Healing after traumatic events: Aligning interventions with cultural background and religious and spiritual beliefs

Historically, disaster response efforts have focused primarily on basic physical survival and safety—addressing medical emergencies and ensuring adequate shelter and supplies of food and water. However, in addition to physical survival, relief efforts must also consider strategies to promote emotional healing and psychological well-being. In particular, those who intervene must consider the acceptability of intervention strategies, taking into account survivors' cultural background, religious customs, and spiritual beliefs. This article offers recommendations to better align school-based therapeutic interventions with children's religious and spiritual beliefs.     

Decreasing the proportion of self-control trials during the acquisition period does not compromise the learning advantages in a self-controlled context

The present experiment examined the learning effects of participants self-controlling their receipt of knowledge of results (KR) on all or half of their acquisition trials (50%). For participants who were provided 50% self-control, the first half of their acquisition period consisted of receiving KR on all trials, or according to a faded-KR schedule. Participants practiced a sequential timing task. The results showed that independent of practice condition, participants who self-controlled their KR during the acquisition period demonstrated superior performance compared to the respective yoked conditions in the retention and transfer portion of the experiment. These results extend previous research by suggesting that decreasing the proportion of self-control trials does not compromise learning in a self-controlled context.     

Alterations in Strength and Maximal Oxygen Uptake Consequent to Nautilus Circuit Weight Training

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a Nautilus circuit weight training program on muscular strength and maximal oxygen uptake ([Vdot]O ₂ max) by comparing these effects to those produced by adhering to either a free weight (FW) strength training program or a running (R) program. Male college students who voluntarily enrolled in either a FW training class (n = 11), a Nautilus (N) circuit weight training class (n= 12), or a R conditioning class (n= 13) were subjects for this investigation. All groups participated in their respective programs 3 days per week for 10 weeks. Strength was assessed using a Cybex II isokinetic dynamometer set at an angular velocity of 60° · s ^?1 and a damping of 2. The FW group served as the control group for the assessment of [Vdot]O ₂ max changes, while the R group served as controls for the assessment of strength differences. ANCOVA revealed that the N and R groups experienced significant (p < .01) increases in [Vdot]O ₂ max expressed in L · min ^?1 (10.9 and 11.4%), ml · kg ^?1 · min ^?1 (10.8 and 11.7%), and ml · kgLBW ^?1 · min ^?1 (7.1 and 7.5%) when compared to the FW group. There were no significant differences between the N and R groups. There were no significant differences among groups in final peak torque values (after covariance), and torque at the beginning and end of the range of motion for the knee extensors, knee flexors, elbow extensors, and elbow flexors. In general, isokinetic strength values elicited by the N group compared favorably to those generated by the FW group. It was concluded that for a training period of short duration, Nautilus circuit weight training appears to be an equally effective alternative to standard free weight (strength) and aerobic (endurance) training programs for untrained individuals.     

Design Pedagogy for an Unknown Future: A View from the Expanding Field of Design Scholarship and Professional Practice

This article draws on current research investigating the notion of design for an unknown future. It reflects on recent thinking about the role of creativity in design practice and discusses implications for the development and assessment of creativity in the design studio. It begins with a review of literature on the issues and challenges associated with the assessment of creativity in design education. It then discusses and distinguishes three significant assessment models in design and creative arts education and emphasises the importance of opening debate on notions of creativity within the discipline. Following this, the article examines recent developments in the way that creativity is being practised, driven, fostered and implemented in contemporary design practice, and argues that these recent developments must feature in current scholarship about the development and assessment of creativity in design education. The article recommends areas for future research that pay close attention to developments in the rapidly expanding field of design practice.     

