Teacher Development and Emotional Intelligence

Abstract During my final semester as a TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) student–while also teaching college ESL classes–I found myself curious about the emotional aspect of teaching. An education class I was enrolled in at the time happened to be covering a unit on “Teaching the Whole Person”, in which we discussed ‘emotional intelligence’ or EI (Diaz-Rico, 2008, p. 35). The construct of Emotional Intelligence (EI) is comprised of five main categories: intrapersonal, interpersonal, stress management, adaptability, and general mood (Bar-On, 1997). I began to contemplate whether or not traditional methods of professional development (PD) address EI. This led to my own investigation – a project – or thought experiment – to link the emotional aspect of teaching to best practice pedagogy. PD in the form of graduate seminars and teacher education programs is ignoring something that appears so simple and obvious to me–time spent in teacher talk is worthwhile. Teacher talk, or what I will refer to here as the Conversation Circle, provides the practitioner with a built-in mode of reflection using authentic content, and reflection is widely known in our profession to be a fundamental component of teacher development. Using a strategy from, “Teaching with Emotional Intelligence” (Mortiboys, 2005), I set out designing the Conversation Circle. Analysis of the Conversation Circle identified salient features of teacher talk, which by its casual nature fosters collaboration and reflection, and presents possibilities for application to teacher education and professional development. Keywords: Emotional intelligence, reflection, collaboration, professional development, communicatio

Defying Labels: Richmond NOW’s Multi-Generational Dynamism

In the late 1960s a group of women became interested in forming a chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in Richmond. These women, led by Zelda Nordlinger and Holt Carlton, followed a pragmatic, big-tent approach to women’s activism. This ideological and tactical openness defies traditional historical labels as these women fluidly moved through organizations and tactics in order to gain a stronger local following. Richmond’s NOW chapter, while staying attuned to the national organization’s platform, remained relatively autonomous and parochial in its tactics and pursuits. Further, Richmond NOW showed a marked change around 1974 with an influx of newer women into the organization. The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) struggle provided the local movement with new prominence. With the interjection of new blood the chapter saw a shift in its tactics and policy. The newer cohort of women maintained a belief in a pragmatic, big-tent approach; however, they interpreted it differently. The chapter became more procedural and organizationally based. It also narrowed its focus and tactics, seeing the first generation’s free-wheeling style as a hindrance to organizational success. The different political experiences of these two cohorts led to different visions of Richmond’s NOW chapter

COMPARING THE EFFECTS OF DIATHERMY AND DYNAMIC STRETCHING ON HIP FLEXOR FLEXIBILITY AND POSTURAL CONTROL

Context: Dynamic stretching has become a universally accepted practice used to increase flexibility, reduce muscle injury, and improve performance. In addition to stretching, deep heating modalities such as pulsed shortwave diathermy have been used to increase range of motion through deep heating. The premise for this study was to see if combining a dynamic stretching routine with a diathermy treatment would improve range of motion (ROM) and postural control. Purpose: The purpose of this repeated measures study was to assess the effectiveness of both pulsed shortwave diathermy and dynamic stretching on hip flexor range of motion and postural control. Participants: Three males and six females between the ages of 18 and 30 completed the study. All of these participants were moderately active and had not sustained an injury to their dominant leg six months prior to the study. Methods: Each participant completed all four trials (diathermy alone, dynamic stretching alone, diathermy, and dynamic stretching combined, and a control trial) over the course of a month. Active hip extension and the Y-Star Excursion Balance Test (Y-SEBT) were complete before and after each trial. Results: The 2x4 (time by trial) repeated measures ANOVA revealed no statistical significance for hip extension and Y-SEBT (p=0.817 and p= 0.367 respectively). Conclusion: This research intended to determine diathermy’s outcomes on increasing ROM and postural control in the hip flexors and how these effects could be enhanced by a dynamic stretching routine. All of the participants regardless of trial improved however, this was due to a practicing effect. Therefore the results of this study were found to be inconclusive for all trials performed

Advanced communications techniques

Research results obtained under the Advanced Communications Techniques grant are introduced through a list of lectures and papers

NASA AVOSS Fast-Time Wake Prediction Models: User's Guide

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing and testing fast-time wake transport and decay models to safely enhance the capacity of the National Airspace System (NAS). The fast-time wake models are empirical algorithms used for real-time predictions of wake transport and decay based on aircraft parameters and ambient weather conditions. The aircraft dependent parameters include the initial vortex descent velocity and the vortex pair separation distance. The atmospheric initial conditions include vertical profiles of temperature or potential temperature, eddy dissipation rate, and crosswind. The current distribution includes the latest versions of the APA (3.4) and the TDP (2.1) models. This User's Guide provides detailed information on the model inputs, file formats, and the model output. An example of a model run and a brief description of the Memphis 1995 Wake Vortex Dataset is also provided

