A Phenomenographic Study of K-8 Mathematics Teachers’ Conceptualizations and Their Accounts of Enacting Integrated STEM Education

Students’ mathematics performance in the United States and internationally continues to cause concern among educators, researchers, and policymakers. This concern coupled with a re-energized interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) has resulted in calls to revisit the approaches used in teaching mathematics. A promising pathway for improving students’ problem-solving skills and mathematical understanding is through integrated approaches (Burghardt et al., 2010; Chiappetta, 2009) as is currently being practiced in STEM education. One of the major stakeholders and catalysts in implementing this transformative possibility is mathematics teachers. Teachers’ conceptualizations and approaches to instruction affect student learning outcomes (Srikoom et al., 2017). This phenomenographic study sought to investigate how 16 K-8 mathematics teachers in South Florida conceptualize integrated STEM education as well as their accounts of enacting this phenomenon in their classroom teaching. The study also explored the factors these mathematics teachers identified as influencing their enactment of integrated STEM education. Semi-structured interviews were utilized to capture the variations in conceptualizations and enactment practices. The data analysis resulted in four Categories of Conceptualization representing the qualitatively different ways that mathematics teachers conceptualized integrated STEM education: Mathematics and Science Integrators, Mathematics, Science, and Technology Integrators, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Integrators, and Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics Integrators. Teachers’ accounts showed an array of enactment practices of this phenomenon, the accounts with similar themes were grouped in the following way: Contextualizing the Learning, Teacher as Facilitator, Cooperative Learning, and Formative Assessment. Factors influencing teachers’ enactment of integrated STEM education were also categorized based on similar theme patterns, resulting in four main themes: Personal Factors, School-Related Factors, Professional Factors, and External Factors. The findings of this study revealed that teachers’ conceptualizations and accounts of enactment of integrated STEM education in their mathematics teaching are multidimensional and that conceptions do not always inform enactment. Recommendations for transformative change, limitations, and implications for future research are presented

Predicting Successful Completion of Biology from Course Satisfaction and Curriculum Format for Nontraditional Students

The overall purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between the biology curriculum design with student course satisfaction and the successful completion for nontraditional adult students. The current study was important in determining course curriculum format leading to nontraditional students’ successful course completion. The selected college is a small two-year community college in the southeast United States. This quantitative, predictive correlation study surveyed 85 nontraditional students’ satisfaction with the biology course curriculum format using the Online Course Satisfaction Scale. The survey data was correlated along with the type curriculum used in the course section (Open Educational Resources or publisher created content) and student course satisfaction to predict successful course completion using binary logistic regression. The results of the statistical analysis showed curriculum type and student course satisfaction were not significant predictors of successful completion. Based on the results gathered from this research, nontraditional students did not successfully complete the course significantly better with one type of curriculum compared to the other. This study points to the need for further research to determine what factors can contribute to greater successful completion for nontraditional students

Intercomparison of Multiple UV-LIF Spectrometers using the Aerosol Challenge Simulator

Measurements of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) have been conducted worldwide using ultraviolet light-induced fluorescence (UV-LIF) spectrometers. However, how these instruments detect and respond to known biological and non-biological particles, and how they compare, remains uncertain due to limited laboratory intercomparisons. Using the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Aerosol Challenge Simulator (ACS), controlled concentrations of biological and non-biological aerosol particles, singly or as mixtures, were produced for testing and intercomparison of multiple versions of the Wideband Integrated Bioaerosol Spectrometer (WIBS) and Multiparameter Bioaerosol Spectrometer (MBS). Although the results suggest some challenges in discriminating biological particle types across different versions of the same UV-LIF instrument, a difference in fluorescence intensity between the non-biological and biological samples could be identified for most instruments. While lower concentrations of fluorescent particles were detected by the MBS, the MBS demonstrates the potential to discriminate between pollen and other biological particles. This study presents the first published technical summary and use of the ACS for instrument intercomparisons. Within this work a clear overview of the data pre-processing is also presented, and documentation of instrument version/model numbers is suggested to assess potential instrument variations between different versions of the same instrument. Further laboratory studies sampling different particle types are suggested before use in quantifying impact on ambient classification.Peer reviewe

Detection of Airborne Biological Particles in Indoor Air Using a Real-Time Advanced Morphological Parameter UV-LIF Spectrometer and Gradient Boosting Ensemble Decision Tree Classifiers