Learning from the Professions: Examining How,Why, and When Engineers Read and Write

With the advent of the Next Generation Science Standards in engineering (NGSS, 2013), teachers of multiple subject areas are being asked to do more than ever before—not only to teach engineering content in the K-12 classroom but also to engage students in authentic disciplinary reading and writing as part of content learning. These standards sound good, but they beg several questions; namely, what do we know about how, why, and when do engineers read and write as they do their work every day? What do teachers charged with engineering education know about the daily practices of engineers, let alone the literacy practices? In short, little is known about the literacy practices of engineers in the course of their daily work. This article draws on participant observation, interviews, and document analysis of one research engineering laboratory to illustrate the literacy practices of one group of engineers and begins to draw implications from this work for teacher practice in achieving the NGSS engineering education standards.     

Distinction through visual art

Visual art is one of the fields where, according to Bourdieu, culture is used to reproduce the class structure. Like other items in the cultural repertoire, paintings, as major examples of visual art, imply social divisions in how they are engaged with by artists, critics and audiences. Within the Bourdieusian framework, cultural engagements with paintings are interpreted as indicators of social position, since appreciation depends on a trained capacity in the family and the educational system, which is often inaccessible to less powerful sections of the population. This would imply that the sorts of paintings favoured by working-class people differ from those preferred by the middle or upper classes. More recent studies have contested the view that a gulf exists between the art tastes of different classes in ways that reproduce the class structure. The argument of the omnivore thesis that distinctions between more popular and legitimate tastes have become blurred has predominantly been based on empirical references in the field of music. This article explores this thesis on the basis of data about visual arts in the Cultural Capital and Social Exclusion project. While some differences continue to be connected to social divisions of income, education and occupational groups, important similarities are found across the board, and certain significant differences appear to relate to factors other than social class, such as ethnicity, age and gender. It is also significant that some people appear disconnected from and disinterested in paintings.     

Coloured overlays and their benefit for reading

Children in mainstream schools compared text on white paper with identical text covered in turn by each of ten differently‐coloured plastic overlays. More than 50% reported improved perception with one or more colours, and were given the best colour to use. About half used the overlays for more than three months and their reading speed increased when the overlays were used. In Study I children were examined twice using different methods and examiners. 47% chose the same colour on both occasions, and showed the greatest improvement in reading fluency, reliable at retest. In Study II children were issued with a random colour, and the greatest improvements in reading speed occurred when the random colour was the same as that previously chosen. Phonological reading strategies were not related to visual symptoms, or the benefit from overlays. Across individuals, reading speed varied by a factor of more than three, for good and poor readers. Study III provided estimates of the prevalence of improvements based on a sample of 426 children from 12 schools: 5% of children read more than 25% faster with a coloured overlay.     

Using Food Science Demonstrations to Engage Students of All Ages in Science,Technology, Engineering,and Mathematics (STEM)

Abstract: The overarching goal of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Initiative is to foster effective STEM teaching and learning throughout the educational system at the local, state, and national levels, thereby producing science literate citizens and a capable STEM workforce. To contribute to achieving this goal, we have assembled six food science demonstrations for use at all educational levels and have presented these lessons to students at the elementary through higher education levels. The focus of this article is to share these food science demonstrations and our experiences using them so that others can use them for engaging students in STEM disciplines, through food science, at any educational level. Featured demonstrations include: (1) liquid nitrogen ice cream: a matter of changing phases, (2) seeing our senses work together, (3) whipping up the cream, (4) milk versus dark: what is the difference?, (5) counting calories by burning them, and (6) culinary spherification: the wonders of cross‐linking. Overall, our experience with using these demonstrations has been very positive. Students appear engaged in the learning process and love to consume the demonstration end products. Downloadable handouts containing demonstration details for each demonstration are available as supporting information.     

How do we rate? An evaluation of online student evaluations

This paper analyses the popular RateMyProfessors (RMP) website where students evaluate instructors in higher education. A study was designed to measure (1) the awareness and utilisation of the RMP website, (2) the internal and external validity of the RMP ratings in measuring teaching effectiveness, and (3) variation in the above across disciplines. It is concluded that the category of ratings, created by the website, establishes an anti‐intellectual tone that manifests itself in comments about instructors’ personality, easiness of workload and entertainment value rather than knowledge attained.