Teaching Special Educators to Critically Evaluate Children’s Books for Cultural Responsiveness

Teaching Special Educators to Critically Evaluate Children’s Books for Cultural Responsiveness Session Date: Saturday June 25, 2022 Session Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Location: Washington Convention Center, 144B-C Active Engagement of Participants: Participants at this presentation will learn about bibliotherapy, and cultural responsiveness within special education. They will view data from a study that used critique and engagement with children’s books as one way support growth in cultural responsiveness for pre-service teachers. Participants will critique I Talk Like A River (Scott, 2020), a 2021 Schneider Family Younger Children Book Winner using the Finding Belonging through Children’s Books Rating Scale. Next, participants will view example story boards, and will be invited to sketch a story board of their own using the book, I Walk with Vanessa: A Picture Book Story About a Simple Act of Kindness (Kerascoët, 2018). Participants will be invited to discuss their own ideas for use of children’s books to promote cultural responsiveness of future special educators. All participants will receive a handout, including the list of books used. How Pre-Service Teachers Engaged with Children’s Books: Cultural responsiveness within special education is an expected competency of initial practice in that field (Council for Exceptional Children, 2020). One teacher preparation program worked to improve cultural competence in pre-service special educators, focusing first in two courses, with two projects in each of those courses requiring engagement with culturally responsive children’s literature. Twenty students participated in a junior-level course about high incidence disabilities. In that course, students critiqued a selection of books addressing varied components of marginalization, such as disability, race, poverty, immigration, etc. In the first course, students designed an instructional unit using a Schneider Family 2013 winner in the Middle School category, A Dog Called Homeless (2012). They identified standards for reading and writing, as well as learning objectives emphasizing a function of bibliotherapy. A significant portion of the grade for that assignment was earned for evidence of cultural responsiveness, including support of resilience, community, change agency, or disability-related Identity. Twenty-two students participated in a senior-level special education course about behavior. In that course, students critiqued books for helpfulness as bibliotherapeutic resources when intervening for social and emotional challenges. Students then engaged specifically with the ALSC Recommended book, I Walk with Vanessa: A Picture Book Story About a Simple Act of Kindness (Kerascoët, 2018). Applying course concepts about reconciliation as a special education behavior practice, students focused on the bully in that story. Using white boards, students worked in groups to sketch a story board as if for a book proposal to the author/illustrator team Kerascoët, proposing a story for that bully about finding forgiveness, and restoring to community. Study Instrumentation: To assess any growth in cultural responsiveness, students complete pre- and post assessments using the Culturally Responsive Special Education Experiences and Efficacy Scale ([Author Removed for Review]2021), rating their number of experiences serving individuals and families in special education who also experience other marginalization such as poverty, under-represented race, immigration, etc., then rating their self-efficacy for such culturally responsive practices. As a tool to facilitate the book critiques, students used the Finding Belonging through Children’s Books Rating Scale ([Author Removed for Review]2021). Using this scale, students rated and compared children’s books for use in promoting specific bibliotherapeutic functions (identity, catharsis, and problem-solving for solutions) for various types of diversity or childhood challenges (Forgan, 2002; Nasatir and Horn, 2003). Prior to students rating the books, three researchers reached inter-rater reliability. The students’ book ratings were gathered using survey software, then compared to the scores of the researchers, and relationships with their experiences and self-efficacy in culturally responsive special education practices (as measured by the Culturally Responsive Special Education Experiences and Efficacy Scale, [Author Removed for Review]2021). Teacher-made rubrics were used to score instructional design and story board products. Collaborations:Guidance to improvements to this teacher preparation program were provided by two external experts in Civil Rights and racial justice. Dr. Christina Edmondson is a scholar, public speaker, social media leader, and author of such books as Faithful Antiracism (Edmondson, 2022). Dr. Todd Allen is a university faculty, diversity administrator, and founder of the Common Ground Project and Returning to the Roots of Civil Rights Tour, teaching participants about the the history of Civil Rights in America. Multiple Perspectives of the Presenters:The three presenters bring multiple perspectives to building cultural competencies in educators. One presenter is a first-generation American of southeast Asian descent who is passionate about social justice. The second presenter is an African American who is passionate about urban education. Both of those undergraduate researchers are completing teacher certifications in both special education and elementary education, and both plan to teach in intercultural settings. The third presenter is a university faculty member with over thirty years experience serving or teaching children with disabilities and preparing future special educators

