An Empowerment Approach for Elders Living With Diabetes: A Pilot Study of a Community-Based Self-Help Group—The Diabetes Club

ABSTRACT

Diabetes mellitus is a disabling, deadly disease, affecting one in five of adults over 65. Unfortunately, for the few elders that receive diabetes self-care training it is often taught using traditional didactic methods that are insensitive to their unique needs and immersed in the traditional medical paradigm. Integrating diabetes self-care into daily living demands more than knowledge acquisition and skill mastery; it requires acceptance of the disease, motivation for change, instrumental and emotional support, general problem-solving skills, and control over one's life – empowerment. This project sought to develop and pilot-test a peer-led, community-based, self-help intervention for elders with diabetes—the Diabetes Club. The intervention targeted diabetes self-efficacy, seeking to empower elders then increase diabetes self-care behavior targets, resulting in improved glycemic control. Club members and social workers collectively developed, implemented, tested intervention protocols, detailed in this paper with additional materials available on a dedicated website. Albeit over a short time period, findings showed significant improvements in diabetes self-efficacy, self-care behaviors, and reduction of glycosolated hemoglobin (A1C). The results are promising, demonstrating the benefits of social-work involvement in diabetes and the potential of elders helping themselves and each other.     

Kindergarten school readiness and fourth‐grade literacy and numeracy outcomes of children with special needs: a population‐based study

In British Columbia, Canada, two population‐based databases have been linked at the level of the individual child: the Early Development Instrument, a Kindergarten school readiness measure; and the Foundation Skills Assessment, a Grade Four academic assessment. Utilising these linked data, we explored the early school readiness, literacy, and numeracy outcomes of a province‐wide study population of children with special needs (N = 3677) followed longitudinally from Kindergarten to Grade Four. In particular, we explored the categories of special needs among our study population. In addition, we investigated the Kindergarten school readiness and Grade Four literacy and numeracy outcomes of children with special needs. We also explored the Grade Four literacy and numeracy outcomes of children with special needs who were ‘not school ready’ at Kindergarten. Finally, we identified the categories of special needs of children who participated in the Kindergarten data collection, but were missing literacy and numeracy scores at Grade Four. Future directions are discussed.     

Projecting to the NAEP Scale: Results from the North Carolina End-of-Grade Testing Program

Data from the North Carolina End-of-Grade test of eighth-grade mathematics are used to estimate the achievement results on the scale of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial State Assessment. Linear regression models are used to develop projection equations to predict state NAEP results in the future, and the results of such predictions are compared with those obtained in the 1996 administration of NAEP Standard errors of the parameter estimates are obtained using a bootstrap resampling technique.     

Does Child Likeability Mediate the Link Between Academic Competence and Depressive Symptoms in Early Elementary School?

The present study investigated the role of teacher-rated likeability as a mediator of the relation between low academic competence and depressive symptoms in elementary-aged children. Analyses focused on a sample of children at risk for child maltreatment living in Hawaii (n = 380). Structural equation modeling supported the hypothesized negative relations between academic competence in first grade and depressive symptoms in third grade controlling for correlated constructs (e.g., baseline social avoidance, parenting stress, externalizing problems, and internalizing symptoms). Teacher-rated likeability in second grade negatively mediated the effect of academic competence on depressive symptoms. Implications for understanding the role of early academic skill deficits and social judgments on risk for depressive symptoms as well as recommendations for interventions and prevention strategies are discussed.     

The Development and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Preservice Teachers' Self-Efficacy in Regard to The Teaching of Science as Inquiry

The purpose of this study was to develop, validate, and establish the reliability of an instrument that measures preservice teachers' self-efficacy in regard to the teaching of science as inquiry. The instrument, Teaching Science as Inquiry (TSI), is based upon the work of Bandura (1977, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1989, 1995, 1997), Riggs (1988), and Enochs and Riggs (1990). Self-efficacy in regard to the teaching of science as inquiry was measured through the use of a 69-item Likert-type scale instrument designed by the author of the study. Based on the standardized development processes used and the associated evidence, the TSI appears to be a content and construct valid instrument with high internal reliability for use with preservice elementary teachers to assess self-efficacy beliefs in regard to the teaching of science as inquiry.     

