Do deaf and hard of hearing youth need antitobacco education?

Little research has focused on tobacco use among deaf and hard of hearing youth. Findings are reported from a first-ever tobacco-related survey, completed by 226 California middle and high school students using either a written questionnaire or the Interactive Video Questionnaire, an interactive multimedia computer video technology. Rates for current smoking (3.1%), ever smoking (45.1%), and multiple types of tobacco use (10.6%) were found to be lower than among high school students generally; mainstreamed students were likelier to have ever tried smoking than their deaf school peers (57.8% vs. 31.8%). No statistically significant associations were found between ever smoking and race/ethnicity, gender, school performance, or prelingual vs. postlingual deafening; a quarter of the sample experienced occasional peer pressure to use tobacco products. Tobacco use covariates, exposure to cigarette marketing and antismoking programming, and tobacco education needs of deaf and hard of hearing youth are discussed.     

Teacher tensions: expectations in a professional development institute

The purpose of this study was to better understand teacher tensions in professional development. The population under study was practicing mathematics teachers engaged in a week-long professional development institute. Data sources included observations, interviews, and teacher products (such as registration forms, surveys, journals, and notebooks). The data were analyzed to determine what tensions were evident in the institute and how those tensions arose. In this paper, we examine participants’ tensions in a professional development situation when their expectations did not match reality. We have done so by presenting a theoretical model of professional development based on an instructional rhombus that illuminates the actual and applicatory aspects of teachers’ professional development experiences. The main tensions expressed by the teachers were related to the content and pedagogy of the institute. This study points toward the importance of teachers’ expectations in professional development.     

Exploring learning goals and assessment approaches for Indigenous health education: a qualitative study in Australia and New Zealand

In higher education, assessment is key to student learning. Assessments which promote critical thinking necessary for sustained learning beyond university are highly valued. However, the design of assessment tasks to achieve these types of thinking skills and dispositions to act in professional practice has received little attention. This research examines how academics design assessment to achieve these learning goals in Indigenous health education. Indigenous health education is an important area of learning for health practitioners to help address worldwide patterns of health inequities that exist for Indigenous people. We used a constructivist qualitative methodology to (i) explore learning goals and assessment strategies used in Indigenous health tertiary education and (ii) examine how they relate to higher education assessment ideals. Forty-one academics (from nine health disciplines) involved in teaching Indigenous health content participated in a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis revealed learning goals to transform students’ perspectives and capacities to think critically and creatively about their role in Indigenous health. In contrast, assessment tasks encouraged more narrowly bounded thinking to analyse information about historical and socio-cultural factors contributing to Indigenous health. To transform students to be critical health practitioners capable of working and collaborating with Indigenous people to advance their health and well-being, the findings suggest that assessment may need to be nested across many aspects of the curriculum using a programmatic approach, and with a focus on learning to think and act for future practice. These findings accord with more recent calls for transformation of learning and assessment in health education.     

The ethics of aesthetics: Stigma,information, and the politics of electronic ankle monitor design

Abstract

At present, the politics of digital tools are predominantly discussed in terms of the data they collect, analyze, and circulate. Through my analysis of electronic ankle monitors’ visual characteristics, I widen the scope of investigation to consider how the visuality of digital tools’ form factor – the size and shape of computing hardware – also contributes to their politics. I discuss five major impacts the visuality of electronic ankle monitors’ physical form has upon their wearers’ lives: (1) lack of differentiation in the aesthetics of monitors across different types of wearers (spanning from criminal justice to immigration detention) leads wearers to be considered “dangerous criminals,” by default; (2) monitors limit wearers’ ability to “pass” in society; (3) monitors expand the set of surveillors beyond government officials to also include the public; (4) monitors compromise wearers’ privacy; (5) monitors associate wearers with older practices of visually marking people normative society has labeled dangerous. Based on this analysis, I argue two points. First, that the visuality of electronic ankle monitors’ form factor expands the harms wearers experience beyond those engendered by the device’s primary use as a remote geo-temporal tracking tool used by government organizations. Second, the case study of electronic ankle monitors evidences the need to develop laws and policies that seek to regulate the visual properties of digital tools as well as the data they generate.     

