Asset Ownership and Academic Achievement Among Youth in Ghana: Examining Associations Based on Asset Type and Academic Subject

This cross-sectional study examined the relationships between asset type and academic achievement among Ghanaian junior high school students. Results suggest that the positive relationship between asset ownership and academic achievement depends on the type of asset and academic subject. Homeownership was positively and significantly associated with math achievement. Ownership of transport-related assets was positively and significantly associated with English achievement. Findings have implications for asset-building programs to promote academic proficiency and progress for all youth.     

Improving comprehension online: effects of deep vocabulary instruction with bilingual and monolingual fifth graders

This quasi-experimental study investigated the effects of an Internet-delivered universally designed depth of vocabulary intervention that targeted both English-speaking and Spanish–English-speaking students. Two hundred forty students, 49% of whom were Spanish–English bilinguals, participated in the 16-week intervention. Intervention students read eight multimedia texts with embedded instruction on 40 words and reading strategy support. Students could access all texts and activities in Spanish and English. In comparison to a control group, there were significant intervention effects on a standardized measure of vocabulary knowledge, but effects were non-significant for comprehension. Similarly, significant effects on researcher-developed measures of vocabulary depth were detected, but not for a researcher-developed measure of breadth.     

Exploring representations of Black masculinity and emasculation on NBC’s Parenthood

Here, representations of Black masculinity and emasculation are explored on NBC’s Parenthood. We question whether depictions of Black masculinity represented through Parenthood’s character, Alex, are empowering or stereotypical; how do they reflect, destabilize, and/or reinforce heteronormative depictions of Black community members? Two seasons were analyzed using Owen’s thematic analysis. Ultimately, Black males are portrayed as being societal failures, criminals, violent, and hypersexualized through his character. This embodiment ultimately preserves long-held images of Black men as “Toms, coons?…?bucks?…?as oversexed, aggressive, violent, animalistic, or emasculated” (Jackson, R. L. II. 2006. Scripting the black masculine body: Identity, discourse, and racial politics in popular media. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press). Practical recommendations and suggestions for researchers and media practitioners are provided.     

Acute effects of Kinesio taping on muscle function and self-perceived fatigue level in healthy adults

This study investigated the acute effects of Kinesio taping (KT) on muscular power, strength, endurance, and self-perceived fatigue level. This is a randomized, partial double-blind, crossover trial. Eighteen healthy adults (7 males [23.86?±?1.68 years] and 11 females [24.82?±?3.71 years]) were enrolled in this study. All subjects underwent three different trials which included no tap (NT), placebo tap (PT), and KT. Idividuals were assessed for peak and mean power, muscular strength and endurance, and self-perceived fatigue after each condition. The results revealed no significant differences in all variables (p?>?0.05) except muscular endurance (F?=?5.775, p?=?0.007). Muscular endurance in the NT (58.28?±?12.18?reps/min) condition was significantly higher than that in the KT (52.83?±?11.76?reps/min) condition. These results suggest that KT on rectus femoris and the patella of the lower limb does not improve muscular function and self-perceived fatigue level. KT is unlikely to enhance exercise performance capacity in healthy adults.     

Louisiana Coastal Wetlands and Louisiana Coastal Grey Literature: Vanishing Treasures

Over the last century Louisiana has lost an alarming amount of coastal wetlands to coastal erosion. Natural disasters and manmade solutions to problems alike have contributed to this national tragedy. A vast amount of grey literature documenting the history of land loss in Louisiana has been produced, but never collocated for researchers’ use. The Louisiana Coastal Grey Literature Project endeavored to locate, organize, and provide access to these valuable hidden treasures.     

Preservice teachers’ expressed awarenesses: emerging threads of retro-spection of learning and pro-spection of teaching

In this paper, we report an enquiry into elementary preservice teachers’ learning, as they engage in doing mathematics for themselves. As a group of researchers working in elementary Initial Teacher Education in English universities, we co-planned and taught sessions on growing pattern generalisation. Following the sessions, interviews of fifteen preservice teachers at two universities focused on their expressed awareness of their approach to the mathematical activity. Preservice teachers’ prospective planning and post-teaching evaluations of similar activities in their classrooms were also examined. We draw on aspects of enactivism and the notion of reflective “spection” in the context of teacher learning, tracing threads between preservice teachers’ retro-spection of learning and pro-spection of teaching. Our analysis indicates that increasing sensitivity to their own embodied processes of generalisation offers opportunities for novice teachers to respond deliberately, rather than to react impulsively, to different pedagogical possibilities. The paper contributes a new dimension to the discussion about the focus of novice elementary school teachers’ retrospective reflection by examining how deliberate retrospective analysis of doing mathematics, and not only of teaching actions, can develop awarenesses that underlie the growth of expertise in mathematics teaching. We argue that engaging preservice teachers in mathematics to support deliberate retrospective analysis of their mathematics learning and prospective consideration of the implications for teaching can enable more critical pedagogical choices.

     

Exploring Changes in Home Visitors’ Perspectives in the Context of a Professional Development Activity

Early Childhood Education Journal - Research-based professional development opportunities for early childhood home visitors are valuable to the Early Head Start-Home-Based Option (EHS-HBO) and to...     

Parents' experiences of support: co-constructing their stories

The aim of this paper is to present a way of supporting parents that can lead to positive outcomes for families. The findings and processes from a study in England of six parents' experiences of support services for their young children with special needs are discussed in making the case that co-constructing the stories of parent and researcher experiences can become a valuable conduit for improving support. An ethnographic case study approach with narrative analysis was used, and this paper shows how the parents' narratives, interwoven with the reflections of the researcher/early years professional, suggest engaged listening as a way forward for professionals and parents (as well as researchers) to understand each other. Stories that each party is fearful of telling or hearing illustrate the balance of fragility and resilience in their assumptions and relationships.     

A model for developing and assessing youth-based environmental engagement programmes

In this paper, we argue that a fundamental cultural shift is needed to effectively address anthropogenic causes of climate change. Evidence suggests that youth are well positioned to create such transformation. While various studies have contributed empirical evidence to numerous youth-based non-formal environmental engagement programmes, what is missing in the environmental education literature is discussion of a systematic approach to the development and evaluation of these programs. In this paper, we draw on the youth civic engagement literature to propose a framework that can be used as a basis to guide further development of evidence-based practices. Five major components are described as follows: (1) the engagement activity; (2) the engagement process; (3) initiating and sustaining factors; (4) mediators and moderators; and (5) outcomes. This approach to youth engagement can inform both researchers trying to study effective ways of creating change and practitioners developing environmental programmes that aspire towards a culture of sustainability.