Approaches for a Postmodern Context

This article is on the culture of conversation in the studio art classroom. What can be assumed as simple pedagogical acts, talking to one another, become increasingly complex in the context of postmodernism. Breakdowns in perceived truths, agreed‐upon styles, and monoculturalism demand that conversation is looked at in a metasense — what is it? what skills, values and agendas do we bring to the process? This work includes reflections on a multiyear field study conducted in New York City studio classrooms. Exemplary professors of art, such as the ones studied, practise conversation through an awareness of their position/biases, being pluralistic and practising authenticity. A history of conversation in schools of art is included to demonstrate historical continuity of artists and art students in conversation. Finally, ways to invest in the act of conversation, such as bracketing the time and space for the act in the classroom, are suggested.     

What high school biology teachers say about their textbook use: A descriptive study

This article reports the findings from a study that examined how high school biology teachers describe their instructional use of reading and textbooks. In the study, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected—by self-report mail questionnaire and personal interview, respectively. Eighty percent of 184 sampled teachers responded to the questionnaire, and, of these, a subsample of 16 teachers—selected to be broadly representative of the questionnaire sample—were interviewed subsequently with their instructional materials present to increase recall. We found that biology teachers modified their use of textbooks according to the academic level of the biology class that they taught. In lower academic level classes, teachers provided students with many reading activities but expected them to learn biology content in class. In higher academic level classes, teachers expected students to learn from both independent reading and classroom instruction. Biology teachers viewed both reading and inquiry activities as important to learning biology, but they appeared unsure of how to incorporate reading comprehension strategies into their science instruction.     

Development,Implementation, and Outcomes of an Equitable Computer Science After-School Program: Findings From Middle-School Students

Current policy efforts that seek to improve learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) emphasize the importance of helping all students acquire concepts and tools from computer science that help them analyze and develop solutions to everyday problems. These goals have been generally described in the literature under the term computational thinking. In this article, we report on the design, implementation, and outcomes of an after-school program on computational thinking. The program was founded through a partnership between university faculty, undergraduates, teachers, and students. Specifically, we examine how equitable pedagogical practices can be applied in the design of computing programs and the ways in which participation in such programs influence middle school students' learning of computer science concepts, computational practices, and attitudes toward computing. Participants included 52 middle school students who voluntarily attended the 9-week after-school program, as well as four undergraduates and one teacher who designed and implemented the program. Data were collected from after-school program observations, undergraduate reflections, computer science content assessments, programming products, and attitude surveys. The results indicate that the program positively influenced student learning of computer science concepts and attitudes toward computing. Findings have implications for the design of effective learning experiences that broaden participation in computing. (Keywords: computational thinking, programming, middle school, mixed methods)     

A ‘usable past’ of teacher education in England: history in JET’s anniversary issue

The recent JET Anniversary Virtual Special Issue, abbreviated here to JET@40, reproduced its very first editorial with selected articles from Britain and abroad published in subsequent decades. The journal first came into being as a response to damning criticism of the profession via government-sponsored reports and reviews but also to encourage informed debate with particular focus on notions of ‘good teaching’ and the ‘good teacher’. In this paper, we engage with selected contributions in JET@40 to tease out an historical map for teacher education. The task is to glean a sense of the past which resonates with our co-developed, research-informed teacher education programme, and gives insight to a lack of institutional and political support to encourage teacher research activity that interrogates the effects of poverty and cumulative multiple deprivation on disadvantaged students’ lives, learning and urban schooling experiences. Our argument is that JET@40 not only provides us with an indication of the best of what is known and practised but also a ‘usable past’ or history of specific professional insights to inform debate about possibilities and predicaments in our own teacher education programme.