Intentional Online Discussions in Teacher Education

The goal of a creating civil discourse in teacher education deeply intersects with the ways that students interact in online discussions. However, as discussion shifts to online formats, digital misinformation is becoming widespread and threatens critical and civil communication as cognitive biases emerge in dialogue. The purpose of this case study research was to explore the participants' perceptions of growth and pitfalls while using the six essential elements of an online discussion typology developed as a pedagogical intervention to increase critical thinking and civility in discourse. The findings suggested that participants' responses in online discussions implied some cognitive biases and those participants engaged most often in discussions that were safe, comfortable, and familiar. Nevertheless, in their metacognitive reflections on the typology, participants demonstrated awareness of how these tendencies toward cognitive comfort shortchanged discussions and potential opportunities to develop new perspectives.     

Effects of health-related physical education on academic achievement: project SPARK.

The effects of a 2-year health-related school physical education program on standardized academic achievement scores was assessed in 759 children who completed Metropolitan Achievement Tests before and after the program. Schools were randomly assigned to condition: (a) Specialists taught the Sports, Play, and Active Recreation for Kids curriculum; (b) classroom teachers were trained to implement the curriculum; and (c) controls continued their usual programs. The Trained Teacher condition was superior to Control on Language, Reading, and Basic Battery. The Specialist condition was superior to Control on Reading, but inferior on Language. Despite devoting twice as many minutes per week to physical education as Controls, the health-related physical education program did not interfere with academic achievement. Health-related physical education may have favorable effects on students' academic achievement.     

Free-weight resistance exercise on pulse wave reflection and arterial stiffness between sexes in young,resistance-trained adults

We sought to determine the sex-specific effects of an acute bout of free-weight resistance exercise (RE) on pulse wave reflection (aortic blood pressures, augmentation index (AIx), AIx at 75?bpm (AIx@75), augmentation pressure (AP), time of the reflected wave (Tr), subendocardial viability ratio (SEVR)), and aortic arterial stiffness in resistance-trained individuals. Resistance-trained men (n?=?14) and women (n?=?12) volunteered to participate in the study. Measurements were taken in the supine position at rest, and 10 minutes after 3 sets of 10 repetitions at 75% 1-repetition maximum on the squat, bench press, and deadlift. A 2?×?2?×?2 ANOVA was used to analyse the effects of sex (men, women) across condition (RE, control) and time (rest, recovery). There were no differences between sexes across conditions and time. There was no effect of the RE on brachial or aortic blood pressures. There were significant condition?×?time interactions for AIx (rest: 12.1?±?7.9%; recovery: 19.9?±?10.5%, p?=?.003), AIx@75 (rest: 5.3?±?7.9%; recovery: 24.5?±?14.3%, p?=?.0001), AP (rest: 4.9?±?2.8?mmHg; recovery: 8.3?±?6.0?mmHg, p?=?.004), and aortic arterial stiffness (rest: 5.3?±?0.6?ms; recovery: 5.9?±?0.7?ms, p?=?.02) with significant increases during recovery from the acute RE. There was also a significant condition?×?time for time of the reflected wave (rest: 150?±?7?ms; recovery: 147?±?9?ms, p?=?.02) and SEVR (rest: 147?±?17%; recovery: 83?±?24%, p?=?.0001) such that they were reduced during recovery from the acute RE compared to the control. These data suggest that an acute bout of RE increases AIx, AIx@75, and aortic arterial stiffness similarly between men and women without significantly altering aortic blood pressures.     

Behavioral Inhibition, Heart Period, and Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia: An Attachment Perspective

This study shows that relations between behavioral inhibition and cardiac activity may be clarified by identifying attachment status, whereas relations between security of attachment and cardiac activity may be clarified by identifying inhibition status. Assessments at 4.5 years (N = 126) included heart period (HP), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), behavioral inhibition (BI), and security of attachment. There was no main effect of BI status (Low, Medium, High) on either HP or RSA. Instead, it was only the Secure children who showed the predicted relation between low BI and high HP or RSA, with the Low BI-Secure group having significantly higher HP than either the High BI-Secure or the Low BI-Insecure groups. Turning to attachment, both HP and RSA increased significantly from an assessment during separation from mother to an assessment 3 min after reunion. The only subgroups showing a significant increase in HP, however, were those with both secure attachment and an absence of high BI.     

Students' conceptions of learning in an engineering context

Research on student learning in higher education has highlighted the central role that students' conceptions of learning play in influencing their approaches to learning. This article reports on a study of conceptions of learning among engineering students on a one-year foundation course. Students were interviewed about their conceptions of learning at three intervals during their academic year. The data was analysed using a phenomenographic perspective and from the data five qualitatively different conceptions of learning were identified. The resulting characterisation of these conceptions of learning is presented using excerpts from the interviews and some implications for student learning are discussed.     

Aspects of ‘relevance’ in the alignment of curriculum with educational standards

With over 60,000 US K-12 science and mathematics education standards and a rapid proliferation of Web-enabled curriculum, retrieving curriculum that aligns with the standards to which teachers must teach is a key objective for educational digital libraries. However, previous studies of such alignment use single-dimensional and binary measures of the alignment concept. As a consequence, they suffer from low inter-rater reliability (IRR), with experts agreeing about alignments only some 20–40% of the time. We present the results of an experiment in which the alignment variable was operationalized using the Saracevic model of relevance ‘clues’ taken from the everyday practice of K-12 teaching. Results show high IRR across all clues with IRR on several specific alignment dimensions significantly higher than on overall alignment. In addition, a model of overall alignment is derived and estimated. The structure and explanatory power of the model as well as the relationships between alignment clues differ significantly between alignments of curriculum found by users themselves and curriculum found by others. These results illustrate the usefulness of clue-based relevance measures for information retrieval and have important consequences for both the formulation of automated retrieval mechanisms and the construction of a gold standard or benchmark set of standard-curriculum alignments.