Does ACCEL Excel as a Model of Giftedness? A Reply to Commentators

In this essay, I respond to commentators on my article on the Active Concerned Citizenship and Ethical Leadership (ACCEL) model for understanding giftedness. I cover a number of topics that arose in or out of the commentaries, in particular, systems inertia; toxic leadership; teaching for creativity; flight from reality; the role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in teaching for wisdom; the developmental nature of giftedness; making a positive, meaningful, and enduring difference; IQ as a diagnostic tool rather than as a gatekeeper; meeting the needs of marginalized young people; teacher education; and retrospective studies. I conclude that the differences among all of us in this symposium are small and that we all agree that a model like ACCEL—whatever its exact terms—is needed to move the field of giftedness beyond a preoccupation with abilities, narrowly defined.     

The Future of the Library As a Place of Learning: A Personal Perspective

As the twenty-first century unfolds and we move to a new economy based not on knowledge but on ideas will the Library as a place disappear? In a connected world where users have extensive access to vast amounts of information why would they go to libraries and, more importantly, are there reasons for us to construct new library buildings in the twenty-first century? While the power of technology makes libraries more able to deliver improved services, digitization and remote access may conspire to make them irrelevant as places. However the real impact of technology is how it affects the practice of teaching and learning. The importance of creating a national learning infrastructure that benefits as many people as possible is more important than ever before for global competitiveness. Libraries focused on their contribution to learning will not merely be important places as the learning society develops but will be essential to its success. To be part of that picture, Libraries need to consider how they can support the ideas economy and provide facilities that become essential to the lives of twenty-first century learners.     

Adolescents' perceptions of attachments to their mothers and fathers in families with histories of domestic violence: a longitudinal perspective

OBJECTIVE: The effects of both childhood and teenage experiences of domestic violence on adolescent-parent attachments were examined. METHOD: Israeli adolescents (M = 15.9 years) who were either victims of physical abuse, witnesses of physical spouse abuse, victims and witnesses of abuse, or neither victims nor witnesses of abuse were questioned about attachments to their parents using the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment [IPPA; Armsden, G. C., & Greenberg, M. T. (1987). The inventory of parent and peer attachment: Individual differences and their relationship to psychological well-being in adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 16, 427-454]. FINDINGS: Abuse status 5 years earlier was unrelated to the adolescents' current perceptions of their attachments whereas current abuse status predicted the adolescents' perceptions of attachment to their mothers. Adolescents who were victims of physical abuse reported weaker attachments to their parents than adolescents who were not abused or who had solely witnessed interparental physical abuse. Attachments to mothers were weaker whether or not mothers were the perpetrators of abuse. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that victimization adversely affects children's perceptions of relationships with their parents, but that changes in the exposure to family violence are associated with changes in relationships with parents. These findings suggest that intervention can have positive effects on parent-child relationships despite violent histories.     

So near and yet so far: a grounded theory study of incarcerated Filipino elderly’s experiences of emotional geography

ABSTRACT

Emotional geography defines how emotions affect the interaction of individuals within their setting. Considering that prison has been described as a place saturated with negative emotions, previous studies have only dwelt on the negative impact of incarceration on the emotional well-being and interactions of the inmates. However, no attempt has been made that dilates on how emotional geography facilitates the establishment of good relationships inside the penal institution, hence this investigation. The overall intent of this investigation is to describe the process of emotional geography among a select group of incarcerated Filipino elderly. This study utilized the qualitative, grounded theory design. A purposive sample of 25 incarcerated Filipino elderly from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, Philippines participated in this study. Interestingly, this study afforded the development of de Guzman, Henson, Gumba, Fradejas, and Valdez Shoelace Model of Emotional Geography which describes how the incarcerated Filipino elderly’s emotions affect their interactions in achieving positive relationships with other inmates while inside the penal institution. This emerged model is comprised of three phases, namely: isolating (embracing a wall of mistrust), integrating (making connections through shared stories), and intertwining (strengthening the bonds thru emotional understanding). The emerged theoretical model has successfully described the process of emotional geography, which can be utilized by gerontological workers, nurses and other health professionals in addressing and accommodating the social and custodial needs of this vulnerable group.     

Retrieval,visualization, and mining of large radiation dosage data

Radiation dose monitoring has become an essential service that hospitals must perform. Depending on the system in place, this can result in the collection of large quantities of data, ripe for analysis. These data should include a wide variety of variables for each study because assessment of the propriety of the patient’s dose is dependent on many factors, including patient age and size, as well as the body section that is being scanned. Moreover, the scanners themselves have many properties that affect patient dose, such as model, pitch and kVp. In this paper, we propose an engine that seamlessly integrated with a clinical PACS to retrieve radiation dosage data. We devised several schemes to analyze these data through visualization and mining techniques that examine it at different scopes. We demonstrate the utility of such visual methods at examining large, noisy, and multi-dimensional data, which is embodied in the collected radiation data.