Walk In Their Shoes: How Picture Books and Critical Literacy Instruction Can Foster Empathy in First Grade Students

In New Jersey and nationwide, legislative efforts require that schools refocus on teaching social emotional skills in order to meet the holistic needs of students and prevent bullying. However, with an ever-growing list of school requirements, no additional instructional time, and little guidance on how to teach social emotional skills, schools need ways to integrate social emotional skills within curriculum. One way to teach social emotional skills and literacy skills simultaneously is through read aloud experiences with picture books. Using picture books on topics such as making friends, problems at school, or topics of social injustice, teachers can address critical literacy skills and social awareness while promoting empathy development. This mixed-methods study examined empathy development in 108 first grade students before and after a four-week intervention using picture books and critical literacy instruction, including writing from the perspective of others. The research used a randomized design with control and experimental groups to measure children's empathy with a modified (Garton & Gringart, 2005) Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) (Davis, 1980) before and after the intervention. Student writing was also analyzed in the intervention classrooms to identify and examine evidence of empathy. This research followed Brill's (2004) method of analyzing student writing for empathy by looking for patterns in writing and then creating categories reflective of these patterns. The analysis used t-tests to compare pre-test and post-test scores in the experimental group as well as post-test scores between the treatment and control groups. These comparisons indicate that students' empathy scores, measured by the IRI, did not increase after the intervention; there were no significant differences between the treatment and control groups. However, the writing component of the study showed that students exhibited evidence of empathy in three distinct ways. They identified empathetic and non-empathetic actions in characters from stories and in real life, they showed empathy when considering imaginary scenarios from stories--inferring characters' feelings and/or proposing actions--and they showed writer empathy for characters from stories. Taken together, quantitative and qualitative findings from this research suggest that although students showed evidence of empathy learning and engagement during the intervention, they did not fully internalize empathy by the end of the intervention. This research study suggests next steps and possible future research that could be useful to support students' continued empathy development. It could be useful for schools seeking ways to address social emotional learning and curriculum simultaneously, while designing learning experiences that meet local school cultures and needs.Ed.D., Educational Administration -- Drexel University, 201

Eating away-from-home of consumers from Campinas city, Sao Paulo, Brazil

Objective This study analyzed how often non probabilistic sample of individuals ate away from home and the types of establishments they preferred for having lunch. Methods In January 2006, a pretested questionnaire was administered to a non probabilistic sample of 250 consumers (125 males and 125 females) from the municipality of Campinas. The Student's t-test, analysis of variance and Fisher's Least Square Difference were used to identify the significant differences between how often someone has lunch in different places and his opinion on the factors that influence his choice of establishment according to socioeconomic and demographic variables. Results The percentages of individuals that had lunch away from home 4-7 times a week and supper away from home 1-3 times a week were 38.8% and 30.4% respectively. Some consumers (35.2%) reported eating at all-you-can-eat and pay-by-weight buffet-style restaurants frequently or very frequently. One of the factors considered extremely important when choosing the restaurant was employee and facility cleanness. The differences between frequencies and opinions according to socioeconomic and demographic features were statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion Consumers usually have lunch at buffet-style restaurants when they eat away from home. Nutrition information programs for consumers about eating away from home should be made available.24229530

Expressing Measurement Uncertainty in OCL/UML Datatypes

Uncertainty is an inherent property of any measure or estimation performed in any physical setting, and therefore it needs to be considered when modeling systems that manage real data. Although several modeling languages permit the representation of measurement uncertainty for describing certain system attributes, these aspects are not normally incorporated into their type systems. Thus, operating with uncertain values and propagating uncertainty are normally cumbersome processes, di cult to achieve at the model level. This paper proposes an extension of OCL and UML datatypes to incorporate data uncertainty coming from physical measurements or user estimations into the models, along with the set of operations de ned for the values of these types.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The HIV VACCINE: Learning from Failure and Building on Success

An effective vaccine for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has eluded researchers since the identification of the HIV virus. There are many challenges in developing an effective HIV vaccine, including the lack of knowledge regarding the immune response to the virus and its diverse nature. Ethical concerns further complicate research. A recent phase III trial was performed in Thailand and showed that a significant reduction in HIV infection is possible. Pharmacists need to stay informed of these important breakthroughs in AIDS research in order to provide quality health information to patients in their community. This paper aims to evaluate the past failures and successes as well as explore the recent advancements towards finding a vaccine for HIV. An estimated 33.4 million individuals worldwide are currently living with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).1 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 56,300 new cases of Human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) developed during 2006 in the United States alone.2 A cure for this disease has puzzled and eluded researchers since the identification of the HIV virus in 1983. However, hope is on the horizon with the advances in research that could eventually lead to an effective HIV-1 vaccine. As one of the most accessible health care providers, pharmacists need to stay informed on these important breakthroughs in HIV/AIDS research in order to provide quality health information to patients in their community

Learning Hybrid Process Models From Events: Process Discovery Without Faking Confidence

Process discovery techniques return process models that are either formal (precisely describing the possible behaviors) or informal (merely a "picture" not allowing for any form of formal reasoning). Formal models are able to classify traces (i.e., sequences of events) as fitting or non-fitting. Most process mining approaches described in the literature produce such models. This is in stark contrast with the over 25 available commercial process mining tools that only discover informal process models that remain deliberately vague on the precise set of possible traces. There are two main reasons why vendors resort to such models: scalability and simplicity. In this paper, we propose to combine the best of both worlds: discovering hybrid process models that have formal and informal elements. As a proof of concept we present a discovery technique based on hybrid Petri nets. These models allow for formal reasoning, but also reveal information that cannot be captured in mainstream formal models. A novel discovery algorithm returning hybrid Petri nets has been implemented in ProM and has been applied to several real-life event logs. The results clearly demonstrate the advantages of remaining "vague" when there is not enough "evidence" in the data or standard modeling constructs do not "fit". Moreover, the approach is scalable enough to be incorporated in industrial-strength process mining tools.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figure

Criterios de Aplicación de las Medidas Sustitutivas a la Pena de Prisión Acorde al Cumplimiento de los Fines de la Pena.

Los Fines de la Pena y Principios Aplicables en la Legislación Salvadoreña – Medida sustitutiva a la Pena de Prisión – Criterios utilizados para aplicar el reemplazo o la suspensión de la pena – Atribuciones de las Instituciones encargadas de la Ejecución de las Medidas Sustitutivas de la Pena de Prisión