the transition to Specialist Registered Nurse (RN) in the learning and professional context. The study utilises a concurrent nested design based on complementarity strategies as part of the mixed method design. The study was undertaken in a large tertiary hospital setting in Australia. Participants were RNs undertaking postgraduate specialist nursing courses (n = 39) with a nested cohort of Intensive Care Nursing Course participants (n = 7). The quantitative component investigated the influence of learner attributes (e.g. approach to learning, strategic control of study and self-efficacy) on the participants’ academic learning outcomes. Questionnaires were distributed to RNs on all specialist courses (n = 39). The qualitative component utilised a case study approach to explore and explain the learning and transitional experiences of the Intensive Care Nursing Course participants. The paper reports the key findings from the qualitative component of this study. The transition from RN to Specialist RN involved a qualitative cognitive shift in thinking, the development of competence and transformation in the level of nursing practice. Additional learning and cultural phenomena assisted the RNs’ patterns of learning and knowledge acquisition. The emergence of ‘professional confidence’ was at the heart of the learning and transitional process from a competent to proficient level of nursing practice (specialist RN). ‘Professional confidence’ emerged as an outcome and a property of learning in the professional context. ‘Professional confidence’ is a powerful enabling mechanism in the transition to become a Specialist RN. There are several implications for nursing and nursing education derived from this study

Modeling Morphological Subgeneralizations

Exceptions to morphological regularities often pattern together phonologically. In the English past tense, exceptions to the regular "Add /-d/" rule frequently inhabit "Islands of Reliability" (Albright & Hayes, 2003), in which a group of words take the same irregular past and also pattern together on a set of phonological characteristics. Adults seem to have implicit knowledge of both the overall pattern (the regular past) and the "subgeneralizations".We model this knowledge of subgeneralizations through the interaction of a structured lexicon and a Maximum Entropy grammar. Words that pattern together with respect to a particular morphological process are grouped into a "bundle", which is indexed to a constraint expressing the change that these words undergo to realize the morpheme. These "operational constraints" compete with markedness and faithfulness in the phonological component. The phonological regularity of a bundle is represented by the average of constraint violations for members. Novel words are assigned a bundle on the basis of similarity to these averages.Our model shows promising correspondence with human data, including biases toward regularity and Island of Reliability effects. The model's joint learning approach to phonology and morphology, as well as an inclusive concept of "context", show promise for future application

Reconstruction of contaminant trends in a salt wedge estuary with sediment cores dated using a multiple proxy approach

The Taunton River is a partially mixed tidal estuary in southeastern Massachusetts (USA) which has received significant contaminant inputs, yet little information exists on the history of discharge and the subsequent fate of these contaminants. Three sediment cores taken along a transect were analyzed, reconstructing the spatial and temporal trends of pollution in the estuary. A combination of radiometric dating, contaminant markers, and storm layers from major hurricanes were used to establish age models and sedimentation rates. Age estimates obtained from the different dating methods compared well, establishing an accurate history of contaminant release to the estuary. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were present in one core at depths corresponding to the early 1860s, earlier than previously established dates of introduction. Temporal and spatial trends of Cr, Cu, Hg and Pb indicated multiple sources of varying input to the river. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were present in each of the cores from the 1930s onward, with elevated levels still present in surficial sediments at several sites. A unique organic compound, Topanol, which was produced locally was used as a tracer to track contaminant transport in the river. Tracer data indicates that contaminants are still being transported and deposited to surficial sediments at high concentrations well after their discharge. This reconstruction demonstrates the utility of using multiple dating proxies where often the sole use of radiometric dating techniques is not an option and provides insights into the fate of contaminants discharged decades ago but continue to represent environmental risks