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGISTS AS MENTAL HEALTH PROVIDERS: THE IMPACT OF STAFFING RATIOS AND MEDICAID ON SERVICE PROVISIONS

As one out of five children in the United States demonstrate some type of mental or behavioral health concern warranting additional intervention, federal policies have emphasized the need for school‐based mental health (SBMH) services and an expansion of Medicaid reimbursement for eligible children and families. Most youth access mental health services at school; therefore, it is important to evaluate how staffing ratios, credentialing, and state Medicaid policies may influence school psychologists’ involvement in the delivery of SBMH services. A survey of 192 school psychologists found that as practitioner to student ratios increased, the availability and provision of SBMH services decreased. As state Medicaid policies have been found to influence the provision of mental health services at school, current study results demonstrate an association between state level Medicaid policies and the number of school psychologists qualified to bill for Medicaid‐reimbursable services. Implications for service delivery and policy development are discussed.     

Latino immigrant parents’ financial stress,depression, and academic involvement predicting child academic success

The current study examines Mexican‐ heritage immigrant parents’ financial stress, English language fluency, and depressive symptoms as risk factors for parental academic involvement and child academic outcomes. Participants were 68 Latino immigrant (from Mexico) third and fourth graders and their parents. Results from a structural equation model analysis indicated that Latino parents who reported greater financial stress also reported higher levels of depressive symptoms; this, in turn, was related to lower parent‐reported levels of engagement in the monitoring and transmission of implicit and explicit valuing of academics. Parental monitoring of academics was positively associated with children's success in mathematics and transmission of implicit and explicit valuing of academics was positively associated with children's success in language arts. The current study extends support for the Family Economic Stress Model by demonstrating connections between parental stress, emotional well‐being, and child academic outcomes, through parental involvement in children's academics in a Latino‐heritage sample.     

Children’s screen and problematic media use in the United States before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

This mixed methods study examined parent-reported child screen media use before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by examining 2019–2020 changes in parent perceptions of media, screen media use (SMU), and problematic media use (PMU) in children aged 2–13 years (N = 129; 64 boys, 64 girls, 1 nonbinary; 90.7% White, 4.6% Hispanic/Latino, 0.8% Black, 8.5% multiethnic; primarily middle-to-high income). Quantitative analyses showed a significant SMU and PMU increase (medium effect size). There was a steeper increase in PMU among school-age (older) children. Together, the qualitative and quantitative results suggest that the PMU and SMU increase were influenced by distal, proximal, and maintaining factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, distance learning, child behaviors, other children, parental mediation, and positive media reinforcement.     

Evaluating the prediction of maximal heart rate in children and adolescents

In this study, we compared measured maximal heart rate (HRmax) to two different HRmax prediction equations [22 - age and 208 - 0.7(age)] in 52 children ages 7-17 years. We determined the relationship of chronological age, maturational age, and resting HR to measured HRmax and assessed seated resting HR and HRmax during a graded exercise test. Maturational age was calculated as the maturity offset in years from the estimated age at peak height velocity. Measured HRmax was 201 +/- 10 bpm, whereas predicted HRmax ranged from 199 to 208 bpm. Measured HRmax and the predicted value from the 208 - 0.7(age) prediction were similar but lower (p < .05) than the 220 - age prediction. Absolute differences between measured and predicted HRmax were 8 +/- 5 and 10 +/- 8 bpm for the 208 - 0.7 (age) and 220 - age equations, respectively, and were greater than zero (p < .05). Regression equations using resting HR and maturity offset or chronological age significantly predicted HRmax, although the R2 < .30 and the standard error of estimation (8.2-8.5) limits the accuracy. The 208 - 0.7(age) equation can closely predict mean HRmax in children, but individual variation is still apparent.     

Making the grade: teacher training for inclusive education: A systematic review

The role of teacher training, as it pertains to the adoption of inclusive education (IE) (European Journal of Special, 22, 2007, 367), is critical in realizing and achieving truly IE environments. Literature often reports poor or inadequate training with regard to IE practices (Preparing Teachers of the Deaf for a Complex, Jacksonville, FL). The purpose of this review was to examine North American and Australian research regarding teacher training for students with disabilities (SWD) with the goal of informing best practice. Of the 27 reviewed studies, teacher training interventions reported positive outcomes and showed improvements in the areas of teachers’ attitudes/perceptions, knowledge, and strategies/skill development (Teacher Education and Special Education: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Council for Exceptional Children, 32, 2009, 166) regarding IE SWD. The researchers cautiously recommend the employment of workshop style approaches as they appear to have the capacity to tackle all three outcome variables concurrently and within the shortest timeframe. Our restrained recommendations for best practice are born out of the quality of evidence presented within the reviewed studies.