“Death on Display:” Reflections on Taxidermy and Children's Understanding of Life and Death

Taxidermic collections have become perceived as extraneous in modern museums, and as such have become vulnerable to disassembly during periods of economic austerity and/or shifts in curatorial perceptions. In this paper we argue that rich educational opportunities could be lost through such actions. We highlight the ways that taxidermy provides a useful context for learning about, and understanding, the relationships between life and death in the animal kingdom. We draw attention to research on the ways taxidermic display is currently used, the ways children learn through family conversation, and the types of understandings children are known to have about life and death. We believe these collections represent potential research spaces for understanding the impact of parental communication on children's understandings of life and death. Our preliminary research plans, and conversations with curatorial partners, suggest that recording and analyzing family conversations at these sites has much to offer. Furthermore, we propose such studies might facilitate new interdisciplinary relationships between museum curators and researchers, thus contributing to wider debate on the place of natural history collections in society.     

A New Approach to Developing Interactive Software Modules Through Graduate Education

Educational technology has attained significant importance as a mechanism for supporting experiential learning of science concepts. However, the growth of this mechanism is limited by the significant time and technical expertise needed to develop such products, particularly in specialized fields of science. We sought to test whether interactive, educational, online software modules can be developed effectively by students as a curriculum component of an advanced science course. We discuss a set of 15 such modules developed by Harvard University graduate students to demonstrate various concepts related to astronomy and physics. Their successful development of these modules demonstrates that online software tools for education and outreach on specialized topics can be produced while simultaneously fulfilling project-based learning objectives. We describe a set of technologies suitable for module development and present in detail four examples of modules developed by the students. We offer recommendations for incorporating educational software development within a graduate curriculum and conclude by discussing the relevance of this novel approach to new online learning environments like edX.     

School psychology interns’ characterizations of family–school partnerships

School psychologists are encouraged to establish family–school partnerships with culturally and linguistically diverse families across the spectrum of child development. Partnerships and collaborations have been described in prior literature as bidirectional, nonhierarchical relationships between families and schools, expanding on the more traditional but limited concept of unidirectional parent involvement in school. This qualitative study describes five specialist‐level school psychology interns’ experiences facilitating family–school partnerships with culturally diverse families during their internship year. Findings focus on defining and identifying characteristics of family–school partnerships from interns’ recollections of their lived experiences. Five salient elements characterized the practical experience of a partnership: requisite situations for partnering, stakeholder involvement, intern's actions, intern's emotional responses, and the outcome or quality of the family–school partnership. These findings have implications for the training of school psychologists and the ways that family–school interactions are conceptualized both in training programs and in school settings.     

Improving cancer caregivers’ emotion regulation and supportive message characteristics: Results of a randomized controlled expressive writing intervention*

This study tested whether a 17-day randomized controlled expressive writing (EW) intervention improved cancer caregivers’ emotion regulation ability and if improved emotion regulation predicted increases in verbal person-centered message characteristics present in caregivers’ recalled support conversations with cancer survivors. Participants (N?=?64) were spousal caregivers of hematopoietic stem cell transplant cancer survivors assigned to one of three writing conditions: traumatic disclosure (TD), benefit finding (BF), or a time-management control. Caregivers completed writings three times at one-week intervals, along with pre- and posttest reports of emotion regulation and written accounts of supportive conversations with spousal survivors. Both EW conditions (TD and BF) predicted reduced emotion regulation difficulty compared to the control condition. Cognitive, pronoun, and positive affect word usage within EWs did not predict emotion regulation improvement. However, use of negative emotion words predicted significant increases in emotion regulation difficulty across conditions. Verbal person-centeredness (VPC) message characteristics significantly increased from pre- to posttest for those assigned to the BF and control conditions. Despite change in VPC, emotion regulation did not mediate the relationship between condition assignment and message characteristic outcomes.     

