Assessing General Education and Special Education Majors’ Self‐Efficacy for Teaching Reading

In an era of teacher quality reforms, one overlooked area for assessing readiness for teaching is education majors’ self‐efficacy for teaching reading. This gap is unfortunate, as teaching reading is a common responsibility among general and special education teachers. In the current push for RTI—one in which more general education teachers are increasingly called upon to provide reading support to students with learning disabilities, in addition to the support received from special educators—it is important to determine preservice teachers’ self‐efficacy for teaching reading. Self‐efficacy is an important construct to consider as it is related to eventual teacher attrition. The purpose of the current study was to develop a scale to measure elementary and special education majors’ self‐efficacy for teaching reading. With a sample of 110 education majors, a three‐factor scale was developed and demonstrated strong psychometric properties. Implications for the future of teacher education programs are discussed.     

Nothing about us without us! Youth-led solutions to improve high school completion rates

This Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study represents a collaboration with six students from alternative education to inquire about the experiences of vulnerable youth – students in alternative education and youth who have dropped out of school. Utilizing the Enhanced Critical Incident Technique, youth researchers asked their peers what helped and hindered their retention and success in mainstream and alternative education. Youth researchers engaged in authentic participation and took part in the iterative phases of YPAR – critical reflection and social action. Their involvement empowered them to advocate for their peers by disseminating the results and recommendations to key stakeholders within the community. Youth researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 18 participants. Overall, the findings show that relationships with staff and peers, flexibility, psychosocial and academic supports, and personal circumstances are vital in helping vulnerable students succeed in school. Engagement in YPAR provided insight into working with vulnerable youth in a manner that promotes agency and social change within educational institutions.     

A Complex Case: Using the case study method to explore uncertainty and ambiguity in undergraduate business education

The case method is a definitive and foundational technology in business education. It was first developed as a vocational training tool equipping students for future employment. In this conception, the organisation was seen as a machine, and managers as the engineers who would maintain it through planned interventions. The case method allowed aspiring managers to practise intervention skills in a safe environment. Since the origins of the case method in US business schools before the First World War, conceptions of organisations have moved on. They are no longer seen as machine-like, but as complex, ambiguous, and protean. The 'wicked' problems that potential managers will face in an uncertain world require the development of critical thinking and sensemaking abilities. While the traditional approach to the case continues, its use as a vehicle to explore and manage complexity and ambiguity is emerging, although this is facing resistance from some students and staff.     

Development of the Design Thinking and Instructional Lessons (DTAIL) model: a creative approach for teachers

Educational technology research and development - The educational landscape continues to become increasingly complex, which suggests a need for a teacher-driven creative approach to developing...     

“Listen Then,or, Rather,Answer”: Contemporary Challenges to Socratic Education

The popularity of Jacques Rancière in recent work in educational philosophy has rejuvenated discussion of the merits and weaknesses of Socratic education, both in Plato's dialogues and in invocations of Socrates in contemporary educational practice. In this essay Jordan Fullam explores the implications of this trend through comparing Rancière's educational thought to an analysis of the relationship between dialectic and stultification in Plato's Republic. This task clarifies what is useful in the recent wave of scholarship that brings Rancière's work to bear upon Socratic education, and what we might redeem in the practice of teaching that Plato assigns to the character of Socrates in the Republic. Fullam also draws on the educational literature on Socratic education to provide further context to explore the usefulness of both Rancière and Socrates for contemporary teaching.     

Influence of regression model and initial intensity of an incremental test on the relationship between the lactate threshold estimated by the maximal-deviation method and running performance

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of the regression model and initial intensity during an incremental test on the relationship between the lactate threshold estimated by the maximal-deviation method and performance in elite-standard runners. Twenty-three well-trained runners completed a discontinuous incremental running test on a treadmill. Speed started at 9 km · h^?1 and increased by 1.5 km · h^?1 every 4 min until exhaustion, with a minute of recovery for blood collection. Lactate–speed data were fitted by exponential and polynomial models. The lactate threshold was determined for both models, using all the co-ordinates, excluding the first and excluding the first and second points. The exponential lactate threshold was greater than the polynomial equivalent in any co-ordinate condition (P < 0.001). For both models, the lactate threshold was lower when all co-ordinates were used than when the first and the first and second points were excluded (P < 0.001). 10-km race pace was correlated with both the exponential and polynomial lactate thresholds for all the co-ordinate conditions (r ≥ 0.75, P < 0.001 and r ≥ 0.56, P < 0.05, respectively). The results suggest that the exponential lactate threshold should be used instead of the polynomial equivalent since it is more strongly associated with performance and is independent of the initial intensity of the test.     

Molecular biology and immunology of fungal allergens

Fungi are non-chlorophyllus microorganisms, which constitutes the main source of outdoor and indoor allergens. The antigens present in the spores and fragments of hyphae induce allergic responses in sensitized patients. The frequently recognized fungi associated with asthma include Alternaria, Cladosporium, Aspergillus, and Penicillium. With the advent of molecular biology techniques a number of fungal genes encoding relevant allergens have been cloned and the expressed allergens purified and characterized. In this review, we have presented the recent developments, where recombinant allergens have been used in the precise diagnosis of fungal allergy. We have also discussed the role played by these allergens and the T- and B-cell epitopes in the immune mechanism in fungal allergy.     

Correction to: How Does Counseling Psychology Faculty Members’ Grit Relate to their Emotions and Success in Teaching and Research?

Innovative Higher Education -     

Peer assessment accounting for student agreement

Peer assessment has been gaining significant ground as a means of fostering an environment of accountability and responsibility for group projects in higher education. A popular peer assessment method assigns individual grades via a linear relationship to peer assessment scores. Using this method, a group member who receives his or her group’s average peer assessment score is assigned the instructor‐given group grade; the group member who receives a total peer assessment score of zero is assigned an individual grade of zero. Unfortunately, applying this method often requires time‐consuming exploratory data analysis because of the potential for the method to yield a high spread of grades, including grades over 100%. The present study proposes a modification, which accounts for the degree of student agreement. When the modified procedure results in a change from the group grade, the direction of change is always the same, but with smaller magnitude, requiring less subsequent data analysis and instructor time demands. Easy‐to‐modify SAS code for applying the method is presented in the Appendix.