Interaction Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Emerging Literacy and Literacy Skills among Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Children: A Comparison Study

Socioeconomic differences in children’s reading and educational outcomes have been thoroughly documented throughout literature. Bobalik, Scarber, and Toon (2017) examined the link between socioeconomic status (SES) and classroom instruction on emerging literacy skills in pre-kindergarten children. The results supported the theory that children identified as belonging to a low socioeconomic status enter school with lower emerging literacy skills and benefit most from academic instruction; these children’s literacy skills substantially increased throughout the academic year, growing closer to those of their peers who were identified with a high socioeconomic status. The aim of the present study was to expand our understanding of the interaction effects of socioeconomic status and curriculum on emerging literacy and literacy skills by continuing the research into kindergarten. This study examined whether 1) differences in groups continued to grow closer to the mean or 2) the differences in groups became greater with the introduction of reading skills in kindergarten. Children (N=33) were recruited from a private school and a public school. The children from the public school who qualified for the Federal Poverty Guidelines for free/reduced lunch were assigned as having a low socioeconomic status, and children from the private school were assigned as having a high socioeconomic status. The Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening – K (PALS-K) was used to measure the literacy skills in the kindergarten children. Results of the study indicated that literacy scores between the socioeconomic groups were not significantly different at the kindergarten level, however differences between the mean scores of the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten groups were found to be significant

Recognizing and Addressing Conflict That Emerges from Sociotechnical Change in Higher Education

Today’s unprecedented technology growth impacts at many levels—from individuals to groups to society. This study aims to characterize how exponential digital technology growth and organizational change is explained and experienced in a university setting deploying new instructional technologies—and how or where conflict emerges. Organizational conflict is a phenomenon that takes many forms and may not be fully recognized. This dissertation highlights theories of technology invention and disruption, the dynamics of sociotechnical change (defined as the interdependencies between people, technology, and the environment) and response in organizations, complex adaptive systems, and practice theory of change. It considers current technological forces at work; digital use and literacy in higher education; mechanisms by which digital technology affects stakeholders; how institutional technical capacity is assessed; how technology is adopted; and ultimately, how a lack of contextual understanding or awareness of conflict may contribute to acute disruption for incumbent academic institutions. Quantitative research and Theoretical Thematic Analysis (qualitative research) were employed concurrently. Thematic insights from interviews and surveys converged to identify patterns of sociotechnical change, and the conflict that emerged, during COVID-driven requirements to implement all courses fully online. The intent was to substantiate theoretical underpinnings for organizational strategy in today’s times. This approach illumined the decisions that were made and how they were deciphered, how change was experienced, as well as how conflict was managed. Modeled was the multidisciplinary approach prescribed through a conflict lens—making a viable contribution to the study of sociotechnical change in organizations and institutions

Parent perspectives:The value of trained dogs in animal assisted therapy for children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Dogs may elicit positive therapy outcomes for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Despite growing research into Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) for ASD, the parent perspective has not yet been fully engaged. This study aimed to explore parent perspectives regarding AAT. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents following their child's completion of an AAT program. Thematic analysis, line by line coding and consensus theme refinement were used for data analysis. Three themes emerged. Parents valued that the dogs supported their child: stress and anxiety management; engagement and participation; and social-communication. Parents valued the dogs as having a calming effect that facilitated child participation in several life-skill activities and social-communication. Future studies should investigate how best to target AAT with dogs for children with ASD.Assistance Dogs Australi

Influence of springtime phenology on the ratio of soil respiration to total ecosystem respiration in a mixed temperate forest

Total ecosystem (Reco) and soil (Rs) respiration are important CO2 fluxes in the carbon balance of forests. Typically Rs accounts for between 30-80% of Reco, although variation in this ratio has been shown to occur, particularly at seasonal time scales. The objective of this study was to relate changes in Rs/Reco ratio to changing springtime phenological conditions in forest ecosystems. We used one year (2003) of automated and twelve years (1995-2006) of manual chamber-based measurements of Rs. Reco was determined using tower-based eddy covariance measurements for an oak-dominated mixed temperate forest at Harvard Forest, Petersham, MA, USA. Phenological data were obtained from field observations and the JRC fAPAR remote sensing product. The automated and eddy covariance data showed that springtime phenological events do influence the ratio of soil to total ecosystem respiration. During canopy development, Reco rose strongly, mainly the aboveground component, due to the formation of an increasing amount of respiring leaf tissue. An increase in Rs was observed after most of the canopy development, which is probably the consequence of a shift in allocation of photosynthate products from above- to belowground. This hypothesized allocation shift was also confirmed by the results of the twelve year manual chamber-based measurements

Engineering of Glasses for Advanced Optical Fiber Applications

Advanced optical applications (such as fiber optics)demand the engineering of innovative materialswhich provide the requisite optical performance in aform with specific functionality necessary for thedesired application. We will report on recent effortsto engineer new non-oxide glasses with tailoredphoto-sensitive response, and multi-component oxideglasses optimized for use in next generation Ramanamplification applications. The ultimate performanceof such glasses relies on control of the formation andstability of defective and/or metastable structuralconfigurations and their impact on physical as well aslinear and nonlinear optical properties. Direct laserwriting has drawn considerable attention since thedevelopment of femtosecond lasers and therecognition that such systems possess the requisiteintensity to modify, reversibly or irreversibly thephysical properties of optical materials. Such“structuring” has emerged as one of several possibleroutes for the fabrication of waveguides and otherphoto-induced structures

