The global teaching profession: how treating teachers as knowledge workers improves the esteem of the teaching profession

To better understand the status of the teaching profession, we present a conceptual framework outlining the 4 domains of knowledge-worker professionals: professional benchmarks, professional discretion, room for promotion, and workplace conditions and use the TALIS 2013 survey data to show that these domains exist globally and vary within countries. Across more than 30 school systems, we address the question: To what extent does the level and type of professionalism afforded to individual teachers shape their perceptions of the esteem of their profession? The strongest domain traits that correlate with feeling valued as a teacher are teachers’ satisfaction with their working conditions, involvement in school decision making, and the chance to be recognized for good work. This framework shapes an actionable set of concepts that policymakers can use to address attraction and retention to the profession system-wide and that school leaders can use to improve working conditions in their own schools.     

Web site resources for waterbirth

In this column, the author reviews Web sites that provide information and resources on waterbirth.     

Sensation Seeking and Narrative Transportation: High Sensation Seeking Children's Interest in Reading Outside of School

High sensation seekers (HSS) prefer messages that allow them to maintain an optimal level of arousal (i.e., highly arousing messages). Transportation theory suggests that narrative immersion in a story may moderate reader arousal, and thus HSS message selection. To test this idea, a survey was administered to 120 fourth and fifth graders. In addition to measuring sensation seeking and transportation, the survey assessed interest in reading outside of school (i.e., leisure reading). HSS were found to be less likely to engage in leisure reading. Consistent with the activation model of information exposure, a moderated mediation analysis revealed that whether HSS engaged in leisure reading hinged on their level of narrative transportation (moderator) and subsequent reader boredom (mediator). HSS who successfully transported while reading were no different than their low sensation seeking peers. From a genre standpoint, high sensation seeking children with high narrative transportation scores were found to be especially interested in science fiction/fantasy books. Strategies for increasing leisure reading as well as constructing narratives that are engaging to high sensation seeking children are discussed.     

Electroplating for high aspect ratio vias in PCB manufacturing： enhancement capabilities of acoustic streaming

This paper considers the copper electrodeposit ion processes in microvias and investigates whether the quality of the electroplating process can be improved by acoustic streaming using megasonic transducers placed into a plating cell. The theoretical results show that acoustic streaming does not take place within the micro-via （either through or blind-via＇ s）, however it does help improve cupric ion transport in the area close to the mouth of a via. This replenishment of cupric ions at the mouth of micro-via leads to better quality filling of the micro-via through diffusion compared to basic conditions. Experiments showing the improved quality of the filling of vias are also presented.