Challenge 98: sustaining the work of a regional technology integration initiative

In this article, we offer a research‐based theoretical framework for sustainability, describing the proven qualities of a project and the innovations that support its sustained existence over time. We then describe how a US Department of Education Technology Innovation Challenge grantee, working to promote technology integration in a socio‐economically disadvantaged region of the state of Texas, succeeded in creating a sustainable set of activities around its work to support educators’ uses of technology. We examine the factors that served to nurture and facilitate sustainability of the practices associated with technology integration to promote student achievement. We take the fact that it is not the project but rather the change in practice that is important.     

Reading on Screen: Exploring Issues in Reading for Information with CD-ROM

This article describes the insights gained by a group of primary teachers investigating the implications of CD-ROM for English with their KS2 pupils. As part of the IT in English project, they researched pupils' use of the CD-ROM and its effect on their learning. They developed effective strategies to help pupils cope with the reading demands and edit their own texts. Positive effects on critical reading, collaboration, and use of conventional information books were observed.     

An analysis of evaluation campaigns in ad-hoc medical information retrieval: CLEF eHealth 2013 and 2014

Since its inception in 2013, one of the key contributions of the CLEF eHealth evaluation campaign has been the organization of an ad-hoc information retrieval (IR) benchmarking task. This IR task evaluates systems intended to support laypeople searching for and understanding health information. Each year the task provides registered participants with standard IR test collections consisting of a document collection and topic set. Participants then return retrieval results obtained by their IR systems for each query, which are assessed using a pooling procedure. In this article we focus on CLEF eHealth 2013 and 2014s retrieval task, which saw topics created based on patients’ information needs associated with their medical discharge summaries. We overview the task and datasets created, and the results obtained by participating teams over these two years. We then provide a detailed comparative analysis of the results, and conduct an evaluation of the datasets in the light of these results. This twofold study of the evaluation campaign teaches us about technical aspects of medical IR, such as the effectiveness of query expansion; the quality and characteristics of CLEF eHealth IR datasets, such as their reliability; and how to run an IR evaluation campaign in the medical domain.     

Financial Resources, Parent Psychological Functioning, Parent Co-Caregiving, and Early Adolescent Competence in Rural Two-Parent African-American Families

We proposed a family process model that links family financial resources to academic competence and socioemotional adjustment during early adolescence. The sample included 90 9–12-year-old African-American youths and their married parents who lived in the rural South. The theoretical constructs in the model were measured via a multimethod, multi-informant design. Rural African-American community members participated in the development of the self-report instruments and observational research methods. The results largely supported the hypotheses. Lack of family financial resources led to greater depression and less optimism in mothers and fathers, which in turn were linked with co-care giving support and conflict. The associations among the co-caregiving processes and youth academic and socioemotional competence were mediated by the development of youth self-regulation. Disruptions in parental co-caregiving interfered with the development of self-regulation. This interference negatively influenced youths' academic competence and socioemotional adjustment.     

Child maltreatment and adult criminal behavior: Does criminal thinking explain the association?

Criminal thinking styles were examined as mediational links between different forms of child maltreatment (i.e., sexual abuse, physical abuse, and physical neglect) and adult criminal behaviors in 338 recently adjudicated men. Analyses revealed positive associations between child sexual abuse and sexual offenses as an adult, and between child physical abuse/neglect and endorsing proactive and reactive criminal thinking styles. Mediation analyses showed that associations between overall maltreatment history and adult criminal behaviors were accounted for by general criminal thinking styles and both proactive and reactive criminal thinking. These findings suggest a potential psychological pathway to criminal behavior associated with child maltreatment. Limitations of the study as well as research and clinical implications of the results are discussed.     

Challenges of critical colleagueship: examining and reflecting on mathematics teacher study group interactions

This article examines mathematics teacher collegiality by focusing on both the ways in which teachers interacted as critical colleagues in a long-term professional development project and the evolving role of the teacher–educator–researcher as the facilitator of this project. The professional development collaboration comprised two phases: one focused on reading classroom discourse literature and one focused on supporting each other through cycles of action research related to mathematics classroom discourse. Lord’s (1994) critical colleagueship framework is used to examine how a study group of middle-grades (ages 11–16) mathematics teacher–researchers took (or did not take) a more critical stance toward their own teaching practice and that of their colleagues. We found that challenging interactions were related to instances in which the teachers interacted as critical colleagues and were marked by particular features including the use of particular words and the use of personal experience as a form of evidence. We present the ways in which we came to understand what it might look like to scrutinize one’s practice and findings related to the development of this type of collegiality across the two different phases of this project. We end with a section in which the teacher–educator–researcher who facilitated the professional development project reflects on the ways in which the analysis caused her to reconsider both the nature of argumentation in mathematics study group settings and what implications this has with respect to her own practice as a facilitator.     

Continuing education module: postpartum maternal health care in the United States: a critical review

Postpartum maternal health care is a neglected aspect of women's health care. This neglect is evident in the limited national health objectives and data related to maternal health. Missed opportunities for enhancing the health care of postpartum women occur in the scope of routine postpartum care. Differing perceptions of maternal needs between nurses and new mothers also contribute to inadequate health care. Therefore, collecting national data on postpartum maternal morbidity, reforming postpartum care policies, providing holistic and flexible maternal health care, encouraging family support and involvement in support groups, and initiating educational programs are recommended. Further research is needed on issues related to postpartum maternal health.     

Young people’s knowledge and understanding of health,fitness and physical activity: issues,divides and dilemmas

Critical discourse analysis was used to explore and discuss data on young people’s knowledge and understanding of health, fitness and physical activity, selected from a wider study which focused on the role of secondary schools in effectively promoting physical activity. A mixed methods approach was utilised, involving an online survey to teachers in all state secondary schools in the UK (n?=?603 responding schools) and case studies centred on eight randomly selected state secondary schools from nine Government regions across England. Within each case study school, teacher interviews and pupil focus groups were conducted involving 17 teachers and 132 children aged 12–15 years, respectively. The healthism discourse was evident in the way young people talked about health, fitness and physical activity and two key themes emerged, these being: (i) issues with young people’s knowledge and understanding of health, fitness and physical activity in the form of reductive, limited and limiting conceptions; conceptual confusion; a preoccupation with appearance, weight, fat, shape and size; limited progression in learning; and complexities in understandings; and (ii) divides between young people’s health knowledge and health behaviour, and dilemmas underpinning these divides. Improved understanding of issues with young people’s knowledge and understanding of health, fitness and physical activity and of divides and dilemmas regarding associated behaviours should assist in developing critical pedagogies which challenge the dominance and stability of the healthism discourse and more effectively promote healthy, active lifestyles amongst young people.