We present results from a study evaluating the utility of supervised machine learning to classify single particle ultraviolet laser-induced fluorescence (UV-LIF) signatures to investigate airborne primary biological aerosol particle (PBAP) concentrations in a busy, multifunctional building using a Multiparameter Bioaerosol Spectrometer. First we introduce and demonstrate a gradient boosting ensemble decision tree algorithm’s ability to accurately classify laboratory generated PBAP samples into broad taxonomic classes with a high level of accuracy. We then develop a framework to appraise the classification accuracy and performance using the Hellinger distance metric to compare product parameter probability density function similarity; this framework showed that key training classes were sufficiently different in terms of particle fluorescence and morphology to facilitate classification. We also demonstrate the utility of including advanced morphological parameters to minimise inter-class conflation and improve classification confidence, where relying on the fluorescent spectra alone would likely result in misattribution. Finally, we apply these methods to ambient data collected within a large multi-functional building where ambient bacterial- and fungal-like classes were identified to display trends corresponding to human activity; fungal-like classes displayed a consistent diurnal trend with a maximum at midday and hourly peaks correlating to movements within the building; bacteria-like aerosol displayed complex, episodic events during opening hours. All PBAP classes fell to low baseline concentrations when the building was unoccupied overnight and at weekendsPeer reviewe

Deficits of knowledge versus executive control in semantic cognition: Insights from cued naming

Deficits of semantic cognition in semantic dementia and in aphasia consequent on CVA (stroke) are qualitatively different. Patients with semantic dementia are characterised by progressive degradation of central semantic representations, whereas multimodal semantic deficits in stroke aphasia reflect impairment of executive processes that help to direct and control semantic activation in a task-appropriate fashion [Jefferies, E., & Lambon Ralph, M. A. (2006). Semantic impairment in stroke aphasia vs. semantic dementia: A case-series comparison. Brain 129, 2132-2147]. We explored interactions between these two aspects of semantic cognition by examining the effects of cumulative phonemic cueing on picture naming in case series of these two types of patient. The stroke aphasic patients with multimodal semantic deficits cued very readily and demonstrated near-perfect name retrieval when cumulative phonemic cues reached or exceeded the target name's uniqueness point. Therefore, knowledge of the picture names was largely intact for the aphasic patients, but they were unable to retrieve this information without cues that helped to direct activation towards the target response. Equivalent phonemic cues engendered significant but much more limited benefit to the semantic dementia patients: their naming was still severely impaired even when most of the word had been provided. In contrast to the pattern in the stroke aphasia group, successful cueing was mainly confined to the more familiar un-named pictures. We propose that this limited cueing effect in semantic dementia follows from the fact that concepts deteriorate in a graded fashion [Rogers, T. T., Lambon Ralph, M. A., Garrard, P., Bozeat, S., McClelland, J. L., & Hodges, J. R., et al. (2004). The structure and deterioration of semantic memory: A neuropsychological and computational investigation. Psychological Review 111, 205-235]. For partially degraded items, the residual conceptual knowledge may be insufficient to drive speech production to completion but these items might reach threshold when they are bolstered by cues. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Explaining semantic short-term memory deficits:evidence for the critical role of semantic control

Patients with apparently selective short-term memory (STM) deficits for semantic information have played an important role in developing multi-store theories of STM and challenge the idea that verbal STM is supported by maintaining activation in the language system. We propose that semantic STM deficits are not as selective as previously thought and can occur as a result of mild disruption to semantic control processes, i.e., mechanisms that bias semantic processing towards task-relevant aspects of knowledge and away from irrelevant information. We tested three semantic STM patients with tasks that tapped four aspects of semantic control: (i) resolving ambiguity between word meanings, (ii) sensitivity to cues, (iii) ignoring irrelevant information and (iv) detecting weak semantic associations. All were impaired in conditions requiring more semantic control, irrespective of the STM demands of the task, suggesting a mild, but task-general, deficit in regulating semantic knowledge. This mild deficit has a disproportionate effect on STM tasks because they have high intrinsic control demands: in STM tasks, control is required to keep information active when it is no longer available in the environment and to manage competition between items held in memory simultaneously. By re-interpreting the core deficit in semantic STM patients in this way, we are able to explain their apparently selective impairment without the need for a specialised STM store. Instead, we argue that semantic STM patients occupy the mildest end of spectrum of semantic control disorders

Interprofessional education in geriatric medicine: towards best practice. A controlled before-after study of medical and nursing students

