Establishing academic and social support groups for teacher education students

Following their research into cooperative learning, Johnson and Johnson (1994) have suggested that teachers establish base groups in their classes to provide academic and social support to students. Base groups are small groups of students that meet regularly to discuss matters associated with the students\u27 social and academic goals and progress. One of the features of base groups is that the teacher does not participate in their discussions unless specifically invited to do so. While there is some evidence that base groups are effective in providing academic and social support to school students, there is little information about their effectiveness at the tertiary level. This paper describes how base groups were used in tutorials for student teachers as a way of giving them academic and social support. The effectiveness of the base groups was determined b~~ obtaining feedback from students and by studying journals kept by the tutors who implemented the innovation. This process indicated that base groups were an effective way of providing academic and social support to teacher education students and had a positive effect on their learning. In addition, students were able to meet some of their social needs while they worked with the subject matter of the class

Student empowerment in a primary school classroom : a descriptive study

Empowering students to take control to lead functional and fulfilling lives should help them meet their needs for power and belonging, and enable them to realise their social goals. Such an outcome should positively affect students\u27 achievement motivation. However, there is little understanding and research on the construct of student empowerment particularly in the primary school context from the teacher and student perspective. Teachers have a power-over relationship with students and arc in a position to decide how they exercise that power. Teachers who choose to enable student empowerment can share power with students to establish positive forces of power, namely power-with and power-to. This exploratory research examined the nature of student empowerment and how it can be enabled. A descriptive study using ethnographic techniques was conducted in a primary school classroom. Findings suggest that there are two dimensions of student empowerment: intrapersonal and interpersonal empowerment, which supports existing literature. Moreover, they build on the literature by indicating that intrapersonal empowerment is the ability and capability of students to pursue appropriate and complementary social and achievement goals through the establishment of agendas. Interpersonal empowerment is the pursuit of goals by students that are not in conflict with peers or the teacher. It is a sense of collective autonomy with peers and the teacher. This research indicates that student empowerment is a fluid and fragile phenomenon, but also one that the teacher can contribute to. The findings of the study suggest that teachers can enable students to become empowered by sharing power with students. Teachers can share power with students by facilitating the pursuit of students\u27 agendas to help them coordinate their pursuit of appropriate social and achievement goals. That is, teachers can adopt beliefs and establish structures, processes and an environment conducive to student empowerment. These findings have led to the development of a framework, which describes the variables enabling student empowerment and their interrelationship. Finally, this study indicates the importance of student empowerment to enabling students to realise their social and achievement goals and meet their needs for power and belonging, thus enhancing motivation and achievement

The construction and evaluation of a systematic review of vocabulary in beginning reading

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University, 1946. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Health Technology in School-based Health Centers: Supporting Continuous Care During COVID-19

Background: Children and adolescents in the United States face disparities by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, including unequal access to consistent and high-quality healthcare. School-based health centers (SBHCs) promote health equity by delivering primary, mental, and other health services directly to students in their schools. The COVID-19 outbreak in the United States resulted in schools and SBHCs closing their physical sites and pivoting to virtual service delivery. Methods: In the months immediately following school closures, school-based health center practitioners and sponsors participated in an online listening series to share how they used technology to creatively advertise services, engage with students, and continue delivering care. These discussions highlight challenges, opportunities, and future implications for telehealth and the use of technology in SBHCs. Results: With no or limited opportunity to interact with patients in-person, school-based health center staff used technology to conduct marketing and outreach and offer virtual care. Many launched telehealth operations for the first time due to the pandemic, whereas others altered or expanded previously established virtual service offerings. Listening session participants recognize the unique benefits of telehealth during and after the pandemic, but they also discussed unique challenges, such as privacy concerns and the digital divide. Conclusions: The findings outlined in this manuscript should serve as a baseline for future research and programs related to school-based health, health technology, and pediatric care, especially during global crises. Health technology, particularly telehealth, is a crucial tool to mitigate strain on emergency departments, administer screening and preventative care, and provide mental health care as COVID cases continue to rise. Enabling policy solutions, shared best practices, and supportive partnerships are crucial as SBHCs continue to find ways to help students remain healthy and achieve their fullest potential

Effects of Gratitude on Fundamental Attribution Error

A Research Methods Project supervised by Dr. Laura Wilson (Fall 2021)

Punish Them or Engage Them? Teachers’ Views of Unproductive Student Behaviours in the Classroom

This paper reports on a study that investigated the extent to which student behaviour is a concern for school teachers. A questionnaire was used to investigate teachers’ views about student behaviour in their classes. The results suggest that low-level disruptive and disengaged student behaviours occur frequently and teachers find them difficult to manage. Aggressive and anti-social behaviours occur infrequently. Teachers employ strategies to manage unproductive behaviours that locate the problem with the student. This paper argues that teachers could benefit from understanding how the classroom ecology influences engagement and therefore student behaviour, rather than focusing on ‘fixing’ unproductive behaviour

Background-Limited Imaging in the Near-Infrared with Warm InGaAs Sensors: Applications for Time-Domain Astronomy

We describe test observations made with a customized 640 x 512 pixel Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) prototype astronomical camera on the 100" DuPont telescope. This is the first test of InGaAs as a cost-effective alternative to HgCdTe for research-grade astronomical observations. The camera exhibits an instrument background of 113 e-/sec/pixel (dark + thermal) at an operating temperature of -40C for the sensor, maintained by a simple thermo-electric cooler. The optical train and mechanical structure float at ambient temperature with no cold stop, in contrast to most IR instruments which must be cooled to mitigate thermal backgrounds. Measurements of the night sky using a reimager with plate scale of 0.4 arc seconds / pixel show that the sky flux in Y is comparable to the dark current. At J the sky brightness exceeds dark current by a factor of four, and hence dominates the noise budget. The sensor read noise of ~43e- falls below sky+dark noise for exposures of t>7 seconds in Y and 3.5 seconds in J. We present test observations of several selected science targets, including high-significance detections of a lensed Type Ia supernova, a type IIb supernova, and a z=6.3 quasar. Deeper images are obtained for two local galaxies monitored for IR transients, and a galaxy cluster at z=0.87. Finally, we observe a partial transit of the hot JupiterHATS34b, demonstrating the photometric stability required over several hours to detect a 1.2% transit depth at high significance. A tiling of available larger-format sensors would produce an IR survey instrument with significant cost savings relative to HgCdTe-based cameras, if one is willing to forego the K band. Such a camera would be sensitive for a week or more to isotropic emission from r-process kilonova ejecta similar to that observed in GW170817, over the full 190 Mpc horizon of Advanced LIGO's design sensitivity for neutron star mergers.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, submitted to A

The effects of multiple modes and reduced symmetry on the rapidity and robustness of slow contraction

We demonstrate that the rapidity and robustness of slow contraction in homogenizing and flattening the universe found in simulations in which the initial conditions were restricted to non-perturbative variations described by a single Fourier mode along only a single spatial direction are in general enhanced if the initial variations are along two spatial directions, include multiple modes, and thereby have reduced symmetry. Particularly significant are shear effects that only become possible when variations are allowed along two or more spatial dimensions. Based on the numerical results, we conjecture that the counterintuitive enhancement occurs because more degrees of freedom are activated which drive spacetime away from an unstable Kasner fixed point and towards the stable Friedmann-Robertson-Walker fixed point. © 2021 The Author

10 Years After

September 11, 2011, marks 10 years since the terrorist attacks that changed the nation and the world. In recognition of this noteworthy anniversary, five alumni offer reflections and reminiscences about the event and its impact on their lives