Design of Control Software for a High-Speed Coherent Doppler Lidar System for CO2 Measurement

The design of the software for a 2-micron coherent high-speed Doppler lidar system for CO2 measurement at NASA Langley Research Center is discussed in this paper. The specific strategy and design topology to meet the requirements of the system are reviewed. In order to attain the high-speed digitization of the different types of signals to be sampled on multiple channels, a carefully planned design of the control software is imperative. Samples of digitized data from each channel and their roles in data analysis post processing are also presented. Several challenges of extremely-fast, high volume data acquisition are discussed. The software must check the validity of each lidar return as well as other monitoring channel data in real-time. For such high-speed data acquisition systems, the software is a key component that enables the entire scope of CO2 measurement studies using commercially available system components

Evaluation of Fast-Time Wake Vortex Models using Wake Encounter Flight Test Data

This paper describes a methodology for the integration and evaluation of fast-time wake models with flight data. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration conducted detailed flight tests in 1995 and 1997 under the Aircraft Vortex Spacing System Program to characterize wake vortex decay and wake encounter dynamics. In this study, data collected during Flight 705 were used to evaluate NASA's fast-time wake transport and decay models. Deterministic and Monte-Carlo simulations were conducted to define wake hazard bounds behind the wake generator. The methodology described in this paper can be used for further validation of fast-time wake models using en-route flight data, and for determining wake turbulence constraints in the design of air traffic management concepts

A Two Micron Coherent Differential Absorption Lidar Development

A pulsed, 2-micron coherent Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL)/Integrated Path Differential Absorption (IPDA) transceiver, developed under the Laser Risk Reduction Program (LRRP) at NASA, is integrated into a fully functional lidar instrument. This instrument measures atmospheric CO2 profiles (by DIAL) from a ground platform. It allows the investigators to pursue subsequent in science-driven deployments, and provides a unique tool for Active Sensing of CO2 Emissions over Night, Days, and Seasons (ASCENDS) validation that was strongly advocated in the recent ASCENDS Workshop. Keywords: Differential Absorption Lidar, Near Infrared Laser

Severity of Depression, Anxious Distress and the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in a Swedish Population-Based Cohort.

Background: Depression is known to be associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD). This population-based cohort study aimed to determine the association between depression of varying severity and risk for CVD and to study the effect of concomitant anxious distress on this association. Methods: We utilized data from a longitudinal cohort study of mental health, work and relations among adults (20–64 years), with a total of 10,443 individuals. Depression and anxious distress were assessed using psychiatric rating scales and defined according to DSM-5. Outcomes were register-based and self-reported cardiovascular diseases. Findings: Overall increased odds ratios of 1.5 to 2.6 were seen for the different severity levels of depression, with the highest adjusted OR for moderate depression (OR 2.1 (95% CI 1.3, 3.5). Similar odds ratios were seen for sub-groups of CVD: ischemic/hypertensive heart disease and stroke, 2.4 (95% CI 1.4, 3.9) and OR 2.1 (95%CI 1.2, 3.8) respectively. Depression with anxious distress as a specifier of severity showed OR of 2.1 (95% CI 1.5, 2.9) for CVD. Conclusion: This study found that severity level of depression seems to be of significance for increased risk of CVD among depressed persons, although not in a dose-response manner which might be obscured due to treatment of depression. Further, we found a higher risk of CVD among depressed individuals with symptoms of anxious distress

Differences in genomic abnormalities among African individuals with monoclonal gammopathies using calculated ancestry

Multiple myeloma (MM) is two- to three-fold more common in African Americans (AAs) compared to European Americans (EAs). This striking disparity, one of the highest of any cancer, may be due to underlying genetic predisposition between these groups. There are multiple unique cytogenetic subtypes of MM, and it is likely that the disparity is associated with only certain subtypes. Previous efforts to understand this disparity have relied on self-reported race rather than genetic ancestry, which may result in bias. To mitigate these difficulties, we studied 881 patients with monoclonal gammopathies who had undergone uniform testing to identify primary cytogenetic abnormalities. DNA from bone marrow samples was genotyped on the Precision Medicine Research Array and biogeographical ancestry was quantitatively assessed using the Geographic Population Structure Origins tool. The probability of having one of three specific subtypes, namely t(11;14), t(14;16), or t(14;20) was significantly higher in the 120 individuals with highest African ancestry (≥80%) compared with the 235 individuals with lowest African ancestry (<0.1%) (51% vs. 33%, respectively, p value = 0.008). Using quantitatively measured African ancestry, we demonstrate a major proportion of the racial disparity in MM is driven by disparity in the occurrence of the t(11;14), t(14;16), and t(14;20) types of MM