Covid-19: Emerging Considerations for Body Sourcing and Handling. A Perspective View from Nigeria

The current Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic has spread to about 220 countries of the world and has resulted in a significant number of deaths globally. Infections are still on the rise, and the impact on the global death rate could be devastating. There are fears over the likely impact of a large number of deaths on body sourcing and handling of cadavers for teaching and research. Historically, epidemics come with several challenges and have often led to some level of negligence of ethical practices and health and safety regulations associated with body sourcing and handling. The authors highlighted some emerging problems in this article, focusing on Africa and Nigeria in particular. These problems include a higher risk of coronavirus exposure for body handlers, shortage of cadavers for teaching and learning, a lack of standard regulations leading to unethical body sourcing and handling, and a lack of monitoring and collaboration needed for a well-coordinated Covid-19 pandemic response strategy. If these issues are ignored, the previous gains made in anatomical ethical practices may be destroyed. Some useful recommendations for policymaking geared toward prevention or curtailing these emerging issues have been instilled in this article.     

Play in the Preschool Classroom: Its Socioemotional Significance and the Teacher’s Role in Play

The goals of this paper were two-fold. The first goal was to examine the emotional and social developmental value of play in the early childhood classroom. This issue is important because of the recent impetus for a more academic focus in early childhood classrooms, and questions about the developmental benefits of play. The second goal was to examine and discuss the role teachers could play in making play a developmental and educational experience. This is because understanding the significance of play could make teachers less apprehensive about using play to promote learning and development, and enable them answer questions regarding the value of play. Using these goals as a backdrop, this paper discussed views of children’s play; the defining characteristics of emotional and social development; play and the socioemotional development of children; and the role of early childhood teachers in children’s play.     

The HPT Model Applied to a Boutique‐Style Online Retail Store

Suzy Q's is a retail business located in the southeastern United States. It offers hand‐knitted scarves; handmade hair accessories; handcrafted beaded jewelry such as necklaces, bracelets, and earrings; small handmade children's toys; and stock and custom‐printed T‐shirts. It began operations in early 2014. The owners established an online store and developed plans to sell items at local craft fairs and farmers’ markets in the southeastern United States. During its initial launch, the business generated limited orders for its products. In the beginning there was a limited amount of advertising using social media, which consisted of establishing a Facebook page, posting notifications on the business's Facebook page, and posting notifications about the business to the owners’ personal contacts on Facebook. Despite establishing a web presence and utilizing social media in its first year of operations, Suzy Q's did not generate a significant number of orders and received very little revenue. The owners of Suzy Q's, our client, established a goal to generate at least $700 per month in revenue for the calendar year 2015. Our analysis of the business revealed that the managers and employees had the skills needed to perform the work, but the lack of orders presented an obstacle to achieving their business goals. After completing a performance analysis, we recommended that Suzy Q's establish a single online presence, implement a marketing effort, establish a local presence, create a dedicated studio space, and create a formal business plan. It was our belief that Suzy Q's had the potential to reach its goals set for 2015 and beyond if these solutions were implemented.     

Development of Category‐Based Induction and Semantic Knowledge

Category‐based induction is a hallmark of mature cognition; however, little is known about its origins. This study evaluated the hypothesis that category‐based induction is related to semantic development. Computational studies suggest that early on there is little differentiation among concepts, but learning and development lead to increased differentiation based on taxonomic relatedness. This study reports findings from a new task aimed to (a) examine this putative increase in semantic differentiation and (b) test whether individual differences in semantic differentiation are related to category‐based induction in 4‐ to 7‐year‐old children (N = 85). The results provide the first empirical evidence of an age‐related increase in differentiation of representations of animal concepts and suggest that category‐based induction is related to increased semantic differentiation.     

A defensive mindset: A pattern of social information processing that develops early and predicts life course outcomes

The hypothesis was tested that some children develop a defensive mindset that subsumes individual social information processing (SIP) steps, grows from early experiences, and guides long-term outcomes. In Study 1 (Fast Track [FT]), 463 age-5 children (45% girls; 43% Black) were first assessed in 1991 and followed through age 32 (83% retention). In Study 2 (Child Development Project [CDP]), 585 age-5 children (48% girls, 17% Black) were first assessed in 1987 and followed through age 34 (78% retention). In both studies, measures were collected of early adverse experiences, defensive mindset and SIP, and adult outcomes. Across both studies, a robust latent construct of school-age defensive mindset was validated empirically (comparative fit index = .99 in each study) and found to mediate the impact of early child abuse (38% in FT and 29% in CDP of total effect) and peer social rejection (14% in FT and 7% in CDP of total effect) on adult incarceration.     

The impact of computer-mediated interaction on distance learning

Distance‐learning courses were classified with regard to their use of computer‐mediated interaction and the degree to which such interaction was integrated into the curriculum and the assessment regime. This produced four groups of courses varying according to their use of interaction and integration. The impact of interaction and integration was investigated in terms of their effects on students' performance, their perceptions of academic quality and their approaches to studying. In all three respects, variations within the groups of courses proved to be more important than variations between the groups. Interpretation of these results suggests that the adoption of interactive environments within computer‐mediated learning may not be enough in itself to lead to positive learning outcomes. We found no evidence for this assumption in terms of students' completion rates, pass rates, grades, perceptions of the quality of their courses or approaches to studying. Large variations in the measured indicators were found between courses, and these appeared to be largely independent of the effects of interaction and integration. Courses may differ markedly with regard to how they make use of computer‐mediated interaction and how this is integrated into the curriculum and the assessment regime. A case study approach is suggested as being more likely to identify the impact of specific designs based on computer‐mediated interaction and to bring together the diverse student responses arising from the use of such interaction in their studies.     

Establishing a Quality Literature Base: Barriers that African Americans Face in Becoming Teachers

Researchers have long documented the need for increased representation of African American teachers in the United States teacher workforce. However, much of the resulting literature has been unsuccessful in eliciting change, as it does not explain why this need for increased representation persists. To address this gap, various researchers have turned to documenting the barriers which exist for African Americans at multiple stages of the process of becoming a teacher. This paper reviews, summarizes, and critiques this literature in order to document and describe the current depiction of the context of becoming a teacher for African Americans. Limitations in the literature are described based on Padilla (Handb Res Multicult Educ 2:127–145, 2004), and future steps to accommodate for and surpass the weaknesses of the current literature are provided.     

Teaching Science to Academically Underprepared Students

A major problem facing science education in the United States today is its failure to produce enough well-educated minority students in the natural sciences and engineering. In most cases, the early difficulties encountered by these students in middle schools persists for years and prevent majority of them from pursuing advanced degrees and careers in the sciences and engineering. Thus, the need for new teaching approaches that will motivate and channel these students, who represent the fastest growing segment of our society into science and engineering. A number of factors contribute to this underrepresentation, amongst which are perception, exclusion, and instructional strategies. Here, we report on some important factors and teaching strategies, which, when proper considered, would influence the success of minority students in the sciences. Transitional strategies are techniques that facilitators may use to help underprepared students to learn to bridge or relate different parts or situations to one common idea, fact, or skill. It is hoped that when this strategy is infused with content, along with study skills, learning styles, and sequence as well as students' personal inventories, minority performance in science and mathematics will improve.