Shifting the I-R-F paradigm : an action research approach to improving whole-class interactional questioning competence

EdDThe Initiation-Response-Feedback (I-R-F) questioning sequence is perhaps the most common pedagogical discursive interaction, not just in classrooms, but in virtually every learning context; the educator asks a question, the learner responds and the educator gives feedback about that response. Children are introduced to these sequences from a very early age - usually through their formative communications with parents or adults - and continue to participate in them throughout their academic careers. In a whole-class school setting, these exchanges are notoriously teacher-dominated and tightly-controlled, characteristically offering students little time and opportunity to construct and develop their own ideas and thinking. Despite the myriad of changes in education over the last 20 years, it seems somewhat paradoxical that the stereo-typical I-R-F questioning sequence has exhibited such durability in its current form. The main aim of this research study was to investigate the degree to which the epistemological foundations of the whole-class I-R-F questioning sequence could be relocated from a traditionally behaviourist perspective towards a position more concomitant with social constructivism. Underpinning this philosophy is the belief that students should be given a much greater degree of interactional autonomy. The chosen methodology was based on an action research model with a multi-method approach for data collection. A framework of ‘best questioning practice’ was constructed in order to support teachers in improving their Interactional Questioning Competence (IQC) over the course of three action research cycles. In addition to this, three facilitators of change were employed as catalytic devices for enhancing teacher performance during the research; self-evaluation, focus group interviews and specialist coaching. The results show that although progress was made in many areas, other features of IQC were more resistant to change, largely as a result of the pedagogical goals of the teacher, the institutional motives of the school establishment and the political aspirations of current educational policy

Leadership, Millenials, And Job Satisfaction

Employee turnover is a disruptive and costly phenomenon for organizations. Understanding the causes of turnover and how to mitigate such causes offers a tangible benefit to organizations, especially as it relates to Millennials which are the largest portion of the workforce in 2020. The study herein sought to determine whether Millennial generation employee perceptions of leadership style have an association with job satisfaction for college-educated, full-time employees at a mid-sized professional services firm in the United States. The relationship between perceptions of leadership style and employee job satisfaction were evaluated via a non-experimental quantitative study. The research design was a cross-sectional survey administered to 1,567 participants with 354 usable responses obtained. Data collected via a survey demonstrated there is a statistically significant moderate correlation (rs = .32, p < .01) between perceptions of leadership style and job satisfaction at the scale level and that the relationship is stable regardless of gender, tenure, ethnicity, or age. The findings support previous studies of various generational cohorts and extend the knowledge base specific to a Millennial subgroup. This study extends the body of knowledge related to the Full Range of Leadership Theory and adds information for a specific generational cohort in one industry segment. Implications include opportunities for organizations to implement leadership development programs focused on specific behaviors that will increase employee satisfaction

Evaluating the impacts of new walking and cycling infrastructure on carbon dioxide emissions from motorized travel: A controlled longitudinal study

Walking and cycling is widely assumed to substitute for at least some motorized travel and thereby reduce energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. While the evidence suggests that a supportive built environment may be needed to promote walking and cycling, it is unclear whether and how interventions in the built environment that attract walkers and cyclists may reduce transport CO2 emissions. Our aim was therefore to evaluate the effects of providing new infrastructure for walking and cycling on CO2 emissions from motorized travel. A cohort of 1849 adults completed questionnaires at baseline (2010) and one-year follow-up (2011), before and after the construction of new high-quality routes provided as part of the Sustrans Connect2 programme in three UK municipalities. A second cohort of 1510 adults completed questionnaires at baseline and two-year follow-up (2012). The participants reported their past-week travel behaviour and car characteristics from which CO2 emissions by mode and purpose were derived using methods described previously. A set of exposure measures of proximity to and use of the new routes were derived. Overall transport CO2 emissions decreased slightly over the study period, consistent with a secular trend in the case study regions. As found previously the new infrastructure was well used at one- and two-year follow-up, and was associated with population-level increases in walking, cycling and physical activity at two-year follow-up. However, these effects did not translate into sizeable CO2 effects as neither living near the infrastructure nor using it predicted changes in CO2 emissions from motorized travel, either overall or disaggregated by journey purpose. This lack of a discernible effect on travel CO2 emissions are consistent with an interpretation that some of those living nearer the infrastructure may simply have changed where they walked or cycled, while others may have walked or cycled more but few, if any, may have substituted active for motorized modes of travel as a result of the interventions. While the findings to date cannot exclude the possibility of small effects of the new routes on CO2 emissions, a more comprehensive approach of a higher 'dosage' of active travel promotion linked with policies targeted at mode shift away from private motorized transport (such as urban car restraint and parking pricing, car sharing/pooling for travel to work, integrating bike sharing into public transport system) may be needed to achieve the substantial CO2 savings needed to meet climate change mitigation and energy security goals. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Robert Merle d’Aubigné, 1900–1989