A Multi-Code Analysis Toolkit for Astrophysical Simulation Data

The analysis of complex multiphysics astrophysical simulations presents a unique and rapidly growing set of challenges: reproducibility, parallelization, and vast increases in data size and complexity chief among them. In order to meet these challenges, and in order to open up new avenues for collaboration between users of multiple simulation platforms, we present yt (available at http://yt.enzotools.org/), an open source, community-developed astrophysical analysis and visualization toolkit. Analysis and visualization with yt are oriented around physically relevant quantities rather than quantities native to astrophysical simulation codes. While originally designed for handling Enzo's structure adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) data, yt has been extended to work with several different simulation methods and simulation codes including Orion, RAMSES, and FLASH. We report on its methods for reading, handling, and visualizing data, including projections, multivariate volume rendering, multi-dimensional histograms, halo finding, light cone generation and topologically-connected isocontour identification. Furthermore, we discuss the underlying algorithms yt uses for processing and visualizing data, and its mechanisms for parallelization of analysis tasks.Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, emulateapj format. Resubmitted to Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series with revisions from referee. yt can be found at http://yt.enzotools.org

Perennial pastures for marginal farming country in southern Queensland. 2. Potential new grass cultivar evaluation

Trials in the Condamine-Balonne basin, Australia, compared 11 promising perennial pasture grass accessions (4 Bothriochloa, 2 Cenchrus, 2 Urochloa and 1 each of Digitaria, Eragrostis and Panicum species) against the best similar commercial cultivars on the basis of ease of establishment from seed, persistence once established, forage yield and ease of seed production. Accessions sown at a site were determined by prior experience with them on a range of soils. High quality seed was relatively easy to produce for both Urochloa species and for Eragrostis curvula CPI 30374 but problematic for the Bothriochloa spp. Once established, all accessions persisted for 3–5 years and most were well grazed, but adequate establishment was sometimes a problem with Panicum stapfianum and Bothriochloa ewartiana. The dry matter yield ratings of the non-commercial lines were similar to those of the commercial equivalents of the same species. While agronomically valuable, none of the promising new grasses was considered worthy of commercialization at this point because their strengths did not warrant the setting up of a seed-production business in competition with current commercial enterprises. Long-standing cultivars such as Gayndah buffel and Nixon sabi grass continued to exhibit their superior pasture qualities

Perennial pastures for marginal farming country in southern Queensland. 2. Potential new grass cultivar evaluation

Trials in the Condamine-Balonne basin, Australia, compared 11 promising perennial pasture grass accessions (4 Bothriochloa, 2 Cenchrus, 2 Urochloa and 1 each of Digitaria, Eragrostis and Panicum species) against the best similar commercial cultivars on the basis of ease of establishment from seed, persistence once established, forage yield and ease of seed production. Accessions sown at a site were determined by prior experience with them on a range of soils. High quality seed was relatively easy to produce for both Urochloa species and for Eragrostis curvula CPI 30374 but problematic for the Bothriochloa spp. Once established, all accessions persisted for 3–5 years and most were well grazed, but adequate establishment was sometimes a problem with Panicum stapfianum and Bothriochloa ewartiana. The dry matter yield ratings of the non-commercial lines were similar to those of the commercial equivalents of the same species. While agronomically valuable, none of the promising new grasses was considered worthy of commercialization at this point because their strengths did not warrant the setting up of a seed-production business in competition with current commercial enterprises. Long-standing cultivars such as Gayndah buffel and Nixon sabi grass continued to exhibit their superior pasture qualities

