Young Breast Cancer Survivors’ Experiences of Uncertainty

Evidence indicates recent increases in breast cancer diagnoses among young women. Research also suggests that younger women diagnosed with breast cancer may experience more psychological distress than older women. In-depth interviews with 25 breast cancer survivors age 40 and under were conducted to explore the uncertainties young women face throughout survivorship. Results indicate that young women experience unique sources of uncertainty and that communication may facilitate or hinder the management of uncertainty across the survivorship trajectory. Implications of these findings for theorizing on uncertainty, healthcare providers’ interactions with young women, and social networks’ communication with survivors are discussed. These data also have important implications for the practical treatment of young breast cancer survivors and applied, communicative recommendations for providers are proposed.     

The Physical Educator in Perspective

Life in the academy is a complex and difficult journey. Future faculty must learn how to adapt and grow because the landscape of their career and higher education will constantly change. We are honored that Dr. Dan Landers asked us to contribute our thoughts regarding future faculty preparation and the Arizona State University (ASU) Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program, in particular. In this respect, Rafer Lutz describes the impact that PFF had upon his recent job search and acclimatization to a new university. Lynda Ransdell details the ways PFF has helped her life as a junior faculty member. Important lessons include seeking true colleagues, the importance of teaching, seeking out multiple mentors, and full participation in the faculty experience.     

Text features and preschool teachers’ use of print referencing

Storybook features, such as linguistic richness and print salience, potentially influence how a teacher references print. This study addressed two research questions: (1) to what extent does the linguistic richness and print salience of children's storybooks relate to teachers’ use of print referencing? and (2) to what extent is there an interplay between storybooks’ linguistic richness and print salience when predicting teachers’ use of print referencing? Fifty‐seven teachers participated in a whole‐group read‐aloud intervention while including print‐referencing behaviours. Researchers analysed teacher videos in order to (1) document teachers’ use of print referencing and (2) document the storybook's linguistic features and print salience. Results indicated that print salience is highly positively related to teachers’ use of print referencing. Also, the constructs of Print Salience Metric (PSM) and total words predicted teachers’ use of print referencing, and the interaction between PSM and mean length of sentence was significant for storybooks with moderate and high PSM scores.     

Very early language skills of fifth‐grade poor comprehenders

This study tested the theory that future poor comprehenders would show modest but pervasive deficits in both language comprehension and production during early childhood as compared with future poor decoders and typical readers. Using an existing database (NICHD ECCRN), fifth‐grade students were identified as having poor comprehension skills (n=16), poor decoding skills (n=11) or typical reading skills (n=35) based on standardised assessments of word recognition and reading comprehension. Language comprehension and production during the toddler and preschool years were retrospectively compared across these subgroups. Compared with future typical readers and poor decoders, poor comprehenders had the lowest abilities on language assessments at 15, 24, 36 and 54 months. For nearly all contrasts, the difference between poor comprehenders and the other groups of readers exceeded .5 standard deviation in magnitude, indicating that the early language skills of poor comprehenders exhibit appreciable lags.     

Snakes and Eels and Dogs! Oh, My! Evaluating High School Students’ Tree-Thinking Skills: An Entry Point to Understanding Evolution

The biological community is currently undertaking one its greatest scientific endeavours, that of constructing the Tree of Life, a phylogeny intended to be an evidenced-based, predictive road map of evolutionary relationships among Earth’s biota. Unfortunately, we know very little about how such diagrams are understood, interpreted, or used as inferential tools by students—collectively referred to as tree thinking. The present study provides the first in-depth look at US high school students’ competence at tree thinking and reports how they engage cognitively with tree representations as a precursor to developing curricula that will provide an entry point into macroevolution. Sixty tenth graders completed a 12-question instrument that assessed five basic tree-thinking skills. We present data that show patterns of misunderstandings are largely congruent between tenth graders and undergraduates and identify competences that are pivotal to address during instruction. Two general principles that emerge from this study are: (a) Students need to be taught that cladograms are an authoritative source of evidence that should be weighted more than other superficial or ecological similarities; (b) students need to understand the vital importance and critical difference between most recent common ancestry and common ancestry. Further, we show how the objectives of this study are closely aligned with US and International Standards and argue that scientifically-literate citizens need at least a basic understanding of the science behind the Tree of Life to understand and engage in twenty-first century societal issues such as human health, agriculture, and biotechnology.     

