Preparing today's teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing to work with tomorrow's students: a statewide needs assessment

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is explicit in its mandate that students who receive special education services have opportunities to be involved in and progress in the general education curriculum. Teachers providing instruction to students who are deaf or hard of hearing are expected to comply with this federal mandate. To determine if teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing throughout the state of Georgia felt adequately prepared to educate this population, a statewide needs assessment survey was conducted. Questionnaires were reviewed from 110 experienced teachers of students who are deaf or hard of hearing. More that half of the teachers who responded judged their teacher preparation program to be appropriate. Specific suggestions for modifications to teacher preparation programs are provided.     

Portfolio assessment: An alternate strategy for placement of the RN student in a baccalaureate program

Innovative Higher Education - This article presents portfolio as one alternate approach to assessment of prior learning as a means for placement of registered nurses in a large baccalaureate...     

A brief statement of some needs of nontraditional foreign students in American colleges and universities

In recent years, a new population of nontraditional students has emerged in American higher education. That population is made up of foreign nationals and immigrants, refugees, and other aliens. Many of these students have other than traditional credentials. Some have unverifiable credentials, and still others have no credentials at all. Many lack adequate language proficiency, and many are inadequately prepared for success in the fields they have chosen, or been sent, to study. This article presents a glimpse of who these students are, where some are from, and how they are classified. It identifies some of their needs, and states briefly what steps institutions are being urged to take in order to help meet those needs.Professor Hansen is a recipient of the Amoco Foundation-Horace T. Morse Award for Outstanding contributions to Undergraduate Education.     

Review of Brief School-Based Positive Psychological Interventions: a Taster for Teachers and Educators

Research studies looking into the effects of positive psychology interventions (PPIs) implemented in classrooms have yielded promising results, not only in terms of student well-being but also in terms of academic outcomes, school climate, and teacher well-being. However, a number of PPIs require relatively high levels of commitment from school administrators and teachers to put into place. This may result in many teachers dismissing PPIs across the board as too complicated to implement. The goal of the present article is thus to present a review of brief PPIs (BPPIs) based on positive psychology research in order to encourage involvement in such interventions at school. The BPPIs presented here have been categorized into four sections according to established areas of research in positive psychology, mindfulness, gratitude, strengths, and positive relationships, with precise examples of practices which have been successfully implemented and have demonstrated diverse benefits on student learning and well-being. The potential limitations of such interventions are also highlighted in order to foster best practices and cross-cultural adaptations of such projects.     

Contrasting disclosure practices and experiences of school support for Australian adolescents with cancer,cystic fibrosis and anorexia nervosa: parent perspectives

Schools in Australia are required to promote equitable access to education and provide support services to students with chronic health conditions (CHCs). This qualitative study was conducted to explore stakeholders’ experiences and perceptions regarding school-based support. In-depth interviews were conducted with 38 parents of upper secondary school students with cystic fibrosis, anorexia nervosa or cancer (which were illustrative of different types of severe congenital, mental health or somatic CHCs). This enabled comparison of findings to determine whether there were any patterns in perceptions and experiences that were tied to the different CHCs. Data were analysed using a modified grounded theory approach to identify themes. Even though analysis indicated that all cohorts of parents viewed informed educators as best placed to provide tailored school-based support, major cohort differences were reported in parental experiences of school-based support as well as parental diagnosis disclosure behaviour. This latter finding was associated with cohort-related perceptions of risk to their adolescent child. Barriers to school-based support were perceived as varying by condition, the advocacy experience of parents and the nature of health service supports. Taking these findings into account, modification of current policies and practices within education and health sectors may lead to more equitable educational outcomes.     

The talk-it-over chairs

This helpful suggestion for parents will stand caregivers in good stead, too.Reprinted fromTrue Romance Only 1978, copyright © 1978 by Madfadden Publications. Inc., by permission of Macladden Women's Media, Inc.Evelyn Witter is a writer and teacher. Her address is 7814 29th Street, Milan, Illinois 61264.     

Looking back: reasoning and metacognition with narrative texts

This study explored the abilities of 5th, 8th, and 10th graders, and College students to reason logically about what they read. Both students’ metacognitive behavior (looking back at previously read text) and their performance on logical deduction questions were recorded and analyzed in a reading task. Conditional logic premises and deductive questions were embedded in three narratives containing premise information that was factual (True Story), contrary to fact (False Story), or unverifiable via common world knowledge (Neutral Story). The texts and questions were presented one sentence at a time on a computer screen; participants controlled the presentation of sentences. For answering the questions, three response tasks were devised. One task (labeled Generate) required readers to generate their own logical conclusions in response to deduction questions. Two tasks (labeled Valid and Invalid) required readers to evaluate logically valid or logically invalid conclusions drawn by story characters in the texts. Students in early and late adolescence looked back more when asked to evaluate logical conclusions than when asked to generate conclusions on their own; College students’ lookback frequencies were not significantly affected by response task, but were greater overall than those of younger students. With conditional forms requiring an uncertainty response (Affirmed Consequent and Denied Antecedent), readers looked back more when evaluating logically invalid conclusions than when evaluating logically valid ones. Readers of all ages were more likely to agree with story characters’ (valid) uncertain conclusions with the AC and DA forms than they were to disagree with story characters’ (invalid) certain conclusions to these forms. Both lookback frequency and performance on logic questions were lowest when readers were required to reason from contrary to fact premises.     

Effects of Exercise and Milk Consumption on Blood Serum Cholesterol in Rats

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of exercise on blood cholesterol and correlated those effects with estimates of body fat through experiments with 45 albino weanling rats (15 litter mate trios). The rats were confined to individual cages in a temperature-controlled room and fed a stock diet until they were 11 weeks old. At this time the trios were divided. Group A was continued on a stock diet and exercised for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon by forced swimming. Group B was subjected to the same exercise but a portion of the stock diet was replaced with powdered whole milk, so that 30 percent of the caloric intake was derived from the whole milk supplement. Group C was fed the stock diet but activity was restricted. After 15 weeks blood samples were taken, the animals sacrificed, and the heart and adrenals weighed. The specific gravity of the carcass was also determined. Exercise resulted in a statistically significant decrease in total and free blood serum cholesterol concentration. These animals were also leaner and had larger hearts and adrenal glands. Serum cholesterol was negatively related to carcass specific gravity. The milk supplement had no significant effect on any of these measures. Several possible explanations for the effects of exercise on blood cholesterol are discussed.