Learning and Living Difference That Makes A Difference: Postmodern Theory & Multicultural Education

The application of postmodern theory to a transformative understanding of multiculturalism can make a difference. Multicentered culture, antiessentialist race consciousness, and political equity—aspects of a transformative multiculturalism put forward in 1996 by Newfield and Gordon—can be juxtaposed with elements of a postmodern theorization of society as a consumer-driven economy saturated with multiple mediated unstable, fragmented, and evolving discourses and cultural interaction. This theoretical construct can be illustrated with research data from college classrooms and specifically an analysis of the television show The X-Files. This analysis shows how a discussion of whiteness creates larger discussion of transformative multiculturalism in which difference makes a difference. Moreover, a postmodern transformative multiculturalism sees universities as ideological sites in the production and reproduction of hegemony

Using Lower-Division Developmental Education Students as Teaching Assistants

There has been little research on the experiences of undergraduate teaching assistants, and this small body of information is usually tightly focused on traditional disciplinary concerns like sociology, psychology, and communications. Additionally, undergraduate teaching assistant research tends to focus on upper-division students. This article explores the benefits and drawbacks of using lower-division developmental education students as teaching assistants in developmental social science courses. Included are comments from students enrolled in a course staffed by a sophomore as the teaching assistant. Employing developmental education students as teaching assistants can be beneficial to instructors, students, and the teaching assistants themselves

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: An Ambiguous Ghost Tale

Abstrac

Using Technology to Open Storytelling Doors

In a University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts online spotlight on teaching, I\u27m deemed to be The Open-Door Storyteller. The article notes: One of Jacobs\u27 goals is to teach his students media literacy—analyzing critically what they read, hear, and see—without reducing their enjoyment of the media. He encourages his students to learn how to tell their own stories as a way of influencing how the media in turn portrays them. Technology has been a key part of this process ever since I first stepped into the classroom as an instructor in my third year of graduate school, in 1995. I\u27ll still be using technology in the classroom when I retire, around 2035..

Factors Associated with Patient Satisfaction of Community Mental Health Services: A Multilevel Approach

Community care is increasingly the mainstay of mental healthcare provision in many countries and patient satisfaction is an important barometer of quality of patient care. This paper explores the key factors associated with patient satisfaction with community mental health services in England and then compares providers’ performance on patient satisfaction. Our analysis is based on patient-level responses from the community mental health survey, which is run annually by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) for the years 2010 to 2013. We perform a repeated cross-section analysis, identifying factors associated with patient satisfaction via a multi-level ordered probit model, including both patient- and provider-level variables. We identify hospital-specific effects via empirical Bayes estimation. Our analysis identifies a number of novel results. First, patient characteristics such as older age, being employed, and being able to work, are associated with higher satisfaction, while being female is associated with lower satisfaction. Service contact length, time since last visit, condition severity and admission to a mental health institution, are all associated with lower satisfaction. Second, treatment type affects satisfaction, with patients receiving talking therapies or being prescribed medications being more satisfied. Third, care continuity and involvement, as proxied by having a care plan, is associated with higher satisfaction. Fourth, seeing a health professional closer to the community improves satisfaction, with patients seeing a community-psychiatric nurse, a social worker or a mental-health support worker being more satisfied. Finally, our study identifies the need for service integration, with patients experiencing financial, accommodation, or physical health needs being less satisfied. At a provider level, we find a negative association between the percentage of occupied beds and satisfaction. We further identify significant provider-specific effects after accounting for observable differences in patient and provider characteristics which suggests significant differences in provider quality of care

Rapid Measurement of Quantum Systems using Feedback Control

We introduce a feedback control algorithm that increases the speed at which a measurement extracts information about a $d$-dimensional system by a factor that scales as $d^2$. Generalizing this algorithm, we apply it to a register of $n$ qubits and show an improvement O(n). We derive analytical bounds on the benefit provided by the feedback and perform simulations that confirm that this speedup is achieved.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. V2: Minor correction

Densitometer Patent

Measuring density of single and two-phase cryogenic fluids in rocket fuel tank

Fibrational induction rules for initial algebras

This paper provides an induction rule that can be used to prove properties of data structures whose types are inductive, i.e., are carriers of initial algebras of functors. Our results are semantic in nature and are inspired by Hermida and Jacobs’ elegant algebraic formulation of induction for polynomial data types. Our contribution is to derive, under slightly different assumptions, an induction rule that is generic over all inductive types, polynomial or not. Our induction rule is generic over the kinds of properties to be proved as well: like Hermida and Jacobs, we work in a general fibrational setting and so can accommodate very general notions of properties on inductive types rather than just those of particular syntactic forms. We establish the correctness of our generic induction rule by reducing induction to iteration. We show how our rule can be instantiated to give induction rules for the data types of rose trees, finite hereditary sets, and hyperfunctions. The former lies outside the scope of Hermida and Jacobs’ work because it is not polynomial; as far as we are aware, no induction rules have been known to exist for the latter two in a general fibrational framework. Our instantiation for hyperfunctions underscores the value of working in the general fibrational setting since this data type cannot be interpreted as a set

Helping Kindergarteners Make Sense of Numbers to 100

The authors share what was learned about kindergarteners\u27 abilities to make sense of numbers to 100 when one of the authors, Linda Jaslow, took over a kindergarten class from February through the end of the school year. Through examples of how she engaged her students in nine weeks of problem solving and discussions focused on making sense of the number system, we provide evidence that the children grew substantially in their ability to count and show understanding when counting by 10\u27s and using 10\u27s during problem solving. Suggestions for tasks to promote continued growth are also provided. Throughout this teaching experience, Mrs. Jaslow was reminded of the complexity of making sense of our number system, and this article showcases her instructional decision making that was based on inquiry into children\u27s thinking. By valuing children\u27s existing ideas, Mrs. Jaslow could use that thinking to help guide her instruction