Invisibility: An unintended consequence of standards, tests, and mandates

Abstract As elementary and middle school teachers and students face standards, high-stakes testing, accountability, and one-size-fits all curricula, concerns have arisen that these practices limit the relevance and efficacy of teaching and learning. In this paper, we argue that such practices exact personal costs on students and the teachers expected to implement them. With data from a series of studies implemented across several years, we show how such practices too often create an instructional climate that, in effect, renders teachers and students invisible and nonessential to the literacy instruction that occurs in the classroom. First, we discuss the research that grounds our thinking. Then, we describe three approaches that can overcome invisibility for both students and teachers: teaching with students' hearts and heads in mind, promoting culturally responsive pedagogy, and creating a productive literacy environment. We conclude with portraits of three teachers, who in spite of external pressures create literacy instruction that makes their students' capabilities visible in their classroom instruction

Social navigation

In this chapter we present one of the pioneer approaches in supporting users in navigating the complex information spaces, social navigation support. Social navigation support is inspired by natural tendencies of individuals to follow traces of each other in exploring the world, especially when dealing with uncertainties. In this chapter, we cover details on various approaches in implementing social navigation support in the information space as we also connect the concept to supporting theories. The first part of this chapter reviews related theories and introduces the design space of social navigation support through a series of example applications. The second part of the chapter discusses the common challenges in design and implementation of social navigation support, demonstrates how these challenges have been addressed, and reviews more recent direction of social navigation support. Furthermore, as social navigation support has been an inspirational approach to various other social information access approaches we discuss how social navigation support can be integrated with those approaches. We conclude with a review of evaluation methods for social navigation support and remarks about its current state

Appraising the intention of other people: Ecological validity and procedures for investigating effects of lighting for pedestrians

One of the aims of outdoor lighting public spaces such as pathways and subsidiary roads is to help pedestrians to evaluate the intentions of other people. This paper discusses how a pedestrians’ appraisal of another persons’ intentions in artificially lit outdoor environments can be studied. We review the visual cues that might be used, and the experimental design with which effects of changes in lighting could be investigated to best resemble the pedestrian experience in artificially lit urban environments. Proposals are made to establish appropriate operationalisation of the identified visual cues, choice of methods and measurements representing critical situations. It is concluded that the intentions of other people should be evaluated using facial emotion recognition; eye tracking data suggest a tendency to make these observations at an interpersonal distance of 15 m and for a duration of 500 ms. Photographs are considered suitable for evaluating the effect of changes in light level and spectral power distribution. To support investigation of changes in spatial distribution further investigation is needed with 3D targets. Further data are also required to examine the influence of glare

SOSORT consensus paper: school screening for scoliosis. Where are we today?

This report is the SOSORT Consensus Paper on School Screening for Scoliosis discussed at the 4th International Conference on Conservative Management of Spinal Deformities, presented by SOSORT, on May 2007. The objectives were numerous, 1) the inclusion of the existing information on the issue, 2) the analysis and discussion of the responses by the meeting attendees to the twenty six questions of the questionnaire, 3) the impact of screening on frequency of surgical treatment and of its discontinuation, 4) the reasons why these programs must be continued, 5) the evolving aim of School Screening for Scoliosis and 6) recommendations for improvement of the procedure

Synthesis, structures, and reactivity of isomers of [RuCp∗(1,4-(Me2N)2C6H4)]2

[RuCp∗(1,3,5-R3C6H3)]2 {Cp∗ = η5-pentamethylcyclopentadienyl, R = Me, Et} have previously been found to be moderately air stable, yet highly reducing, with estimated D+/0.5D2 (where D2 and D+ represent the dimer and the corresponding monomeric cation, respectively) redox potentials of ca. -2.0 V vs. FeCp2+/0. These properties have led to their use as n-dopants for organic semiconductors. Use of arenes substituted with π-electron donors is anticipated to lead to even more strongly reducing dimers. [RuCp∗(1-(Me2N)-3,5-Me2C6H3)]+PF6- and [RuCp∗(1,4-(Me2N)2C6H4)]+PF6- have been synthesized and electrochemically and crystallographically characterized; both exhibit D+/D potentials slightly more cathodic than [RuCp∗(1,3,5-R3C6H3)]+. Reduction of [RuCp∗(1,4-(Me2N)2C6H4)]+PF6- using silica-supported sodium-potassium alloy leads to a mixture of isomers of [RuCp∗(1,4-(Me2N)2C6H4)]2, two of which have been crystallographically characterized. One of these isomers has a similar molecular structure to [RuCp∗(1,3,5-Et3C6H3)]2; the central C-C bond is exo,exo, i.e., on the opposite face of both six-membered rings from the metals. A D+/0.5D2 potential of -2.4 V is estimated for this exo,exo dimer, more reducing than that of [RuCp∗(1,3,5-R3C6H3)]2 (-2.0 V). This isomer reacts much more rapidly with both air and electron acceptors than [RuCp∗(1,3,5-R3C6H3)]2 due to a much more cathodic D2+/D2 potential. The other isomer to be crystallographically characterized, along with a third isomer, are both dimerized in an exo,endo fashion, representing the first examples of such dimers. Density functional theory calculations and reactivity studies indicate that the central bonds of these two isomers are weaker than those of the exo,exo isomer, or of [RuCp∗(1,3,5-R3C6H3)]2, leading to estimated D+/0.5D2 potentials of -2.5 and -2.6 V vs. FeCp2+/0. At the same time the D2+/D2 potentials for the exo,endo dimers are anodically shifted relative to those of [RuCp∗(1,3,5-R3C6H3)]2, resulting in much greater air stability than for the exo,exo isomer. © 2021 The Royal Society of Chemistry