Kinematic Patterns Associated with the Vertical Force Produced during the Eggbeater Kick

The purpose of this study was to determine the kinematic patterns that maximized the vertical force produced during the water polo eggbeater kick. Twelve water polo players were tested executing the eggbeater kick with the trunk aligned vertically and with the upper limbs above water while trying to maintain as high a position as possible out of the water for nine eggbeater kick cycles. Lower limb joint angular kinematics, pitch angles and speed of the feet were calculated. The vertical force produced during the eggbeater kick cycle was calculated using inverse dynamics for the independent lower body segments and combined upper body segments, and a participant-specific second-degree regression equation for the weight and buoyancy contributions. Vertical force normalized to body weight was associated with hip flexion (average, r = 0.691; maximum, r = 0.791; range of motion, r = 0.710), hip abduction (maximum, r = 0.654), knee flexion (average, r = 0.716; minimum, r = 0.653) and knee flexion-extension angular velocity (r = 0.758). Effective orientation of the hips resulted in fast horizontal motion of the feet with positive pitch angles. Vertical motion of the feet was negatively associated with vertical force. A multiple regression model comprising the non-collinear variables of maximum hip abduction, hip flexion range of motion and knee flexion angular velocity accounted for 81% of the variance in normalized vertical force. For high performance in the water polo, eggbeater kick players should execute fast horizontal motion with the feet by having large abduction and flexion of the hips, and fast extension and flexion of the knees.     

Writing Activities Can Improve Learning in Computer Science Courses

Those of us who teach computer science courses, especially upper division courses, face a difficult pedagogical problem. What kind of activities can we provide that will help our students progress beyond the superficial level of learning yet another collection of disjointed facts and procedures? The literature on writing strongly suggests that writing assignments can help the students master difficult concepts and develop the higher level skills that should be part of their education. Short, narrowly focused writing assignments have been used effectively to supplement a wide range of computer science courses. Holistic grading and follow‐up discussions can reduce the grading burden without sacrificing the quality of the feedback.     

The effects of parent self‐recording and home feedback in systematic parent training

This study experimentally evaluated the effects of three parent‐ training phases on the parents’ use of consequences to appropriate and deviant behaviour, and the frequency of deviant child behaviour in the home, within a single subject partial reversal design. Instruction No Feedback comprised didactic lecture presentation, verbal and written instruction in a group training setting to teach the parent to use behavioural procedures at home. Self‐monitoring Plus Feedback comprised the parent self‐recording aversive comments to the child and differential therapist feedback on her performance of various behavioural skills. Feedback Alone involved the continuation of feedback sessions but the withdrawal of self‐monitoring. Observation results indicated that Self‐monitoring Plus Feedback produced higher levels of parent attention to appropriate behaviour, lower levels of attention to deviant behaviour and low levels of deviant child behaviour when compared to Baseline, Instruction No Feedback and Feedback Alone conditions. The implications of the results for parent training were discussed.     

DIAGNOSING STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING OF ENERGY AND ITS RELATED CONCEPTS IN BIOLOGICAL CONTEXT

This study diagnosed the understanding about energy and biological-context energy concepts held by 90 first-year South African university biology students. In particular, students’ explanations of energy in a biological context, how energy is involved in different biological situations and whether energy is present and what types of energy are involved in diagrams depicting biological phenomena were investigated. The pencil-and-paper diagnostic test, specifically designed for this study, was used to elicit students’ understanding using test items involving biological phenomena. The results showed that many students had problems in understanding energy and energy-related concepts in the following areas: First, the majority of the students provided definitions of energy rather than the explanations they were asked to provide, and the definition could have been rote-learned. Second, although nearly all students knew the energy conservation principle (energy cannot be created or destroyed), many of them were unable to apply this concept to biological contexts. Third, many students erroneously claimed that the energy for metabolism and life processes is made available during photosynthesis in plants, during digestion in animals or that this energy comes directly from the sun. Fourth, about two thirds of the students erroneously indicated that there is no energy involved/present in inanimate objects such as a statue. The implications for the teaching and learning of energy and its related concepts and recommendations for further research are discussed.     

Two-year follow-up of a code-oriented intervention for lower-skilled first-graders: the influence of language status and word reading skills on third-grade literacy outcomes

For 2 years we followed lower-performing English learner (EL) and native English speaking (non-EL) students who participated in an efficacy trial of a supplemental first-grade code-oriented intervention implemented by paraeducators. At the end of grade three, across all students (n = 180 of the original 187 students), treatment effects were maintained on word reading (approximate d = .45), spelling (.36) and reading comprehension (.24). However, treatment effects tended to be smaller for EL students, and were significantly smaller for spelling in particular. While pretest grade one word reading did not moderate treatment response for either ELs or non-ELs, it was found to strongly predict all three end-of- grade-three outcomes, although to a lesser extent for ELs on reading comprehension. Findings add support to previous research on the benefits of early code-oriented tutoring.