Evaluation of a pilot breast cancer screening programme

A pilot mammographic breast cancer screening programme was established in 1991 for women aged fifty to sixty-four living in Otago and Southland. The pilot programme was evaluated to measure the acceptability, effectiveness, and economic efficiency of breast cancer screening in New Zealand. A series of targets related to the performance of the screening programme during its first screening round was used in this evaluation. The targets were derived from screening programmes that had been shown to reduce breast cancer mortality in randomised controlled trials. Methods were developed for measuring these targets in the Otago-Southland pilot programme and the evaluation largely consisted of monitoring these targets, together with carrying out surveys of women in the eligible population and their general practitioners. The results from the evaluation were reported to the programme staff at regular intervals and contributed to the design and management of the pilot programme. Information provided by this evaluation also contributed to the New Zealand government's decision in June 1995, to establish a national breast cancer screening programme which will be implemented over three years. The early results from the pilot programme were encouraging, with over ninety percent of women aged fifty to sixty-four in Otago and Southland having been identified so they could be invited to be screened. Seventy-four percent of the target population were screened in the first screening round. In the first eighteen months of the programme 7, 182 women were screened. Satisfaction with the screening programme was very high, with ninety-four percent of screened women planning to continue in the programme. As a result of screening 832 women (11.6 percent of those screened) were referred to the assessment clinic. This referral rate did not meet the target that had been set, and as a result the specificity of the programme was low, at eighty-nine percent. Fortunately, despite the high referral rate, few women underwent surgical biopsies and the benign : malignant ratio was excellent, at 0.9 : 1. Breast cancer was diagnosed in seventy-three women; a detection rate of 10.2 per thousand women screened. Sensitivity was excellent, at ninety-two percent. The economic analysis showed that breast cancer screening can be carried out in New Zealand at a similar cost to breast cancer screening programmes in other countries. The results of the evaluation suggest that the pilot programme will reduce breast cancer mortality, among eligible women, but methods to lower the referral rate and improve specificity should be sought. Arising from the evaluation of the pilot programme, several recommendations are made for implementing a national breast cancer screening programme in New Zealand

Implementing Digital Tools to Support Student Questioning Abilities: A Collaborative Action Research Report

This collaborative action research project was conducted in a second-grade classroom to determine the impact that digital web-based tools would have in helping a school media coordinator scaffold her students’ understanding of productive versus non-productive questions. The digital tools Kahoot, Quizizz, and Socrative were used by the students to help them recognize the difference between productive and non-productive questions, as well as supporting them in the ability to generate their own productive questions. While results related to student learning outcomes showed minimal increases, the researchers found that the iterative and reflective nature of the action research cycle enabled the media coordinator and researcher to refine their original choices of digital technology based on formative assessment in the action research cycle to select the digital tools that best fit the context of this specific learning environment. These findings offer further support for the use of collaborative action research as a means to assist educators in choosing the right digital tools to meet their students’ learning needs

Modeling And Experimental Determination Of Physical Properties Of Ge x -Ga y -Se 1-x-y Chalcogenide Glasses I: Structure And Mechanical Properties

A series of ten GexGaySe1-x-y glasses within the topological constraint regime of = 2.3 to 2.8 were processed for physical property testing to compare measured to calculated property values enabling further understanding of structure-related mechanical property evolution. Average bond energies were calculated for each glass to elucidate structure and property relationships. Raman analysis was performed to correlate the topological constraint theory to experimentally determined structural units. Young\u27s modulus and Vickers hardness, respectively, were shown to increase with increasing coordination number from 14.42 GPa and 911 MPa at = 2.4 to 29.44 GPa and 2295 MPa at = 2.8. Poisson\u27s ratio decreased linearly with increasing coordination number from 0.2996 at = 2.4 for Ge0.15Ga0.05Se0.85 to 0.2477 at = 2.8 for Ge0.25Ga0.15Se0.60 . These properties indicate a strong dependence on the topological network of the glass, in which continued crosslinking and interconnectivity lead to a direct increase or decrease of the respective mechanical property. It was found that theoretical values were in good agreement with measured experiment values, elucidating the impact of the energy required to propagate a crack tip or alter bond lengths and atom positions

Modeling And Experimental Determination Of Physical Properties Of Ge x Ga y Se 1-x-y Chalcogenide Glasses II: Optical And Thermal Properties

This study systematically analyzed the correlation between topological structure and chemical ordering on the optical and thermal properties of synthesized material in the glass forming region of the GexGaySe1-x-y ternary. A series of ten compositions from 5 to 30 mol% Ge and 5 to 15 mol% Ga were examined within the ternary, showing broadband infrared properties with transmission from 1 to 25 μm. Topological constraint theory applied to compositions examined exhibited sharp inflection at the average coordination number of = 2.67 defined as the chemical threshold where the glass network consists of tetrahedral Ge(Ga)Se2 units. These observations indicate that thermal and optical properties in these chalcogenide glasses are highly sensitive to the chemical ratio of homopolar versus heteropolar bonds, Ge to Ga ratio, as well as the dimensionality of the topological structure. Glass transition and crystallization temperature values compare well with previous literature on similar Ge–X–Se systems. This is a comprehensive study that systematically examined thermal conductivity, heat capacity, absorption coefficient, and refractive index within the GexGaySe1-x-y system, correlating these properties with structural network calculations. The presented methodology and findings will enable the compositional design of materials for infrared systems using GexGaySe1-x-y glasses with broadband transmission