Arts education partnerships: sources of harmony and dissonance with cultural institutions’ collaborative efforts

ABSTRACT

Due to budget constraints, schools in the United States have increasingly turned to community arts organizations for support. School-community arts partnership stakeholders collaborate because of shared missions to provide students with valuable arts learning experiences. Investigations of these initiatives indicate that these partnerships improve arts learning opportunities and increase public support and resources for arts education. However, not much is known about the experiences and perspectives of the arts organizations that participate in these partnerships. Coordinating collective efforts with a multitude of institutions and interests poses challenges. In this study, we examine survey data collected from arts organization administrators who participated in a large-scale school-community arts partnership initiative. We find that these organizations are generally positive about their impacts on students’ educational outcomes, but there is substantial variation in these views. We also find that organizations differ in their levels of support for these collective efforts. Sources of this variation appear to be attributable to organizations’ preexisting resources and extent to which they are established. While this difference in levels of support is potentially inevitable, we find evidence that the operations handled by the “backbone” organization, i.e. the initiative’s facilitators and overseers, can significantly influence organizations’ levels of support for these efforts. Organizations are more likely to support these collaborative efforts when they believe the backbone organization ensures transparency with initiative operations, provides regular, effective communication, and effectively resolves competing priorities.     

Mixed Reality Lab at Mississippi State University Libraries

Virtual and Augmented Realities are advancing technologies that are becoming more popular in gaming and programming communities. However, virtual reality has been in development for decades. As libraries are often at the forefront of offering new and advancing technologies to their communities, virtual and augmented reality programs have become new additions to library services. While gaming is the prominent use of these technologies, virtual and augmented reality affords many educational opportunities. Mississippi State University Libraries have recently added a virtual/augmented reality lab as part of its library program.     

Quality of Life of Children with Learning Disabilities: A Comparison of Self‐Reports and Proxy Reports

This study aimed to explore how children with learning disabilities (LD) perceive their quality of life (QoL) and to compare self‐reports and proxy reports regarding their QoL. Children with LD, their typically developing peers, their parents and teachers responded to the child, parent, and teacher forms of KINDL^R Questionnaire for Measuring Health‐Related Quality of Life (Ravens‐Sieberer & Bullinger, 1998). Findings showed that children with LD reported significantly lower QoL scores than those reported by typically developing peers. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and t‐test results showed that agreement between child reports and parent‐proxy reports was either low or moderate on each QoL dimension. Findings of the study may be used to raise awareness regarding the social and educational needs of children with LD in Turkey.     

Simultaneous changes in seed size,oil content and protein content driven by selection of SWEET homologues during soybean domestication

Soybean accounts for more than half of the global production of oilseed and more than a quarter of the protein used globally for human food and animal feed. Soybean domestication involved parallel increases in seed size and oil content, and a concomitant decrease in protein content. However, science has not yet discovered whether these effects were due to selective pressure on a single gene or multiple genes. Here, re-sequencing data from >800 genotypes revealed a strong selection during soybean domestication on GmSWEET10a. The selection of GmSWEET10a conferred simultaneous increases in soybean-seed size and oil content as well as a reduction in the protein content. The result was validated using both near-isogenic lines carrying substitution of haplotype chromosomal segments and transgenic soybeans. Moreover, GmSWEET10b was found to be functionally redundant with its homologue GmSWEET10a and to be undergoing selection in current breeding, leading the the elite allele GmSWEET10b, a potential target for present-day soybean breeding. Both GmSWEET10a and GmSWEET10b were shown to transport sucrose and hexose, contributing to sugar allocation from seed coat to embryo, which consequently determines oil and protein contents and seed size in soybean. We conclude that past selection of optimal GmSWEET10a alleles drove the initial domestication of multiple soybean-seed traits and that targeted selection of the elite allele GmSWEET10b may further improve the yield and seed quality of modern soybean cultivars.     

