Promoting Interface and Knowledge Sharing: A Joint Project between General and Special Education Preservice Teachers

This article reports the findings of a joint unit plan critique project between two preservice teacher cohorts seeking teacher certification in general education and special education respectively. The paper addressed three questions: 1) What common affordances does this joint project have for the general and special education preservice teachers? 2) What unique affordances does it have for each of the groups? 3) What do the preservice teachers learn about the use of visuals, technology, and UDL principles to create accessible math lessons for all students? The results showed that the project impacted positively on the preservice teachers by allowing them to gain deeper understanding of professional collaboration and use of technology and visual resources to differentiate instruction for all students

Book Review: Grossman, P. (Ed.). (2018). Teaching core practices in teacher education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. 215 pages.

This book review evaluates Pam Grossman’s edited book Teaching core practices in teacher education. The book provides an excellent resource for teacher educators interested in exploring and implementing the practice-based teaching model (PBT). The review delineates the three essential components of PBT model as addressed in the book: representation, decomposition, and approximations of practice. Key issues related to effectively launching PBT to support candidates are highlighted to encourage readers to continue to think about these issues

Universal Design for Learning: A Collaborative Framework for Designing Inclusive Curriculum

The purpose of this article is twofold: 1) to introduce the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) by going to its origination in the field of architecture—the Universal Design, in order to illustrate the inclusive nature of UDL, 2) to shed light on one of the most important aspects of UDL—collaboration. The UDL framework provides teachers with a unified framework to collaborate on the development of an accessible and inclusive curriculum through flexible pedagogy and tool use. Developed for all students, the UDL framework aims to expand all teachers’ expertise in teaching diverse learners and depends on collaboration for success. The article explores the following essential questions about the UDL collaboration process: What are the necessary steps in the collaboration? Who are key players and contributors? What does the UDL collaboration model entail for the key players? The article provides a succinct analysis of the UDL process, proposes a model for collaboration with practical guidelines across educational departments, such as general and special education

How are teachers using primary sources to meet Common Core literacy standards in English/Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science?

The implementation of Common Core standards has affected the instructional strategies of many teachers. Among other things, the standards require active student engagement, learning along a progressive sequence of higher proficiency, and heavy use of informational texts, especially primary sources. This study evaluates the impact that Common Core literacy standards have had on the proven primary source-based strategies and practices of five teachers

Zeroing in on Providing Student Feedback as a Core Practice: A Study of its Potential Impact on Special Education Teacher Candidates

Twenty-two high leverage practices (HLPs) specific to special educators have been identified by CEEDAR/CEC. We surveyed multiple stakeholders to determine which HLPs were most critical for preservice teachers to learn. Findings indicated overlap among stakeholders. The two most consistently endorsed HLPs were collaboration among professionals and establishing the learning environment

MRGazer: Decoding Eye Gaze Points from Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Individual Space

Eye-tracking research has proven valuable in understanding numerous cognitive functions. Recently, Frey et al. provided an exciting deep learning method for learning eye movements from fMRI data. However, it needed to co-register fMRI into standard space to obtain eyeballs masks, and thus required additional templates and was time consuming. To resolve this issue, in this paper, we propose a framework named MRGazer for predicting eye gaze points from fMRI in individual space. The MRGazer consisted of eyeballs extraction module and a residual network-based eye gaze prediction. Compared to the previous method, the proposed framework skips the fMRI co-registration step, simplifies the processing protocol and achieves end-to-end eye gaze regression. The proposed method achieved superior performance in a variety of eye movement tasks than the co-registration-based method, and delivered objective results within a shorter time (~ 0.02 Seconds for each volume) than prior method (~0.3 Seconds for each volume)

Additive-Controlled Divergent Synthesis of Tetrasubstituted 1,3-Enynes and Alkynylated 3H-Pyrrolo[1,2-a]indol-3-ones via Rhodium Catalysis

Herein, we report the additive-controlled divergent synthesis of tetrasubstituted 1,3-enynes and alkynylated 3H-pyrrolo[1,2-a]indol-3-ones through rhodium-catalyzed C-H alkenylation/DG migration and [3+2] annulation, respectively. This protocol features rare directing group migration in 1,3-diyne-involved C-H activation, excellent regio- and stereoselectivity, excellent monofunctionalization over difunctionalization, broad substrate scope, moderate to high yields, good functional group compatibility, and mild redox-neutral conditions

Rhodium(III)-Catalyzed C–H Alkenylation/Directing Group Migration for the Regio- and Stereoselective Synthesis of Tetrasubstituted Alkenes

An efficient Rh(III)-catalyzed C-H alkenylation/directing group migration cascade between indoles and alkynes for the assembly of tetrasubstituted alkenes is reported. The carbamoyl directing group migrates to the carbon of the alkene moiety of the products through rare Rh-catalyzed C-N bond cleavage after the C-H alkenylation step and thus acts as an internal amidation reagent. This protocol shows broad substrate scope, excellent regio/stereoselectivity, and good to excellent yields