Teacher education in practice: reconciling practices and theories in the United States context

This paper reports findings from an 18-month qualitative study that followed the experiences of nine teacher residents, their site professors, site coordinators, clinical teachers and principals in three professional learning schools. The study examined the tensions that emerged as teacher preparation theory intersected with the context-bound realities of daily life in schools and the political constraints that diminish possibilities for inclusive education. The paper addresses implications for teacher preparation programmes by reporting how teacher residents negotiated their understanding of and commitment for inclusive education through three themes: (a) critical reflection as an emergent practice, (b) whose learning, and (c) the trouble with behaviour. Interpreting these themes has implications for programmatic designs in teacher preparation.     

The advantages of an ADHD classification from the perspective of teachers

ABSTRACT

In Western countries, the number of ADHD diagnoses and medical treatments of children has risen spectacularly over the last decennia, as has the amount of criticism about this trend. Various studies have shown that children receiving an ADHD classification often follow from initial signals that were raised in a school context. Hence, it becomes important to investigate precisely what advantages attach to ADHD classification in educational practice. In this qualitative study, 30 teachers were interviewed about their experiences and views of ADHD. The results suggest that a small number of interviewees sees no advantages to ADHD classification: the classification does not practically help them as teachers, they are familiar with the drawbacks of ADHD classification, and they take issue with the idea of labelling children. The greater number of interviewees, however, suggest ambivalence about ADHD classification: they are aware of its drawbacks while experiencing mainly advantages. According to the interviewees, ADHD classification explains undesirable behaviours and disappointing academic achievement. Classification thereby removes blame from pupils, parents and teachers, and so can be a starting point for productive agreement and collaboration. We will discuss the implications of these findings in the light of the concept of reification, child-centred problematisation and the development of more inclusive education.     

Persisters and nonpersisters: Identifying the characteristics of who stays and who leaves from adult literacy interventions

Adult literacy programs are characterized by high attrition rates. Rigorous exploration of student persistence in adult reading classes is lacking. This study was an attempt to understand the profiles of adults who completed reading classes compared to a group of adults who made it to the midpoint and a group of adults who did not make it to the midpoint. Students were offered 100 h of instruction. Of the 395 students who attended the first day of class, only 198 completed the program. Results indicated that English language status, age, some reading related skills, class assignment, avoidance of reading, previous adult education experience, and Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) benefit receipt variables significantly predicted persistence. The significance of some of these predictors varied based on analyzing midpoint completion or full completion. To further explore the characteristics of the sample, the most representative participants were selected from the group that did not make it to midpoint and from the group that completed the program. Results indicated that the most representative members of these two groups differed in English language status, gender, age, some reading related skills, and information access.     

Fostering Third-Grade Students’ Use of Scientific Models with the Water Cycle: Elementary teachers’ conceptions and practices

Elementary teachers play a crucial role in supporting and scaffolding students’ model-based reasoning about natural phenomena, particularly complex systems such as the water cycle. However, little research exists to inform efforts in supporting elementary teachers’ learning to foster model-centered, science learning environments. To address this need, we conducted an exploratory multiple-case study using qualitative research methods to investigate six 3rd-grade teachers’ pedagogical reasoning and classroom instruction around modeling practices (construct, use, evaluate, and revise) and epistemic considerations of scientific modeling (generality/abstraction, evidence, mechanism, and audience). Study findings show that all teachers emphasized a subset of modeling practices—construction and use—and the epistemic consideration of generality/abstraction. There was observable consistency between teachers’ articulated conceptions of scientific modeling and their classroom practices. Results also show a subset of the teachers more strongly emphasized additional epistemic considerations and, as a result, better supported students to use models as sense-making tools as well as representations. These findings provide important evidence for developing elementary teacher supports to scaffold students’ engagement in scientific modeling.