85 research outputs found
Development of a Multidimensional, Multi-Informent Measure of Teacher Mindfulness as Experienced and Expressed in the Middle School Classroom
In response to growing interest in mindfulness as a support for educators, the current study sought to create and test a new multidimensional and multi-informant measure of teacher mindfulness in the classroom. To counter some of the limitations of context-general self-reports, we designed two theoretically based classroom-specific measures that capture the experience and expression of mindful teacher behavior from the perspective of teachers and students. Drawing on emerging consensus from experts on mindfulness in education, the measures incorporated three dimensions of mindfulness, namely, Calm, Clear, and Kind teacher behavior in the classroom, as well as their antitheses, namely, Reactive, Distracted, and Critical teacher behavior. Utilizing data from 78 sixth- to eighth-grade teachers and 550 of their students, teacher- and student-report item sets tapping these dimensions were tested for reliability and validity across three time points. Based on confirmatory factor, reliability, structural invariance, and correlational analyses, subscales generally demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties, cross-year stabilities, convergent and criterion validity with multiple established measures, and some overlap across reporters. In terms of connections to observer ratings from the CLASS-S, teacher subscales showed consistent but modest connections, whereas student subscales showed higher correlations (especially at time 2), suggesting that students and observers converged in their perceptions of teachers’ expressions of mindfulness. Possible improvements to both measures as well as implications for future research on teacher mindfulness are discussed
Editors' Notes
No abstractPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/35239/1/78_ftp.pd
A Photometric Study of the Young Stellar Population Throughout the lambda Orionis Star-Forming Region
We present VRI photometry of 320,917 stars with 11 < R < 18 throughout the
lambda Orionis star-forming region. We statistically remove the field stars and
identify a representative PMS population throughout the interior of the
molecular ring. The spatial distribution of this population shows a
concentration of PMS stars around lambda Ori and in front of the B35 dark
cloud. Few PMS stars are found outside these pockets of high stellar density,
suggesting that star formation was concentrated in an elongated cloud extending
from B35 through lambda Ori to the B30 cloud. We find a lower limit for the
global stellar mass of about 500 Mo. We find that the global ratio of low- to
high-mass stars is similar to that predicted by the field initial mass
function, but this ratio varies strongly as a function of position in the
star-forming region. Locally, the star-formation process does not produce a
universal initial mass function. We construct a history of the star-forming
complex. This history incorporates a recent supernova to explain the
distribution of stars and gas today.Comment: 42 pages, 11 figures; to appear in the Astronomical Journa
Self-Schemas and Possible Selves as Predictors and Outcomes of Risky Behaviors in Adolescents
Background: Although there is extensive evidence that the self-concept
changes in many important ways during the adolescent years and that these
changes influence behavioral choices, the majority of studies completed to
date have been based on a static model in which the self-concept is viewed
solely as an antecedent of the risky behaviors.
Objectives: To investigate the pattern of relationships between three
components of the self-concept-the popular, the conventional, and the
deviant selves-and risky behaviors in a sample of middle adolescents during
their transition from junior high to high school.
Methods: A sample of 160 adolescents completed questionnaires
measuring the content of their self-schemas and possible selves and
involvement in four risky behaviors (tobacco and alcohol use, sexual
intercourse, poor school performance) during the winter of eighth and ninth
grades.
Results: Popular self-schema score in the eighth grade positively
predicted ninth grade risky behaviors. Risky behavior involvement in the
eighth grade predicted ninth-grade deviant self-schema and possible selfscores.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that the self-concept may not only
play a role in the early stages of engagement in the risky behaviors but may
also be one means through which the behaviors become structuralized into
potentially enduring aspects of the self.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69214/1/Self-Schemas and possible selves as predictors and outcomes of risky behaviors in adolescents.pd
Methodological Note: On Using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) for Survey Administration in the Study of Youth Development
Applied developmental scientists face the challenge of identifying research methods that enable the efficient collection of data from youth of diverse social backgrounds (e.g., ethnic. racial, religious, economic) and varying levels cognitive-linguistic and attentional skills. In addition, because access to youth during school time is often limited by educators’ desire to preserve instructional time, finding methodologies to collect data from youth that are highly efficient, and also those that are feasible in less structured settings, are needed. This article outlines some of the benefits and limitations of using a voice-enhanced survey delivered on a personal digital assistants (PDA) as a method of gathering data from diverse youth in both, in and out-of-school contexts
Contemplative Practices and Mental Training: Prospects for American Education
This article draws on research in neuroscience, cognitive science, developmental psychology, and education, as well as scholarship from contemplative traditions concerning the cultivation of positive development, to highlight a set of mental skills and socioemotional dispositions that are central to the aims of education in the 21st century. These include self‐regulatory skills associated with emotion and attention, self‐representations, and prosocial dispositions such as empathy and compassion. It should be possible to strengthen these positive qualities and dispositions through systematic contemplative practices, which induce plastic changes in brain function and structure, supporting prosocial behavior and academic success in young people. These putative beneficial consequences call for focused programmatic research to better characterize which forms and frequencies of practice are most effective for which types of children and adolescents. Results from such research may help refine training programs to maximize their effectiveness at different ages and to document the changes in neural function and structure that might be induced.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/92125/1/cdep240.pd
Training of Instrumentalists and Development of New Technologies on SOFIA
This white paper is submitted to the Astronomy and Astrophysics 2010 Decadal
Survey (Astro2010)1 Committee on the State of the Profession to emphasize the
potential of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) to
contribute to the training of instrumentalists and observers, and to related
technology developments. This potential goes beyond the primary mission of
SOFIA, which is to carry out unique, high priority astronomical research.
SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP aircraft with a 2.5 meter telescope. It will enable
astronomical observations anywhere, any time, and at most wavelengths between
0.3 microns and 1.6 mm not accessible from ground-based observatories. These
attributes, accruing from the mobility and flight altitude of SOFIA, guarantee
a wealth of scientific return. Its instrument teams (nine in the first
generation) and guest investigators will do suborbital astronomy in a
shirt-sleeve environment. The project will invest $10M per year in science
instrument development over a lifetime of 20 years. This, frequent flight
opportunities, and operation that enables rapid changes of science instruments
and hands-on in-flight access to the instruments, assure a unique and extensive
potential - both for training young instrumentalists and for encouraging and
deploying nascent technologies. Novel instruments covering optical, infrared,
and submillimeter bands can be developed for and tested on SOFIA by their
developers (including apprentices) for their own observations and for those of
guest observers, to validate technologies and maximize observational
effectiveness.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, White Paper for Astro 2010 Survey Committee on
State of the Professio
The Palomar Transient Factory Orion Project: Eclipsing Binaries and Young Stellar Objects
The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) Orion project is an experiment within the
broader PTF survey, a systematic automated exploration of the sky for optical
transients. Taking advantage of the wide field of view available using the PTF
camera at the Palomar 48" telescope, 40 nights were dedicated in December
2009-January 2010 to perform continuous high-cadence differential photometry on
a single field containing the young (7-10Myr) 25 Ori association. The primary
motivation for the project is to search for planets around young stars in this
region. The unique data set also provides for much ancillary science. In this
first paper we describe the survey and data reduction pipeline, and present
initial results from an inspection of the most clearly varying stars relating
to two of the ancillary science objectives: detection of eclipsing binaries and
young stellar objects. We find 82 new eclipsing binary systems, 9 of which we
are candidate 25 Ori- or Orion OB1a-association members. Of these, 2 are
potential young W UMa type systems. We report on the possible low-mass (M-dwarf
primary) eclipsing systems in the sample, which include 6 of the candidate
young systems. 45 of the binary systems are close (mainly contact) systems; one
shows an orbital period among the shortest known for W UMa binaries, at
0.2156509 \pm 0.0000071d, with flat-bottomed primary eclipses, and a derived
distance consistent with membership in the general Orion association. One of
the candidate young systems presents an unusual light curve, perhaps
representing a semi-detached binary system with an inflated low-mass primary or
a star with a warped disk, and may represent an additional young Orion member.
Finally, we identify 14 probable new classical T-Tauri stars in our data, along
with one previously known (CVSO 35) and one previously reported as a candidate
weak-line T-Tauri star (SDSS J052700.12+010136.8).Comment: 66 pages, 27 figures, accepted to Astronomical Journal. Minor
typographical corrections and update to author affiliation
Academic Functioning and Mental Health in Adolescence
The current study examines patterns of academic functioning and mental health in 184 middle school children and the relation of such patterns to their prior and subsequent functioning. Data were collected from children during their second, third, fourth, eighth, and ninth grade school years. Cluster analyses were used to delineate patterns of academic functioning and mental health during eighth grade. The authors examined the relation of these patterns to academic functioning and mental health 1 year later the transition to high school, and then examined the long-term developmental roots of the eighth grade patterns using data collected during elementary school years. Results indicated variegated patterns of academic and emotional functioning at eighth grade and stability in these patterns across the high school transition. Some long-term continuity was found among children showing uniformly positive or negative functioning at eighth grade. Studying child functioning across multiple domains and time periods is discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68127/2/10.1177_0743558499142002.pd
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