This biographical sketch of R. Merle d’Aubigné corresponds to the historic text, The Classic: Functional Results of Hip Arthroplasty with Acrylic Prosthesis, available at DOI 10.1007/s11999-008-0572-1

Contact-induced apical asymmetry drives the thigmotropic responses of Candida albicans hyphae

Acknowledgements We thank Marco Thiel for assistance with data interpretation, Peter Sudbery for the provision of strains and Jeremy Craven for useful discussions. This work was supported by a BBSRC-DTG to D. D. T., NIH award DK083592 to F. J. B. and P. A. J., and a Royal Society URF UF080611 and MRC NIRG 90671 to A. C. B.Non peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Dual Launch Robotic and Human Lunar Mission Architecture

This paper describes a comprehensive lunar exploration architecture developed by Marshall Space Flight Center's Advanced Concepts Office that features a science-based surface exploration strategy and a transportation architecture that uses two launches of a heavy lift launch vehicle to deliver human and robotic mission systems to the moon. The principal advantage of the dual launch lunar mission strategy is the reduced cost and risk resulting from the development of just one launch vehicle system. The dual launch lunar mission architecture may also enhance opportunities for commercial and international partnerships by using expendable launch vehicle services for robotic missions or development of surface exploration elements. Furthermore, this architecture is particularly suited to the integration of robotic and human exploration to maximize science return. For surface operations, an innovative dual-mode rover is presented that is capable of performing robotic science exploration as well as transporting human crew conducting surface exploration. The dual-mode rover can be deployed to the lunar surface to perform precursor science activities, collect samples, scout potential crew landing sites, and meet the crew at a designated landing site. With this approach, the crew is able to evaluate the robotically collected samples to select the best samples for return to Earth to maximize the scientific value. The rovers can continue robotic exploration after the crew leaves the lunar surface. The transportation system for the dual launch mission architecture uses a lunar-orbit-rendezvous strategy. Two heavy lift launch vehicles depart from Earth within a six hour period to transport the lunar lander and crew elements separately to lunar orbit. In lunar orbit, the crew transfer vehicle docks with the lander and the crew boards the lander for descent to the surface. After the surface mission, the crew returns to the orbiting transfer vehicle for the return to the Earth. This paper describes a complete transportation architecture including the analysis of transportation element options and sensitivities including: transportation element mass to surface landed mass; lander propellant options; and mission crew size. Based on this analysis, initial design concepts for the launch vehicle, crew module and lunar lander are presented. The paper also describes how the dual launch lunar mission architecture would fit into a more general overarching human space exploration philosophy that would allow expanded application of mission transportation elements for missions beyond the Earth-moon realm

Benefits of Using a Mars Forward Strategy for Lunar Surface Systems

This paper identifies potential risk reduction, cost savings and programmatic procurement benefits of a Mars Forward Lunar Surface System architecture that provides commonality or evolutionary development paths for lunar surface system elements applicable to Mars surface systems. The objective of this paper is to identify the potential benefits for incorporating a Mars Forward development strategy into the planned Project Constellation Lunar Surface System Architecture. The benefits include cost savings, technology readiness, and design validation of systems that would be applicable to lunar and Mars surface systems. The paper presents a survey of previous lunar and Mars surface systems design concepts and provides an assessment of previous conclusions concerning those systems in light of the current Project Constellation Exploration Architectures. The operational requirements for current Project Constellation lunar and Mars surface system elements are compared and evaluated to identify the potential risk reduction strategies that build on lunar surface systems to reduce the technical and programmatic risks for Mars exploration. Risk reduction for rapidly evolving technologies is achieved through systematic evolution of technologies and components based on Moore's Law superimposed on the typical NASA systems engineering project development "V-cycle" described in NASA NPR 7120.5. Risk reduction for established or slowly evolving technologies is achieved through a process called the Mars-Ready Platform strategy in which incremental improvements lead from the initial lunar surface system components to Mars-Ready technologies. The potential programmatic benefits of the Mars Forward strategy are provided in terms of the transition from the lunar exploration campaign to the Mars exploration campaign. By utilizing a sequential combined procurement strategy for lunar and Mars exploration surface systems, the overall budget wedges for exploration systems are reduced and the costly technological development gap between the lunar and Mars programs can be eliminated. This provides a sustained level of technological competitiveness as well as maintaining a stable engineering and manufacturing capability throughout the entire duration of Project Constellation