Modern dietary guidelines for healthy pregnancy; maximising maternal and foetal outcomes and limiting excessive gestational weight gain

Abstract

Maternal dietary habits influence maternal and foetal health, representing a pathway for intervention to maximise pregnancy outcomes. Advice on energy intake is provided on a trimester basis, with no additional calories required in the first trimester and an additional 340?kcal?d^?1 and 452?kcal?d^?1 needed for the second and third trimesters. Energy intake depends on pre-gravid body mass index (BMI); underweight women are recommended an increase of 150, 200 and 300?kcal?d^?1 during the first, second and third trimester, normal weight women an increase of 0, 350 and 500?kcal?d^?1 and obese women an increase of 0, 450 and 350?kcal?day^?1. The recommendations for carbohydrate and protein intake are 175?g?d^?1 and 0.88–1.1?g?kgBM?d^?1, with no change to fat intake. The number of pre-gravid obese women is rising; therefore, we need to regulate weight in women of childbearing age and limit gestational weight gain to within the recommended ranges [overweight women 6.8–11.3?kg and obese women 5.0–9.1?kg]. This can be achieved using nutritional interventions, as dietary changes have been shown to help with gestational weight management. As pregnancy has been identified as a risk factor for the development of obesity, normal weight women should gain 11.5–16.0?kg during pregnancy. While some research has shown that dietary interventions help to regulate gestational weight gain and promote postpartum weight loss to some extent, future research is needed to provide safe and effective guidelines to maximise these effects, while benefitting maternal and foetal health.     

Effects of Multimedia versus Live Professional Development on Teachers’ and Students’ Performance Related to the Question Exploration Routine

In each of two studies, teachers were randomly assigned to either a Virtual Workshop (VW) group that used a computerized professional development program or an Actual Workshop (AW) group that participated in face-to-face professional development, including discussion, feedback, and collaboration. In both studies, teachers’ posttest scores related to their knowledge of the Question Exploration Routine and their plans for using it were significantly higher than their pretest scores. In Study 2, both groups’ posttest scores with regard to implementation and planning of the routine were significantly greater than their pretest scores. There were no significant differences between the groups at posttesting on any measure. The posttest knowledge scores of the whole groups of students and the subgroups of students with LD being taught by both groups of teachers were significantly higher than their pretest scores. All teachers indicated that they were satisfied with the training and the routine. VW teachers in both studies indicated that they were satisfied with the software program.     

The entrepreneurial university and academic discourses: The meta‐synthesis of Higher Education articles

The innovative teaching, knowledge and technology production and societal service activities of academics are largely discussed within the entrepreneurial university discourse in Higher Education journals. Therefore, this research focuses on a meta‐synthesis of Higher Education articles to better understand the concepts of the entrepreneurial university and entrepreneurial academic. After the systematic elimination based on keywords and titles, 25 articles have been selected from the top 10 Higher Education journals in the SCImago Journal Rankings. Content analysis was performed on these articles to highlight the common operational areas in entrepreneurial universities and activities of entrepreneurial academics. The meta‐synthesis shows that, both for universities and academics, entrepreneurship is overwhelmingly characterised by the commercialisation of scholarly activities that enrich institutional income revenue as well as academics’ personal income. However, such an approach can distance universities from their mission of public good; so Higher Education administrators should create mechanisms that would allow both to take place in a balanced way.     

Counseling With HEART: A Relationship Violence Prevention Program for College Students

Relationship violence is a salient concern on college campuses today, and psychoeducational groups may be an appropriate prevention format. This article describes a study measuring the impact of college student participation in the HEART (Help End Abusive Relationships Today) program, a series of group sessions designed to increase knowledge and awareness of relationship violence. Findings indicated significant changes for group participants postintervention. Implications and recommendations for college counselors are discussed.     

Research Training Needs of Scientist‐Practitioners: Implications for Counselor Education

Counselors (N = 911) reported the research skills needed for practice and subsequent research training needs. Findings indicate that counselors have a high need for research skills at work, but training needs differ significantly by counselor type. Recommendations include increasing emphasis on single‐case design, survey design, and widely available data analysis tools.