A reevaluation of achromatic spatio-temporal vision: nonoriented filters are monocular, they adapt, and can be used for decision making at high flicker speeds

Masking, adaptation, and summation paradigms have been used to investigate the characteristics of early spatio-temporal vision. Each has been taken to provide evidence for (i) oriented and (ii) nonoriented spatial-filtering mechanisms. However, subsequent findings suggest that the evidence for nonoriented mechanisms has been misinterpreted: those experiments might have revealed the characteristics of suppression (eg, gain control), not excitation, or merely the isotropic subunits of the oriented detecting mechanisms. To shed light on this, we used all three paradigms to focus on the ‘high-speed’ corner of spatio-temporal vision (low spatial frequency, high temporal frequency), where cross-oriented achromatic effects are greatest. We used flickering Gabor patches as targets and a 2IFC procedure for monocular, binocular, and dichoptic stimulus presentations. To account for our results, we devised a simple model involving an isotropic monocular filter-stage feeding orientation-tuned binocular filters. Both filter stages are adaptable, and their outputs are available to the decision stage following nonlinear contrast transduction. However, the monocular isotropic filters (i) adapt only to high-speed stimuli—consistent with a magnocellular subcortical substrate—and (ii) benefit decision making only for high-speed stimuli (ie, isotropic monocular outputs are available only for high-speed stimuli). According to this model, the visual processes revealed by masking, adaptation, and summation are related but not identical

Mapping the spectrum of psychological and behavioural responses to low-dose CT lung cancer screening offered within a Lung Health Check

BACKGROUND: Research on the psychological impact of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer screening has typically been narrow in scope and restricted to the trial setting. OBJECTIVE: To explore the range of psychological and behavioural responses to LDCT screening offered as part of a Lung Heath Check (LHC), including lung cancer risk assessment, spirometry testing, a carbon monoxide reading and smoking cessation advice. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 28 current and former smokers (aged 60-75), who had undergone LDCT screening as part of a LHC appointment and mostly received an incidental or indeterminate result (n = 23). Framework analysis was used to map the spectrum of responses participants had across the LHC appointment and screening pathway, to their LDCT results and to surveillance. RESULTS: Interviewees reported a diverse range of both positive and negative psychological responses, beginning at invitation and spanning the entire LHC appointment (including spirometry) and LDCT screening pathway. Similarly, positive behavioural responses extended beyond smoking cessation to include anticipated implications for other cancer prevention and early detection behaviours, such as symptom presentation. Individual differences in responses appeared to be influenced by smoking status and LDCT result, as well as modifiable factors including perceived risk and health status, social support, competing priorities, fatalism and perceived stigma. CONCLUSIONS: The diverse ways in which participants responded to screening, both psychologically and behaviourally, should direct a broader research agenda to ensure all stages of screening delivery and communication are designed to promote well-being, motivate positive behaviour change and maximize patient benefit

Aerosol optical properties during INDOEX based on measured aerosol particle size and composition

The light scattering and light absorption as a function of wavelength and relative humidity due to aerosols measured at the Kaashidhoo Climate Observatory in the Republic of the Maldives during the INDOEX field campaign has been calculated. Using size-segregated measurements of aerosol chemical composition, calculated light scattering and absorption has been evaluated against measurements of light scattering and absorption. Light scattering coefficients are predicted to within a few percent over relative humidities of 20–90%. Single scattering albedos calculated from the measured elemental carbon size distributions and concentrations in conjunction with other aerosol species have a relative error of 4.0% when compared to measured values. The single scattering albedo for the aerosols measured during INDOEX is both predicted and observed to be about 0.86 at an ambient relative humidity of 80%. These results demonstrate that the light scattering, light absorption, and hence climate forcing due to aerosols over the Indian Ocean are consistent with the chemical and physical properties of the aerosol at that location