Objectives. To investigate nursing and medical students’ readiness for interprofessional learning before and after implementing geriatric interprofessional education (IPE), based on problem-based learning (PBL) case scenarios. To define the optimal number of geriatric IPE sessions, the size and the ratio of participants from each profession in the learner groups, the outcomes related to the Kirkpatrick four-level typology of learning evaluation, students’ concerns about joint learning and impact of geriatric IPE on these concerns. The study looked at the perception of roles and expertise of the ‘other’ profession in interprofessional teams, and students’ choice of topics for future sessions. Students’ expectations, experience, learning points and the influence on the understanding of IP collaboration, as well as their readiness to participate in such education again were investigated. Design. A controlled before–after study (2014/2015, 2015/2016) with data collected immediately before and after the intervention period. Study includes additional comparison of the results from the intervention with a control group of students. Outcomes were determined with a validated ‘Readiness for Interprofessional Learning’ questionnaire, to which we added questions with free comments, combining quantitative and qualitative research methods. The teaching sessions were facilitated by experienced practitioners/educators, so each group had both, a clinician (either geratology consultant or registrar) and a senior nurse. Participants. 300 medical, 150 nursing students. Setting. Tertiary care university teaching hospital. Results. Analysis of the returned forms in the intervention group had shown that nursing students scored higher on teamwork and collaboration post-IPE (M=40.78, SD=4.05) than pre-IPE (M=34.59, SD=10.36)—statistically significant. On negative professional identity, they scored lower post-IPE (M=7.21, SD=4.2) than pre-IPE (M=8.46, SD=4.1)—statistically significant. The higher score on positive professional identity post-IPE (M=16.43, SD=2.76) than pre-IPE (M=14.32, SD=4.59) was also statistically significant. Likewise, the lower score on roles and responsibilities post-IPE (M=5.41, SD=1.63) than pre-IPE (M=6.84, SD=2.75). Medical students scored higher on teamwork and collaboration post-IPE (M=36.66, SD=5.1) than pre-IPE (M=32.68, SD=7.4)—statistically significant. Higher positive professional identity post-IPE (M=14.3, SD=3.2) than pre-IPE (M=13.1, SD=4.31)—statistically significant. The lower negative professional identity post-IPE (M=7.6, SD=3.17) than pre-IPE (M=8.36, SD=2.91) was not statistically significant. Nor was the post-IPE difference over roles and responsibilities (M=7.4, SD=1.85), pre-IPE (M=7.85, SD=2.1). In the control group, medical students scored higher for teamwork and collaboration post-IPE (M=36.07, SD=3.8) than pre-IPE (M=33.95, SD=3.37)—statistically significant, same for positive professional identity post-IPE (M=13.74, SD=2.64), pre-IPE (M=12.8, SD=2.29), while negative professional identity post-IPE (M=8.48, SD=2.52), pre-IPE (M=9, SD=2.07), and roles and responsibilities post-IPE (M=7.89, SD=1.69), pre-IPE (M=7.91, SD=1.51) shown no statistically significant differences. Student concerns, enhanced understanding of collaboration and readiness for future joint work were addressed, but not understanding of roles. Conclusions. Educators with nursing and medical backgrounds delivered geriatric IPE through case-based PBL. The optimal learner group size was determined. The equal numbers of participants from each profession for successful IPE are not necessary. The IPE delivered by clinicians and senior nurses had an overall positive impact on all participants, but more markedly on nursing students. Surprisingly, it had the same impact on medical students regardless if it was delivered to the mixed groups with nursing students, or to medical students alone. Teaching successfully addressed students’ concerns about joint learning and communication and ethics were most commonly suggested topics for the future

VEGFR2 promotes central endothelial activation and the spread of pain in inflammatory arthritis

Chronic pain can develop in response to conditions such as inflammatory arthritis. The central mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of chronic pain in humans are not well elucidated although there is evidence for a role of microglia and astrocytes. However in pre-clinical models of pain, including models of inflammatory arthritis, there is a wealth of evidence indicating roles for pathological glial reactivity within the CNS. In the spinal dorsal horn of rats with painful inflammatory arthritis we found both a significant increase in CD11b+ microglia-like cells and GFAP+ astrocytes associated with blood vessels, and the number of activated blood vessels expressing the adhesion molecule ICAM-1, indicating potential glio-vascular activation. Using pharmacological interventions targeting VEGFR2 in arthritic rats, to inhibit endothelial cell activation, the number of dorsal horn ICAM-1+ blood vessels, CD11b+ microglia and the development of secondary mechanical allodynia, an indicator of central sensitization, were all prevented. Targeting endothelial VEGFR2 by inducible Tie2-specific VEGFR2 knock-out also prevented secondary allodynia in mice and glio-vascular activation in the dorsal horn in response to inflammatory arthritis. Inhibition of VEGFR2 in vitro significantly blocked ICAM-1-dependent monocyte adhesion to brain microvascular endothelial cells, when stimulated with inflammatory mediators TNFa and VEGF-A165a. Taken together our findings suggest that a novel VEGFR2-mediated spinal cord gliovascular mechanism may promote peripheral CD11b+ circulating cell transmigration into the CNS parenchyma and contribute to the development of chronic pain in inflammatory arthritis. We hypothesise that preventing this glio-vascular activation and circulating cell translocation into the spinal cord could be a new therapeutic strategy for pain caused by rheumatoid arthritis