La Parte Chusca of a Pedagogical Here and Now: Oaxacan Teachers’ Heteroglossic Joking About State Repression and Educational Reform

Faced with repression and reform, humor has become tactical for public school teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, engaged in a decades-old movement that after 2006 involved intensified street- and school-based pedagogies. This piece explores how humor adds to a political project via mocking names, images, and dictates of elite leaders to bring a here and now to what is taken as inaccessible in the teachers’ political lives. Humor forms part of an (e)sc(h)atology in which critical practices are part eschatological, a call for definite transformation, and part scatological, embodied vulgarity. La parte chusca (the funny part), its (e)sc(h)atological contribution, angles toward critical literacies in Oaxaca and beyond.     

The Relationship between Attitudes, Knowledge, and Demographic Variables of High School Teachers Regarding Food Irradiation

ABSTRACT:  The purpose of this study was to use a validated instrument to determine the attitudes and knowledge of high school teachers regarding food irradiation, and to determine the correlations among their knowledge and attitudes and certain demographic variables. Knowledge and attitudes about food irradiation were measured in selected high school family and consumer sciences teachers ( n = 121) who taught Food and Nutrition, Food Science and Technology, and/or Food Production Management and Services, via a 24-item instrument with 6 factors. Results revealed these teachers held neutral to positive attitudes about the safety of irradiated foods, their perception of the risk of foodborne illness, and learning about food irradiation, and neutral to negative perceptions of their understanding of food irradiation and their competence to teach about it. These teachers had a moderate knowledge base regarding food irradiation. Teachers' attitudes regarding the safety of food irradiation were positively correlated with their perceived understanding of food irradiation, actual knowledge of it, and competence to teach about it. Their perceived understanding of food irradiation was positively correlated with competence to teach about it, knowledge, and attitudes toward the safety of food irradiation. The only demographic variable correlated with knowledge or attitudes was teachers' previous food irradiation educational experiences. These data suggest the importance of education for family and consumer sciences teachers concerning food irradiation.     

Adolescents earlier diagnosed as dyslexic show major IQ declines on the WISC-III

Adolescents (n=43) previously diagnosed as dyslexic/reading disabled had markedly lower IQ scores on the newly standardized Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III) than on the earlier administered WISC-R. The declines for Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs were 10, 12, and 11 points, respectively, which were twice as great as in a subset of the standardization sample given both versions of the WISC. The adolescents did not show a significant decline in standard scores from the Wide Range Achievement Test (Level I to Level II). However, only two subjects had current reading and spelling standard scores above the 25th percentile. The impact of lower WISC-III IQs on guidelines for classification of students as learning disabled is discussed.     

A symplectic eigensolution method in transversely isotropic piezoelectric cylindrical media

INTRODUCTION Since the phenomenon of piezoelectricity in natural crystals was discovered in 1880, it has been applied in many fields, such as smart structure, sensing devices and active control, because of its special properties. Combining electrical behavior with mechanical deformation is the special property which attracted great interest of researchers. Many models have been developed for studying piezoelec- tric effects. Dunn and Wienecke (1996) used Green’s functions for transverse…     

Breaking the tyranny of office hours: Overcoming professor avoidance

ABSTRACT

Studies have found that Faculty–Student Interaction (FSI) has many positive benefits for students including academic support, professional development, mentoring, and career planning. Research-intensive universities exhibit the lowest levels of faculty–student interaction within higher education. This article utilises qualitative methods to explore faculty, student, and staff perceptions of faculty–student interactions, particularly those that take place out of the classroom, at a research-intensive public U.S. university. We identify social distance between faculty and students based on unequal status within a rigid, hierarchically-organised culture as a key barrier to FSI. We then discuss methods that some of the faculty in our study used to mitigate their social distance with students in an effort to increase FSI.     

A comparison of the dimensions used by Iranian and American students in rating instruction

This study investigated the dimensions of teacher behavior and classroom characteristics used by Iranian high school students (N=880) in evaluating their classroom experience. Secondly, it compared these dimensions to those used by American high school students (N=599). During January, 1978, both groups of students completed the Classroom Behavior Survey (CBS). Principal components analysis with varimax rotation yielded a 12 factor solution for Iranian data and 14 for the American data. Comparison of the factors suggest that the dimensions on which Iranian and American students evaluate their teachers are substantially different, though the dimensions they use to evaluate characteristics of the course and content are similar.

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Zusammenfassung Diese Studie untersucht die Dimensionen von Lehrerverhalten und Unterrichtsweisen, die iranische Studenten zur Evaluation ihrer Klassenerfahrungen angewandt haben. Ferner vergleicht sie diese Dimensionen mit den von amerikanischen Sekundarschülern benutzten. Beide Schülergruppen beendeten ihre Untersuchungen über Unterrichtsverhalten im Januar 1978. Eine Analyse der Hauptkomponenten, mit Varimax Rotation, ergab eine 12-Faktorenlösung für die iranischen Daten gegenüber 14 Faktoren für die amerikanischen. Ein Vergleich dieser Faktoren deutet darauf hin, daß die Dimensionen, aufgrund derer die iranischen und amerikanischen Schüler ihre Lehrer bewerten, stark voneinander abweichen, während sich die für die Beurteilung der Kurse und Inhalte gebrauchten gleichen.

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Résumé Cette étude porte sur les cotes du comportement de l'enseignant et des caractéristiques de la classe utilisées par les élèves iraniens de l'enseignement secondaire. (N=880) dans leur évaluation de leur expérience scolaire. Elle compare ensuite ces cotes à celles utilisées par les élèves américains du secondaire. Les deux groupes d'élèves ont terminé leur enquête sur le comportement de la classe (CBS ECC) en janvier 1978. L'analyse des principales composantes avec rotation varimax a donné une solution à 12 facteurs pour les données iraniennes et à 14 facteurs pour les données américaines. La comparaison des facteurs suggère que les cotes selon lesquelles les élèves iraniens et américains évaluent leurs enseignants sont notablement différentes, bien que celles qu'ils utilisent pour évaluer les caractéristiques du cours et de son contenu soient similaires.

     

Mode of communication, perceived level of understanding, and perceived quality of life in youth who are deaf or hard of hearing

Given the important role of parent-youth communication in adolescent well-being and quality of life, we sought to examine the relationship between specific communication variables and youth perceived quality of life in general and as a deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) individual. A convenience sample of 230 youth (mean age = 14.1, standard deviation = 2.2; 24% used sign only, 40% speech only, and 36% sign + speech) was surveyed on communication-related issues, generic and DHH-specific quality of life, and depression symptoms. Higher youth perception of their ability to understand parents' communication was significantly correlated with perceived quality of life as well as lower reported depressive symptoms and lower perceived stigma. Youth who use speech as their single mode of communication were more likely to report greater stigma associated with being DHH than youth who used both speech and sign. These findings demonstrate the importance of youths' perceptions of communication with their parents on generic and DHH-specific youth quality of life.